NACD MOVES INTO CENTRAL AMERICA – NACD GUATEMALA

March 15th, 2006

NACD Opens Chapter in Guatemala

On February 21, 2006, we performed NACD evaluations for the first time in our new chapter in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Thanks to the efforts of Perla Calderon, NACD Guatemala is off and running.

Alison Wimmer and I arrived in Guatemala on February 19th after taking a redeye flight from Utah to Atlanta then on to Guatemala. After the flight, we relaxed at the beautiful lakeside home of Perla’s parents and enjoyed our first experience of Guatemalan hospitality from Perla’s lovely mother. We spent the following day acclimating to the area and learning about life in Guatemala with Victor Calderon as tour guide extraordinaire. We visited Victor’s coffee plantation where I was surprised to see how similar the mountains of Guatemala are to those in Utah, and to discover Victor and I share many interests in common. Highlights of Alison’s day included spectacular tortillas prepared by one of the families working on the plantation, and encountering the largest beehive and the largest carrot she’d ever seen. Later in the day, we enjoyed visiting Victor’s parents in their home, which is framed with bamboo, and learned of Mr. Calderon’s passion for developing products using bamboo.

We spent the morning of the 21st on history and shopping. Perla took us to a local University museum to learn about the Mayan civilization, then on to a market offering local crafts. All in all, Victor and Perla provided a great introduction to Guatemala prior to our starting evaluations on the afternoon of the 21st.

Evaluating NACD Guatemala’s founding families was a pleasure. We found the children well mannered, motivated and very cute, and the parents friendly, caring and anxious to help their children. They made an excellent impression on us, and we expect all of the children will do very well.

Interestingly, the evaluations revealed a high incidence of congestion (and, therefore, probable middle ear fluid) with associated cases of strabismus and auditory sequential processing problems. Based on our observations of not only the children whom we evaluated but also other children we saw throughout our stay, we suspect the incidence of auditory processing problems must be huge among the population of this region. We intend to address this problem in the near future with the introduction of NACD’s Project 9+/-2.

We look forward to working together with the founding families of NACD Guatemala to develop this new chapter. With the ultimate goal of helping improve the lives of children throughout all of Central America, we are delighted NACD Guatemala is off to a great start.