Friday, November 7, 2014

Day 6 of G of G Nov. 2014

On Friday we once again hopped into the back of a pickup truck and went to San Antonio Palopo to visit the site of the preschool and community garden that MF has launched. We are hoping to be able to do more of these gardens in communities and at family homes. This is all on property MF is desperately trying to raise the funds to purchase so it can be a permanent site. This preschool has had to move at least 4 times because of not owning their own space. Donations can be made on the Mayan Families website. You can't go to San Antonio without visiting the pottery. Lots of fun purchases were made there. We then returned to Pana and visited the carpentry trade school which has been funded by the Upper Arlington Rotary in Columbus Ohio. My friend Michael manages the school. Young men are able to learn a trade that can help them make a living in order to support their families. After lunch we returned to the MF offices to have a tour of the facility. Besides all the offices they house a preschool, an elderly feeding program and a sewing trade school where women can learn to sew then have the opportunity to purchase a sewing machine at low cost and payment plan. With this training they can start their own cottage industry. After the tour we proceeded to pack food bags. Dave, who comes with G of G every year and for the last two yrs. has brought his oldest son, Michael, has a very generous mom who so enjoyed packing food bags when she was hear with us last yr. that she donated $500 to purchase food for us to pack. Fifteen families in desperate need were selected to receive these bags of food. They consisted of corn, beans, rice and packages of a high nutrition mix of protein. A side note on Dave. He is a most generous man himself. He has set up families in business,paid for medical aid and transportation to doctor for critically ill children and adults and he sponsors children in school. He also provides the MF offices with a great many electronics. His family lives by the verse..to those who are given much, much will be expected. So often in the photos you will not see Dave and Michael since they are off visiting their families which are spread all over the region. He has a lot of visits to get in in a short time. This yr. among other things he brought energy efficient LED bulbs for all their homes and some for me too!! He also treated the MF staff to a pizza party for lunch at the office. Thanks Dave for all you do. That evening we had our farewell dinner at the home of Sharon and Dwight who run MF. They showed a video of the weeks activities and the girls got to dress in traditional clothing. We also made Liam who is part of the MF staff dress in traditional fashion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TJ1RDbt8MA&feature=youtu.be

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