Desperation

Posted on August 13, 2014 by adrienneorris

Desperation. This is the attitude that has begun to cover this valley. Can you picture downcast faces? Can you picture deep brown eyes that appear empty? Can you see the child clinging to the skirt of his mother as they walk through market? This time of year is generally the hardest. Their harvest of corn from the previous year has dwindled and they are still waiting for this year’s crop to be ready. Except that there may not be a crop this year. We have been without rain in what is to be the rainy season. The corn is looking pathetic and dead. Even if it were to rain now, it would not save the corn. They have spent much money on this year’s seed. They have spent more money on fertilizer to make it grow. This money was spent with the hope of a new crop. And yet, this crop has not born fruit. When I walked through market this last week, there was a heaviness that hung upon everyone. The prices for everything have begun to rise. Corn prices are double what they usually are. And in this culture, corn is life. It is what they use to make tortillas, and without tortillas, many of them do not know how they will survive.

When we entered into San Andres on Sunday for clinic, there was a procession and idol in front of us going through the streets with many people gathered around. We could hear the bombs being set off. Yet it wasn’t a holiday. Our translators told us that it was for the “Rain god” … the bombs were to wake him and make it rain. It was a very spiritually dark place. Desperation was evident and abounding.

And so we have begun to talk about what can be done. We are preparing to see more malnutrition, more hunger and more illness. We are preparing to hear more stories of hungry families and to see more tears. This drought is different from the drought five years ago. We have been told that it has reached much of Central America and isn’t isolated in one area like in the past. That means that corn will not be coming into the country through neighboring countries as well. And so we will wait and see what kind of harvest we have and what can be done from there. We are sure that it is not a rain god that needs awoken to cause rain, but that the God of our Universe is the one who cares immensely more for these people than anyone else. And so it is with hope that we look over this valley and pray for these people…. That their desperation would turn them towards God…. That they may experience His provision and love over the next months as they walk this path.

Romans 8:24-25 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

The Children of Guatemala

Posted on July 6, 2014 by adrienneorris

This week for lab we extracted DNA, an enriching experiment, but what came out of it was even deeper. As the students were waiting in between steps, I encouraged the students to talk. The conversation that unfolded was one I wasn’t expecting… one boy was asked what happened to his parents as he mentioned his sister was coming to get his grade sheet that day. His quick response of, “My dad died before I was born and my mother left” was followed by another students response of not having parents either. And another and another. They spoke nonchalantly about it, but I knew the deeper wounds. Many of them have expressed to me the difficulty in their lives without parents. In fact, I believe not having parents has driven many of them to pursue education. I knew the reality of the situation earlier, but to hear the students talking with one another about their lack of parents, who they lived with, and what happened to their parents made the reality even more real.

This week much has been said concerning Guatemalan children and adults in the US along with deportation. And many from the states have asked me what it is like here. The reality is that many here believe it is the only option, to risk their lives to live illegally in the states. It is estimated that 90% of the men in this area have at one point in time gone to the states to work. Most of them are still there and many have never returned. Their kids are not true orphans, but many of them are living without parents, and have been since birth. It is heart breaking on both ends. To see the poverty and desperation, and to hear the stories of the dangerous travel to the states and what they risked to even get there, and to be a citizen of the states knowing the rules and regulations…… for me it is a mix of emotions. I would never, ever, ever encourage anyone to go to the states illegally. Yet years back Leslie was talking to a father in clinic about going to the states and he said to her, “You will never know what it’s like to have starving children that you cannot provide for.” And it is so true. For girls in this area, if they leave to go to the states illegally, they start on birth control shots three months before they leave because they are expecting to get raped as part of the journey, that is if they make it. Many of the boys tell stories about being forced to carry drugs, fight companions in chicken fights to the death, crocodiles in rivers, starvation, extreme heat and dying of dehydration… the stories are endless. Yet the stories of desperation and poverty here are endless as well.

These stories are yet another motivation to provide an education for these students. So that they don’t feel helpless. So that they have a hope and a future and don’t feel like they have to leave illegally for the states in order to provide for their families. We always encourage fathers to take care of their wives and children and stress the importance of not leaving for the states, but finding a means to support their family here. And we continue to feed hope into a generation…. the hope of a life here full of provision.

Here are a few pictures of these students enjoying the joy of learning as they extracted DNA. These are the students in which I place my hope that they can lead a new generation…

New Ideas

Posted on March 26, 2014 by adrienneorris

Educación Física

Gym class looks a little different here than it did in the states. They use whatever resources we have to teach the concepts of strength and agility. This game is one I am sure they could not get their students to partake in in the states.

In the first test of strength, the first student wrapped his arms around the tree and then the next student wrapped his arms around the person hugging the tree, and the next student and the next student making a chain. And then they tried to pull the first student from the tree. It is harder than it looks!

In the second test of strength, the students were divided into two teams. The first team made a line from the tree forming a sort of table. The members of the second team threw themselves on top of this line of students one by one, trying to pile as many students on top of the line as possible before someone fell off.

Here is the demonstration.

You can try this at home!

Gifted Hands

Posted on March 22, 2014 by adrienneorris

As school continues I hear more and more of the stories of these students and I am reminded that the students that are in school right now are the ones that were motivated enough to continue. They are the minority. They have many things to fight against, and yet it is evident on their faces that this is a dream. I have watched them with blank stares at a white board covered in numbers and they try to make sense of the process of multiplying polynominals. The concept of a pulley has frustrated even our best student. But they have not quit. We marked one month since the doors of the school have been open and the kids are more motivated now than they were when the school opened. For me I like to see the hope in their eyes as they conquer and learn new concepts, many that they have never heard about before (like photosynthesis).

William Yeats said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” and I have to remind myself of this daily as I cover topics that are foreign to their understanding. I have been reminded that medicine heals but is only temporary. We give them hope for now, but many times it does not transcend their future. The idea of an education is something that can be temporary and in this culture, it can change a life forever. In my classroom in the states I had a sign that read, “He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” And I feel that even more, that is what is being done in the lives of the students who continue their education. Exciting for me, the minds of these students have not been tapped very deep. They may have been challenged, but they have not been questioned, and so as we do more than lecture, read and test from the schoolbooks, our hope is to set these kids up for a future where they will not be trapped where they feel they have few options.

Friday night I set up an outdoor projector against the building and showed the movie “Gifted Hands”. I was hoping to give them a little inspiration as Ben Carson fought many of the same things they fight in their lives. Their response was deeper than I expected as they enjoyed the academic side as well as the story line of the movie. My hope goes beyond teaching a chemical process, organizing plants, or memorizing the structure of DNA. My core wants students to see their potential and actually chase after it instead of just settling for what lies in front of them. My prayer continues for these students as nothing is easy, especially those things that require great sacrifice.

“Success is determined not by whether or not you face obstacles, but by your reaction to them. And if you look at these obstacles as a containing fence, they become your excuse for failure. If you look at them as a hurdle, each one strengthens you for the next.”
― Ben Carson, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story

The scientific method at its best! Loving the thumb wars!

A Broken Thing

Posted on January 18, 2014 by adrienneorris

We have wondered for awhile what sex trafficking looks like in this country, and even more, what it would look like in our area. We don’t see many signs of it. We don’t have random men coming into our town. We are so rural would our area even attract this kind of thing. Just getting here is so difficult. Prostitution is legal in the country of Guatemala and so the line between prostitution and sex trafficking becomes a thin line to skate.

Today though I think our fear for this area was confirmed. We know there are houses of prostitution in town. There are bars and places for girls to “work”. Not what you would see in movies, but none the less, an enslavement. We rarely see girls that we suspect, and even less in our clinic. But as I lined up women today for ultra sounds, one young girl stood out – in part how she dressed, in part how she walked. She hobbled in as if she had been injured. Her eyes were dark with circles. She sat down as if this was the last place that she wanted to be. Temperatures here have dropped into the forties. I could see my breath it was so cold. And yet this girl who had legs as spindly as heron was dressed in a short, short black miniskirt and blouse. Just looking at her made me cold, and it was obvious that something was wrong.

As she waited she stared out of glassy eyes and shivered. Her attempt to keep warm was to take the 18 inch long piece of fabric she had around her shoulders and cover her legs. Her story aligned itself with our fears, she is from the city and working here for a year. Her ten month old baby is in the city with her mom, and yes she was pregnant. Three months pregnant. She works in town at the cantina, the place we believe to use these prostitutes. She infact had been beaten by men this week which would explain her limp. She had come because she had been told she needed an ultrasound by the government clinic. No emotion came out of her as we confirmed her pregnancy, only to say she thought she had more than three months.

When asked if she would come back, she only said that she was told to come here for the ultrasound. We cannot force her to do anything. We are only foreigners. What hope is there for her? How can we reach her? How can we help her? We know our responsibility is to do what we can with what we have. Yet what she is doing is not illegal. Our hope is that she does return. Our hope is that we can help her. Our hope is that she doesn’t remain the broken skeleton that came to our doorstep this morning. My heart’s cry is to be able to help girls like her see that it can be different. Will you stand with us in hope that she will return?