Guatemala Team Reports

As I have not been able to post in a couple of days some catch-up is in order.

We had finished up our 87 stoves in Piedras Blancas on Tuesday. Wednesday morning we headed to our other village, Nuevo Mirador Piedras Blancas, meaning village with a view. The village, situated high on yonder hill, indeed offered extraordinary views of the surrounding countryside and the Ixcan River below, worth the steep ride up in the back of a pickup truck with wild Wily at the wheel.

We were once again given a warm welcome by the villagers, and passed out children’s books donated by a Rotary Club as well as our gift bags to each child. The teacher was also on strike, but opened the school anyway so that his pupils could greet us.

The stove installations in this village were a little tougher than in the village below in that there was a lot more hiking involved. We would have to walk way down a hill to a group of houses then climb back up. Thankfully our village guides were there to carry the heavy tool bags, each equipped with a power drill, saw and batteries and weighing maybe 40 pounds each.

Despite the hikes we were all pretty fast with the stove installations on this third day and most teams managed to bang out at least five before lunch. With only seven each for each team to install, it meant we were able to finish up in early afternoon and make our way back down to our base village of Piedras Blancas. With this final addition of 38 stoves, our work of installing 125 stoves in the homes of the two villages was now complete!

A few of us decided to go swimming in the Ixcan River, about a 20-minute walk away in the mid-80s heat. One of our village leaders, Mateo, led the way via a ladder over a fence meeting a trail crossing a large cow pasture. We encountered two young fisherman along the river, one packing a small caliber rifle. They showed us their meager catch of small fish that look a little like perch.

After dinner Wednesday the entire village turned out for the traditional showing of The Good Samaritan in their native language, projected on the exterior wall of the school by the open courtyard. The  preacher from Marco’s church in Barillas gave a sermon, followed by the showing of all of the pictures and videos Marco and Wily had taken in the village before and during the installations. Seeing these photos on the big screen prompted laughter with each click, especially among the kids.

Our team packed along about 100 pair of donated reader glasses of varying strengths, and added to this collection were at least as many more left by a previous team that ran out of time for their own distribution. On Thursday morning the staff set up tables in the school yard and a general announcement was made over the village loud speaker that the big glass giveaway was about to commence. Villagers lined up and were fitted one by one, using either a Bible or needle and thread to find the best match.

Odillia and her son Bil, our two Spanish speaking team members, joined with Wily to do most of the fittings. They were able to find matches for over 60 of the villagers, assuring some could now read or do detail work clearly for perhaps the first time in their adult lives.

Villagers then had an opportunity to sell us their handiworks, mostly elegantly woven purses and fabrics. There was no real dickering, as we were happy to help stimulate the local economy as we could. Dick Shenk did score a beautiful cloth fabric that had a pre-sale price of 900 Quezales but by the time it hit the sales table was offered for 400 (about $56 US).

We loaded up on the bus once again, with the pickup truck piled high with our mattresses, generators and even a large water tank. Back down the valley we went, across a temporary road by the washed out bridge and then the three hours to Barillas.

Mimi, who had left the village early with young son Alan to prepare for our arrival, had a delightful lunch of chicken with mixed veggies over rice waiting for us, and fruit-filled crepes topped with ice cream for dessert. We certainly have not starved this trip – all of the meals have been abundant in portion and quite tasty too. We gave our dirties to Elaina and Carmen, our hard working cooking and housekeeping staff so they could run several loads of laundry overnight.

We were indeed blessed by our time in the village. We couldn’t have asked for better weather with no rain nor unbearable heat. Veteran team members remarked how this was the best scenery they’ve had being surrounded by lush mountain peaks and wonderful vistas. No one was injured and save some minor bouts of, um, bowel issues, no one became ill. We were treated with kindness and respect by every one we encountered and the villagers truly seemed grateful for our work. The team prayed together, ate together and made memories of helping a village in a different land and culture that will truly last a lifetime. Most if not all say they are coming back.

Now we are on the our all-day drive to Antigua, where we expect to arrive between 7 and 8 tonight. Tomorrow is our “fun” day when we can just be tourists and wind down a bit before boarding the plane Sunday for our long flight home.

Last night at the mission house I received a “friend request” on Facebook. Seeing the requestor had Wily as a mutual friend, I accepted his request. Turned out he was from the village. He tried to communicate with me in Spanish but I could not summon the translation service due to weak Internet service. Today he tried again so I turned the phone over to Bil. He told us how well the stoves are working now and how appreciative everyone is for our work in his village. He even sent a photo of one of our installations in action. That’s about all the thanks I need.

It’s been a wonderful mission tripThanks for riding along with us via this blog. I will try to post some more insights and photos in the days ahead, but possibly may wait for a real computer and keyboard to do so. Typing and posting while in the front seat of a bus on bumpy mountain roads is tricky, only slightly better than fighting with tiny flies drawn  to my glowimg phone screen in bed.