3 Down, 1 To Go

We have one more week left until we head home. Even though this seems like we are nearing the end of our trip, we have to keep reminding ourselves that we only had one entire week the last time we were here.

Yesterday we had another fitting. We only fit 8 people total yesterday, but the second chair we worked on took more than 3 hours to fit. The first chair was this little girl. Look at that smile! She was so happy about getting a new wheelchair and she even told us thank you in English! She was so sweet and such a blessing. Her family was super nice as well. In this picture, you can see her mom behind her, and Gustavo, who worked with us on the chairs all day yesterday.

This little guy is Angel (pronounced Ahn-hell). His story broke my heart. He is a little boy of 6 years old. When he was 5, he was a completely normal little boy, who could run, play, and do everything else little boys can do. He went in for an operation on his thumb one day, was given too much anesthesia, and for a lack of better understanding of what happened, it turned him into a vegetable. He is alive, but can no longer walk or play. He cannot move any of his limbs of his own accord. He can no longer chew or talk, and is unresponsive to any sort of stimulation. He doesn't even look when his name is called or when a loud noise happens close to him. His mom hasn't come to terms with it either. She kept trying to get him to play with a little wooden toy car, but his hands couldn't even respond enough to hold it. She told me the story of her perfect Angel that was destroyed by a medical mistake. She tried to seek some sort of restitution for the wrong that had been done, but unfortunately, it doesn't work like that in Guatemala. Malpractice is extremely common. Gustavo is also in a wheelchair due to malpractice.

These are some absolutely beautiful flowers Cameron bought for me yesterday. He's so sweet. I love my flowers!


Well that's all for this post. Please pray for Angel and his family. They still haven't fully realized their new life situation, so prayers that they would be at peace with it.

Love, Morgan

This Past Week

So it's been close to a week since our last update. Sorry about that. This past week we went to the orphanage Hermano Pedro to fix wheelchairs there on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday we had a wheelchair fitting and distribution for about 25 people. However, Thursday I got really sick. I think I got food poisoning, but was lucky enough to expel most of the offending food from my body pretty early on. Cameron also wasn't feeling on top of his game and we were both out for the count on Thursday. Friday, we both headed over to the factory for the fitting, but I ended up tapping out about an hour later, went home and slept for the next 6 and didn't leave my bed for the rest of the day. Cameron helped with or fit 7 people on Friday. I was able to help with 1 in the time I was there. Saturday we both just spent the day recovering. We did all of our laundry, cleaned up our living area, and made sure to cook dinner instead of just eating crackers and sandwiches. I'm really looking forward to Monday so I can try to finish up the grant I was writing and Cameron is going to start working on sport wheelchairs. Wheelchairs that are used to play basketball, specifically. We have 11 days left. Pray that we make them count!

Love, Morgan

New Blog

Hey y'all, Come check out my new blog. This will be my main mode of communication as I prepare for and after I move to Guatemala!

www.esperanzaengineering.blogspot.com

Vaya con Dios!

Well this trip has already exceeded my expectations!  As you have probably read, we had our first wheelchair fitting Tuesday.  It was such a blessing to be here for that and work with those people.  I don't think I could ever get used to that.

We hit up a local restaurant the other day.  Turns out they had chalkboard walls and chalk laying around.  I made sure to leave a mark for 1B while I was there.  (For those of you that don't know, the 1B Bandits were all the guys on my floor at LeTourneau.  We are like brothers and I miss them all a lot.)

Today the guys at the factory were challenged to a basketball game.   This may seem rather insignificant, until you realize that they're all in wheelchairs.  This game is strictly for people in wheelchairs and is located all the way across Antigua.  What does it take to get a basketball team of wheelchair users across the rough streets of Antigua to a basketball court?  The answer is a small bus with a lift gate on the back.  And who better to drive it that the farm boy who grew up driving large machines?  That's right, I got to drive a small bus through the winding and rough streets of crowded Antigua with 8 people and their wheelchairs in the back.  It was quite the experience!  Very few people follow the "rules of the road", so driving really kept me on my toes...or in my seat.

The design that I have been working on prototyping for a children's walker is basically finished.  I have four more parts that I was unable to make today that I need to finish on Monday.  However, it doesn't seem to be quick enough since another request already came in today for two more walkers!  Once I have my drawings all finalized and the walker approved by the plant manager (Larry) and the on staff physical therapist (Ilse) I should be able to make 6-8 of them Monday.

Pray that God continues to use us as we interact with the workers in the plant.  Pray that we don't ever overlook their needs in the hustle and bustle of doing all the physical things that must be done.  Next week is already shaping up to be a busy week.  Pray that we keep our priorities in check. 

With Love,
          Cameron

2 for 1

Hey gang!

So I'm going to tell you about the last two days here in one post. Wheelchair fittings are some of the most exciting work Cameron and I do here. These past two days, we've been doing work that is hard to write about in an exciting way, so here goes:

Cameron has started working on designing a walker!!!! This walker will be built for children and was the number one thing people asked for at the last fitting. Some children have disabilities, but can still walk with help, so something like a walker gives them a lot more freedom than a wheelchair. Unfortunately, the factory does not have any designs for a walker. Fortunately, they have Cameron. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the software he needs to design a walker and know it will work before building it. Fortunately, he has the ability to build anything and the mind to figure it all out. I got to watch him work a little bit today, and was completely lost on what he was doing. But he understood what needed to be done, and that is the important part. He might have a prototype for the walker as early as tomorrow. (and I'll try to get some pictures)

I have been working on writing a grant. That's about as exciting as I can possibly make that sentence. I'm almost done, just need a few more of the statistics to put into it. It will be the first grant I've ever written, but I'm still the most qualified among the people here.

Our next fitting is on May 25th and we have 25 people signed up. It will be a very busy day, so prayers as we start preparing for that day to come would be appreciated. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Love, Morgan

Giving of Wheelchairs

So today was a wheelchair fitting for 11 kids with different ranges of need and disabilities. It definitely was an intense way to hit the ground running with the things we need to do here. Cameron and I got to fit two people in wheelchairs today and it felt fantastic to be back working with such a great ministry. The faces of the people we gave wheelchairs to were more than enough reward for the work we put in.

 

This was the second wheelchair we fit today. Neither of the chairs were a design Cameron or I had worked with before. Luckily, he was smart enough to figure it all out so we could adjust them for each person.

All in all, it was a good day. Today was also the first day of the rainy season, so we got to watch the roads turn into rivers.

Prayers for: most of the workers at the factory are in wheelchairs, so the rains make it difficult for them to travel home since the roads are bad and they don't have cars.

In Christ,
Morgan

We're Here!

It's hard to believe, but we're finally here! Both Cameron and I (Morgan) have been working so much to get to this point, it's still kind of mind blowing that we're in Guatemala.
We were met at the airport by Ilse and Jessalyn, the two other people we will be living with for the next couple weeks. And then we returned to Antigua last night. It is fantastic to be back. This morning, Cameron and I did a lot of little "errand" type things, such as going to the grocery store and putting minutes on our cell phones that we use down here. Tomorrow there is a wheelchair fitting at the factory, so it will be straight back to the grindstone. We'll try to get lots of pictures to post on here as well.