Our team is just days away from converging on the village of La Capilla, San Ramon in the Western Highlands region of Guatemala, where the villagers are busy preparing for our arrival.
On Tuesday we received a string of What’s App messages and dozens of photos from Marco, our lead Hands for Peacemaking staffer in Guatemala, showing that the village is all abuzz with activity, with nearly every man, woman and child engaged with moving the stoves, stovepipe, bricks and sand from the village square out to their homes, right where they will be when we arrive. Our job will be to bolt them all together in the home, then install the bricks, sand and stovepipe for final assembly. Yes, every home in the village will get a stove, churches and the school too, for a total of 152. They will all get a water filter as well.
“They are so happy that every family received a stove and water filter. God Bless you all,” Marco messaged us.
“I am amazed that your team was able to get so many manufactured,” teammate Tom Dirks replied. It was only a few weeks ago that Marco advised us that, due to staffing shortages at the Aller Skill Center in Barillas, there was a good chance that not all the stoves would be built in time, and now here they are.
It is fun to see so much bustle in the village. Due to the photos and videos sent in advance it’s like a spoiler alert – some of the faces and their smiles will now be familiar to us on the day we get there. Once we learn names and share some hugs it will almost seem like greeting family.
Many of the photos show the villagers signing contracts with Hands for Peacemaking. The contract, according to Marco, is to make sure the villagers use and maintain their stove and water filter, and to prevent them from selling them too. They are also expected to pay a little themselves for each stove – about $26 as I recall – so they also have a stake in it. Not all can sign the contract – some, like the woman in the video below, will ink a thumb on the signature line instead.
I should tell you a little about the village. It is fairly close – just 12.5 miles from the Hands for Peacemaking compound in Barillas, at an elevation of 2,370 feet. Compared to previous missions where it could take three or more hours to get there, the drive to La Capilla will take just 40 minutes, factoring in the windy dirt roads to travel. La Capilla has nearly 700 residents among its 152 families. The villagers cook with firewood on open fires and collect rainwater during the rainy season. They walk to a nearby river to get water during the dry season. This village, unlike most where we’ve worked, has electricity, with cell phone and Internet service too.
We will arrive at the beginning of the rainy season, which lasts through November, although we certainly hope Mother Nature doesn’t dump on us. Next week’s area forecast , however, is for a good chance of rain and thunderstorms, with temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s. If we are lucky most of the rain will pour while we sleep and we will have fair skies during the day. That’s how it’s been for us on a few previous trips, but I’m advising everyone to bring a rain jacket and sturdy footwear just in case. Nothing like working in a sea of mud while getting soaked in the process.
La Capilla has a formal school with four classrooms for 184 students and six teachers. School for most in rural Guatemala is through sixth grade as sending youth on for most is impractical and expensive. The average income ranges from $6.50 to $10 a day, with many villagers leaving the area – even crossing the border to Mexico – for work.
It was good to get all of the photos today, for soon the people we see in the images will become our new friends. Our team is excited to meet them, but there are a lot of miles to travel in between. I’ll keep you posted.
Brian
What a beautiful image seeing each family with their new stove!