Friday 1st April 2022 The school day starts like any school around the world.  The children arrive, they play with their friends, they greet staff and settle into the school day once ...

Saturday 12th March 2022 I remember one of the toys I had as a child.  I probably had more, but given that most of my childhood was spent mainly in the country, I enjoyed playing more...

Thursday 24th February 2022 Landing back in Guatemala was an emotional experience this time, probably due to the fact I was sitting at a table and eating a meal.  I have so much ...

Tuesday 22nd February 2022 There are certain people and situations that never leave your mind.  This might be something fun, like a memorable birthday or wonderful surprise, or it mig...

Sunday 6th February 2022 Today we have re-started the outreach work in a developing slum on the outskirts of Guatemala City called Santa Faz.  The area is well known to me as I have b...

Thursday 20th January 2022 I remember the first time I visited the British Embassy in Guatemala City in 1993 when I was working on the streets as a volunteer street worker and the embassy was j...

Monday 17th January 2022 It´s a new week for the various projects we support in Guatemala and Honduras and I am excited to see that this year we can help many more children stay in the educatio...

Sunday 17th October, 2021 There is an Arab proverb that says that the weight of a straw can break a camel´s back.  What it refers to is the overloading of a camel can lead to the came...

Monday 27th September, 2021 The thunder of hundreds of cars, busses and lorries passing overhead is hard to miss as you stand under the Incense Bridge in Guatemala City.  The bridge f...

Thursday 16th September, 2021 In all the years I have been working with at-risk children and youth I continue to feel honoured by the trust thousands of children have placed in me and am always...

Wednesday 8th September, 2021 This week was a tough one for the team as we seemed to hit one of those regularly occurring lows when bad news comes in abundance.   Carlos, one of the ...

Saturday 4th September, 2021 I am starting to wonder what the outside world is looking like! It seems ages since I was actually out in the sun and also out of the city.  Things have b...

Sunday 22nd August, 2021 Today has been the most exciting of climaxes as we celebrated the official opening of the new Centro Opp mentoring Centre in Guatemala City.  The name comes f...

Monday 21st June 2021 HOW IT ALL BEGINS!  It is simple, as a good friend said to me many months ago, it´s either school or streets! Mark Balfour, a missionary volunteer with Street Kids Di...

Monday 24th May 2021 Today is the happiest day of my year so far and also one of the saddest! I need to give you some context to this story and so will take you back a couple of weeks when...

Saturday 15th May 2021 It was all going really well, as we like to say here.  We had been greatly encouraged last week when further funding came through to complete another section of...

Sunday 2nd May 2021 I was so proud of Nicolas and told him so when I managed to get in touch with him by phone and he laughed when I said we would be smoothing him with hugs and kisses when we ...

Sunday 7th March 2021 I am looking forward to mentoring today as I have a great session planned for the three boys from Santa Faz about resilience.  I will have to pass on the bad new...

Friday 26th February 2021 Fridays are busy days and when Moses finishes school in the protection home at 12:30pm he starts his mentoring session with me.  Every week is different and ...

Saturday 6th February 2021 It will soon be a year since we started lockdown and 11 months on, we are now able to make some travel plans and so I took the decision to fly down to Honduras to see...

Friday 15th January 2021 The New Year has kicked off with renewed activity in the new mentoring centre in Guatemala City, where I am soon live.  Thanks to the generous support from Da...

Thursday 31st December 2020 Radio Christmas is now over and the exhaustion that we have all felt is greatly reduced, meaning that I now sleep for more than 5 hours a night!  I am than...

Friday 6th November 2020 We are working hard now to get the new radio studio ready for Radio Christmas.  Despite 90% of the ground floor of the Protection Home still looking very much...

Thursday 26th November 2020 We are now gearing up for Christmas.  While the UK is going to experience a Christmas like no other, Guatemala has been in the throes of the festive season...

Monday 26th October 2020 This week Joe Soden is visiting us here in Guatemala.  Joe is one of the three trustees of the charity and hasn´t been out to see us for quite a long time due...

Saturday 10th October 2020 Life has been busy of late, mainly trying to focus our energies now on the building site that is the ground floor (first floor for those in the US) of the Protection ...

Sunday 20th September 2020 Today I want to tell about three of the boys I have been working recently.  Three boys from very different backgrounds, but three boys whose lives will illu...

Thursday 27th August 2020 Being officially old now (according to Guatemala´s “third age” category) I can be forgiven for forgetting a few details now and again.  One thing, however, I...