Adios Lombrices

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to travel to Guatemala to take part in the Adios Lombrices project, or "Goodbye Worms". Much of Guatemala, and even some parts of Guatemala City lives without proper drinking water. Drinking this dirty water results in the development of stomach parasites that can make a child sick and if not treated properly can lead to chronic malnutrition and even death. The north east Texas Rotary Clubs, namely the Gilmer, Longview and Tyler areas partnered with Refuge International along with the Rotary Club in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala and the Franconia Mission of the Mennonite Church to provide something like 4 million doses of the drug that kills this stomach parasite. The drug was to be distributed throughout the school systems of Guatemala which will reach most children, even younger than school age.

This is the very short version of our mission. If you or your organization, club or school would like to see our program we have put together a slideshow presentation that we would love to share with you!

After we distributed the drug among the school children in Puerto Barrios, we continued on to our destination, Sarstun, Guatemala. It is a small fishing villiage in the mouth of the Sarstun River. The only way in or out of Sarstun is by boat, and most families travel by dugout canoes, or "cayuco".

Refuge International has a medical clinic as well a water well in Sarstun, which is virtually unheard of in rural Guatemala. In addition to providing a full time RN at the clinic, Refuge also sends medical teams to the clinic several times a year providing surgeries, dental work as well as general health care.

Refuge is also testing sites for additional water wells. These people need clean water to live. A permanent solution to this ongoing problem. The girl above has come to the clinics water well to draw water for her family (you can see the buckets in her canoe).

After our arrival in Sarstun, we traveled up into the mountains, through rainforests to several schools to distribute more of the medicine. This boy was so happy to see us, despite his obvious hardships, he was a joy.

This is another one of the schools in the mountains above Sarstun. Dirt floor schools and barefoot babies with tattered clothes seemed to be common. Not to mention that the walls only covered about half way to the roof and the chalk board was so dark it was impossible to see.

I have tons more photos from this trip. Some will make you want to cry. Hopefully they all compel you to both thank God for your privilege and to make you think how many of those around us do not have that same luxury. This trip has forever changed my life. I cannot tell you in one blog post what this has done to... for me. I thank God for allowing me the opportunity to participate in such an amazing effort and to really see outside of my "American Bubble". I've made the promise to myself to live the rest of my life with open eyes and an open heart. I've reached an even higher degree of "colorblind".