Day 5: Luz del Paraiso Wednesday

Today we started early by loading up into the bus and heading to Luz del Paraiso (Light of Paradise) which is located in Palencia. Light of Paradise is a place helping 60 children with food and tutoring classes who suffer malnutrition, poverty, and violence in their home life. The program is run by college students and we had the opportunity to go there and 1st take 3 meals to families in their homes and then we did a medical check. Palencia was different than the feeding center by the dump, Nueve Generacion, or Dorie's Promise. When we arrived it felt very more rural and remote. The drive was absolutely beautiful with rolling hills and patchwork of farms along the side of mountains, but this sign of nature also represents a lack of education and opportunity for the people of these rural communities. Light of Paradise works against a culture that is very trade and work oriented so children are poorly educated. There are many cycles of poverty that are obvious in the fact that entire families live and work together.

The drive to Light of Paradise

The drive to Light of Paradise.

The Light of Paradise building. The pools were empty and used for playing soccer.

The kitchen. Very primitive. The women in the community take turns making meals for the children.

A few kids from the morning group being tutored. They would have school in the afternoon.

Main street. Not much to it. The homes were on dirt paths off of this main road.

On our way to give 3 meals away and pray for 3 families.

The first home that we visited. The first house that we went to asked for prayer for her husband because he has been very ill recently but still goes to work to provide for his family. It was wonderful to pray with each family.

This little girl was sitting beside me at the first house. She was absolutely filthy. She was pretty overwhelmed by all of us being in their small home and invading her space. She was adorable!

This mother (far right) in particular was very strong and believed in educating her children as a priority. This is very unusual for their culture. Elaine was able to encourage her in Spanish and even became very emotional. Elaine's mother and grandmother sacrificed so that Elaine would have the opportunity to grow up in America and so that she could be educated. I can only imagine how inspirational Elaine must have been to the mother who wants her children to break the cycle of poverty by becoming educated. Elaine's family is a perfect example that it is more than possible!

Another home we went to in order to give them a meal. "God is love."

Cooking by fire.

This woman has experienced multiple strokes. She was nonverbal but expressed an abundance of emotion. It was very difficult to tell if she was expressing happiness for our presence or frustration and despair because of her condition. This struck a nerve with me because I take care of stroke patients frequently on the unit that I work on as a nurse.

Come back out from handing out meals. The orange and blue building is the Light of Paradise from the front.

As we went into the homes each family had their own prayer requests. Two out of three of the houses that we took food to prayed for their husbands/fathers because they were into drinking alcohol.  One of the mothers that we talked to said that she was very blessed by us coming to help them because the rich Guatemalans do not reach out and help the poor communities. I found that to be insightful. 

When we arrived back at Light of Paradise we had the opportunity to eat lunch with the kids which was a highlight of my day! I got to use some of my basic Spanish and they were practicing some of their English. We laughed at each other a lot! I still get very warm feelings inside when I think of these precious children and getting to make friends with them despite the language barrier. I also was grateful because I had the opportunity to tell them "Jesus es amor." I don't ever want to be too task oriented to look someone in the eye and tell them that Jesus is love and that Jesus loves them.

I'm not sure what the first little boy's name was. He jumped in the picture. But the girl beside him is Yojana Noemia (9 years old), the boy in the red is Jose Raul (11 years old), the girl beside him in the orange is Alexandya (she is 8 years old), and the girl beside me is Paola (she is 10 years old). I had them write down their names and ages in my Spanish book :)

"Photo loco!!!"

Between lunch and doing medical checks we got to play with the kids some. We were invited into the pool to play soccer. Its a very small area and I was pretty nervous taht I was going to get smacked in the face with the ball. Instead a little girl went to kick the ball with all of her might and missed and kicked my shin instead. That left a mark.

After lunch we set up to do medical checks like at Nueve Generacion and the feeding site. Elaine and I were the last to see any children who had a specific complaint.

Right before we were loading onto the bus to leave we looked over to see these girls brushing their teeth by the outside sink. No one told them to do that, they just put into action what they had just learned!

Mi amiga, Paola from lunch  using her toothbrush :)

After working at the light of Paradise we went back to Dorie's Promise. Mom, Karen, Elaine, Kelsey, and Peggy did a special devotion with a group of special moms again but with a different group of women.

After doing nails with the special mothers we went down into the play yard with the kids and played. I got my boys, Alex and Elvis to dance with me but they would only dance with me if we were holding them :) I danced with Alex and Elvis danced with Lexi. Talk about a workout! I loved every minute of it thought!