12/2008 Christmas Trip

During December of 2008 Gaby and I went back to Guatemala for Christmas and thought it would be the perfect time to take some more toys and clothes to Matchbox Cars the children in Guatemala. Our airline tickets allowed us to take one carry on and two checked bags each so we traveled light on clothes but heavy on gifts.

The day after our arrival we made our first stop for a first communion party being given at an orphanage run by the Catholic Church just outside of Guatemala City (Sumpango). After arriving it was apparent that a lot of people had heard about it because there was a lot of people helping out with food, gifts and entertainment. We stayed for the party and left candy that Shirt and Car Gaby had bought at the 99 cent store before leaving California. While good candy can be pretty cheap at the 99 cent store it is not as cheap in Guatemala and it can make a pretty good gift. We just took it out of the bulk candy bags and wrapped it into gift bags.

Our next stop was tied into our Christmas Eve celebration. As Christmas dinner was being prepared we left our INCREDIBLE uncle in charge of the dinner and left to Unicar and Hospital Roosevelt to give gifts to the children and food prepared by our Aunt Elena to the staff. As we came into the hospital we had large Hefty bags filled with toys and clothes as well as a pot of Tamales and bread for the staff and parents. We looked like small Santa Clauses with these huge bags of gifts over our shoulders…. Well small Santa Clauses without all the red clothes, large beards, etc… Our Aunt Elena, who volunteers for the hospital navigated us through the large facility and to the various wards. As we progressed we handed out a lot of toys and clothes. There was some sadness but also a lot of smiles and fun. Unfortunately towards the end we ran out of gifts for girls as most of our donations came from boys but we made due with clothes and everyone was given something.

Outside of those two primary stops we also found other children to give toys too. It is not difficult to find them, my mother in law (Ana Gabriela Perez) and grandmother in law (Mama Berta), were great at finding them and sometimes it was as easy as driving by, seeing someone and stopping just to say Feliz Navidad and give a gift.

We would like to thank everyone who made this possible. We could not have done this without your donations of toys and clothing! We also want to send a special thanks to our family for working so hard to help us to distribute these gifts. It is because of you that we love to do things like this.