We have seen the rain, in torrents as only happens in the tropics, but the weather has also been sunny each day and the volcanoes have appeared in all of their splendour. On Wednesday when we took the boat trip around Lake Atitlan, the weather was so beautiful and we got some great pictures. Then the rains came and it really poured. We crossed the lake on our return with absolutely no visability and with the rain slamming into our faces. Of course there were no life jackets but that is the way we travel here, with faith and some trepidation. Today we completed our work in the area, some in the remote pueblo of Noventa siete. There are some desperately poor families there and the gratitude and excitement and interest they showed, was unforgettable. I think we all had moist eyes when we said farewell to the new friends we have made this week. Of such relationships is peace in the world created.
We are including some thoughts from other team members:
From Bruce MacKenzie: When we arrived this morning to start construction on the spot where we destroyed a stove the day before, there was no sand or cement. Yesterday I met and visited with Oviveo and his brother Walter who helped on the stove destruction. Oviveo showed up just as we were wanting to get started and he disappeared and soon appeared with sand and cement, two bags each carried on his back. I began to sift and the sifter fell apart. Armando, our mason, who is very resourceful, found some old lumber. It worked well and I managed to sift the two bags of sand. (The black river sand comes from the yards of the families and is coarse volcanic sand.)
The stoves are quite solid and should last for many years, sort of like the old bar bq pits of yore. They contain many cement blocks, and a stout concrete chimney that extends through the roof. The stove has a metal grill with adjustable rings to accomodate different size pots.
To get to section where we have been working, one has to walk about half a mile up and down some very steep hills on very rocky muddy paths. Yesterday we saw a man carrying 10 of the concrete block straped to his back, each weighing 10 or 15 pounds, from the school to district. He was followed by his young son carrying 4 blocks on his back, and later his wife carrying a concrete stove pipe on her head, it must have weighed at least 70 pounds. Amazing that these folks are so wanting the stoves that they go to such measures to get the supplies to their house because there is no road into the area.
Some thoughts from Spense Havlick: Josephina, daughter of Mona melts us with her smile and her enthusiasm to help with stove building. She and I tease our wonderful stone mason, Carlos. She and her five sisters and brothers love the tennis balls we gave to many. As we left by 4, all the kids in the family were building a miniature wood stove and pretending to serve tea from an old tea kettle. On day 3 of work, Community Leader, Rosa, assigned us to a very poor family. Three of the kids had brown hair and protruding tummies which are signs of severe malnutrition.Yet they all helped, stirring mortar, measuring blocks, with the 16 year old Gloria carrying a new 90lb bag of volvcanic sand a third of a mile from the project storehouse. The 44 year old Marcus helped and Lucia the dad of a 3 week old baby also was recruited to carry mortar. Lightning and rain coincided with the end of the work day. Poverty we shall never forget!!
One can never anticipate the human connections that take place when one sheds all pretenses. The shining example is Fabiola who out of the multitude of tattered but elegant children came up and took my little finger. She is a beautiful, petite girls of about 7. She walked with me down the ravine and through the coffee and gravilla trees to our work site. As we walked, me in my heavy boots and Fabiola in her thin little sandles, she grasped my entire hand as the trail became rough. We chatted in fragments of broken Spanish, but complemented by smiles, and gestures of full understanding.
And then there is Cindy Mueller who spent 4 hours playing Follow the Leader, drawing, playing hop scotch, making cootie catchers etc as 20 plus children followed her around, knew her name, copied her laugh and fell in love with her.Tonight is our last meal together as a group, tomorrow we travel by van to Antigua and then Sunday morning many will fly home. Others of us will spend an extra week exploring this country which we shall never forget.
Val (with help from many) Havlick
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