Hi, guys! I’m attempting to raise funds to assist Maritza and her family. Maritza, Pedro and their two children live in Santiago, a village in the Lake Atitlan region of Guatemala. A few months ago, Maritza was injured in an accident (I’m not sure what kind.) Her leg was mangled to the point of needing surgery. However, the family couldn’t afford the surgery, so for the past several months Maritza has been bed bound, unable to look after her home and her family. When I found out about Maritza’s condition, I immediately paid for the hospital’s initial estimate for the surgery, which was about $2000. Maritza has had her surgery, and is recovering very well in her husband Pedro’s care.

Unfortunately, the final amount for her hospital stay, physical therapy, and rent in the apartment they’re staying in (their village is several hours away from Guatemala City, where the hospital is) has ended up being higher, by about another $2500. I am in the middle of rebuilding my own finances after a long period of unemployment, and I’m simply unable to spare this large an amount at once. Pedro chose to take the deed to the family’s house to a lender, and the lender is now requiring him to pay back 18000 quetzales, about $2345 USD, over the course of the next six months. This is going to be almost impossible for the family to do. So, I’m turning to the internet.

I met Maritza and her family as an undergraduate student in anthropology, through a special undergrad field school in the Maya-dominated region of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. I lived with Maritza’s family for about two and a half months, eating most of my meals in their kitchen, playing with the kids at night, and working on my first ethnography. They are kind, generous, incredibly hard-working people, living in a region that’s still reeling from US-backed genocide against the Maya. They deserve to get a real break, for once.