Today is the day you've all been waiting for!

Many of you have been asking us when we will be posting about the mission projects and all the great work that happens here. Well today is the day you've all been waiting for. Since the work-week finally began again, we were able to get lots of pictures and tour the project areas and see all the great work that has been done in the last year. Below you will see Lily and Brett, yes, riding around in the back of a pickup truck (come and get me mom!), and getting all the goods on the good being done! 

CLINIC

Medical care, along with education, was one of the first needs expressed by the people when the Parish began its socio-economic programming more than 45 years ago. No health care facilities existed in San Lucas when the Parish began its work and, in 1964, with the support of the Sisters of Notre Dame a small clinic was built adjacent to the Parish to meet the people's health needs. Reflecting the overall situation of poverty within indigenous communities in Guatemala, the health problems in San Lucas and surrounding communities are largely the result of inadequate access to housing, food, and potable water.  More than one in every 25 infants dies before their first birthday. Malnutrition affects about a quarter of all children and infections, including diarrhea and pneumonia cause widespread suffering and preventable death.

 St Thomas kids doing inventory for the clinic. HUGELY important for the surgical teams coming in to know what we have on hand.

 Learning about the clinic

 The backup generator that our group last January fundraised for. We found out that if there was a power failure during surgeries that there was no backup system, and in Guatemala, where natural disasters are frequent, we had to do something. Fully installed and used TWICE since it's installation. Yay for friends!

 Dr Will talking to today's new group from San Diego about his work out of the clinic in San Lucas.

WOMEN'S CENTER

 The Women's Center was one of Fr Greg's dreams. It makes us so happy to see it finished and in use because he was never able to. After the Civil War when many of the women were left widowed and without an income, they really needed a place to gather together and share their stories and their grief at having lived through such violence. At the women's center they are able to bring their children who have a safe place to play and teach one another traditional cooking, weaving, sewing, and wash clothes.

 We can't get Lily to leave Mario alone...I wonder if he's gotten any work done since we arrived...

Sewing Machines

Women's washing pila

REFORESTATION

 Reforestation is an incredibly important project within the mission. Because the people still use wood for their home stoves, the loss of trees results in frequent landslides when rains are heavy during the summer months. Toribio is super passionate about his work with these lovely baby Colorado trees that Lily is posing with. 

 One of the things I love seeing while here is the way that nothing goes to waste. Many of the things that we call "garbage" and throw away serve a purpose in Guatemala. (For instance, any food waste like banana peels doesn't get thrown in the garbage at meal time, but goes into the compost bin for fertilizer at the Coffee project). Here you see Lily bouncing around at reforestation, where spoons are carved from leftover wood. If you're lucky, we just might have some to sell when we get back (;

 COFFEE!!! One of the crowning jewels of Fr Greg's time in San Lucas. Buying coffee at a fair, consistent price, that doesn't change with the wildly fluctuating market of coffee provides a sustainable wage to families that they can count on year after year and not have to worry if they will be able to provide for their families. It's easy to grab that can of Folgers at the grocery store, but keep in mind that if your food is "easy and cheap" it's probably at the cost of a worker in another country being paid next to nothing for their hard work. Buy Local or Fair! It's really important.

COFFEE

 The drying patios. That little red coffee berry goes through a lot of different phases before it's that nice smelling roasted beverage you love so much.

 Lily and the husker

 Lily and one of the wash basins for coffee.

 Brett and Lily got lucky and were able to see the workers bringing in their bags of coffee to be purchased and processed by the mission coffee project.

EDUCATION

It may be a tiny picture (I hate technology), but education is NOT a tiny issue here in Guatemala.

When Fr. Greg arrived in San Lucas Toliman, school was not available to the children. The only option for education was found on one of the surrounding coffee plantations, where the owner had established a small school for non-Maya children.

With education inaccessible, discrimination was commoplace against the Maya (90%), who were consequently unable to find employment off of the coffee plantations. The Colegio serves children from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, with a student population of approximately 625 students. The average class size is about 28 students, while the pre-primary grades and sixth grade have up to 48 students in a classroom! 

The school is constantly growing and the parish is looking to add classrooms this year to the existing 19 classrooms to better suit the needs of the school.  The school is served by 31 dedicated members of the faculty and administration, many of which attended the Parish school during their elementary education.

The Results of forty years of affordable, quality education
When the school first began, educational indicators in San Lucas were well below national standards. A study done in 1964 showed 2.5 percent literacy in the area, with one school operating in the area. A current census shows literacy rates well over 85 percent, with the majority of illiteracy in older adults.

Comparably, national literacy rates are at 70.6 percent. Much lower, however, national literacy rates for indigenous are at 57.5 percent, female literacy rates even lower at 49 percent. These changes are witness to the positive impact of the Parish school.

HOW MANY STUDENTS CAN SAINT ANTHONY'S HELP???

Which brings us to a special challenge we would like to issue to Lily's school, Saint Anthony's Elementary. For $200 per year, you can sponsor a child who would not otherwise be able to afford an education. Going to school might seem like a DRAG when it's cold outside and you would rather stay home...but for many children in the world, it's a DREAM! And it is one that you can help fulfill with your "Dimes for Guatemala" project. So tonight, go home, dig through the couches, look around in the laundry room, find as many coins as you can!!! It might seem like a silly thing, and it might be easy to forget, but try really, really hard tonight, to remember to collect those dimes for all the friends that Lily is making here in San Lucas. We want to see them be able to go to school WELL BEYOND the 6th grade and find good jobs when they are older...just like you will be able to do because of your education at Saint Anthony's.

Thank you so much for reading our blog. We are so excited at all of the messages we've gotten thanking us for sharing our trip with you. Even if you don't go to Saint Anthony's you can help! Visit www.sanlucasmission.org and read more, donate money, invite us to come and talk to your church, school etc. We love Fr Greg and we love this mission, so we'll drive just about ANYWHERE to talk about it (:

Love, Brett, Lori, Lily and Eve