Orphan’s Hope Project Blog

We have accomplished so much. It’s almost mind boggling. I have been going to Guatemala since May 2006 so it’s now been 5 years since my first two week work trip at the hogar. So much has changed, so much has improved.

We have added on to the hogar, we have gotten new mattresses for all, we’ve added a music room, a chapel, a 4 bedroom house for large work groups, a chicken coop, other buildings, a gym for the older boys, a garden area, a walk in freezer, hot water for the peques, we’ve enclosed the sport court, we’ve gotten lockers for the boys and so much more. There’s still much to do.

This blog hasn’t been updated as frequently as I envisioned it would be. If I’m not in Guatemala, I sometimes don’t have much to say. I’m not really closing the blog but I wanted to say that the updates are infrequent because life interferes.

The boys are thriving. They are being taken on more field trips, they laugh, cry, hug and grow. They have many more musical instruments and some of them are taking various music lessons. They’re learning how to bake. They clean up their rooms, sweep the grounds and they have their chores.

Our goal for later in 2011 is to purchase two new vans. We have started fundraising and we’re pretty certain we’ll buy those two 15 passenger vans.

With other social media available, this blog has gotten a little outdated. Thanks to all for reading this and you’ll see me on here again…but more and more infrequently. Please contact me if you want more information.

Diane

The shoe drive is a success. Thankfully, we brought in $2,795 for shoes in the past 30 days. We’ll be buying all the children their black uniform school shoes as well as a new pair of tennis shoes very soon. It will take a few trips to get all the kids to the shoe stores and we hope that the orphanage van is up and running by January 7th, the day we hope to start shoe shopping.

The van broke down this week and it’s in the shop, getting a new engine. Our vans and cars work hard for us on those mountain roads. We get lots of use out of them but I’m surprised that the engine is already shot. Oh well, we’ll replace the engine and then get back to work.

Thank you to all of you that helped make this year a success. We appreciate each and every one of you.

May you continue to have wonderful holidays (and days away from work). Enjoy your family, the get togethers, the food….and then the well deserved rest.

My best to all of you.

Diane

No, shoes don’t drive!!! We just began a shoe drive.

We’re doing a holiday fundraiser to raise $ to buy all the boys (and many externos) new shoes for the start of the school year in mid January 2011. Their shoes are just plain worn out and there’s another 40 more days of vacation and playing hard before school starts. That will wear out their existing shoes even more. We need to provide them with black uniform school shoes and with tennis shoes.

$50 buys the two pair of shoes for each child. Many people have stepped up and sent in their donations…. so great. We thank all of you and hope that we can count on more donations for shoes during this holiday season.

Thank you in advance. Enjoy the holiday season!

The Christmas shipment is being picked up tomorrow and it will be in Guatemala in about 3 weeks. That box/crate is full. Last night, I received even more donations from a local bank that supports us big time! Those donations will go in the December shipment, along with the 100 backpacks that we received from the Oakland Raiders. We are so grateful for all donations that we have received.

On the girls’ house….we are still waiting for the final architect’s plans to be approved. When we have those, we’ll apply for the permit to build the house. The fund raising has been wonderful and we have surpassed our goal of $72,400… the initial cost for the house. We now have enough money to also furnish the house when it is finished… and we’re not stopping there.

Thanksgiving is coming up for those of us in the US and we are indeed thankful. We have a team of volunteers arriving at the orphanage on Thanksgiving Day and they’ll be helping out with the big annual bingo fundraiser in Guatemala City on November 25th. The fundraiser is for the benefit of Hogar Miguel Magone Orphanage and for Fundaninos orphanage.

Thanks to all for all you do!

Diane

We now have a full time American worker at the orphanage… as of October 19th. Hurrah for Annalisa. She will be a big help.

Volunteers Carolina and Humberto just left the orphanage this week and they had a fabulous time being with the kids. I know the kids loved those Oreo banana splits.

A group of 7 is arrving on the 21st, tomorrow. Thanks to the Melia Family… we are starting our Work, Play, Love Trips. Lots of love, lots of work and lots of play.

End of October… we have a large group coming in for about two weeks. They won’t be at our orphanage full time but they will be working hard while they are there.

We are so grateful for all the workers and volunteers that we get. If you are interested in coming to the orphanage to work, please contact us for details. You’ll be glad you did.

The porton is up! (Porton is the spanish word for gate) It’s a big, metal sliding gate that now secures our site. It was installed yesterday on the lot for the new girls’ house. If the rain stays away, we might just get to work on the new house soon!

The pictures speak for themselves!

The wall is up and the new gate for the girls’ house wall should be installed soon… as soon as the rain clears up.

New pictures from the August/September 2010 trip are now available on our website.

Enjoy.

Big, exciting news! The materials for the construction of the perimeter security wall are now on site. Yep, they were delivered yesterday. We hope the rain doesn’t keep the construction crew away and that this wall goes up without a glitch. 7 workdays from now, we hope to have an enclosed parcel of land! It’s time to celebrate!

Yep, the contractor’s engineers visited the site yesterday (the vacant parcel of land) and the construction of the wall will begin on Thursday, July 29th. Watch out Guatemala. We’re getting ready to build that house soon!

Yes, the government issued our building permit for the security wall. We got it yesterday afternoon! It’s a beautiful sight and wonderful to know that we are finally moving forward. The contractor is standing by and the wall will start going up this next week. Yes, we are happy and thrilled that we’re finally going to see some real progress. Stay tuned for pictures… hopefully next week!