Team 2 arrives in Guatemala

The past two days we have been checking the ¨big wheels¨...the ferris wheels... that are around town. The Festival of St Lucas has been going on since we arrived on Friday late afternoon in San Lucas Toliman. The streets are lined on both sides with booths and rides. Walking through this small town is sometimes almost impossible. The colors, smells and sounds fill the air. There are families dressed in the native fabrics...women with babies slung on their backs, lots of little children clinging to their mother´s skirts. It is all so different from anything many of us have ever seen.

Yesterday we visited the tiny village of Pompajila where we will continue the stove building that Team 1 started. We saw some of the completed stoves...great job, Team 1. It rained almost all day...sometimes a real downpour. Today has been drier, but it still managed to rain a decent amount this afternoon. We are all hoping for better weather to begin the stove building tomorrow.

Some of us went on a tour of San Lucas Toliman today. We walked the cobblestone streets to an area reclaimed by some of the local permaculture mambers. It is almost like an arboritum in the midst of the town. We then got to see a woman weaving in the traditional backstrap loom. She was sitting in her yard in a very poor part of town creating a work of art. It was amazing. We then went to visit an 82 year old woman who makes 1000 tortillas by hand each day. She sits next to the open fire in a small tin roofed hut. We could barely stand being in with her for 10 minutes!

The rest of our group went for a hike up the 400 meter Cerro d´Oro¨Sleeping Elephant mountain nearby. We rode in the back of a pickup truck standing side by side to the trailhead. We were so fortunate for after the hard rains of yesterday we had sunshine and visibility clear enough to see the volcanoes that surround Lake Atitlan. This lake is a mile deep and covers many square miles. Many wealthy people from Guatemala City drive the 50 miles to the lake and their chalets on weekends. We only saw them driving through town for most people here are desperately poor but seem happy. Back to the hike. The trail was very steep, rocky and muddy, but the higher we climbed, the better the views. There were beautiful flowers, many are no doubt the originals of seeds we now sow in the US like cosmos, sunflowers, lantanas, and argeratum. Every little spot of soil nestled between the boulders had a coffee tree growing in it. They are loaded with green coffee beans at the elevation which is 1535 meters above sea level. At the lower elevations the beans are ripening to a deep red and will soon be ready to harvest. The school children began their vacation last week so that every able hand is available to harvest the valuable crops. We also saw avocado trees and some exotic fruit trees growing along the way. Then we saw the farmers climbing the hillside to check their coffee bushes. The guides are so well informed and we learned a lot.

Tomorrow, Monday, we begin our work with the stove building. The beds are comfy, food is delicious, and so far everyone is well and in great spirits. More to come

Beth Yoak and Val Havlick