Me Encontre Juana Otra Vez!!!

This past week is more than I can put into words. Many of you may know the story of a woman that I met when I was here in June, who had two kids with her, but was from an area 8 hours north of here, Uspantan de Quiche. I met her in the park and played with her children. The whole family was incredibly dirty and hygiene wasn´t even a consideration. We really had some good conversation then and I felt bonded to this woman. She told me then that her husband had passed away in a farming accident 3 months ago and had come here to visit the farm. When she was here then, she lived on the streets, outside the police station. Anyhow, her name is Juana, and I met her again last Sunday night. I was walking through the park, when I saw her. It´s funny because every time I go through that park, I think of her and wonder what she is doing. Well, when I saw her, I was so excited. I didn´t have a whole lot of time that night to talk to her, but I saw her the next day in the park. Her situation is incredibly challenging. She now has another child, one month old (Juan). She had her other two children with her (Estephen 5 yrs. & Manuel 2 1/2 yrs.) as well. The families here are very large. She has 4 (7, 8, 10, 12 yrs.) other children at home, so 7 altogether. She came this time to Antigua because Juan was sick with some kind of a skin rash. It was all over his body. Well, she is extremely poor and in her village, they don´t have any public government help, so she borrowed money to come here to Antigua, to go to a Catholic hospital where the cost is minimal. The first few days she was here, she slept outside on the streets or on the benches with her children. After that, someone told her about a shelter that is here, where people can spend the night who don´t have a home. Well, after that, she spent the remainder of her nights there. I got to spend an incredible amount of time with her and the children and got to see where she slept at night. The organization itself is Christian based and the workers are volunteers, from Guatemala. It is very awesome to see that. Life here is incredibly fascinating and the reasoning behind the large numbers of children is intriguing. In her case, I asked her why she had so many children when it is sooo difficult to have a large family here. She said that after her first two sons, her husband wanted a girl, so they kept trying and now have 7 boys! She said that many women in her village have between 8-14 children. It´s hard to imagine that many children, but here it is soooo common. I have honestly never seen so many pregnant people in my life. I asked how she manages to make a living now and how she gets money for food because she has no spouse. She told me that she does work. She cooks and cleans for some people in her village, but she only makes about 10 Quetzales a day, which comes out to a little over a $1. She was telling me the price of the staple foods, like corn, rice, and beans, and you know that this is another case of a family here who is extremely malnourished. Things are cheap here, but not that cheap to support a family of 8 with ample amounts of food. That is all they eat every day because that is all they can afford and they can barely do that. She said that her village is extremely poor. She has no water, no electricity, and the children do not go to school. Last year, when the husband was alive, the children went to school, but this year she had to stop because she couldn´t pay for it. She wants help getting the children to school. I told her that I would visit her in her village, so I can see where she lives and can see the schools for the children. It will have to be in October or November because the school year starts here in January and ends in October. Pray, pray, pray that I can see how I will get there as it isn´t the safest thing to ride on the ¨chicken buses¨ here and the trip is 8 hours away. I would also have to spend the night somewhere. She told me that I can stay with her in her house, but I am not sure how there is even room for the 8 people who currently live there. Juana spent every day in the park, from the time that she had to leave the albergue (shelter) at 5 am. to 6pm when she could return. She was filthy and so were her children. They had no clothes and no food. I thank God every day for the market that they have here. You can find anything you want, with reasonable prices. I thank God for the many opportunities I had to help her and for the many conversations that I had with her. It was awesome, because each day we looked forward to seeing each other. The children were so excited to see me and gave me the biggest hugs when I came. Thursday night, I ended up going back to the ministry, in the capital and had to say goodbye to her. I was originally planning on going with her this time, but she had to stay a day later for the doctor and it just didn´t work out. So, I told her that I would visit her later. She is looking forward to me coming there and I am as well. I have a picture of her and the children and as soon as I figure out how to fix the computer, I will put it on. I cannot put the picture on the school´s computer. I just ask that you all keep her and her family in your prayers. She is a very special woman to me and I thank God so much for the opportunity to see her again. Hearing her story and seeing her live her life is extremely heart-breaking for me because she isn´t a rare case here. That is life for most people here. This poverty is a never-ending cycle and you just need to pray and pray for each person here, that God would continue to bring them hope and a purpose for living.