Packing for Guatemala

As we prepare for our return to Guatemala the kids and I are busy prioritizing our packing. Since winter will soon be upon us the shorts and short sleeve shirts will have to be taken on a future trip. Now the main concern will be warm clothes, shoes, seeds and baby formula. Since we have been back in the States we have been informed that someone has thrown rocks that have cracked the tile roof above our apartment creating a leak, cracked a solar panel, dug up a half dozen fence post concrete and all from around the mission, dug up 90 twenty foot sections of PVC pipe supplying water to two of the villagers, and finally broke into a lower apartments and stole our two baby parrots---Skittles and Pringles. These heartbreaks did not hold a candle to the news that Pula’s babies are doing poorly. The twins are less than two years old but their size is that of a child less than a year of age. They both have had diarrhea and have lost most of their hair. The smaller of the two is not eating and is of great concern. We are loaded down with baby formula and hope that will do the trick. The Father will not allow the baby to be brought to the hospital. The Indians are not treated well usually and are often neglected. If the formula does not work we will be left with no alternative but to convince the Father of the need or face another infant mortality on the mountain. We have been with this baby since she was born. Cassidy and Chelsea, every Sunday would bath the twins while Pula prepared herself for church. It would be a sad day for all of us but one that is all too familiar to the parents on this mountain where each family normally experiences the loss of two of their children before the age of five.