Our friend Carolina visited Hogar San Francisco Xavier and sent us this message:

Hola Kathy, I was so eager to write you today because we ventured to visit the Hogar that is so close to my house, we needed to borrow a pick up truck because the road was a little steep, Gregg jogged there a couple days ago and could not even find the road, until we asked someone today.  I went to Hogar Francisco Xavier today and will go back again in a couple of weeks, because most of the kids were not around because classes don't start until next week and most of the  kids that live there were visiting with their foster families. I took some pics (that will send later) and Hermano Alejandro was very nice and showed us the entire place. I brought some beans, rice, sugar and cookies and they were happy about that. But I do want to meet the kids so I am planning to go back."

We received this email from Katrin, a colleague from Germany who was visiting Guatemala over Christmas and New Year. She visited the boys at Hogar San Francisco Xavier and loved meeting the boys.

"We just came back from the hogar and we had the best time ever!!! The boys are soooo great! We brought soccer and basketball balls, cake and bread donated by local coffee shops. The boys went crazy when they saw the balls and we went playing with them. It was sooo much fun as you can imagine;-) the boys are sooo cute!  It was sooo sad to say goodbye to them, they all hugged and kissed us many times and asked when we are coming back! We promised them to send them the pictures we took which they were really excited about. You were right, they love to watch pictures and photos and we took sooo many;-)  We definitely want to go back one more time during this week, to play with the boys, meet more boys and give them the pictures we just developed. I really want to become a PADRINA of one of the kids!"

Hermano Fabio who used to take care of the boys at Hogar San Francisco Xavier sent us best wishes for the new year. Hermano Fabio is continuing his work in Colombia.

Feliz año nuevo lleno de vemdiciones con cariño Hno Fabio

GAF attended a heart warming fundraiser in December. Guest of Honor was Dinora Palacios from Luz de Maria Orphanage in Guatemala City. It was an honor to meet this amazing woman. It was with tears in her eyes she described the situation in Guatemala.

Simply access amazon.com through the link on our home page All purchases you make will benefit GAF as we get a small commission through our association with amazon.com. Did you know that the price on the Kindle went down and also the price on the Wii?

GAF is now on facebook and we hope you will want to become a fan. Link is on the home page.

Max and Franzi Weber in Berlin, Germany (whose dad is a friend and colleague of mine) went through all their dolls and teddy bears and other cuddly toys and donated a whole duffel bag filled with them to our kids in Guatemala. Everything from porcelin dolls to beenie babies, and teddy bears.

It will be well traveled toys by the time they make it to Guatemala. Origin: Berlin via New Orleans, via Boston!

Thank you to the whole Weber family!

The newest addition to the GAF site (home page) - recipes with a Guatemalan flavor. We have added two so far but are going over our recipe books as we 'write' and will add more so be sure to visit again. Feel free to send us your favorite recipes so we can add them!

We have uploaded more great photos from the fiesta. If you have some that you'd like to post, email them to guatemalaaidfund@gmail.com

Thank you to everyone who came to our fiesta in Newton, MA on September 13, 2009. We had a wonderful time and we hope you did too. Thank you for your enthusiasm and your support - and your donations. We look forward to seeing you again next year.