Cristobalina

Today a different story of a badly burned victim but with a happier ending.

Cristobalina was a happy 15 year old who taught herself Spanish (she only spoke Kachiquel growing up) and found work making and selling tortillas. But in a moment she bent down to pick something up and brushed against a live electrical line. She was knocked unconscious and woke up in the hospital with no hands and severely burned legs.

Cristobalina lives in a very rural village about an hour outside of Pana. It's a long bumpy ride to get to her town, where children still cry when they see white people because they're not used to such sights. I met Cristobalina my first month at Mayan Families, when she was perfecting her art of drawing using only her mouth, since her hands were gone. I was immediately in awe of this young woman who had overcome so much and was determined to make her life better.

One of Cristobalina's drawings, done using only her mouth

Another of her drawings

Cristobalina went through several surgeries and was finally taken home in a wheel chair. She couldn't stretch her legs because there was so much scar tissue behind her knees. When we visited her, her father told us with tears in his eyes how no one would ever marry Cristobalina in a wheel chair and she would live the rest of her life in her parents home. The Guatemalan culture for women is deeply founded on marrying and becoming a house wife and raising lots of kids. Cristobalina and her family were quite certain none of this could ever happen for her.

But after some major fund raising, great determination and bravery on the part of Cristobalina, and a supportive family, today Cristobalina is walking. She has prostheses on her legs and can walk and even run. She also has arm prostheses. Although they are just hooks for now, she's slowly learning to use them. She still draws with her mouth.

Cristobalina has overcome more in her short life than most of us could comprehend. She told me and a co-worker that when she woke up in the hospital without her hands and after losing one of her feet, she wanted to die. She had no desire to live. She wished she had never woken up. But slowly she began to believe in herself, she found support in her family and Mayan Families, and she pressed on despite her reality. Today she continues to dream. She wants to go back to school, she only finished first grade. And she wants to learn English. She's made drawings for us that we sell as postcards and her story inspires all who hear it. She reminds me to always, always have hope.