The start of the 2012 project

Hello everyone –more news from the Guatemala Daycare Project, January 24th,2012

Brian and I have now been down here for 2 weeks. The street vendors were really happy to see us again, because there are few tourists about, perhaps because of the general situation with the economy everywhere and due to the fact that heavy rains this past year have caused a great deal of destruction. Many people have had their houses and crops lost to the lake. The new docks built around the lake last year are also under water by several feet.

Our first job was to reinstate our cell phones and computer modem to be able to communicate with our contacts, both here and back home. Then we visited the Suden , a huge warehouse type second hand store run by a Canadian couple who this year shipped a great deal of goods for us and stored them until our return here in January. We arranged to transport the shipment up to Solola (15 km.) to the Infantiles SOS office. A most pleasant pick- up truck driver arrived and helped us move everything in two big loads. Then Brian and I returned a few days later to Solola to unpack, sort and repack the goods for the daycares. The daycare teachers then arrived and hauled away the goods for their respective centres. They were so happy when they saw the variety and quality of supplies they were receiving! Thank you to everyone who donated to this effort. The van and truck were packed full when they pulled away from the office for the journey back to the daycares. The pictures tell it all! It would have been quite some ride.

Brian unloading the supplies at the
Infantiles SOS office in Solola.

All the goods had to leave Suden through
this small door!

Office staff sort all the goods for each
daycare centre.

Hola from Guatemala

 Thank you to all of you who donated goods and showed an interest in knowing more about this Daycare Project. Brian and I arrived in Panajachel  in early January and got right to work.

Our goods had arrived from Canada a couple of months before.We hired a pickup truck and driver to help us move all the boxes of books,toys,clothes,lego,etc. from Suden , the place where all these things had been stored for a few months - to the office of Infantiles SOS in Solola about 15 km. away. Suden,-is a terrific place for the very poor to buy all kinds of goods at very low prices. It is run by a wonderful couple from Quebec, Canada who kindly shipped our goods down. We can not thank them enough for their generous offer!

Immediately we began the job of unpacking, organizing, repacking and distributing of all these wonderful things to the various daycare centres on both sides of lake Atitlan.  A BIG job. Due to the heavy rains this year, there had been a lot of damage done to roadways but now the roads were being worked on and in some places they are being widened and guard rails added. Yahoo.

 Sheila and Brian.

Two truck loads were delivered to
 the Infantiles SOS office

 Our mountain of supplies stacked in the office 

Brian carrying the goods up the

steep steps to the Infantiles SOS

office in Solola    

The start of the 2012 project

Happy New Year. Things have been hectic for us for the last month, I'm afraid. We had so much to do before we left Wakefield. While on the road, we had trouble connecting  the computer and had to get some help to do so. Now we are in San Antonio, Texas visiting friends. We fly to Guatemala on Sun. We certainly appreciate your efforts to help us with this webpage. Here is a little info to get you started. When I get settled down there, I can send some more- for instance a good map. Good luck.
I have more written out by hand but have not had the time to type it out. I will send along more as soon as I can. Good Luck. Sheila