Yesterday, Santiago's family came 5 hours to meet me in Antigua. Santiago, Davi(d), is a 12 year old Guatemalan I assist through CFCA. His family of 12 lives on $70 a month.
Upon meeting we went to my homestay so we could exchange gifts. The mother helps earn some money by making by hand beautiful clothes, scarves, table coverings, bags etc. She gave me a bag Latino men ususally carry plus a lovely small square table cover. Both she made.
When you sponsor a kid in Latin America, it is not possible to send anything that is more than one inch thick. If you do it will be stolen. So coming in person is an opportunity to bring larger items.
First of all it makes sense to bring a young person a soccer ball. They cost $ 10 or 80Q here, a lot of money for a poor family. Soccer shirts, esp. of Gautemalan teams, are reasonably priced. Plus it is customary to bargain - surprisingly I've become good at that. Not my favorite thing to do, but possibly because I'm using another language, it provides some distance - seems a tad less intense, possibly.
Davi immediately put his soccer shirt on! Of course I had other items for him. Fortunately my daughter had a large suitcase she no longer needed, so I could bring items & the family could take it with them.
Being a tad of a ham (!), I gave the gifts in 3 parts with lots of comraderie. All had a lot of fun. Many pictures were taken.
I offered to take them to McDonald's or Burger King as I'm told the kids like it. BUT the family has never had a hamburger. They preferred to eat in a local Guatemalan chain restuarant. In reality they never go out to eat.
While at the restaurant, the father spoke with me at length, inviting me to their home. That is not an easy thing to do as I know it has a dirt floor, mud walls and a tin roof. He was very thankful for the support & spoke movingly. It was of course a tad difficult as one does not want lots of thanks, but given their life, it's important for them.
I was also quite happy that I could understand him as we were talking alone. I could also speak so that he understood me - definitely improvement in my Spanish!
It is difficult, possibly impossbile to express how moving & wonderful the day was. It is so easy to help someone. Chou!
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