Guatemala: Wednesday Recap

We are now halfway through our time here in beautiful Guatemala!

I know that I will dearly miss this place when we leave. As many places I have traveled to have, this place has stolen a little piece of my heart. The people, the work, the landscape, the food, my best assistant on the build site, Jason, and so many more things I will remember as a privilege and joy to have experienced.

Today the group split up again in the eight and four fashion that we have thus far this week.

Those that installed the smokeless stove today had a different experience than the rest of us. They built inside in a 10x10 space. That is very tight quarters for building the stove. The stove they are replacing is also in that same 10x10 space making it even tighter quarters! They also had a hill to work up and down as they brought in mud, bricks, and mortar. Though their experience was a little different than those of the past two days, they still greatly enjoyed the experience and opportunity to serve as I am sure the family will enjoy their new stove!

The rest of us were back to the build site with our friend and best assistant, Jason, and el hefe (the boss), Jorge. The first layer of rebar and concrete were dried out and ready for the first layer of CMUs for the foundation. (A CMU is a concrete masonry unit or cinderblock, I just learned the fancy terminology today) Jorge and his assistant Andy layered the block as members of our team hauled the block to them as they needed. Others on the team worked on tying more rebar that will be used to strengthen the walls of the house. We are becoming very efficient at make these ribs! The other main task for the day was chipping out the end of the CMUs to make them a U-shape so that the rebar can lay in them as they stack to create the walls.

The weather was perfect today; warm, but cloudy with a nice breeze. It was a lovely day to be outside and working with our hands.

Today we found out the brother of our homeowner makes a living by selling small handmade bags and other items he sews from the beautiful textile fabrics of Guatemala. A few of us were able to support him by purchasing unique souvenirs. We also got to take a walk around the family land. It has an amazing view! They farm strawberries and cabbage among other things. They also have a well they dug by hand that is 5 feet wide and over 100 feet deep. It is amazing the things they can accomplish without the tools and things we see as necessities.

To end the day we spent a half hour moving block down a chain of people from the street to the house. This was a great task to do as a team and with our friend Jason taking his own blocks one by one to stack by his house. How proud he will be when his family gets to live in the house he helped build!

After work today we got to go to see Mayan ruins of Iximche. The culture and history of the Mayans is quite fascinating. The ruins were interesting and set on a beautiful mountain top. This Mayan city was built there because of the location with cliffs and difficult access. Our guide was a student studying history and archaeology in Guatemala City. He gave us a great lesson and tour of the ruins. I will write more specifically on this when we return.

On the drive back to our home for the week, we were talking about what we have enjoyed the most so far. For me one of the things is seeing another culture and how they do things. For others it was working on the stove and being with the family and seeing the joy they had in receiving such a gift. For another it was the simple tasks that we are doing like tying rebar and hauling blocks and how those small, simple things make such a difference. She said “It makes you feel like you can really do anything as long as you have enough people to help.” I think that statement truly sums up what we are doing and a big piece of the mission of Habitat. You really can do anything as long as you have the people to help. The communities here depend on each other and we can learn a great deal from their simple living and how we are serving alongside them.

Tonight we have dinner and relaxing planned. I think we are all glad to have some downtime to prepare for the work tomorrow and the rest of the week. Tomorrow we will do the same work of eight on the house and four on a stove. Hopefully tomorrow evening we will also get to learn how to make corn tortillas!

This week has been a wonderful experience so far and I can hardly wait for more to come. I hope the time slows down as I know it will be hard to leave. Now where did I put that passport…