Xela Aid Organization

When he was 6 months old, Oscar de Leon pulled a flickering candle off a table and into his crib, burning off his eyelid, melting his nose and lip and disfiguring his arm and hand. In March, 15 years after the fire, the Orange County humanitarian group Xela Aid brought the Guatemalan teenager to the United States, where surgeons have begun to reconstruct his face.

Under the unfamiliar hospital lights, Pantaleon Benitez sat expressionless, like a wrinkled, walnut-colored Buddha, holding his warped wooden leg. It had been 42 years since a train sliced his leg off at the knee, and 20 since Benitez, who is "75, maybe older," carved himself a new one. Now, some white-haired American was strapping a prosthesis on his aching stump. And it wasn't costing him a quetzal. He stood up, bobbed up and down, and grinned. "Not so heavy," he said. "And soft."

The ferry churned past their hotel without slowing, wind-frothed swells smacking the hull in the darkness. As the craggy shoreline of Guatemala's Lake Atitlan faded to a few weak twinkling lights, the ferry captain ignored the demands of Leslie Baer and her husband that he take them back to their hotel. Hours later, the boat stopped at the far end of the lake. Finally, the captain spoke. If the Orange County couple wanted to get to their hotel now, it would cost them more, much more.

When he was 6 months old, Oscar de Leon pulled a flickering candle off a table and into his crib, burning off his eyelid, melting his nose and lip and disfiguring his arm and hand. In March, 15 years after the fire, the Orange County humanitarian group Xela Aid brought the Guatemalan teenager to the United States, where surgeons have begun to reconstruct his face.

Under the unfamiliar hospital lights, Pantaleon Benitez sat expressionless, like a wrinkled, walnut-colored Buddha, holding his warped wooden leg. It had been 42 years since a train sliced his leg off at the knee, and 20 since Benitez, who is "75, maybe older," carved himself a new one. Now, some white-haired American was strapping a prosthesis on his aching stump. And it wasn't costing him a quetzal. He stood up, bobbed up and down, and grinned. "Not so heavy," he said. "And soft."

Twenty-five volunteers will travel to Guatemala in July to distribute more than $1.6 million in medical supplies in that country. The trip is being planned by members of Xela Aid, an organization that has already sent materials twice in the past year to the town of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Xela Aid was founded a year ago by Leslie Baer-Brown after she traveled to Guatemala to study Spanish.

The ferry churned past their hotel without slowing, wind-frothed swells smacking the hull in the darkness. As the craggy shoreline of Guatemala's Lake Atitlan faded to a few weak twinkling lights, the ferry captain ignored the demands of Leslie Baer and her husband that he take them back to their hotel. Hours later, the boat stopped at the far end of the lake. Finally, the captain spoke. If the Orange County couple wanted to get to their hotel now, it would cost them more, much more.