Guatemala Team Reports

We are back at the mission house in Barillas as I type, having completed our work in the villages of Las Limas and El Moxon (mo-chone) in often uncomfortable conditions but with love in our hearts. Our team of 12 is weary but well, save a few cases of minor stomach churning and the other thing.

Our welcome home lunch consisted of real hamburgers and chicken sandwiches, prepared for takeout by a local chef, which apparently here means burgers with a slice of ham too and chicken just the same. After some rest the team went for a Marco-led walk around the bustling town of Barillas, save for a few of us who, um, like me, needed to stay behind. Meanwhile some of our incredible staff, who just spent the past three days working with us hand-in-hand on installing stoves plus a lot of extra duties that come from packing up a whole camp operation in record time, diverted their attention to fixing a problem clutch in our Landcruiser so it can transport some of us safely on the 10-plus hour trip to Lake Atitlan tomorrow, a job that involves messing around in the undercarriage of the vehicle with a welding torch on an 85-degree day. We’ve also learned that the charter bus carrying the bulk of our team is getting a new set of rubber, a relief to the one former and one current professional truck drivers along who saw nothing but danger in what it had.

Our vehicles do take a tremendous beating and a lot is asked of them on the roads we travel. The pitches we climb on even some of the best roads would probably not even be considered legal in the U.S., but the low gears, strong engines and skilled drivers take them on with no struggle at all, as the vehicles are built for such conditions and their operations are masters of what they do. Any of the team members can describe for you some of the sections of roads we were on. One one section the woman sitting ahead of me found it useful to divert her eyes during our climb up a temporary road. I personally find it great fun and part of this adventure.

And, speaking of climbs, I left you last with our first day of stove building in the village of Las Limas, with its homes situated along the hillside of the main thoroughfare through the area. The next morning nine of us set out for our second village, El Moxon, while three stayed behind to continue the work in our “home” village.

Most of us had no idea what to expect of our day ahead. We knew we had to hike an hour or more. A video I’d posted in this space earlier showed a somewhat meandering path with a wood plank bridge crossing over a wide, rapid river. As it turns out that was the wrong video. The hike to El Moxon proved to be a beast.

Just to get to the jumping off point we had to drop steeply down to our jumping off point at the end of a newly carved road, where we unloaded from our two rigs of people and gear. Three mules were waiting for us, one for gear and the others for people. We looked across the valley and could see the village directly across from us, meaning only one thing – we would have to first go down and then up. In our way was a big earth moving backhoe, continuing to dig out road while we walked around. Steve C. and Suzanne hopped on the mules while the rest of began to trod on down at a fairly quick clip.

It was only a half-mile to the river and the bridge crossing was easy. Then up. If I may I’ll insert here that I am a fairly avid hiker on Northwest trails. I pretty much go on a hike a week, but rarely when temperatures soar in the high 90s to low-100s, as they did on Tuesday. I’ve gained more than a few pounds in recent months too, which of course didn’t help one bit. They don’t seem to believe in adding a lot of switchbacks to trails here either, so with the heat and the steep it proved to be quite a challenge, especially for the older and heavier among us. Our youth did just fine.

To give you an idea, most trails in the Pacific Northwest have a slope averaging 10%, calculated by elevation rise over run, or distance traveled. Last year I hiked up the notoriously challenging “old route” to Mailbox Peak, which has a slope averaging just under 26% over three miles but places with a 60% grade. I calculated the slope to El Moxon at about 21.5%, so even with the shade of the lush green plants and the occasional giant ceiba trees overlooking our path, I felt every big as taxed – if not moreso – than my hike up Mailbox. But as we drew closer to the school perched on the hill above, we could hear welcoming music play. As we finally slogged up the final few steps and into the school yard we were suddenly surrounded by the warm embraces of dozens of gaily dressed school children and their welcoming parents, a repeat of our Sunday welcome in Las Limas but this group, perhaps fueled by the understanding of the effort we had already made just to get this far, seemed even more appreciative. Their smiles were renewing. Even with half the work morning behind us, we were ready to get to our stove installations.

Ellen, my stove team partner, working with Alex, our highly productive and capable staff member, along with our assistant from the village somehow managed to pump our four stoves before lunch. I found myself taking frequent rests though while the others powered through, as the climbs continued just to get to the homes where we worked. We were also assisted at times by the “tile guys,” incuding Alex’s younger brother Mesail who did some of the initial assembly for us. I can’t recall whether we finished six or seven that day, but together the three teams assembled 22 stoves, not bad for a sweltering day.

El Moxon, unlike Las Limas, has no electricity. All supplies must be either hauled up by human back or donkey, including water from the river far below in the dry months. I saw one man later with about a five-gallon jug of diesel slung over his shoulders, on his way down the hill only to climb back up. One thing we really appreciated that was hauled up for us was our lunch. This was a generous helping of Mimi’s fried chicken, so reverred by teams that a 20+ year veteran from another team once remarked on the feedback form that it’s what keeps him coming back.

The homes in El Moxon, while perched high over the valley with world class views, were noticebly more impoverished than the homes in Las Limas. One home we visited had the standard simple dirt floor, but with an open fire inside to dry plants. An elderly woman and her disabled husband appeared to be its only occupants. Clothing and other items were strewn everywhere and the slanted, hard wood bed had so much material on it I could not imagine a couple sleeping there.

Given our struggles for the day it was hard to say if any from our team would want to return the next day, no one could blame them if not. But there were still stoves to install, and by the grace of God we had six volunteer to come back, two men and four women, with the understanding that donkeys could assist with the climbs if needed (and they were). We only had five more stoves to install in Las Limas, but about six times that many left in El Moxon, so it made a lot of sense to give it one more big push.

We were able to get an earlier start the next morning and each team reached its goal of six each for El Moxon, saving the last 13 for staff to finish next week. In the meantime, the six who stayed behind were able to finish the work in Las Limas.

At the end of the day both teams were able to take dips – albeit in different sections – of the San Ramon river. After three days of intense heat, the sensation of cool, rushing water never felt so good.

That night after dinner we were joined by the villagers in Los Limas again in the school compound, where they were treated to music from a visiting pastor preaching in their native Mayan language and singer with Marco’s church who had come all the way out from Barillas that afternoon. They also saw a video on how to maintain their stoves.

This morning after breakfast we assembled for one of my favorite parts of our mission trips – the fitting of reading glasses. We have a large storehouse of readers kept at the mission house, thanks to many donors through the years. We organize these by strength, and as villagers come forward they try on different pair while either reading a book or threading a needle until they find just the strength and style for them. Some can’t be helped, of course, but what a pleasure to see people walk away with something so basic to us and be so happy.

The villagers then assembled to say goodbye. Again there were lots of hugs as we left in our charter bus back for Barillas. Our work in the villages is done, with each and every team member working hard to meet our goal of 110 stoves and water filter installations, along with sharing between us the love and friendship between people from two vastly different cultures that we will remember for all of our lives. Our oustanding team will return on Tuesday to finish the rest of the stoves, then prepare for the 14-member team coming on Thursday to install stoves in another village.

May God bless you all for supporting our mission. I will write as soon as I can about a special follow-up project we may undertake and some final thoughts about our work in the villages.

With warm regards,

Brian

P.S. Clearly all of the photos I’d hoped to share with you didn’t upload. Blame me or blame the connection speed I have here in Barillas, but my alarm rings soon and I’m tired of messing with it. Please check back tomorrow!