Guatemala

It is the land of the once powerful Mayan people. Descendants still live and work the land. It is mostly a poor land, now, so far as the economy goes but it is rich in beauty. It is formed from upheaval of the earth's crust and is still shaken by earthquakes. Well, that is the best information I have been able to gather anyway.

My way of giving back when I got my disability was to sponsor a little girl in that country. My hope is that in some small way, it will help this one little girl grow up healthy and help give her the little things a little girl needs in life. I color pictures for her and she draws pictures for me. In my short story Mother's Coat, I had to do a lot of research and found almost more than I could handle about the plight of children in the world. So what was to be a long story had to be cut short because it made me physically ill to write it. I cannot stand the thought of a child going to bed hungry but they do. I cannot stand the thought of a child sleeping on the street but they do. It is good when a kind person takes a child off the street but wouldn't it be wonderful if we could do something to keep that child off the street in the first place? We can. Not the whole wide world but one child.

Well, I'm not bragging about what I do. It is too little and much too late. It has, however, brought me closer to a little country called Guatemala. I still can't spell it without looking and I probably will never speak their language. Love has no language barrier, neither does hunger.

There are lots of organizations you can go to, to sponsor a child. I use Compassion International. You can find others on television and the Internet. If you sponsor, do some research and pick an organization with a good rep and stable management. At least, that is what I recommend.