May 5, 2006 - Guatemala Trip

Jeff had an incredible opportunity to go with other people from Mercy Ships and his church to some orphanages in Guatemala. First, they visited a handicapped hospital for children in Antigua, Guatemala. The children were nearly all in wheelchairs and most of them need help feeding themselves. It was extremely difficult watching the children in their wheelchairs not able to do anything. So we would lift them out and put them on blanks on the ground. It was a highlight for them and humbling for us. Some of the children had brain hemorages from hitting their heads on the steel beds. The beds were more like cages, though. There wasn't enough money to pay for workers.

The first picture is of Jeff Siver and a little girl called Gloria. They actually fed medicine to all the children so they were sedated during the day and then at night during their sleep.


The second part of the trip we went to Casa Bernabe. It was up on a mountain and much better shape. But here too, the children wanted attention. I was often chopping wood for their stove and one little boy helped carry the wood for me. The children were much better off here but still lacked the attention they so desperately needed.

The second picture is of a girl who was a teenager at the catholic hospital in Antigua, Guatemala. All of the children were in wheelchairs. This picture is when we took them out to a fast food restaurant in the city. All the sidewalks and streets were of bricks in Antigua. We had to feed the children or they ate nothing. Most of them were uncapable to feed themselves.