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March 18, 2006
After what seemed like a long wait with many miscues and lots of follow up, we received the contents of our container on March 14, 2006. A "Praise the Lord" goes right there!
Hector, Pedro, Jimmy, the truck driver and his help for left at 5 a.m. for Puerto Quetzal and didn't return until after
8 p.m. that night!
The next day, Wednesday, March 15, 2006 Hecter, Jimmy, Luis, the driver and his helper left at 6 a.m. to go to Guatemala
city to pick up a load the government of Guatemala gave us to distribute. They didn't return until 8:30 p.m.! And then
we had to unload the truck. Those guys were tired!
Thursday, March 16 we had our first distribution. We arrived at our new building where the product was stored at
around 8 a.m. and began setting up. We had brought a load consisting of 175 boxes of clothes, cases of juice, bags of
powdered milk, cases of liquid boxed milk and cases of breakfast cereal. There were also notebooks, pencils, pencil
sharpeners, scissors and other supplies for the kids. Hector and Pedro had walked the poorer sections of the village several
weeks prior handing out business cards with names and ages on each one. This served us very well as we were able to
make sure the poorest people got their needs met first. Then we opened it up to the rest of the group, and there were
many!
Hector was charged with taking the names and identification papers from each person as we are required to do this by the
government. He is very thorough at this, even getting a thumb print if they can't write.
My mother, Barbara was the doorkeeper, using her walker as a gate. It was very efficient! The people were constantly
pushing their way inside the door, wanting to be sure that they got their chance. And then there were the kids.
They had already looked in the window and seen the shoes. They want shoes so desperately. But we couldn't allow
them in without their parents. Next we made numbers and had them randomly draw a number. But they still pressed
at the door. Lucy kept things humming in the "warehouse" while Jimmy assisted with the boxes on the floor. Everyone
kept very busy and including Manuala and Juan, who helped us tremendously.
It was very hot and we all felt bad for the women standing in the hot sunlight waiting their turn. We kept asking
them to go to the shade since they had a number but they refused. And they kept coming. We were running out of
men's and children's clothing so we made a decision. There were about a dozen women standing at the door with many others
in the shade around the street. Quickly Hector and I pulled the women into the building and shut the door before anyone
else could get in the doorway. That would be our last group.
At the end of the day we were all beat from working in the hot sun or inside the warm building. As for Hector,
Pedro and Jimmy, they had just completed three long, long days. Their efforts were much appreciated!
A special thanks goes to Craig Monin, Trent and Barbie, Tom Guffey, Nita Cheek, Barbara Guffey, Stacey Guffey, Abby,
and anyone else I missed (I'm sorry) for all the hard work they did getting these clothes to the people. I really appreciate
the effort.
Thanks as well to Pastor Rob Zin and the members of Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland California for their efforts
and willingness to participate.
Additional thanks to all of the stores in California that collected the clothes, all the managers who got behind this
and the employees as well. Another thanks goes to my son Jim who wanted to personally bring the clothes here in his truck.
All I can say is if you are here you know what a difference it made in the lives of these people. Thank you.
Read About "Hardships"
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