This was our last day working in Pachitulul. We spent the day mixing and pouring concrete for the floor of the pileta. When completed the pileta will have 8 wash stations and a large common pool of fresh water.
Mixing concrete by hand. We just piled up the cement, gravel and sand and mixed it with shovel and hoes.
Jason adds the water to the mix
and we mix
to move the concrete to the pileta was bucket brigate style. Here Gil hands a bucket to A 4" slab about 10x10 feet. It was a lot of buckets
everyone got involved. Even the children were hauling baskets and wash tubs full of rocks for the banana pit and the floor of the pileta.
grab shot from Domingo´s patio where we put our stuff and took our breaks. Domingo is the Jefe of the village, but that didn´t stop him from pitching in every day. He hauled boulders out of the banana pit and was always there to help with anything we needed. 
The completed baskets to give to the families of the village
Linda presents the baskets to the women of the village. 
group shot of the women of the village. Along with the 20 lbs of beans, rice and corn in the big baskets, the small baskets contained bags of sugar, cooking oil, paper and pens for the children, toothbrushes, and many other things. The sadness is that in a country that can produce so much food there so many people suffering from malnutricion. This village was farming land right next to it until a few years ago. The owner of the land was renting the farmland to the village for next to nothing but lost it to the bank. The new owner came in and that was the end of it. All the land is now planted in avacodos for Hass and the village finds itself with a high chainlink fence topped with coils of barb wire surrounding it. Talk about paving paradice. Currently, Domingo is the only one in the village working for the finca owner, which I suspect leads to some interesting conflicts of loyalty being also the elected head of the community. Maybe several years from now when the avacodo trees are producing there will be more jobs for the young people of the village, but that is still several years off. 
the floor is complete and we are flooding it to keep it from curing too fast. Domingo is in the center next to Jason
here we are with one wall of the pileta. 
driving out of Pachitulul for the last time.I´ll be here for another week and will try to cruise by Pachitulul before we leave the area on Thursday.
blogging away in Gutemala,
Roy
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