Friends and Family,
Yesterday we celebrated VALENTINES DAY at our monthly general meeting. We decided on an early celebration as our EYE BRIGADE OF OPTHAMOLOGIST WILL BEGIN CONSULTS AND SURGERIES ON MONDAY, VALENTINES DAY. Simultaneously we will continue with regular consult due to the need of patients. Our visiting Medical Opthamology team, INCLUDING NURSES, will be arriving from MONTANA and CALIFORNIA.
Our meeting was serious and joyful. Chico reported on his workshop of Pastoral Healh he attended, entitled being CHRISTIAN and POLITICAL. Miguel shared his knowledge of living and being community in the Mayan culture. A lively discussion followed by several other workers with similar experiences and interest. Those interested will form a group to discuss and learn from the Guatemalan Bishops recent Pastoral Letter, entitled "Build Justice, Inspired by GOD. They will also continue to share experiences of life in their communities, and how working together builds a better tomorrow for their children. Later they will share their ideas with their fellow workers in a future general meeting.
The meeting room was decorated to the spirit of the celebration, Valentines Day, a day of FRIENDSHIP! Red hearts adorn the walls, red ribbon on the clay cups that were a gift from administration and a smallbag of chocolate hearts. The important climax however was sampling, in the clay cups, our new nutritive drink, "ATOLE LA MAXEÑA!.
As previously mentioned in a blog, this Nutritious powder mix includes ground, roasted rice, soy, wheat and corn. The drink is brought to a boil, cooked a few minutes and add sugar, cinnamon or other additives. Each worker was given a pound bag of the new nutritious drink to share with family. This next week another batch will be made and bagged and put to sale for our clinic patients and later in the month for the Nutritional Program. For our Clinic this is a triumph, having our own product to market for a more healthy life. The raffle for firewood climaxed the meeting as two workers went away with a bundle of firewood, a result of topping our trees, and they home with their bundle, to their ONIL STOVE!!
Thank You for your interest in our work and we hope you will donate to our projects and walk with us on our journey with a Mayan population in the mountains of Guatemala.
Send a donation for our CLINIC on line to www.diocesehelena.org
Included a Photo of Chico, in charge of PROJECTS for clinic as he proudly shares LA ATOLE MAXEÑA with fellow workers.
In other photo, Micaela explains the ingredients and how to prepare this new nutritional drink. Micaela is in charge of Medicinal Plant Clinic and also has diplomas in Nutrition.
With PEACE;
Sheila McShane
