Catching the Rain Project

 Good News!  We're almost there!

The total cost of the Catching the Rain Project is $2730.  This is a reduction from $3,000 because we were able to get some of the items at a discounted price.

 

$2,225 was donated through Welcome Hand.  The women of the La Libertad Community raised 50 quetzales each from 58 families, (Q.2,900) which equals $375.  That leaves only $130 needed to cover all the costs.

 

Here is picture of the women of the Board, with the money they raised, and the list of the 58 families that paid the 50 quetzales to participate.  The women in the white shirts, are from the Women's Office of the Municipality of Cahabon.  They helped facilitate this project.

We need $130 to complete this project.  If you would like to donate, go to welcomehand.org.  

 

Thanks to all of you that have donated to help this project become so successful!

 

We will send more pictures after the barrels and other items are delivered to the families on November 6th.   Doug and Kim Roylance will be here, and they will be climbing the mountain with the families as they take their barrels home - to Catch the Rain in the future. 

Cookies and Banana Bread

October 22, 2021

Today, 3 members of the Women's Office at the Municipality came over to our home to have me show them how to make Banana Bread.  I took some banana bread over to the Mayor's office to watch the big soccer game (the Mayor's office overlooks the soccer field), and they wanted to learn how to make it.  Gady translated the recipe into Spanish, and they each brought some of the ingredients.  They had a hard time getting "butter" and nuts, so I told them margarine was OK, and I furnished the walnuts I brought from Utah.  Gady said there is a place to buy walnuts in Coban, but I haven't seen it yet.  Up to now I have only been able to buy peanuts here.  

We had some fun discussions, waiting for the oven to heat up (I thought I had turned it on, but I forgot to get the gas started), waiting for the small bread loaves to cook, and then cool.  Gady was interpreting for me.  (We made four small loaves of banana bread, one for each of them and Gady.)

 

I asked them what they needed me to help them with (I thought about some big humanitarian needs), and they said, "how to make cookies!"  Then, when we were waiting for the loaves to cool I realized that I had a full pizza that I made for yesterday that had not been eaten (ham and pineapple).  So I brought it out, and warmed it up.  Now they want me to teach them how to make pizza.  They said, "We should have a bakery and name it Susan."  Several people have suggested that I should have a pizza store (every time I make pizza), but I told them that is not what I am here for.   But, as I think about it, maybe it would be a good way to build "relationships of trust."  ???

 

"Catching the Rain"

A Family-to-Family project

Families living on a mountain, on the South side of Cahabon, 

need a way to capture the rain and store it in a barrel.  They do 

not have access to running water, they are so high on the mountain.

This project will provide a 55 gal storage barrel and the "canal" 

along their roof to capture the rain water, for about 60 families.  

In order to receive the water storage barrel and canal, 

each family will need to pay 50 quetzales (about $7.50). 

For some of them, this will be difficult.  

They will be turning in their money on Monday, October 26th, 

to qualify to receive the rain storage unit.  

The rain catchment system will cost about $48 for each family.

We would like this to be another "family to family" project -

with a family in a developed county to donate $50 to provide

 a simple rain catchment system for a family in the 

La Libertad Community in the Cahabon District of Guatemala.

 

If you are interested in donating to this project, 

please go to  welcomehand.org

The following pictures are homes in the La Libertad area.  

If you look carefully you will see that they are on a steep terrain 

(see the trees on a lower level than the house).

If you are interested in donating to this project, 
please go to welcomehand.org.

I Climbed the Mountain!

October 15, 2021

Yesterday I followed a very steep and treacherous trail up a mountain to see the homes that had been severely damaged by the wind/rain storm on September 15th.  Luis Fernando went with me, from the Municipality of Cahabon, (and Martha from the Women's Office).  I COULD NOT have done it without Fernando.  But, I have walked some treacherous trails climbing up to Seibal and Aguateca, so I thought I could do it.

Here is a picture of the home at the top of the mountain.  Luis Fernando is standing beside me.  He helped me walk up the hill.  See cloth protecting the kitchen area of the home, because the wall was destroyed.

Here is a picture of the kitchen area of the home, without walls.

Here is a picture of the roof of that home, so you can see how they have cobbled it back together.  We have ordered 5x5 lumber 22 feet long to help 4 of the homes stabilize their roofs.  

This community is called La Libertad.  The Board of the community gave me a letter, asking for help to get a water storage tank, because they don't have a source of water up there -- other than rain.  I did notice one other home that was collecting the water from the roof in barrels.  I want to research this system, to see if that is a way we could help.  I know that some houses we have visited in the past have a pipe along their roof that collects the water and puts it into a barrel at the end.  

Another house we saw was the home of an elderly lady, who lives by herself.   You can see how the side of the house had the lumber blown off, and she is using plastic sheets on the side.

This is a picture of her toilet area:

In this picture you can see where the roof of another house has been repaired with a new corrugated steel sheet.

When you climb UP a hill (or mountain), you have to come back down.  Here is a picture of Fernando helping me come down - over some rocks.

These people are the most needy of the needy.  I am so grateful we have had the opportunity to help them, and so grateful for the many friends and family that have contributed to this project.  If you would like to donate to help in this work, please go to:

welcomehand.org

 Eighth Month Activity Report 9-28-21

Robert and Susan Roylance in Cahabon, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala

We have had the opportunity to have the following experiences in Guatemala in the last eight months which, in large part, is the result of many generous donors:

• Harvested corn on the experimental plots -- with outstanding results.  The experiment showed improved yields from improved varieties as well as excellent results from different seed spacing, various applications of fertilizers and lime (to raise the ph. in the soil).  The yields were quite remarkable.  On some of our better plots the yield exceeded the U.S. average corn yield, and were over four times greater than most of the yields in the area.  These outcomes will be very helpful as we hold workshops in various villages.  (Also, notice the beautiful ear of corn below.  Most of the local ears of corn are skinny, with less kernals of corn.)

• Raised funds to acquire a total of 380 sheets of corrugated steel, in two separate projects, to assist families whose homes were damaged by severe windstorms (in some cases the whole roof was torn off.)  The most recent storm, in and around the city of Cahabon, created landsides and extensive property damage.  Some families lost about everything they owned.  (There was a massive landslide that has shut down the main road to Cahabon.)  In cooperation with the Coban Mission Office, used clothing was also provided.  We are continuing to raise funds to provide kitchen items that were destroyed.

• Assisted in the formation of a farmer’s association that will provide long-term stability for the farmers.  We are currently planning to put Cardamom and Cacao dryers in two villages.  We think this will greatly improve the economic stability in these villages and improve the efficiency toward producing a quality product.

• Raised funds to buy and deliver fertilizer for 1,500 farmers (acquisition cost $30,000).    We were able to personally deliver these bags, in cooperation with the Cahabon Municipality, to many of the farmers and it was heartwarming to see a father’s gratitude for having the ability to feed his family.  The farmers here have unknowingly extracted all the nutrients from their fields, leaving them with the impossible task of raising a decent crop.  We are planning workshops and demonstration plots to help them understand the actions they take to start building up the soils.

• Created a Youth Development project, which began with a group of disadvantaged young men who came together to form the Cahabon soccer team.  We were able to provide nine game balls and other minor items, including 72-hour kits from Healing Hands and doTerra.  We have been able to develop some special relationships with these young men.  Most of the families cannot provide any financial help, so we purchased Gatorade for them to drink at half-time during their last game, which they won.   

• Provided scales and measurement devices for the Malnourished Children Project.   The height measuring equipment was built by a tour group from Utah. This equipment will assist nineteen clinics in the Cahabon District to identify children who are undernourished.  They tour group also helped provide GuataMosh food supplements, which were distributed by the nutritionist at the local hospital, and to an group of needy elderly people.  This project also provided 300 water filters for the families of malnourished children.

• Provided English language training for the proselyting LDS missionaries in the Coban Mission and others in the Cahabon area who are interested.

• Facilitated acquisition of 5,000 Sawyer water filters.  The cost to purchase and ship the filters was $120,000.  We participated in the delivery of several thousand of these water filters.  In doing so we were able to express thanks to our donors and other people that helped and we also had the opportunity of developing relationships of trust with many of the recipients.

• Provided quality corn seed to impoverished farmers in the Polochic area who are members of the Church.

• We are assisting an Association of farmers in the Pinares area of the Cahabon District to become organically certified for the Cacao (chocolate) production.

• Provided a wheel chair for an elderly lady who had become paralyzed, and transportation to help an elderly man return from a hospital in Guatemala City.

• Assisted with several tour groups that have come to Cahabon, sponsored by our Sustainable Families, Welcome Hand and El Humanitarian organizations.  These tours are designed to give the touring youth a growing experience in serving others.

• Developing relationships of trust toward support for eventually organizing a Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Cahabon.  About two weeks ago the Church approved the creation of a Group in Cahabon, under the direction of the Coban Mission and the Coban Stake.

• We have been given approval to hold Church meetings every Sunday via Zoom, under the direction of the Coban Mission President and missionaries serving in that mission.  

• The Covid restrictions have slowed our ability to invite people to a Family Home Evening in our home, but this will continue as soon as we can meet person-to-person again, with masks and social distancing.  At the present time all our communications are by Zoom or WhatsApp.  However, the Mission President thinks we will be able to resume person-to-person meetings when we return to Cahabon -- with masks and social distancing.

URGENT NEED FOR HELP FOR FAMILIES IN CAHABON

Strong winds and heavy rains caused extreme devastation in Cahabon on Sept. 17, 2001.  The winds tore metal sheets off the roofs of 24 homes.  Other families had walls cave in, as the water washed away their simple foundations.  Landslides even pushed some homes down a hill.

There are many needs, including lumber, concrete blocks, basic home furnishings (tables and chairs), clothes, etc.

 

In cooperation with the Municipality of Cahabon, we have committed to provide 400 corrugated metal sheets to help in the repair of 24 homes.  Each sheet costs about $15.  The total we need to raise is $6,000 for this project -- and we need to raise the money as soon as possible!

PLEASE GO TO WELCOMEHAND.ORG IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DONATE TO HELP THESE PEOPLE.

There are many other needs, as well, but it really helps to have a roof over your head, especially during a rainy season.

Thank you for your continued support of the work we are doing with the Kekchi people in Cahabon.

 

Bob and Susan Roylance

Unusual and Exciting Situations

May 15th Report for Cahabon, Guatemala

We continue to find ourselves in the most unusual and exciting situations, and they all seem to lead to something that will help us progress and reach our goals.  Just a few days ago one of our villages was hit with a weather microburst and 32 homes lost their roofs.  We sent out a plea for help to buy sheets of corrugated steel and within two days we had enough funds to purchase 240 sheets of corrugated steel.  The picture below includes five leaders of the community that got hit, the Mayor of Cahabon (dark hair next to Bob), and two of his assistants.   We are humbled by the support we are getting from so many people.

We continue to help distribute water filters.  I think there are two or three villages left, and then that project will be behind us.  This activity has been an amazing project that has allowed us to become acquainted with so many people in such a short time.  As you may know, Susan took a Kekchi language course and knows just enough to really wow the villagers.  For someone to come into the village and speak their language, even a few words, is really a big deal.  And it doesn't stop there.  Just this week Susan was able to participate in a wonderful Mother's Day event, and she was honored because of her example, as well as for her wonderful family.  She doesn't miss an opportunity to share our special family with them and they really soak it all up.  The picture below shows the people in one of the villages - gathering to receive training on how to use and clean the water filters.

Susan was also a major participant in a Health meeting that was held a few days ago, with the leaders of the various departments in the Cahabon District, that deal with health issues.  They focused on children that were malnourished, and other abuses.  She had a good influence in that meeting, and those in charge were so grateful for her input.  I think I'm safe in saying that she is the undisputed queen of the Cahabon District.  As we walk through the villages all the shopkeepers have big smiles on their faces and show their warm respect for the things that we are trying to do.

Back to our water filter celebrations.  And that is what it really is.  I get the impression that this celebration is one of the highlights of the year for each village.  It's not necessarily due to the fact that they will all receive a much-needed water filter, but it is all the fun and excitement the community leaders (Cahabon Mayor and his staff) have created for this event.  And, here again, Susan gets to wow them with her story, and her ability to speak to them in Kekchi.  During her presentation she adds a very special spiritual side of getting the filters to Cahabon, which I think touches their hearts.  Having these filters to give out has given the elected community leaders an opportunity to connect with the people and develop positive relationships with them.  After all, there is an election coming up and it looks like we have helped create a great opportunity for them to make some political points.  We have to handle that part of it very carefully.

Preceding most celebrations there are a number of religious ceremonies they go through that sometimes takes about an hour.  It is some of the richest cultural experiences that I have ever experienced.  There are a lot of candles and recitations, as well as marimba music.  They also have men and women swing their incense burners throughout the area.  And, I was impressed with their system of handling a collection plate (it's really a bag on the end of a pole, so they can reach more people).  This has been an opportunity to get right in the middle of their rituals and sacred worship, and get a better idea of who they are.  They really are a spiritual people.

Susan spends most of her time teaching English to the missionaries, and to the locals who are interested in learning English.  Some of these local students have become interested in the gospel.  I think the best way to describe her impact in this area is a final tribute that a leaving missionary sent to her:

"Hi Sister Susan.  I'm Elder Tello.  I just want to say thank you for your effort to always be helping us with English as a mission.  Thank you for the service you are giving to the Lord by helping us as a mission and also for the incredible advances in Cahabon.  Thank you for being an example for us to serve the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength."

We will be planing our experimental plot in two weeks, where we will be measuring ten variables, and after we triplicate these plots (for statistical evaluation) we will end up with seventy-two plots.  Plus, another section where we do some more simple comparisons that will be directed more at the local farmers.  This has become quite a project.  This is because the practices are so foreign to what I am used to.  I just had a conversation with one of the farmers in the U.S., who I hired many years ago, and he was all excited about his new corn planter.  He could plant two hundred acres in one day with absolute precision.  So, I'm definitely in a different world.

See the picture below.  This is a fairly typical field (this field has more rocks than usual) where a farmer is using a jab stick to plant the corn. 

The project, too, as been full of surprises.  Just this week, Luis, the farmer who is providing the land, came to me and told me of an experience he had with his mother.  She cautioned him about all these new ways of doing things, and then said, "You are not going to change our sacred ceremonies, are you?"  These ceremonies are associated with the planting of corn.  So, he wondered how I felt about all of this falderal.  I told him that I could not see any conflict in "you doing your thing" and in "us doing our thing."  He felt relieved.  So, we will let you know how all this works out.

One of the things that I have discovered is that the soils are very unique here, and it has been a challenge for us to know how to manage them.  I'm receiving a lot of help from several BYU soil scientists, as well as experts both here and in the U.S.  I'm also receiving help from some of my former associates.  During the last 20 years of my employment I was primarily involved in administration and marketing, so it's been 40 years since I had some real serious involvement in management of soils.  I think that some of the things we have come up with will make a big difference in the outcome of this crop and hopefully it will have a long-term impact on this area as a whole.

We continue to make progress with the new association.  I reviewed the architectural drawings of our new Cardamon and Cacao processing facilities.  I had some questions, so they are revising a few things, and I will be able to look at them again in a day or two.  We expect to get some funding soon and should have them built this fall.  We feel this will be a big step in helping the farmers start to make enough money so they can farm in such a way so they can build the soil up rather than just taking from the soil.  It is heartbreaking to see fields being abandoned because farmers have extracted all the growing power out of the soil.  This, in turn, leads to them cutting down forests in order to replace the land they have abandoned.  It's an economic and environmental disaster in the making.  Getting this turned around is one of my greatest passions.  I have a lot of support in making something happen, but I don't think they really feel it is possible.  However, I am actually encouraged with some of the reactions that I'm getting from the farmers.

We will be participating in "The Corn Project" in a big way when 110 lb. bags of fertilizer will be issued to 9,000 farmers.  Welcome Hand (our organization) will be handing out about 2,000 of these bags.  The municipality will be doing 1,000 bags a day for nine days.  (Each farmer has signed an agreement to participate in this program, and they will give back some of their crop to help the poor and prepare for the future.)  This is another opportunity to make a major celebration event out of it.  We will be doing all of this on the large soccer field in Cahabon.

We are also continuing to work with the villagers in the Pinarus area, with their efforts to become organically certified for their Cacao harvest.

We are making progress toward the possibility of starting a church group here.  We met with the Area Seventy and had a promising conversation with him.  We continue to have conversations with potential investigators, and we are anxious to start the missionary process.  We have found a new way to help us introduce the gospel to the people in this area.  We have been showing the movie, The Testaments, which was shown in the Church visitors centers for some time.  This shows the events that took place both in the Holy Land and in the Americas during Christ's lifetime.  When the scenes that show the buildings that are similar to Tikal appear, they get all excited and say Guatemala, or Tikal.  It helps them understand that the events of the Book of Mormon could have occurred in this area.

____________

Go to welcomehand.org or sustainablefamilies.group to see more information, and read about our current projects.

 

 

Bob's Report April 19, 2021

 April 18, 2021 Repot

We have witnessed quite a celebration over the weekend.  We have no idea what they were celebrating, but it was quite an event.  We live on top of a hill that is directly across from an ancient Catholic church, so we have a ringside seat to observe these events.  It started with a huge rocket that exploded over our home (about 4:00 am).  There are times when the ashes from the rockets fall onto our roof.  The next thing that happened was the sound of the squealing of a HUGE hog.  About eight men were pushing and pulling the hog up a stairway into the courtyard, and the pig was not too happy about it.  And then matters got worse for the pig.  About eight strong men were able to force the pig onto its right side in the middle of the church yard, essentially facing the doors into the chapel.  They had a huge-huge black pot on the fire, which was a clue that the future was in doubt for this poor pig.  It was hard to tell, but  it appeared like they were draining the blood out of this pig.  His squeals started at a high pitch, but after about 10 minutes it was just a squeak, and then silence.  Sorry for the vivid description but I just couldn't help myself.  The celebration lasted all day and into the night.  It was difficult to go to sleep with all the noise, but the last thing we knew was about 2:00 am when the kids were still running around to the sounds of heavy drums pounding and a trumpet blasting.  WOW!

On a lighter note, we will be delivering a wheelchair to a lady today who became paralyzed from the waist down.  This will be an hour and a half drive over a miserable treacherous road to deliver the wheelchair, which might not be possible today because of a huge rain last night.   (It is now scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.)

We have been here in Cahabon area for 5 months (3 1/2 months living here), and have come to realize how serious the potential food shortages area.  There are around 13,000 households with 1 to 5 families living in each one of them, or approximately 70,000 individuals.

They have been engaged in destructive farming practices over the last hundreds of years that have led to a soil condition that could have a disastrous impact on these special people.  It has reached the point where the crop yields are so low that just feeding their families become a problem.  There are certainly no financial reserves to fund a cropping program that will reverse this unfortunate trend.

Soil test results indicated an alarming lack of essential elements and numerous cornfields are showing nutritional deficiencies, which are resulting in small corn ears or no ears at all.  There are even some fields that appear to be abandoned.  Evidently, every year there are around one million acres that are abandoned around the world that is due to complacency or ignorance.  The recommended soil test for phosphorus should be between 25 and 40 and some soil test show it as low as 2.  Similar deficiencies are showing with magnesium, potassium and calcium.  These soil tests are very low and will continue to decline unless a major intervention is initiated.  Over the past centuries there has been no effort to correct this problem.  The trends can be so gradual that it is difficult for the farmers to comprehend that it is actually taking place.  I believe that we have been able to convince the community leaders that they have a very serious problem and feel like they are willing to try to find a way out of this dilemma.  We are looking at several solutions and are hopeful that we can find an answer.  Any solution will require some significant outside funding.  Funding from donors, or otherwise, will be considered as a loan to farmers that will require a long-term repayment  See the illustration of this problem below.

We are finalizing our plans for the two-acre experimental plot for corn.  I'm trying to hold to six varieties of corn, two levels of nitrogen and two seed spacings.  We plan to triplicate each trial, for statistical reasons, so it will be quite large.  Others are pressing me to add some other tests, but I don't want it to get out of hand.  See the test layout below.

In about two weeks we will be handing out the 100 lb. bags of fertilizer that is part of the Family to Family Corn Project sponsored by Welcome Hand and the Sustainable Families Group.  We have collected enough funds to assist nearly 800 farmers.  This will be in conjunction with the large Cahabon Corn Project that will be handing out fertilizer to another 8,200 farmers.   We plan to have 1,000 farmers come to the soccer field every day for nine days where we will give them the fertilizer.  (We will keep track of our 800 farmers, and follow up to see how they use the fertilizer.)  This will be quite an event and will help us meet more of the village people.  They are expected to return a portion of their harvest to the community to use as a rainy-day fund and to assist those that are in dire need.

We are finalizing our architectural plans for the Cardamon processing plant.  I think we have some donors that will assist in the costs of construction.  And we do have funds for at least one dryer.  We continue to work on getting the Pinares organic certification complete for the cacao (chocolate) farmers.  There are different agencies trying to take advantage of unknowable donors and it's a challenge trying to sort this all out.

Susan is organizing a project to help malnourished children.  There are 26 severely malnourished children that have been identified in the District.  The next step is to organize an event to take measurements of the children (weight and height).  The mothers of the children will be taught how to add additional nutrients to their diet and the importance of eating multiple meals each day.  Funds will be raised to provide emergency food supplements.  The biggest problem is the lack of family funds to provide the food to the children.  Hopefully, our agriculture projects will help to solve this problem, also.

Susan is also teaching English -- both to missionaries (using Google Meet) and to local people.  Some of the local people are also interested in learning more about the Church.

Our main objective in coming to Cahabon is to assist in the organization of a Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  In order to do that we have had to develop relationships of trust with the community and its leaders.  We have also been working with a number of individuals and families that appear to have an interest in the gospel, but it has been difficult for them to have missionary lessons, so it's a little hard to tell.  We feel we have made some progress in that regard and maybe it's time to take the next step.  We are excited about a meeting that will be held later this week to give us direction in that regard.

It isn't all peaches and cream around here.  We have just entered the high heat and high humidity season.  We had been warned about it, and now it is really here.  It can be tolerated if the air conditioner is working, but today everything was down -- electricity, internet, water, and our interpreter was out of town (at a family funeral).  So here we were, sitting in sweltering heat (sometimes topped 100 degrees), high humidity, and no one to talk to.  To make matters worse, we were in a stage of internet withdrawals -- I think it is worse than a drug addiction (not really).  And we couldn't even talk to anybody.  I will never forget the look on Susan's face when I came home.  Her face was flushed and I could see she was trying to cope with the situation and not doing so well.  She could see that I was concerned, and willing to do about anything, and then a big smile surfaced and she said, "we can do it."  Candlelight isn't that bad.  It was kind of a special moment for us.

Don't worry, everything is fine now!  We have electricity, our air conditioner is operating on all cylinders, we have water, we have someone to talk to (our interpreter is back) and we have hopes that our internet will be fixed today.  All is well!

__________________________

Please go to welcomehand.org if you would like to donate to the Malnourished Children project.

 

The Sounds of Cahabon

April 13

We arrived back at Cahabon last evening, and woke up this morning to the sounds of Cahabon.  In addition to the dogs barking and roosters crowing during the night, at 5:00 am there were three huge firecracker  blasts -- celebrating someone's birthday.  At the same time music began to play (latin music with the cornets and singers).  The loud music played for at least another hour.  And there were singers joining in.  (Family members will go to the house of the person with the birthday and wake them up with singing.)   By then the roosters were crowing loudly -- trying to outdo the sound of the music.  There are hundreds of roosters in Cahabon, and they crow often -- each trying to crow a little louder than the previous rooster.  The dogs continued to bark, and the birds began to sing.  We have many different species of birds, and a few trees around our house, so we hear a lot of bird songs -- which I love (unless it's so noisy you can't hear the birds).  At 6:00 am the church bells chime -- at the San Pablo Church just across the street from us.  They chime for about a minute every morning -- our 6:00 am alarm clock. By then we also have the trucks going up and down the hill on the road near our house.  They always make extra noises shifting gears to get up, or down, the hill.

With all these sounds going on around us -- we knew we were home -- for another 90 days.  (The Guatemala visa is only good for 90 days.)

I was telling someone about where we lived, who had not been to Cahabon, and she said, "I love quiet rural towns!"  I responded by saying that "we live in the noisiest town in the world!"  That could be true.

But -- WE LOVE IT!!!  

Special Family Came to our Family Home Evening

I am late writing this report, because we returned home to Utah for 10 days.  Our Guatemala visa expires every 90 days, so we have to go home and return, for another 90 days.  

The Sister Missionaries in Fray contacted us, and asked if we could get a Book of Mormon to Mario Rene Caal.  We arranged to meet him in town, and gave him both a Spanish and a Kekchi Book of Mormon.  He said his sons could read Kekchi.  We invited them to come to our home for a visit, but he said his wife was ill, and couldn't walk very well.  We told him we would pray for her.  He also said that he could only bring a couple of his children, because he couldn't afford the bus fare for all of them -- they needed it for their school fees, etc.  So we offered to come and pick them up.  (He said he had 7 children.)

On March 28th, the family came to our home for a family home evening.  Eight of them came.   The mother was able to walk, and so she came also.  They said they were thankful for our prayers, but asked us to keep praying, because she still had some problems.  In the picture below, the father is in the blue striped shirt.  The mother is in the green next to him.  The older daughter, and her six year old son are next, then a 15 yr. old boy.  On the other side, in the gold blouse with a baby, is their daughter-in-law and her 4 month old baby (her husband had to work that day).  Then a 17 yr. old boy in light blue shirt. Bob and I are standing in the back.

We showed them a video about Christ (in Spanish).  Another man had gone with Bob to pick them up (a city employee who knew where they lived), and he spoke Spanish, Kekchi and English, so he was our interpreter.  It was a very nice meeting with them.  The older boy (in the blue shirt) really hugged us when they left.  I think he has been reading the Kekchi Book of Mormon, and he seemed very receptive to the video.  They were planning to come again on April 11th, but we had to take care of some matters with our pickup, so we are just getting back to Cahabon on April 12th.  

March 20th Report, by Bob Roylance

March 18th was an exciting day for the agriculture people I have been working with in the District of Cahabon.  A new Association was created, certified by the Guatemala government, which will allow us to organize villages so they can band together to market their crops in a professional way.  The English translation of the association's name is Association for Agriculture, Social and Sustainable Development.  The individual receiving the approval document in the picture below is Darwin Garcia.  He is the Director of Agriculture for the Cahabon District, which has jurisdiction over 202 villages, with around 70,000 people and 13,000 peasant farmers.  I have been working with him since I arrived and have found him to be of high character and extremely conscientious about the plight of the peasant farmer, and he is anxious to help them rise to higher level of economic stability.  I am not sure if I have ever seen a group of leaders that are so dedicated to improve the lot of their constituents.

I will be very much involved with this new Association and feel a huge responsibility to get it right.  Our aim is to help the farmers produce higher yields of higher quality.  We hope to improve marketing by bypassing the middlemen and selling directly to end-users --in hopes of achieving a higher price.  Higher yields and higher prices could go a long way in helping these people.  Darwin said that this has been a dream of his for a long time.  This program will include several of the key crops.  However, our immediate goal will be on cardamon, a spice that is used primarily in the Middle East.  We will be setting up dryers, sorters and packaging equipment to help them with this endeavor.  Thanks so much to our donors that have made this possible.

As some of our friends in the U.S. know, there is also the Corn Project -- a program that will provide a bag of fertilizer for 9,000 peasant farmers.  Our donors have made a significant contribution to this program also.  This program will also be administered under this new Association, and we are working toward helping the farmers become sustainable.  Sometime in the next month we will be having a huge activity where we will be handing out 1,000 bags of fertilizer for 9 days.  This will be done in their soccer field, and could be quite the event.

There will be a lot more going on during this activity than handing out fertilizer bags during this activity.  This will be somewhat similar to the handing out of our 5,000 water purification filters, that were also provided by the friends of Welcome Hand and Sustainable Families.  Words cannot describe the atmosphere as we hand out the filters to these people.  They are so grateful for this special gift.  One mother expressed much gratitude because now she can give her children clean water to drink and know that they will have a better chance of living a healthy life.  At these events, they usually have Susan or I speak, and then we help hand out the filters.  We have no trouble feeling their gratitude because of the warm hugs and smiles.  This is a special experience several times a week, and we have to pinch ourselves to think this is really happening.  Susan had no idea the magnitude this program would become in Cahabon when she first had the impression to provide filters to the people who had dirty water after the hurricanes last year.

In the above picture, Susan and her interpreter are waiting for the event to begin.  Below, a very grateful grandmother just reached out and hugged Susan -- while still holding on to the filter and bucket.

Besides our humanitarian efforts, our main goal is to build relationships of trust, and soften hearts, to open the way for missionaries in the area.  The magnitude of the filter project and the upcoming fertilizer project is allowing us to become well acquainted with the people -- a big step toward building trust.

As we travel from village to village we are faced with a challenge of complying with a very important tradition.  They insist, or maybe a better description is that they require, that you sit down at their table and consume a bowl of chicken soup.  Every village has the same recipe.  I can taste it, just talking about it.  You get two or three large pieces of chicken in the soup, probably from an aged chicken, and it is boiled in a broth that is made with a very spicy herb.  You are supposed to lift up the bowl and drink out of it.  This particular spice causes me to cough, and it is very embarrassing.  This is a huge sacrifice for them, as they have to kill a chicken or two.  The big problem is that if you have to visit three villages in a day you end up trying to eat six to nine pieces of chicken.  And, it is a little unnerving that they never eat with you, but stand around watching you eat.  They consider it an honor to have you as their guest.  Last week we were visiting three villages that were associated with the new Association, and when we arrived at the last village it started to rain and I could not make it up the hill with my leg that had major surgery a couple of years ago.  The trail was very slippery so I had to go back to the car and I felt really bad about it, but then I looked on the bright side -- I wouldn't have to eat their chicken soup.  Not so -- they brought the soup down to me.

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A report on our Family to Family Corn Project:  As of March 20th we have raised $4,650 to help 186 families.  We have to turn in the number of contributions on April 1st.  We are grateful to all the families that have contributed $25, and some more.  We will be keeping track of these families, and report later in the year the impact of the 100 lb. bag of fertilizer. 

You can find out more about this project on our website: welcomehand.org