Open for Business
The dream was never a building. We are immensely grateful for it; overwhelmed, actually. But it was never the dream. It was a desire, certainly. And a need. My goodness, we grew out of the first La Puerta very quickly. But a space is just a space, and we’ve become pretty good at making things […]
The One Who Got Away
I love this photo. And yes, I realize that for you it is entirely useless since you can’t see the faces. But I can. I know those faces, and I love them. Two of them are dead. Both were murdered in acts of unspeakable brutality, and they represent just a tiny number of those who […]
The Boy Who Doesn’t Exist
Y is about to turn eight years old. He’s never been to school, hasn’t had a single childhood vaccine and would be turned away from any and all public health services here in Guatemala. Why? Well, once upon a time, his mother (one of our sweet ladies) heard that she’d earn more by “working” in […]
Happiest New Year
J is not her real name =) She is one of our recent nursing graduates and a force to be reckoned with. A few days ago she came charging into La Puerta just bursting with excitement. She’d been offered a job. Amazing! Truly! But, wait…it gets better. The nursing school was so impressed with her […]
Whispers
“He asked for a service, but that was just his way to get into my room. “I knew something was wrong as soon as I closed the door. He started to look through my things. He wanted to see if I had money hidden in there. I was afraid of what was happening, but I […]
Mending
How much do we love her? How many of you remember L? Shot 7 times and left for dead. I can never say it too often… she’s a walking miracle. (see 2017 story here) Pandemic life has been very hard on her. The tiny squatter village she lives in means there are no sales at […]
A Week in a Life – Part 2
This blog first appeared as a series of seven posts in Tamar’s Hope private Facebook group. For permission to join please click here. Post 5 Sitting on the front step she suddenly burst into tears. That makes three times I’ve seen her cry. It’s becoming a habit! Turns out, she, like many of the women […]
A Week in a Life – Part 1
This blog first appeared as a series of seven posts in the Tamar’s Hope private Facebook group. For permission to join please click here. Post 1 When we found her in February, she was a different person. Something huge had shifted in her life. Y has always been one of the most accepting of the […]
Sew Happy
We sat for hours on her tiny single bed. It served as chairs, cutting board, ironing board and work station. Two years ago we had sat together in La Puerta when she asked if I thought she was capable of learning to use a sewing machine. Classes started that day. She loved it so much […]
Still Waiting
They call her Skinny. Guatemalans are blunt and not entirely politically correct in their use of nicknames. We’ve known her for five years. On our first day visiting La Linea she sat on her little plastic chair next to her room and the public urinal that perfumed the air around her. She looked so frail, […]
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