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

If I had more money -- I would buy "soap to wash clothes"

 March 15, 2021

Today I washed clothes, and as I liberally used soap to clean the collars of the shirts, and other dirty items, before putting them into the washing machine, I thought of the woman in the village who answered the question, "what would be the first thing you would buy if you had more money?"

She answered, "more corn, to eat, and soap to wash clothes."

It seems such a little thing, to liberally sprinkle some granulated soap, which is very inexpensive, on the more dirty parts of my clothes -- to get them sparkly clean.  I thought of the mother who does not have the soap to clean her clothes, or enough corn to be sure her family will not be hungry.

Here is the picture of the family by a small building outside their house.  Notice the nice dresses on the women -- that is the clothing of the Kekchi women.  It might be the only clothes they own, but they always look lovely -- wherever they might be.

And here is a picture inside their home:

Notice the orderliness of the home, with some decorative windows.   Then notice the fire pit, in the middle of the room, without a chimney to carry the smoke outside.   The floor is a dirt floor.  This family is also growing cardamon, and we hope to help them with a project that will buy a cardamon dryer for their village, and possibly help them find a market to sell their cardamon direct to the buyers -- rather than go through several middlemen, which leaves them with little profit.

They are part of a group of 200 families that are trying to buy some land from a landowner that used to have cattle on the land.  It takes everything they can earn to make the payments on the land, but they are looking to the future -- for their grandchildren.  They have hope!

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Please go to welcomehand.org to participate in our Family to Family Corn Project.  $25 will buy a 100 lb. bag of fertilizer for a family -- to help them increase their production.  They are part of a program that will also help them become sustainable families.

 

 

$603 Donation by Refugee Scout Troop

 

We were touched by the donations of the members and families of Troop 1262 to our Kekchi families in Guatemala.  We are also grateful for the efforts of Mark Adams who was helpful in working with the boys to make this donation possible.  It was not long ago that the refugee families of this troop were in similar conditions of the Kekchi families in Guatemala.

These donations will help 24 families in our Family to Family Corn Project.  (Each family will receive a 100 lb. bag of fertilizer.)  Please see more about this project on our website: welcomehand.org.  

An Amazing Day!!!

 Two More Potential Investigators

This past week two different families asked if we are going to have a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cahabon.  Of course, we want to say "yes," but it is not our decision.  When we met with the Coban Mission President he said that we had to have five men who are baptized, or ready for baptism, before they can submit a request to the Area Presidency to have missionaries in Cahabon.

Well, today we moved two steps closer.  We are not approved to have Church meetings in our home (except for special permission), but we can have gatherings -- like a family home evening.  Today we had a gathering, with 6 people.  

We had one investigator that a missionary is communicating with him on the internet, through his smart phone.  Yesterday we received a call from the mission office, and they asked if we could go to the Park and give a young man a Book of Mormon.  We said we could be there in 10 minutes.  They sent us a picture of the young man, so we would recognize him, and they sent a picture of me to him.  I had to walk through the park a couple times (I should be pretty obvious -- an old white woman with white hair), but he finally came up to me and said Book of Mormon.  We brought both a Spanish and Kekchi Book of Mormon, to see which one he wanted.  He had a friend with him that said he would like the Kekchi book, so we gave them the books.  We asked if they would like to come to our home the next day, at 11am.  Otoniel said, where is it?  He seemed interested, so we said we could take him there, and bring him back.  So, he and his friend jumped in the back of our pickup and we took them to our home, so he would know where we live.  He said he would come the next day -- which he did.  But, this is the amazing part -- he had to ride his motorcycle 1 1/2 hours to get home yesterday, and then another 1 1/2 hours today to come to our house.  His other friend was not able to come because he lived another hour further, and wasn't able to come today (maybe another day).  

The other investigator is Fernando.  He is the son of Ricardo Lopez, who was a Branch President about 40 years ago.  Ricardo was either not born, or very little, at the time the Branch was closed, by the Church in Cahabon.  So, he had not had any opportunity to be taught by the missionaries.  Bob asked if he would be interested in visiting with the missionaries, and he said he would.

In November of last year (2020) Bob came with Ramel Fraatz to introduce the water filters to the people in Cahabon.  They just happened to be in Coban at the time of the Coban Temple Groundbreaking.  But, because of the Covid restrictions, they had to stand outside the fence.  Bob found the Church video of the groundbreaking meeting, and wanted to show that to our visitors today.  We brought our small projector with us, so we were able to project the image on our white wall.  It was 38 minutes long -- but it was all in either Spanish or Kekchi, so we didn't need to worry about translating.  We are very limited in our ability to share the gospel because of our language limitations.

The video was perfect -- especially comments by a teenage girl.  Bob did a nice job of following up the video by talking with Otoniel and Fernando, with the help of our interpreter (Gady Juarez).  He asked Fernando if he would like to visit with the missionaries.  He said that he would -- that he had seen his father's books in their home, and wanted to learn more.  I asked if he had a Book of Mormon, and he said he didn't, so we gave him a Book of Mormon.

So, 6 people attended our gathering:  (1) Ricardo Lopez, former Branch President, (2) Fernando, his son about 35 years old, (3) Otoniel Morales Caal, who we delivered a Book of Mormon to yesterday, (4) Gady Juarez, our interpreter, (5) Bob, and (6) I.  

It was just a simple gathering, but it could help a LOT towards our goal of 5 men baptized or ready to be baptized.

The Mission Assistants (who are working with Otoniel) said today that, "there are many people who are interested in Cahabon" -- so, keep praying!!!

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Please check out our Family to Family Corn Project on welcomehand.org.  For $25 you can make a big difference by providing a bag of fertilizer to help a peasant farmer increase his corn production.  In addition to providing more corn to sell, it will help him provide food for his family (corn) and move towards sustainability.  It's a very small amount, but it can make a HUGE difference to a family in the rural Cahabon District of Guatemala.

The Miracle of the Baking Soda

Yesterday (March 6th) we traveled to Coban to meet with the Mission President.  Our interpreter, Gady Juarez, wanted to stay in Cahabon, so we were on our own -- with Google Maps.  When we got to Carcha (just North of Coban) the map directions took us through some strange roads (one time it was a one-way street, and we were going the wrong way).  We stopped and said a prayer, and then we saw a sign to Chamelco, and thought we knew the way to Coban from there.  But Bob felt like we were going in the wrong direction, so he pulled off the road to look at the map, to figure out what to do.  I also desperately needed to go to the bathroom, and there were some nearby buildings that we thought might be helpful.  (Interesting bathrooms, but they were open and available.)  But, when we tried to start the car again it wouldn't start.  We thought it was a battery problem.  So, we were lost, and the car wouldn't start. Bob remembered our friend Otto, who lived in Chamelco, and we were finally able to get him on our phone.  He knew the area we described, and he also knew how to get to our friend's house in Coban (where we would be staying for the night), and he soon arrived on his motorcycle to help us.  He and Bob worked on the battery connectors, and tried to clean them off, but it still didn't start.  And then I remembered the baking soda.  I had a package of baking soda in our suitcase.

So, a little background.  Back in Cahabon, I wanted to make some chocolate chip cookies, to invite people over to meet them.  I had found some chocolate chips in the mall (in Coban), but the recipe called for baking soda.  We could not find baking soda in Cahabon, so the next time we went to Coban (4 hour drive) we went to the mall and asked where we could get some baking soda.  They said I had to go to the pharmacy, so I did -- and purchased some baking soda.  The next batch of cookies was much better.

As we were getting ready to go to Coban this time, to meet with the Mission President, I thought it would be nice if I could make them some chocolate chip cookies.  I put all the ingredients in my suitcase, and at the last minute I remembered that I also needed to take some baking soda.

So, here we were in Carcha, lost with a battery that didn't work.  I remembered that baking soda helps to clean the battery poles, so I produced the soda, it helped clean the poles (with some fizzle), and "vuahlaw" -- the car started.

Our friend, Otto, that came to help us, also knew where we were going -- to Gary and Claudia Vela's house.  So he led the way, and soon we arrived at our destination.  

Our friends told us about a different mapping program -- WAZE.  We installed it on our phone and it was very helpful to get to the Mission Office, and back to our friend's house.  Another "small" miracle to help us out.

I've thought a lot about that that experience in the last few hours (now days).  The baking soda was truly an answer to prayer, but I wonder how these things are prepared in advance, to be available when needed.

So, in the end it was a four-fold miracle: (1) An available bathroom when desperately needed, (2) A friend who knew how to find us, who was a good auto mechanic, (3) The baking soda to clean the battery poles, (4) WAZE mapping app, to get us to the Mission Office.

We actually made it to the Mission Office on time (6:00 pm)! 

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Please go to our website: welcomehand.org and check out our Family to Family Corn Project.  For only $25, your family can provide a bag of fertilizer to a very poor farm family in the Cahabon District, which will help them have food for the coming year -- and begin the process of becoming sustainable.   This is no small thing!!!   We need to raise the money by April 1st, to order the fertilizer so they can begin planting about April 15th.  There are 9,000 peasant farm families in the Cahabon District.  We are trying to raise enough money for at least 1,000 families.    

Report March 6, 2021 -- by Bob Roylance

 During the last two weeks we have been very busy gaining a greater understanding of the needs of this community.  We have been introduced to new outlying communities and find some villages that are the poorest that I have ever seen, and this includes rural Africa.  We continue to establish relationships of trust, which is our primary goal, and I think we are making some good progress.  We are in hopes that we will be getting missionaries assigned to this area.

The following activities outline some of the actions that we have been involved in.

• We are working with 220 young families that are in the process of buying some land from a large landowner who was raising cattle.  Collectively, they are going to have to pay this man one million dollars over the next ten years.  This will take about everything they make, and then some.  I'm sure it will take them at least twenty years.  I have met with the landowner and I am quite sure he will work with them on it.  They are living in homes with dirt floors, without electricity, and with a fire pit in the middle of the room to cook their tortillas and beans.  The families are generally young, and have many years ahead of them, so they might pull it off.   They are specializing in the spice crop of cardamon and seem to be doing a fairly good job, however, they do need some agronomic help.  I asked them what they are going to do with the money they are making off their crop and they never hesitated in saying that "all our income will be used to pay off our land debt." I then asked them how they were going to live in the meantime.  They avoided the question but without any reservations they said, "this is for our grandchildren."  It really touched my heart.  In addition to helping them with the crop we are planning to help them with marketing.  This includes setting up a dryer and the equipment necessary to package the cardamon so it can be sold at the very best price.  They are currently selling to a series of middlemen.  Debora Fletcher, the president of our organization, is currently in Jordan, and some other Middle East countries, and she has some significant marketing contacts that could lead to some direct sales.  We will also help them with some fertilizer.
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• The 5,000 water purification filters that we purchased ,after the two massive hurricanes swept the area five months ago, are turning out to be an amazing project.  I do not think there is another thing we could have done to develop more relationships of trust, especially in Cahabon.  We thought that handing them out would be just a matter of lining them up and handing them out.  But the leaders came up to us and said, "this is a big deal, a really big deal."  They hand out about 150 filters at a time, and make a big deal about it.  After a prayer, and several speeches (including Susan), they explain how it works.  And then they do the most amazing thing.  They have a list of every potential recipient.  Then, as each name is called, they come forward and sign the line by their name, and make an ink fingerprint by the side of their signature.  They are also committing to use the filter, not to sell it.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We are continuing to work with communities in the Pinares area on their Cacao project.  We are currently working with them to get their cacao organically certified.  I am currently preparing an additional funding request that will assist them in marketing.  This is one of the poorest areas in the Cahabon District (202 villages) so it certainly needs help.
• We are assisting in the negotiations for the 100 lb. bags of fertilizer that will be given to 9,000 corn farmers.  We will be meeting with three different fertilizer dealers in two weeks to get the bids on this fertilizer.  This is the infamous corn project.  We (along with the Association leaders) are attempting to the get structure in such a way that it will become sustainable.
• We kind of got sidetracked last week when we tried to straighten out problems with our transportation needs.  About three weeks ago we purchased a used four-wheel drive SUV, thinking it would fill our needs.  However, a trip into the outlying villages (over rough roads), we came to realize that that car would probably not last very long, and so we went back to Coban and traded it on a heavy-duty four-wheel-drive pickup.  It was kind of a traumatic financial decision, but we simply had to do it.
• I'm preparing for an important speech on March 11th, where farming representatives from the 202 villages will be represented.  I will be making an effort to try to get them to quit burning their corn stubble, and start doing other things that will enrich the soil.  We are also preparing for an Experimental Plot that will show a comparison between seven corn varieties, different fertilizer levels, and seed spacing.
• We had two groups of visitors here in the last two weeks, and it was great.  They helped us distribute filters and other activities.  We were able to get permission to have a group Sacrament meeting in our home, which felt good.
  
  

  
  
  
  
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• There is one thing that is very frustrating.  We have no way of spreading the gospel.  Our interpreter is wonderful in many ways, but she is not at all helpful in helping us communicate with people that are interested in the gospel.  And, since she is the only person in town that speaks good English, there is no opportunity fellowship or teach other people that are interested in the gospel.  We think that if there was a set of missionaries here the gospel would go forward in a big way.  We have boxes of Book of Mormons sitting here in our house, and there is no way to get them into the hands of potential investigators.  We have never been in this situation before, and we are looking for answers.  Maybe God wants us to wait a little longer and continue our efforts in developing relationships of trust.
• We greatly appreciate all those that are making financial contributions.

Amazing People

 Sunday, Feb 28th, 2021

The Mayor of Cahabon invited us to go with him to two villages, to deliver water purification filters, and get acquainted with the families.  Bob will be working with these farmers, to increase their production and market their farm produce.

It was a most amazing experience, getting to know these very special people.  In both villages they were all lined up on the road to their church, where we met, waiting for us to come.

Bob will be visiting with the leader of the farmers on Tuesday, to determine how best to help them.  

They only have one building in their "village" -- the Church.  It was filled to overflowing the day we were there.  It is a dirt floor, but it was a fairly new building.  These people recently settled in the this area, and they are trying to make enough money to pay for the land they are living on (long story).  They are younger families, with bright smiling children.  

We were also delivering water purification filters to each family in the village.  We raised the money for these filters in December, following Hurricane Eta which left their water very dirty.  But, it was hard to get the filters out to the 202 villages, so that delivery is still in process.  We are very happy we had the opportunity to be present when the filters were delivered to these two villages.

After the filter presentation they served us a lunch.  They were honoring us, with a very special soup with meat and chicken, a broth, and tortillas.  But, they watched us eat.  It was very hard to eat in front of them, knowing that they were very poor.

The youth and children were so very special.

Three cute girls: 

Some of the farmer fathers:

Bob and some of the kids;

It took us 1 1/2 hours to drive to these two villages, and the roads were difficult, but it was such a special experience.  They all clapped when I said a few words in their Kekchi language.  We hope to return soon.