Friday February 11th, 2011 Pannemaquem

9:15am

On our way to Pannemaquin! I have a massage booked for 5 pm tonight! $200 Quetzals!

9:21am

Just hit the highest peak on the Pan American highway at 10 000ft.

7:34pm

Sitting outside of the garage I had a massage at earlier this evening, waiting for Karen to finish her massage. I was just at my first internet place. It was very frustrating trying to type out my blog on their keyboards. For multiple reasons: the keys kept sticking, commas and apostrophes and basically all the symbols are in a different spot. To use the @ symbol you have to push a secondary key. And that wasn’t even working for some reason so I had to copy and paste it from a Google search to sign in to anything! So I spent the whole time roughly looking for commas and deleting spaces that the space key would make every time it got stuck. I got about a paragraph done in 30 minutes and gave up and came to write my journal and wait for Karen. Karen still hasn’t been able to get money out, so she sent me an interact email money order, and I’ll just take money out for her. So I walked back up to the square use the ATM.

Me, Karen, and Margarita discussed traveling the coast from lake Atitlan next week. But now it’s look like we might stay in Atitlan instead of going to Antigua early since our 2^nd project will be almost in side Antigua where we’re staying.

Tomorrow a small group of us are going to the Takalik Abaj Archeological Site, then to the Coffee plantation with zip lining!! Muy excited about that!

7:44pm

So.. Today… wow. Where to start... We arrived at the village. I took half a gravol in the car because think all the altitude changes every day were messing with me a bit.  When we got there, they lit fire crackers off, and we just walked around and met with the people. They Spoke Quiche (kee-chay) and not Spanish. But there was a woman there named Clara and a man named Miguel who were translating from Quiche to English or Quiche to Spanish to English. 

Clara spent the day translating with her baby on her back and another young daughter running around. After roaming about the village a bit, we all sat down to listen to some special thanks and some performances. There was a DJ and a sound system (2 speakers, 1 mic).

The whole village was atop a mountain basically the view was magnificent!

They built the school in memory of their son Sam Clark who died in an acceded. On the Stage was a picture of Sam on a chair with flower bouquets around it. They spoke so kindly of same and Celina as well. One of the people who spoke said that “Sam was always very kind and respectful, always ate what he was given, and that they know he’s an angel looking over the village from Heaven”. The Adornment the people have for Tom and Rita’s family is so touching.  Part of me wanted to cry for them and what they’ve done for the people. They came to this village and built stoves, and then a school, and gave them food. The people wanted a picture of Tom and Rita so that when they talked about them to local communities they could show other people who they are. I took a picture on the first day of building on the 7^th for them and got it printed so they could give it to them.

The children put on a little parade. The boys wore these masks and the girls wore matching skirts/wraps. They did this dance where a few danced in a circle on the stage while one of them danced around them. Then the boys did a little something with the masks on.

There was some thanks to Tom and Rita after the dances. I never really realized just how much Tom and Rita have really helped this village. Because they’re so isolated from any real towns and with no vehicle to get to them, when the mudslides hit in May, all their crops were destroyed and washed out, and they were simply helpless. If they had any Money they couldn’t even get to a store to buy some food with it. Tom and Rita used money out of the stove fund to buy food for them.

After finishing our butchering of “Oh Canada”, and “Alouette”, we handed out mini Canadian flags and snowflakes cut out of paper, and then we were presented with handmade cloths, each unique and done by someone who received a stove. Tom and Rita emphasized to us the fact that they requested the villagers not do anything for us. But we’ve found that people, tho they have nothing really, still will try to offer us food or a drink to show their gratitude. Which can be a good thing too because it shows that they aren’t just expecting handouts, and that if they could pay they would. Which does happen with some of the people at times, especially children who don’t know the value of money and its impact on life yet.

After all the thanks and dance performances we had lunch. During the performances that I was at war with the gravol. My eye lids were shaking quite heavily and I felt really bad about any yawns I had. It just completely drained and dehydrated me. For lunch they made us Beans, with a square of “Fresca Queso”, (unpasteurized) in them and Tomalies wrapped in a big leaf! Also they made this drink which tasted like hot sugar water, most likely what it was, made with “Agua Purifico”(purified water). They poured ours into cups but the villagers had theirs in plastic bags with a small hole in them to drink from. We also had utensils with our food and the villagers used their hands. Which with the beans can be a little tricky. But that’s why the right is for eating and the left is for wiping.

Liz brought bread and maple syrup for desert for everyone.  At this time I went around and took pictures. I wandered all over the hill top village. I also had mini seniorita stocker for a while during this. I came across a mango tree on my walk about, very cool to see.

 The moment that changed this trip for me was an hour later or so when members of the group were looking at handmade fabrics to buy from the villagers, and Tom and Rita were conversing with a few of them.

A woman came up to Tom and Rita and thanked them in advance for the wheelchair that was coming soon. She said, (thru a translator) “I had my baby, and I carried him for 12 years (on her back in a sling), and now I can rest”. That was it. I was done. 

When you think about malnutrition and impoverished areas, you think, Skinny children, with growth and vitamin deficiencies. I never personally thought about those children who are born with disabilities. Like this woman’s child who was born with Down syndrome. His disability made it impossible for him to walk or even communicate. I’ve seen some women carry their children till their 2 or so. But 12. Wow. I think when I thought about people with disabilities, I associated it with our society because of all the garbage we put into our bodies, and all the vaccinations and stuff. The only stats I could find say that in the USA alone there are 6 million adults with learning disabilities. I feel like there is still not as large a disabled public here as there is in North America. But the population is smaller as well. I’ve seen some people on the street who have obvious disabilities, and others that are just decaying from Cusha (homemade liquour).

 On our way they stopped us and ask to meet with us. They requested that we help them get some land for a field for recreation activity during school. This brought up a lot of issues. Apparently the Church owns a lot of the land in Guatemala. So they asked for about 1200 dollars (US) to buy some land from the church. Which brought up a whole string of debates about why does the church own the land, how is that possible. John got quite agitated with this information, because. It’s Land! And it’s their land at that! He said they should get mad! Fight for their land! Which was like the movie Avatar all over again (ie. The historical repetition of what happened to the Native Americans).  This people are very much being abused and fooled because of their ignorance in real time though by corporations like Coke, Pepsi, Fast food chains like McDonalds, Dominos, and Burger King. The Candy Companies! It’s so sickening to see. Every day when go to build stoves we pass by a school down the road. And outside the school there is just stall after stall of candy and pop. When we came here we were asked to not give out candy because of all the dental problems. I mean people are putting pop in baby bottles for their kids! It’s amazing! But I digress…

Thursday,February 10th, 2011.

7:20pm Last night I had a dream we went thru the jungle slums singing Bruno Mars. Then I woke up and listened to some on my Ipod while I got ready for work.

Today was our last day of stove building this week. Tomorrow we’re headed to Pannemaquim to the Sam Clarke School.  It’s about an hour or 2 drive up in the mountains again. So it’ll be cool in the morning and muy caliento in the afternoon. My neck burn  from yesterday was burning this morning when I woke up. I also decided to wake up late on purpose today because I haven’t been sleeping thru the night. I decided to drink a little more to kinda konk me out ahah see if that helped. But I woke up with a hydrant full of pee. I really debated on not going because I just felt really drained. But Gotta keep on keepin on, there’s a lot more people worse off. I’m sure the Kiche women don’t feel like lugging laundry down to the stream to hand scrub it with babies on their backs. But they do it because it must be done. So I’ll drag my pathetic spoiled ass outa bed. I also woke up when I got bit by a bed bug I think….yep…  Def have the bed bugs. Which is BS!! Cuz I got the sleeping bag, and the vinyle sheet too!! Grr! I have ankle bites, 3 randomly above my ass crack and a few around my waste. It’s the only thing that’s happened health wise to date tho. So that’s good.  The only pill I’ve taken was a Reactine on the first day of stove building for the dust, and I didn’t have to take another one yet.

We had four people who fell ill today and skipped work. So my team only had 3 people plus the mason Don Juan Hernandez! Muy Calar! Haha. We were right behind the house I worked at yesterday. So I gave him the pictures at the end of the day today. He asked me to take a picture of some other families to get printed as well. But it was getting to the point where everyone who got pictures wanted more and more, Rita warned us about this, so I simnply told him(By I simply Told him I mean Rita simply told him) That I didn’t know if I’d be back or not and I don’t think they understand that it costs Quetzals to print them.

We finished our stove very early today around 2pm, which was surprising with less people,  so Don Juan went to help the other groups finish. He went over to a house from yesterday to finish up the chimney part  as well earlier in the day before lunch! Haha

The Family we had didn’t love getting their pictures taken. So I didn’t get a lot of footage , but Andre juggled with one of the girls for a while and even went around to the other houses and juggled for them too. I took some pictures of the kind of living conditions they had. At all the houses we visit, theirs always garbage all over the place, and dogs and cat who are suffering from malnutrition, and abuse running around losing their hair. That’s one of the hardest things to see every day here, all the stray animals in the streets. The pollution usually consists of Pop bottles, like coke and pepsi. Its cheaper to drink pop then the unsafe water. But all the families we visit are lucky enough to have a sink with well water at the very least. And now a stove!

There was a funny incident when I tried to use the bano at the house today.  As I approached it, a dog appeared as I turned the corner and (almost) scared the piss right outa me. But it was barking mostly at this little puppy who was on approach as well. One of the elder women of the house came over and helped silence the dogs so I could do my business. This was one of the hardest bano’s to go in to date. A real thigh burner to squat in this one! I had usually used the one we had near the house we ate lunch in everyday (our packed lunch).

I’ve noticed the Animals here react differently to same calls and actions we give ours back home. They for the most part are fearful of humans here, and don’t come at all for play, because well, they’ve never played. Andre had the cat playing with a string for a bit. Cat’s care even less here about humans then they do back home. Something I thought was impossible. I mean. Cats care back home sure. When they want it. Not usually when we want to give them attention. Can’t really get too close to any of the animals here, they all run off. Tho I don’t blame them. Kids kick them, and adults spit on them. Sensless torture to show their dominance.  I saw 2 dogs “Making Whoopy” in the street of Xela yesterday. Something I can honestly say I haven’t seen thus far. Glad I got to see it in Central America first? But the puppies rarely live to be full grown, theres just no food for them.

Google Flaming Banana dish!

I hung out with the village kids for a while today before we left. Andre Juggled some more with them.  The boys I met on Day 1 were all hassling me for more pictures, I said, “No Tengo", which meants I don’t have any, or just “No Seniors”, with my trademark finger pointed scoldly.

When we got to the downtown thanks to our driver, mason Marvin, me and Liz hopped out and went to Adrenalina tours (they picked us up in Guatemala city and also in Antigua to go to Xela) to enquire about a coupel day trips on the weekend. On Saturday we want to go to Takalik Abaj Archeological Site (currently in active Escavation still( and then to a coffee plantation with a zip line! Only $60 American for the day and it comes with a lunch. On Sunday a bunch of the woman want to tour the churches, but I want to go rock climbing! Looks like I’ll be the only one doing it tho. I just wanna say I climbed a mountain in Guatemala. They’ll have all the gear.

Tonight is the zombie wedding with Quetzal Trekkers. They are located in our hostel. Little sleep expected.

Wed, Feb 9th,2011 "Yo no Casada"

Jim with the Father 2 sons and a daughter

John. The hippy traveling poem writer

 Stove #3 finished! I learned so many words each day, it´s so hard to remember them all. I worked with Marg, and John again today and Jim who arrive yesturday (Liz too) joined our group as well. Our mason was Marvin! He was Muy Bueno. Very fast and efficient and really paid attention to details.

The family we were with today had 6 kids! We had our chimney up by lunch. It was incredible.


Since everyone is here in the GSP group finally, we took a group picture after breakfast, and at lunch as well.


 

  

  

Renny cutting some delicious pound
cake up for us

Meagan

It was Renny´s birthday today, so we had a pound cake and sang happy birthday in french. After lunch, me and Karen went to hand out the photos we printed and some other gifts. This morning I went to the store across the street to see if they had paper notebooks to hand out with the pencil´s I had. But we found 2 huge bags of pequeno(small) balls instead. So Phil got those and we gave 5 out with the photos from where we were on Day 1 of stove building.With hair ties, sharpeners, and erasers too.

And now for my string of awkward photos with the people.

  

    

Marg bought some plasticine so we gave that to the boy. Reinaldo who was making pyramids with the Mortar and trowel. They were all just grabbing at what we had. I held it up high to fend them off, but that didn´t deter them much haha. They were very grabby with the photos as well, and most of them ended up getting mangled a bit. But they were so happy to get them.

  

 I was taking pics of the family we were with today and Padre requested a picture copy of his family too. So I´ll get some more printed for him too after work.

"Yo no Casada"  is, I´m not married..

"Yo no Quiero a casar", is I don´t want to be married.. Which is a very important one to know so they dont try to fix me up with their sons after they see that i´m 23 and not married with babies yet haha.

Me and Marg played football with some garbage today, and tried to get the male and femail children involved too. Then they brought out their ball. which the father had to fill up by blowing into it occassionally. The Padre wet the ground so it wasn´t so dusty to play on. They had a make'shift goal up, with 2 sticks and a strip of fabric.

I was watching 2 of the daughters washing clothes today, and it was gallo soap (which is the same name as the beer we usually order..).



Where we built the stove in the house was all black on the walls and there was a roof hole above it that was closeable. Hard to imagine having an open fire in your kitchen that smoke´s that much.

When we finally got into the van to get the gifts for the family, Marg and I went back to give them tooth brushes/toothpaste, some clay, a skipping rope, and a brand new soccer ball!! there was a woman there who didn´t live there who asked us if she was getting a stove a too (which took longer then I´d like to admit to figure out), but odds were if she didn´t know yet then she wasn´t getting one, as they have the supplies there waiting a bit in advance. But she could still get one at a later time.

Me and Max went on a tour of Xela after completing our mission for Helado! (Ice cream) We came across this big cemetary, but didn´t wander too far in because we thought they were closing soon. and Tom got locked in one year haha. We wandered into the bussling downtown district where it´s just non stop traffic and people. The car fumes eventually started making me feel sick (a lot of cars run on deisel here). So we wandered back in the direction of the hostel. I had Indian for Dinner and got the only non picante (spicey) dish. Or so I thought... I ended up ordered an extra nan bread for 8 quetzal ($1).



Tuesday, Feb 8th 2011 My friend the Turkey



Sunrise

 8:11am 
Woke up a bit before 6:30 today. Karen was up, so I got up too. I didn´t bother typing out journal entries last night after I went thru my pictures from yesturday, too pooped. Fell asleep immediatly. I slept  in a T-shirt last night  hoping I wouldn´t wake up sweating and then get cold. I did wake up with a sore  throat, luckilly I randomly put my water beside my bed, so I took a sip and went back to bed. But then I had a dream that I went to Dr. Delgrande (a doctor from perth working on the project here as well with his family) and before he could  diagnose me I woke up and it was gone! I´ve mentioned to other people I´ve been having weird dreams every night, and I´ve been going back into them as well. sometimes more then once. Of course its always a little different each time you  go back in.

Breakfast today was a soggy waffle with pineapple, watermelon, and papaya. David  had the same thing but with yogourt/granola ontop. On our way to build stove number 2 today.  Afterwords me and Karen  are developing pictures for people in the village

6:40pm
getting images developed  at a liquor/candy/photo prints place now. It will cost me 20Q for 30 pictures roughly $3CAD I believe. Then we´re going to eat at a more authentic Xela Restaurant instead of the Italian food we´ve been eating lately.



Karen and Max picking our random browsing destination

Gringa's special? lol

Karen, Max and I walked all over the Xela market to gander. me and Karen bought some mitts for like 5Q ($0.60 CAD) and I bargained down from 10Q which is like $1.25haha



Me, Reinaldo, and not sure who the youngest boy is on the left.
But they both followed me out to the field behind their house.



woman washing closed on the other side of river in the backyard field



the baño here (bathroom)

Today was even better then yesturday. I spent some time with a young boy named "Reinaldo", who I thought was 8 or 9 and turned out to be 15. Malnutrition and lack of education at its finest.
John played soccer with him, his brother, and papa. Paul gave them a new soccer ball to replace theirs which I'm pretty sure was a basketball. The chickens and ducks moved out of the way nicely.

Curious villagers came by to see the Gringo's at work again.

I drew this for Reinaldo and
tore it ou to give to him

I befriended a Turkey later on. He came right up to me while I was sitting and sketching and he sat in the shadow of my legs. I even petted it for a while. The young boys expressed their superiority to the turkeys and lack of empathy by kicking it, pushing down on it and even purposely stepping on it's tail feathers.

At the end of the day I ran to give out a couple knitted dolls to some of the young girls from the previous day and on my way back to the van trucks I handed out a couple hair ties to dos girls sitting on a wall.

7:45pm Got the Pictures!

They look even better then I thought hey would! So me and Karen are going to give them out tomorrow at lunch. Some of them have never had their picture taken and even Reinaldo had gestured to me to not take a picture of one of the girls. Not sure why tho. 

 John cleaning the mixing ground



Mason Paul from Perth working on the top layer



Joe trying to teach the father Inglais?



Me pretending to work for photo ops.

We ate dinner at the authentic looking Restaurant tonight. Very very fun! Liz and Jim finally arrived as well. They were in Comitancillo which is 8000ft above sea level. They were their inspecting stoves with the womens group A.M.M.I.D. who GSP is partnered with for stove building throughout the year.

finished plancha!

               

Monday, February 7th, 2011 Tecun

Renny, Karen, and Andre



Margarita



8:07am Work Day 1

mayan shrine in chicken area

In the van on our way to “Rancho de Teja” in San Fransisco el Alto Municipality or Region, in Chirrenox- community, for our first day of work!



my breakfast sandwhich with a side of

plantein and beans about $2CAD

 We got up at 6:30am, went to

breakfast at about 7:06. I had ordered what I thought was a breakfast sandwich the night before, but it was 2 pancakes with ham and egg between them. We also got to see a couple Mayan shrines at the restaurant. They were the families own personal shrines. The main one they light candles in and pray at every morning is located behind a tin sheet inside a chicken yard.

We drove by a statue of TECUN. Around 1540BC Tecun was the last Leader of The Mayans who fought against the Spaniards invasion.  He was killed by beheading.  He is known as the Hero of the Mayans here in Guatemala because he fought, not because he was defeated.

8:05 We’ve arrived!

3:48pm Gringo’s!

Day one es finito! Yo Poopedo! It’s hard to put into words how to describe today. It was easilly one the most amazing days of my life to date! I didn’t really hold any expectations for what this would be like. Which I’m greatful for not doing. Because no amount of assumptions or predictions could have matched what today was actually like. The Spanish I have picked up was sorta helpful, but mostly usedless as everyone in the villages speak mayan. But the children know Spanish because they attend school down the street. Younger kids in the morning, and older kids in the afternoon.

Calor means- very sexy I think haha. A mason (Don Juan Hernandez) next to me in the truck on the way back to the hostel taught me that. I called him Muey caliente because of his teeth which he received from Dr. Orser in Perth while living with tom and Rita.

The children in the village were so exceptionally special. I’m hoping mine and other womens presence on the project will inspire the young girls somewhat to think more equally about their rights.

Karen managed to open them up to the idea of having their photos taken. I had only gotten head shakes and hands up earlier.  But they loved seeing their pictures afterwords on the camera screen. As soon as I took the picture the children and parents would swarm me and Karen trying to see the pictures!  There was one boy who just loved getting his pictures taken. The same boy who was giggling and laughing as his madre, grandmother, and padre carried his grandfather down to their hut. He was passed out cold from Cusha (strong homemade liquor that if made wrong can turn to ethanol.) The fact the boy was laughing at it means it happens a lot probably… A lot of wives are widowed because the husbands drank cusha that was made wrong and died.

Building the stove today was such a great gift to do for these families. They came by constantly with such curiosity. They didn’t show emotions very often so I made it an effort to get a smirk out of them. The kids were easier to amuse. And they found us very amusing. I found it interesting how they didn’t smile in the pictures unless they were laughing before the picture was taken or at something or someone off camera. They found it funny when it took too long to take the picture, because I was adjusting shutters and ISO.  It shows their honesty and purity. They never fake their emotions for pictures.

Very refreshing as western culture is encircled on fake smiles and fake poses for photos. Never in the moment stuff haha. But once a camera is pointed on you it’s hard to be in the moment cuz you’re on the spot. Western Culture has a lot of influence on the younger Guatemalans in the Cities. They all have skinney jeans and belly shirts, hair all diiid, and headphones in.  When you walk by a hair salon it’s hilarious because theirs a white woman posing wither her sexy 90’s hair. A lot of white people in the advertising here. A lot of club wear at the stores here too.  



Me with the family and my work team of the first stove we build. te house was so
small the stove couldn't fit in the picture with us



I caught a shot amazingly enough of a
the end of one of the sets of fire crackers



After each stove was done some of the families set off firecrackers, which always scared the shit out of me because I didn't know they were donig it and each time I was walking at the front door. for one of the house I actually had to rush around the corner because I was being hit by particles from it haha. Good time tho!

As we left driving back to the hostel some kids shouted “Gringos!!” which means White people lol.

6:50pm Lunch time

Me, Phil, Meg and Karen volunteered to make lunch for tomorrow. So we went to the “Merced de Flores” to get some fruit and veggies. We got a watermelon and a pineapple, which was 17Q and some carrots (which taste so much sweeter than our carrots in Canada) and some fresh baked bread and buns for tuna sandwiches.  I also was successful at getting money out at an atm. 2000Q which is roughly $256.99CAD. We had trouble finding peanut butter at the grocery store and the previous day. But I saw some at Dinner last night at the “Blue Angel”. So we stopped there and got their last 2 jars for 15Q each. Still un-showered at this point because we had to rush to the market once we got back before it closed. So still smelly we went to the Gilsepies for dinner, which was Italian. I asked for “yo quero esso, pollo” and pointed at a picture. Which ment “, I want this exactly, chicken” haha. Easy enough! So I got a bun cut down the middle with cheese on both sides but only uno side had pollo on it. And I had a Gallo with it (light beer)45Q all together. I also to stare at a workout class at a gym across the street while I crammed cheese in my mouth. Me and some other trekker found this amusing.



Max, and Rita



The whole gang almost at Jammin Jimmy's. The bar was quite small.



After dinner we headed to this bar where some guy from Hamilton was going to be playing guitar. Jamming Jimmy he called himself. He played English covers. Was like being back home again. It was a really small bar and we were like the only ones there. Plus 2 girls he was traveling with. 2 for 1 Cervesa’s. I had one glass of this big bottle of beer tom got and was kind enough to let me pay with a Hug.

10:00pm

Showered and in my sleeping bag. It wasn’t even a cold shower! If you had like zero pressure the shower was hot haha. But I’m clean! Which is all that matters (I hadn’t thought of shower flip flops either..).

Going to attempt to type out some more journal entry’s on Karens laptop, sort thru pictures to get printed tomorrow after work for the villages we saw today

Hasta luego! (see ya lata)