Monday was our first day of real work. We started the day off right with a delicious breakfast of poached eggs, beans and salsa, tortillas, and the yummiest plantains with cream. Oh and coffee – the most delicious coffee. Otter and I were running behind and luckily ended up riding in Oscar’s truck to the village of El Yalu while the others were on the bus. We had a great time talking to Oscar and learning more about his country, the city of Sumpango, and his vision for working with the surrounding villages. We drove past several villages on the way into El Yalu. The roads were paved for about a mile and then it was all dirt roads. Less than 3 months ago, the roads were impassable as there were several mudslides in the area from all of the rain during their rainy season. Even here, those chicken buses fly like nobody’s business! I was very glad we were in the truck with Oscar and not on the bus!!
We arrived at the medical center in El Yalu. The center was started by the charity organization Manos Y Manos, which was started by a husband and wife from Seattle. There is a doctor from Guatemala City who works there. He welcomed us and gave us a brief history of the center and what they do. They provide nutritious meals and vitamins for the children of the village three times a week. They also provide prenatal care to pregnant mothers and medical care for the children. They teach the mothers about nutritious foods and how to provide them to their families. There is a learning center as well where the children are given some basic education. They feed everyone first and then have the children go to a class. The doctor explained the difficulty he has had in trying to educate villagers about safe drinking water. They do not make the connection between the sick children with diarrhea and the drinking water because, well, the water looks safe! Likewise, explaining the ovens and the needs to have smoke diverted out of the houses was also difficult to have buy-in from the villagers.
We learned that the stoves we are going to help build each cost $250. The families that are to get them have to have paid $30 for them. In this village, that equates to a lot and lot of saving, as well as a commitment to wanting the stove. In the past, other organizations have come and donated the stoves; however, since everything was free, some of the people would rip the stoves apart after they were installed and sell the various materials to people for money. Having the initial amount of $30 is a way to bypass that and hope the stoves remain intact for their intent. The ovens were designed with extra ledge space because the families sit around the fire and eat. If they did not have the ledge space on the oven, they did not want the oven. It was so neat to hear how this project has evolved and to be a part of this phase of it.
The team split up into groups, one of which worked in the kitchen. Due to a miscommunication between my little partner and I (well, not a miscommunciation, more of a someone playing with a dead beetle while the other one was asking which group said person wanted to join but did not answer….I won’t name names), I ended up in the kitchen group and said partner ended up working with the ovens. They lugged bricks and concrete cinder blocks over ½ mile uphill (that is no joke) to get to the villager’s home that the first oven was going to be installed. Then, even better, they got to ride in the back of a pickup truck across the dirt roads to the other villager’s house. Behind in the kitchen, I washed dishes, cleaned beans and rice, and worked on my few phrases in Espanol. I also learned that several of the villagers do not even speak Spanish, they speak myriad forms of a language from the Mayans. One of the workers in the kitchen, Francesco, spoke this. The Mayan language has several different dialects. Our translator was from Sumpango and she had traveled to Stevens Point, Wisconsin to go to school. She had not known any English other than “Hello, my name is Marta.” A few years later, here she is sitting at a table telling me all about her adventures! When she can, she helps Oscar out when he has groups from America come down to help. Otherwise, she travels down to a different city to help her grandmother sell foods at the market. She studied in America for 2 years as an electrical engineer. In order for her to do anything in her country, she has to go to the University here and get a degree, which she starts in January.
I was able to join in with the oven groups around 11:30 and had my chance to walk up the ½ mile road, but I did not have to carry bricks this time. Those were waiting for us at the top of the hill because one of the truck’s was fixed (apparently it had dropped an essential part before we even got started and they were able to run to Sumpango, get it fixed, and be back in action).
Walking along the dirt roads in the village was very neat. Some of the animals just wander the roads – piglets, chickens, and of course dogs. Several times we saw a mama hen with her little ones just bouncing along in the dirt potholes. There were 3 little pigs wandering down the road with a very hungry looking dog following them. I tried to pick one up (the pig, not the dog), but he said no thank you in pig. That I could understand. The villagers carry items on their heads wrapped in material. Even some of the younger children had loads that were wrapped in these large amounts of material and then placed on their heads. Some said “Buenos dias” and others were not quite sure what to make of this. Otter had a great time and smiled to everyone he saw. We were able to see the home where the first oven was being built. The mother and children were watching as the masons were doing the foundation of the stove. We stacked the bricks (about 130 of them – phew) and that was about all we could do for the moment. Building the ovens takes a fair amount of wait time as there is curing of the cement that needs to take place. I don’t think we are going to be able to see any of the end product of the ovens for this reason, but we do get to do a bit of the building!
We ate a lunch of beans, rice, and meat (we being Otter, I gave him my extra meat). A delicious, simple meal that I was sure was going to keep us filled up for the rest of the day. Then, about 100 of the village children came to eat their meal. Typically, there are 200 children, but because school is out this time of year, several of the children go with their parents to work in the fields. The kids first had to have a vitamin drink before lunch was served. The doctor welcomed all of the children and then we served lunch. It was incredible to watch my son going out to all of the children, serving them food, taking their plates, sitting at their tables trying to talk to them. He smiled and was so genuinely excited to meet each and every child. The rest of the team also helped with the serving and cleaning of the dishes. Then the best part of the day began – playing with the kids!
Before I could even get downstairs to the soccer area, Otter was in a game of soccer with 10 of the village boys. He did not stop playing until we left at 5 p.m. Several of the older girls carried around their baby sisters or brothers and took care of them during the day. This one was trying to swing and had her baby sister in a wrap with her, which made swinging difficult. So, I grabbed the baby. We played with the kids for a few hours while other groups finished up the oven brick carrying. I learned muchos espanol! The girls were adorable and I soon had a pack of little ones singing with me and I taught them all the balla a pollo (the chicken dance!!!). The ride back to Sumpango in the bus was a bumpy one, but I think bumpy does not even begin to describe it. Again, another time where you turn your head and look out one window rather than the window near the edge of a huge mountainside while other cars are headed towards us. Two buses passing on one dirt road produces enough endorphins for one day for me.
The evening brought one of the most incredible experiences of the trip - teaching English to over a hundred people! We broke up into groups and had the best time with our first lesson. There is so much laughter, warmth, and kindness here. We are learning far more than we could ever hope to teach down here. I wonder if Joe would be OK moving? :)
Otter:
Yesterday, we really started to work. One of the things we are going to do here, as mentioned before, is to build ovens, and that’s what we started. The objective: carry cinder blocks over a half-mile distance, and then return for more. How far did I walk that day? Four miles, carrying bricks. Fortunately, a small truck came, and we all got into the back with the bricks to bring them to somebody’s house. It was really fun. Every time you hit a bump, the back of the truck threatened to flip you out. It was pretty hard not to think of yourself flying six feet in the air, falling onto a bunch of uneven rocks. Ouch.
After we were done carrying bricks, we ate the lunch that was prepared for us by the other half of the missionaries, which included my mom. It was a meal of beans and rice, and meat. It was very good. T hen, the kids started to file in. we first gave them all a vitamin drink to drink, [of course to drink, what else could you do with a drink?] and then we served them their meal. I collected all the cups and dirty plates. Every once and a while, I sat down with a group and tried to talk with the little Spanish I knew. Dora the explorer really does come in handy sometimes.
After everyone was done cleaning up, we all headed outside to play with the kids. I joined in with a game of soccer. Everyone was very nice, and when someone was hit with a soccer ball really hard, they burst into laughing, followed by everybody else. There was no shouting or anger. I was goalie after a little while. I made some pretty good saves. Meanwhile, my mom was swinging some girls on the swings. One of them was attempting to swing with a baby in her baby wrap, so my mom took the baby so she could swing. After about three ours of nonstop soccer playing, except for agua stops, it was time to go. On the way to our bus, I saw a bus drive by, and a boy I was playing soccer with jumped onto a ladder leading to the top, meant for even more people to ride on. About nine or ten other boys were also clinging on the ladder on the back. I soooooooooooo want to try that.
We had a dinner of fettuccini with some meat inside, and some toast. For dessert, we had some type of bread that was very sweet, with some type of sugary substance on top. Anyway, it was really good.
That night, at about five A.M., we were awoken by a truck driver attempting to start his truck, but failing. More later – time to get off the bus!
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