Joining Hearts - Empowering Dreams through Sponsorship and Education
UNCOMMON PROJECTS
Directed and Funded by The Integral Heart Foundation
Antigua, Guatemala (502) 7832 8076: U.S.A. 1 801 783 5207

Donor Newsletter - November 2010

 

My name is Kevin, I am 17 years old now. When I was 5 years old we looked like a normal family. We were living as any other people until my dad and mom began to fight. They were fighting over one infidelity of my father. As a result of that my parents had to get separated for some time.

Things weren’t good, it always was the same: fights, shouts, insults, the house was a total hell. My father became an alcoholic and my mother couldn’t handle it and decided to leave. She abandoned my father and my three siblings left with her. I chose to stay with my father. The first days were sort of weird; to be alone at home, to eat alone, to sleep alone… I cried all the time because I felt alone, so did my father.

Three months later we learned that my mother had another man in her life. That really affected both, my father and I. On those days my father was drowned in tears and alcohol. He thought that life had no sense, he felt guilty and sad in knowing that he had definitely lost my mom. It was so bad that we decided to live the house and to move in with my grandmother in order to forget the past. 

Few days later we were living with my grandma to begin a new life. My uncles and cousin were making fun of us all the time about the fact of that our family split out. Following with my life I got use to eat twice a day bearing humiliations, shouts, scolding and even hits from my cousins. My life at that time was a total nightmare. At night we had to share a bed between four people and as you can imagine to sleep was in the better case challenging.

My father went to work to a different county for a long time, so I was alone in that house. My little routine was to get up, to play a little bit and to deliver tortillas in order to help my grandmother and also to earn my own food. It always was the same. Of course I didn’t go to the school. 

One night my dad came to visit and to ask me to move to live with him. Without hesitation I got all my things and I said goodbye to uncles, cousins and grandparents. 

When I arrived to my father’s house he told me that there was a woman living with him. The first days were very weird for me and I felt very strange while getting used to that lady. She treated me amazingly so I easily got use to my new life stile, everything seemed perfect.

But at the same time I was always thinking in my mother and my brothers. That was something that made me feel very sad and bad. It got a point in which despair took over and I talked to my father about how I felt and what I wanted. He didn’t say anything. He simply added: it is your choice and I respect it.

I was in doubt but finally despair won and one week later I moved in with my mother. When I arrived there, with my mother and siblings, after almost two years, they accepted with lots of love during the first days. But after several months, my brothers would behave in a very strange way, my mother was always hysteric and my stepfather was always angry about everything.

Later on my mother got pregnant, during the pregnancy I felt jealousy and hate. When the baby was born everyone was really happy but me.

One more year passed by and I chose to leave the house again to go to live with my father. I called him and he didn’t hesitate in picking me up. Months passed by, now I was living with my father and one of my brothers, we were living peacefully and happy with our new lives.

One day my phone rang, it was my mom asking me for a chat, she said that it was urgent. I met her the next day, when I arrived to her home she welcomed me very happily after almost one year from the last time we saw one each other. I went to her bedroom and I asked for my stepfather. She answered me that that was exactly the reason why she had called me. 

He was gone for almost a year, he went to the United States, she added that in 15 days she was leaving to join him in the States so they could have a better life. She also told me that the reason why she had called me was because she wanted me and my brother to move in back with my other siblings so we all could be together.

I thought a lot about that and I worried about my younger siblings. That day I came back to my father’s home full of doubts. I told my brother what was going on and he answered me that he wanted to move with my other siblings back to my mom’s home. That same night I talked to my father, I told him everything, he was very quiet, he looked at my face and asked me: are you sure?  I told him that I didn’t want to leave him again but he told me to go with my mother as he thought I was going to have a better life there.  

One week later I packed my things, said goodbye again and left full of tears and a little bit of remorse for leaving alone my father again. When I arrived to my mom’s home things were different. My mother took care of us in a wonderful way, she was very attentive with us.

We spent 8 beautiful days without problems and enjoying the few days that my mom shared with us. The day for my mother to depart towards her American Dream came. She played a song for all of us and we all began to cry: my ants, friends, grandparents… She promised us: my dear children, I am leaving but I swear to you that I will be back to give you a better life, the life that you all deserve. Then she made the sign of the cross and left.

Alone again our lives were normal. We were living with my ant and grandmother who will provide for food to us. Two months later we got a letter saying that my mom had arrived to the United States. Time passed by and things at home weren’t good. We had many problems between my sister and ant, to the point in which my ant left the house and left us alone.

The environment was totally depressing and oppressive, we didn’t have any adult to take care of us and to direct us. My siblings became my responsibility, I was in charge of the whole family, I was 13. 

I was the older brother and the first two weeks everything went fine, but my sister had very dangerous friendships. She began to drink and to smoke with them. Many days she didn’t go home to sleep and I scolded her, we had terrible fights and sometimes we even got to hit one each other. The family was listening to the point in which they called our attention. She didn’t care.

At the same time there was another huge issue going on in my family. Many of my family members were drug dealers and that caused us death treats. One week after the treats my uncles were killed, and the next day we got a letter saying that we had three days to leave the house or otherwise we would also get killed. In that moment I called my mother and she told me that we had to leave at that very dawn. We took our things with the help of other uncles and my father and we all moved to Antigua.

In four days we had a new rental house with my father. Things weren’t good in those times. I got lost in alcohol, cigarettes and sometimes drugs. I became a rebel and because of the trouble I was creating we had to leave the house. My father didn’t know what to do with me and my mother was very disappointed of me, I began thinking in changing my lifestyle.

Someone told my father that the Godschild project was opening a school called the Scheel Center and he decided to send me to that school. I didn’t want to do it but I had no choice and I made the effort.

When I went there I felt weird and came back to my rebel attitude. One afternoon the psychologist of the center, Leonel, gave us a spiritual talk that opened my eyes. I saw the life I was leading and I could see things with another sense, I began to dream and to think in my future.

I’ve been studying there for two years after which my life stile is completely different. I am thinking all the time in excelling and in being someone in life. I want to appreciate the support of the Godschild project and all the teachers at the school.

Thank you to all those people who are helping me in moving forward. I want to specially appreciate Mick and Debora’s support in my path, I love you so much.

I am 17 now and doing my best to get into college. I have a dream to be a success in life.

“Because I don’t live in my past or in my future. I only have the present and that is the one I am interested in. If you can remain in the present, you will be a happy man”

“ When you want something the whole universe conspire for that person get to achieve his/her dream” Paulo Coelho.