Soccer Field

Several groups are working on putting a soccer field in at Casa. The kids love getting to help the groups that come through and are excitedly waiting for the soccer field to be finished! Little by little groups are contributing to help build the soccer field. Hopefully before the end of the summer the kids will have themselves a soccer field.

Stubborn

Josue after eatting a plate full of spaghetti.

He is really starting to push his limits. He is getting quite a stubborn streak in him. I thought Rosy was pretty stubborn but he just might give Rosy a run for her money. We are still in the process of getting him potty trained. Just to be different and on purpose he does it in his pants. So praying this stubborn streak is broken and that he is soon potty trained!

Here are the kids up bright and early for the first Honduras world cup soccer game!

Tomorrow is their last game. So far no luck they have lost two.
Maybe tomorrow they will get a little lucky!

DENGUE

Honduras in state of emergency (again)

President Pepe Lobo interrupted the news tonight for a national cadena, in which he declared Honduras to be in a state of emergency because of a dengue epidemic (a very serious mosquito-borne flu-like illness). Ten people have died from dengue hemorrágico, which can be a fatal form of the disease if not treated. Police and military will be ensuring that all hospitals stay open 24-hours per day.

The Minister of Health has been authorized to contract for whatever supplies and with whatever personnel are necessary. The sad truth is that these states of emergency are usually just a license to steal. Will anyone audit the expenses or the personnel contracted? How many will be hired for their family ties rather than their medical abilities?

This was our first cadena national in about six months and I was scared waiting for it to start for two solid minutes! BTW, I don't care for the choice of music and video; it doesn't go with the nature of an emergency. Micheletti's was much better.

A few interesting facts not mentioned are:

More than 10,200 people have been affected by dengue classico, and 400 by dengue hemorrágico (DH) so far this year. In 2009, there were almost 13,000 classic dengue cases and more than 500 cases of DH. This year 70% of the cases have been in the Tegucigalpa area.

No government has declared a state of emergency for dengue since 2002, when there was 32,000 cases.

The hospital personnel union has been on strike since June 11 and have "taken" hospital buildings and health centers, which may have something to do with the police and military being involved.

An announcement was made yesterday that one or more of the large hospitals are out of IV fluids, something that is crucial to keep DH patients alive.

The Minister of Health yesterday also announced that hospitals would not treat dengue, only DH, and that dengue patients would have to go the health centers. (The initial symptoms are the same and by the time that the hemorrhagic symptoms arise, it is sometimes too late.)

The Minister de Trabajo (work) announced today that there are not economic conditions for an increase in the minimum wage which could have caused huge nationwide strikes....except that now the police and military will be out on the streets to prevent that.

Lobo arrived home to Honduras today from a 10-day trip to South Africa for the World Cup.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Currently the teachers are on strike, public employees' retirement fund union, the National Registry of Persons, and Hondutel (telephone company) employees' unions are on strike, just to name the major ones. CUTH (confederation of workers unions) announced suspension of their measures to press for a minimum wage increase due to the health crisis. CUTH had previously announced "taking" of the roads in the entire Honduran territory.


Here is another interesting fact: In 2006, when Mel Zelaya took office, government salaries were L. 3.8 billion. In 2009, government salaries were around L. 32.0 billion.

EGGS

We are finally starting to get eggs.
After having chickens for about two months they are laying eggs! Marc said if they did not lay eggs soon we would just have to kill them and eat them.
The kids are so excited. They all go check countless times a day to see if there is any new eggs. Right now we are only seeing one or two at a time but I am sure with 29 chickens we will soon be seeing lots and lots of eggs.

happy 13th birthday

I can not believe my girl Pamela turned 13 today! She is growing up on me way to fast!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAMELA!!!

May 2010 Update

May 2010

May was an eventful month for Dorian and I. At the beginning of the month I was given a gift of a ticket home to see my brother graduate from Harding University. My sister Lisa was the only one of my family who knew I was coming. I love surprising people! I thought my mother was going to have a heart attack and my father thought Lisa brought a friend to meet him for lunch! And I was even able to surprise Brian. I flew home to Ohio and completed the road trip to Arkansas which was half the fun. I also got to see my mother and grandmother for Mother's day weekend.
I was missing Dorian and was happy to get back home to see him.

We have a fairly new employee here at Casa and her name is Pamela. She and her husband Roni were married about the same time as Dorian and me. They have a little boy who is Emanuel he is 2 years old. Dorian has been studying with Roni and he was recently baptized in March. We were woke up early May 1st Saturday morning by Pamela crying and screaming. We found out that Roni was walking home from a late work day the night before and never arrived home. His body was found on the side of the road and it appeared that he was hit by a car and killed.
Besides trying to comfort Pamela, we had to help prepare the body for burial, have an all night vigil/church service in their home and even help dig the grave. A lot of culture shock for this girl! Please pray for Pamela to have the courage to look to Him for comfort. Right now she is just so confused and looking for guidance and direction and trying to understand all of this.
We also welcomed a new intern here to Casa, Stacey Hooper has made a one year commitment to help us here. Looking foward to getting to know her and welcome her here in the Casa family.

Dorian has began classes again and doing well, but I miss him always being here to help at Casa. He has decided to ride the bus as to help save money. He drives maybe one or two times a week to class but other than that he is taking the public transportation. Oh how we would love to have a car of our own. Maybe someday!!!

Rain has been a huge obstacle to the people here. Torrential rains from tropical storms have washed away whole hillsides and electric has been off for days at a time. Having all the children stuck inside for a couple days with no electricity is problematic at times but then I remember those who have no roof other than cardboard and no clothes to hang on lines inside to dry before they sour.

We are blessed and continually humbled! Thank you for your prayers and support and just for being in our lives!

Blessings~
Dorian and Karen Guido

Soccer

For those of you up on the whole world cup, many of you know that Honduras played Chile yesterday! Everyone here in Honduras yesterday were wearing their Honduras jerseys and up bright and early because the game started at 5:30AM.
Lots of restaurants opened up early for everyone to come in and watch the game. Dorian classes were delayed til 10am and the kids classes were delayed til 9am.
Everything revolved around this game. Even some of the buses were running behind as they did not start their routes early.

I remember when Honduras found out they made it to the World Cup. There was partying all night long and the next day was a national holiday. Soccer is BIG stuff here!
All of us at Casa were up at 4:45am. Dorian and I got the kids up and had their morning devo first and then headed to our apartment to watch the game. The kids were all so excited and loved every minute of the game.
Dorian just likes to be different at times so he was rooting for Chile. The next thing I know Maryuri and Nohemy are jumping up and downing and yelling for Chile with Dorian!!!
Lets just say there was lots of excitement, yelling and jumping!
Although Honduras lost, but Maryuri and Nohemy were quite happy as they walked around the rest of the morning saying Chile, Chile, Chile!!!!
Now for next Wednesday when Honduras plays again. I can not even imagine how crazy things will be here if and when Honduras does win!

VAMOS HONDURAS

Youth Rally

Kelin, me, and Pamela at evening worship!

The theme for the weekend was we as sheep so many times look more like wolf. We are fake and hypocrites.

Taking off the mask!
There was a class in the afternoon where we all made a wolf mask. In the evening we all put our masks on and then was asked who was ready to make a change in their life and quit putting on the mask. Then we started one by one to burn and throw away our masks as we made a covenant with God to start a new and be real.

Soccer time!

Opening the youth rally on Saturday

Sunday morning worship!

Ojojona and Santa Ana churches together in Santa Ana for Sunday morning worship.

12 different churches were at the youth rally. It was great to see and meet so many new people!

Most of the Santa Ana youth group!
Pamela, Seydi, Javier, Cynthia, Dorian, Pamela, and Kelin
These are all of the girls who have put in countless hours of preparing and making this first youth rally a reality!

Snack table
Cynthia, Karol, and Brayan

Thank you to so many who have helped support and pray for the first youth rally here in Santa Ana/Ojojona. It was a huge success!

katy

~~~~Isn't she just too cute~~~

cindy and maryuri

Visitation day

Cindy and Maryuri with their mom and aunt

Brayan

Last month at visitation Brayan's mom bought this for him. He loves it! He was so excited when he got it. He loves it so much that at night he often sleeps in it even. Now all of the other kids are wanting one too!

building

Nohemy and Josue building
They both are changing so much and are coming more and more part of the CASA family.

happy birthday fernando!

Rain, rain and more rain

drying the clothes inside

our small stream became a river

Tropical Storm Agatha took a toll on us here at Casa. For about a week straight it rained and rained and rained. Lots of mud and water! Which is a great combination for kids but with 17 kids it just makes for a headache!!! :)

With 17 kids we started worrying how we were going to dry our clothes and get laundry done. Our dryers had broken but we got them fixed but were advised to not use them again until we got our electric hook up checked on. Well with all of this rain no one has been able to check out the electric hook up. Our clothes were starting to mold and get musty smelling. So that meant we were rewashing.

Finally Sunday we put up clothes lines everywhere inside. I was a little hesitate because I was a afraid the kids would be hanging on them. So far the kids have left the clothes/clothes lines alone.

And here I was worried about all of our laundry piling up here and then getting moldly or the leaks in my roof. There are so many who have lost so much and some of lost everything they own. Here in Santa Ana many have suffered the effects. To begin with they have so little and then to lose what they have worked so hard for is devastating.

According to COPECO, approximately 3,500 people have been evacuated from their homes and nearly 3,300 are living in shelters. More than 140 homes have been destroyed and another 700 have been damaged. Fourteen people are now dead.

Please continue to pray!!