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Words Expand Upon Pictures

Hola! In case you’re coming to my blog for the first time, please scroll down to the end past all the pictures (I actually wrote stuff!) and start there. It’s actually the beginning. Tumblr blog posts run from earliest to latest. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

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Stoves

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Photos of this and that

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Kids and animals 

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Working away

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First couple days of the Habitat trip

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Antigua street scenes

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Hotel Cirilo, Antigua

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Market day, Santa Maria de Jesus, Guatemala

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Final thoughts

Last night at dinner we went around and everyone shared a favorite memory or two from the past week. One of mine is the night we watched “When The Mountains Tremble”, a documentary about the civil war in Guatemala. I am embarrassed to tell you I didn’t remember the civil war, though I certainly knew of it at the time. The movie is based on a book by Rigoberta Menchú, an indigenous woman who lost her entire family. One brother died working in the fields when the owners sprayed the fields with chemicals while he was still out working. Her father was burned alive in the Spanish embassy when he and a group of others occupied the embassy to protest the treatment of the indigenous people by the government and the military. Soon after that, her mother and brother were murdered by the military. I recommend the movie - or the book upon which it is based. 

I list this evening as one of my favorite memories because being reminded of all that the indigenous population has suffered, I am moved by how remarkably welcoming they were to us. Yes we were helping them to better their lives by building stoves, but many of us are citizens of a country who supported the government and its persecution of their land and their rights. i feel it’s important to remember that - at least for me.

Another favorite memory - and a lighter one - was the moment I described earlier where Doña Maria hugged Tom and the women and girls dissolved into fits of giggles.

And I’ve got to squeeze in another compliment for Guatemalan food. On our trip to San Juan La Laguna we had lunch at one of the co-op member’s houses. We sat at another long table and had pepián, a traditional Guatemalan dish of chicken with a hunk potato and one of green squash in a flavorful tomato sauce. The sauce was well seasoned and less bland than some other dishes. Of course there were fresh tortillas. We had horchata to drink. Horchata is a traditional drink made with rice, cinnamon, almonds, sugar and water. I’ve found it can be too sweet, but this batch was just right. 

I’d say this lunch and last night’s dinner were my two favorites. Doña Victoria made another typical Guatemalan dish with pork, chicken and beef cooked in a red sauce with a consistency similar to tomato paste. Dessert was cooked bananas covered in a chocolate mole. Those were delicious and I might have eaten more of mine if a large moth hadn’t landed in - and gotten stuck in - the half of my dessert I hadn’t yet eaten. It was a shame for the moth and for me.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed our week together. It’s a privilege to get to know a community and its people in a way I’d never be able to do solely by visting as a tourist. I went on this trip knowing no one and wound up with a whole team’s worth of new friends. I must admit, I didn’t expect to like everyone as much as I did. It was truly a great group, including our Habitat staff friends: Sandra, Mackenzie, Kristyna and last but not least, Beatrice. I’m a bit sad I won’t wake up tomorrow morning to set out on our next adventure together, but I do hope that one way or another, whether on another Habitat trip or elsewhere, I will have a chance to continue to enjoy my new friends.

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Return to Antigua

We arrived back in Antigua Saturday around noon, stopping at an organic farm nearby to the bus station and the city’s market. A quick aside: As we passed by the bus station, we saw a lot of police standing outside of many of the buses. Apparently buses are targeted for extortion, holding the driver and passengers hostage until the driver pays to be let go. If I understood Kristyna correctly, the police ride the buses to prevent gangs from carrying out their extortion attempts. 

Returning to the farm...There’s a small market at the entrance to the farm. Vendors sell handicrafts, some produce and various sweet and savory treats. I tasted a delicious sample of squash bread. I’ve never seen squash bread in the US, but I think it’s a great idea. I bought some absolutely delicious roasted macadamia nuts from a vendor near the front of the market. He also had some great roasted cacao beans, but I already had some of those from the San Juan La Laguna chocolate co-op.

There are two restaurants of a fashion at the farm. One is run by women in the open air underneath a tent. The other seems to have a bit more traditional set up, with a bar and a wood-fired pizza oven, though it’s still out in the open under a broadly draped, opaque canopy. We sat at a long picnic table for lunch.

 We ordered from both places and the food was delicious. I had a salad made with lettuce the way lettuce is supposed to taste when it’s freshly cut the same day. The lettuce is so good it almost doesn’t need dressing. The market clearly caters to English speakers, though there were also a fair number of locals, but of the more upscale variety. I suppose it’s similar to the US - the clientele is largely composed of those of us who can afford to eat organically and have the luxury of to spend wandering about a just such a market.

Leaving the market we returned to Hotel San Jorge, our original meeting place at the start of our trip. Most of us went right back out again to do some final shopping. And once again, I did my share to support the local economy. In fact, I’d done my share in the last minutes before breakfast that morning in Pana. Karin and Jackie S. arrived back in the hotel garden shortly before breakfast with these really cute wrap skirts. Naturally I had to have one. Jackie kindly agreed to walk back to the main street with me and show me which vendor had the skirts. Laura joined us and we speed walked down the mostly empty main street to see Jose. He opens up early (it was only about 7:20 am) and he had some great things, including two of the style of skirt I bought. One skirt has a lot of hand embroidery and the other has pieces of weaving from many different towns surrounding the lake. 

Once again, I’m astounded by how little they charge for the amount of work that goes into many of these pieces. I got both skirts for US $28. I almost feel as if I should offer more sometimes. Jose was “darling,” as Mom would say. I asked him to write down the towns from whence the skirts came. He typed them all into my phone for me. Laura also got the same sort of skirt and then we all hightailed it back to the hotel for breakfast. We made it just as the waiter were bringing out the plates.

AREA OUTSIDE THE CACIQUE RESTAURANT, WHERE I WAS SITTING WHEN JACKIE S. AND KARIN APPEARED WITH THEIR FABULOUS SKIRTS

After breakfast we set out for Antigua. I spent most of the two and a half hour drive writing blog posts. I’ve decided that I was unable to post to tumblr because there wasn’t enough WiFi bandwidth (or whatever the technical term is for enough room for everyone to be on WiFi at the same time). The WiFi just isn’t that strong. 

I’ve arrived at this conclusion given that I was able to upload my last two posts at 2:45 am when I was only one of the only suckers awake. I was up at that hour because the six of us who were flying out of Guatemala City at 7 am this morning had to leave for the airport at 3:10 am. I got a restful (ha!) four hours of sleep. I’m on my plane to New York now, sitting on the ground in Miami and I hope close to the end of my journey. (UPDATE: I made it home without delay, despite the wretched weather that welcomed me upon landing.)

We wrapped up our trip last night with dinner at our bus driver’s house up in San Cristobal de Alto which is a town in the hills above Antigua. Nera’s (not sure of spelling) wife is a great cook and she made dinner for us. Remember a while ago I said that I’d get around to telling you that I had eaten some very good food in Guatemala? Well Victoria’s food was some of that food. We sat at a long table (probably two or three tables put together to make one long table) under a covered outdoor area off their large kitchen. If it hadn’t been super foggy and raining we would have had a clear view of Fuego, which has been quite active lately. Apparently the last group to have dinner there enjoyed quite a light show from Fuego. I suppose that’s a reason - as if I didn’t have many others - to return to Guatemala soon.

I HAVE THIS TO LOOK FORWARD TO ON MY NEXT TRIP :) 

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Schools, Tortillas and a Piñata

Thursday was a packed day. Before building our stoves, we visited a private school in Pana before work. This particular school has been funded by two donors, one German and one Swiss. Unfortunately the German donor has switched his charitable giving focus and will no longer support the school. Without that support, the school is closing, which is a shame. It provides not only education, but also emotional support. They have a staff psychologist who visits students’ homes and can work with both the parents and students on issues beyond schooling that can affect the children’s schooling. The principal of this school told us that the education they offer is also of a higher quality than the public schools, which apparently just feed information to the children without putting it in any real context to show the children how it applies to them and the world around them. This kind of situation is disheartening, community is losing a valuable resource. One large impediment for poor families sending kids to school is that even though the schooling is free, they cannot afford the uniforms and school supplies. This school provides all of that; the families pay nothing.

After about a half hour visit, we set off for our day’s work. After completing our stoves, we visited Doña Isabela, who previously received a Habitat stove, so that we could see a Habitat stove in use. Once built, you have to wait fifteen days before using the stoves. Therefore we couldn’t see any of our families use their stoves. When we build the stoves, we leave the sides unadorned, without cement, which we only put on the front of the stove. This allows the families to finish them however they wish. Doña Isabela’s stove was decorated with large, square, pretty ceramic tiles on all three sides (the fourth side is against the wall) as well as on the top surrounding the cooking surface, “la plancha.” We learned how to make tortillas at Doña Isabela’s house. In addition to the tiles, this particular stove was also adorned by a very cute kitty perched at the back of the stove. I wondered if the surface was too hot for her, but she probably liked being up there because it was warm.

One can buy the basic corn dough to make tortillas, in which case all you have to do is add a little water, take a ball of dough and shape it into a fairly flat, round patty. The women do this by patting one hand against the other, with the dough in the middle. Then you throw it on the plancha for a few minutes, turning it over once, and presto: fresh, hot tortillas. Not to brag, but my tortilla was the best shaped tortilla out of the group (sorry Ladies - and Tom! I didn’t proclaim my tortilla the best, it was a widely held opinion among my cohorts). You can also make the tortilla dough from scratch. You do that by soaking corn kernels in water for a couple hours, letting them dry and then grinding the kernels into corn meal. I believe corm meal is the main ingredient, and maybe the only one besides water, for the tortillas. I’m not sure though, as I was caught up admiring my perfect tortilla and didn’t listen closely.

Most memorable beyond my tortilla expertise was the rain that came just as we were walking though the corn fields to Doña Isabela’s home. As most of us were unprepared to be caught in the rain, most of us wound up quite damp. It is the end of the rainy season here, but we’ve been pretty lucky. The one time we had steady, heavy rain was the day we were in San Juan La Laguna. Often the rain will come in the afternoon and last for about twenty minutes or half an hour. What’s really cool to see though is the mist that creeps over the fields and engulfs everything. It’s a heavy, dense white fog. One minute you can’t see ten feet ahead of you and the next you can see the fields and the trees again. Friday was the densest fog I’d seen. We couldn’t see much beyond the windows of our van. It’s a little spooky. We’d be driving down the dirt road through the fields and we’d see figures emerge from a solid wall of fog, slowly becoming recognizable as people. Or all of a sudden I’d see chickens or turkeys or dogs appearing as if out of thin air. The fog brings with it a dampness and a chill - and sometimes rain, as was the case yesterday.

For the Habitat celebration after finishing our final stoves on Friday, we went back to the home of our first two families. The ceremony began in the kitchen of Victor’s new house, which consists of two rooms. He’s just built it and he, Sandra  and Alexander, who I believe is two, are going to move in once the stove is ready to use. Their house shares a wall with his brother’s house, where Pedro and Maria live with their two girls, Jimena and Rosa, who are three and four. Jimena is sweet and was happy to sit on my lap for the entire ceremony. Rosa is a bit more mischievous, but just as sweet.

Oscar, who runs the Pana Habitat office, thanked the families for welcoming us into their homes and thanked us for coming and helping build the stoves. Mackenzie translated for Oscar and Rigo, who worked with our teams as a mason and also does the outreach to the families, translated into Kachiquel. Two of the ladies who received the stoves spoke on behalf of all the recipients to thank us for coming and helping them. And that was a translation of Kachiquel to Spanish to English. Finally, each of the team members had a certificate for a water filter to give to each family.

Following the ceremony, we moved outside for the piñata, which was a large, clothed alligator or lizard or some such creature. Kristyna stuffed it with all sorts of things: small plastic balls, those things you blow into and the paper shoots out and curls back in, candy, small toys and even toothbrushes. The fog was very thick at this point and we couldn’t see much beyond the yard, only suggestions of trees and corn stalks. There was an eerie feel, but also a cozy feel, as if we were in our own world.

The piñata was strung up on wires crisscrossing the yard. Eddie and Cristian, two of our masons, controlled the strings that moved it around, making it a little bit harder for the bigger kids to hit. When most of the kids had had a turn and the alligator’s head was barely attached to his neck, Oscar tore it open the rest of the way and shook the goodies onto the ground. Some balls had flown out while the piñata was being hit and the kids darted over to snatch them up. (Some of them had moves that would qualify them to play shortstop for a major league team.) Once the piñata was spilled open, there was a mad rush for the spoils. I was surprised that the adults shoved right in there with the kids. It was a total free-for-all. I had Jimena with me and we couldn’t even get close enough to get anything. I didn’t want her to get trampled and I didn’t want to shove little kids out of the way. (I’m trying to be a good ambassador for the US, since we are sadly lacking many at this moment.) One older girl was nice and gave Jimena a yo-yo, and I managed to get some candy directly from the source, since not all the filling had fallen out when the piñata was turned upside down.

We finished off the festivities with cake and cheese empanadas, but they’re not called empanadas. They’re called dobladas. The woman who made and brought our lunch to the work sites each day prepared the treats. She runs a cafeteria in Sololá and we ate well each day. My favorite day was the day we got baked squash with our lunch. The squashes grow quite large in Guatemala, at least those I saw along the side of the road. They’re much bigger than those we usually see in the US. We had tortillas at every meal. I asked if our lunch lady made them, herself, but she bought them from a tortillaria each day rather than making them. Guatemalans eat tortillas with every meal, as far as I can tell. They are smaller and a bit thicker than those often served at restaurants in the States.

THAT’S MY PERFECTO TORTILLA TO THE RIGHT OF THE LITTLE DINKY ONE

The party finished up soon after and we set off through the fog for one last ride back into Sololá down the steep and curving road to Pana. Along the way, if you’re sitting on the right side of the van, you can see beautiful vistas of Lake Atitlán and its surrounding hills and volcanoes, rising up from the shores colored a deep green. Often clouds wreathed the volcano peaks, sometimes obscuring them all together and sometimes hanging in the sky like white tiger stripes across the upper slopes. Our views would came and went as we wound our way down toward Pana. We had one last chance to enjoy the scenery as we set off back up the hill yesterday morning to Antigua.

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Building

At last I’m up to the build! We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant at 7, as we did each morning and loaded into our vans at 7:30. Generally on Habitat builds when we build houses, the team splits up into two groups to work on two houses. In this case, since we were building only stoves, we split up into three groups. My group included Tom, our only man, Jan, Jackie S. and Kristyna, one of our volunteer coordinators. Kristyna is from the Czech Republic, but she’s been working in Latin America for a few years now. She speaks excellent Spanish and English. I think Tom was very brave to come on a trip with 15 women. He’s held up quite well. Perhaps partly thanks to his feisty daughter, Tinsley, who has apparently been giving him sass since she was small.

We’ve got an interesting group of volunteers and Habitat staff. You may skip over this next part if you like, but I’ll quickly tell you where everyone is from. Jackie S. - Seattle. Jackie B. - north of Toronto. Karen - Bermuda. Rhonda - Bermuda. Karin - Wisconsin. Pam - Philly. Diana - Florida. Laura - South Carolina. Jan - Colorado. Tom - Michigan. Those are the volunteers. And as for staff I already told you about Kristyna. Sandra - Antigua. Beatrice - Chimaltenango, close to Antigua. Mackensie - Iowa. Many of us have been on builds before, though this is my first time on a Healthy Homes build. Rhonda, Tom and Laura have been on builds with Trina, our trip leader, who has lived in Bermuda for almost 30 years, but is originally from England. Trina and our Habitat staff have done a terrific job. I believe this is Trina’s fifth trip to Guatemala. We’ve had some great experiences.

TEAM PHOTO AT CACIQUE INN

Now I’ll tell you a bit about our work with the families - and I’ve already told you some about the stoves. Today is Saturday, so we finished our last three stoves yesterday. Each day we went to a different family’s house. As I’ve said, these families live in extreme poverty, often making no more than the equivalent of US $1.50 a day. Children begin working in the fields with their parents at a young age. By the time they are in their early teens, they may be leaving the village to work. Yesterday we built a stove for Doña Lorenza. Her 14-year-old son works outside the home in a shop - I can’t remember what sort exactly - in Solola, the city closest to their village. And her 16-year-old daughter works at a tortilleria, where they make tortillas all day. Her third child, a daughter, is 19 and is already married with two children, a three-year-old and a two-week old.

DOÑA LORENZA AND OUR TEAM, “LOS TRANSFORMADORES”

Doña Lorenza is a widow. She lives with her mother-in-law, her brother-in-law and the two children still at home. They all sleep in one room with two beds. The only other rooms in the house are her mother-in-law’s kitchen and her kitchen, which is much smaller and darker than her mother-in-law’s. To get to the “bathroom” you walk through the narrow gap between the two kitchens. The bathroom is much like the others I’ve described. This family has a lovely orange tree in their small dirt yard, whose fruit will be ready to eat in December. The rest of the yard is occupied by two large chicken coops, but I saw no chickens, and another large shed that I’m guessing is used for storage. And off to one side is a large, T-shaped sink called a pila, which has three sections to it. The middle section is deeper and wider than the two on either side and holds a large amount of water. The two side sections are shallow and have a ridged surface, likely to wash clothes and clean dishes. You scoop the water from the the main basin and use it throughout the day.

PILA

Doña Lorenza’s family also had a couple large, round plastic containers filled with water for us to use and also for the family to use. Most of these families don’t have clean drinking water. 95% of the water in Guatemala is contaminated, so we can’t brush our teeth with the water or, obviously, drink it. None of the 12 families with whom we worked had a water filter. We took our own clean water every day. At the end of the day we’d leave whatever water we didn’t drink. The women filled jugs, pots, pans and whatever else could hold water, so we’d leave behind an odd assortment of containers filled with purified water. On some healthy homes builds, families get a stove, a latrine and a water filter. In this case, the families are so impoverished they are unable to afford all three. Our team donated money for each of the twelve families to receive a water filter.

PUPPIES SHARE DOÑA LORENZA’S WATER TOO

Many women in the Mayan communities surrounding Solola and Pana are single mothers as a result of being widows. Mayan women in these communities don’t remarry. Most of the time when we were building our stoves, we were surrounded by women and young children. The men were off working in the fields, along with the older kids - or they were off working elsewhere. Sometimes men do weaving or embroidery, as was the case with our first family. Victor and Pedro (brothers) both do intricate embroidery with sewing machines. I believe that Pedro also works in the fields around their home. Generally Guatemalans will do a little of whatever they can to earn money.

Our family on Tuesday was a pretty large group. Doña Maria and Don Santiago have nine children. Some of the girls have married and moved in with their husbands’ families. Some of the sons have married and their wives have come to live in the small family compound, though it’s a million times different than the compounds of the rich and famous one might think of when one hears “compound,” i.e., the Kennedy compound on Cape Cod. One of the daughters-in-law, Cristina, spoke good Spanish, so we spoke a lot with her. She’s sixteen, married to one of the sons and has a seven-month-old son. Cristina told us that her husband drinks and that she sleeps in her “kitchen” with her baby. The kitchen is essentially a lean to with a plastic tarp for a door. It’s packed full with various household items, like plastic baskets, cookware, bags - it just looks like a jumble of stuff. There was a small area with some blankets where Cristina said she sleeps. She asked both me and our Cristina, separately, for help. We’re not sure if what she’s told us is entirely true, but certainly she could use some help, as could any 16-year-old with a baby living in poverty.

CRISTINA AND HER SON, BRIAN

This same day I went for a walk with Jackie S. and Jan along the dirt road running through the corn fields. We eventually came to a group of shacks where a couple men were sitting. They came over to talk to us as we passed by on our way back to our site. From what I understood, there were three families living in the immediate area, all of whom were quite poor, but one of whom needed more help than the others. They asked if we wanted to go see the family, but I didn’t think it was smart to get too involved, since we ourselves couldn’t help. I told them we’d tell our Habitat companions about their situation and maybe they could help.

The one man who spoke more kept saying he wanted to learn English. I didn’t understand entirely what was said, but I got the gist. As well I got the sense that the man was somehow hoping we’d help him. I think when many of these people see us and hear we are from the US, they assume we are wealthy and can help them. In fact when we introduced ourselves to Wednesday’s family and I said I was from the US and specifically New York, Doña Maria said I must have a lot of money. And comparatively, I am wealthy.

It’s challenging sometimes to work in these impoverished communities where they have so little, as I want to as much as I can for them, but I’ve got to draw a line. Besides the challenge of how much to do for an individual or a family, there’s the limitation of working with a Habitat team. We can’t really give help to one person or family and not help the others. That would reflect poorly on Habitat overall and likely set unrealistic expectations for future projects.

In Guatemala besides Spanish there are 22 or 23 spoken Mayan languages and two Afro-Carribean languages (on the east coast). The Afro-Carribean culture and traditions are totally different from the Mayan ones. Many of the women with whom we worked spoke little Spanish, but a couple of our masons spoke Kachiquel, so we were able to communicate a little better. I used my limited Spanish to speak with those who did speak better Spanish.

And sometimes we could communicate without language, as when Doña Maria hugged us all at the her stove dedication. It was no big deal when she hugged the women, but when she got to Tom, who is quite tall - and a man, of course - all the women and girls burst into fits of giggles. In general, I’m impressed to see how much amusement and levity exists within the indigenous communities given how little they have. I’d say that’s been my experience in every Habitat build. Of course life goes on once we leave and behind closed doors and I’m sure there is misery too, but I’m glad to see the happiness as well.

DOÑA MARÍA AND DON SANTIAGO WITH THEIR NEW ESTUFA

DOÑA MARIA, KRISTYNA, MIGUEL AND TWO LITTLE ONES WHO WERE TOO SHY TO TELL ME THEIR NAMES

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San Juan La Laguna

It’s late Thursday night and I’m just getting to Monday. The women of Casa Flor Ixcaco, with whom we talked and had dinner on Sunday night, stayed over at our hotel and Monday morning we all took a boat across the lake to their town, San Juan la Laguna. Sunday night Delfina, Miriam, Johana and Ana Maria told us how the history of their cooperative, how it was founded and how it works. They have 22 (or 25) women who sell their products at the co-op. They receive 80% of the selling price and the other 20% goes to the expenses of the co-op (rent, electricity, etc.). The weavers receive payment up front, rather than having to wait until one or more of their pieces sells. This helps the women and their families afford food and other essentials. If they had to wait to be paid, they might wait a month or more and that of course makes life much more difficult.

I”m inspired by the efforts of the Casa Flor Ixcaco women. They’ve created a viable business for themselves to sustain them and their families allowing them to improve their lives. By trial and error they’ve arrived at a system that works. Delfina and Miriam have taught themselves English by listening to the customers who visit the co-op and learning from the guides who accompany customers. Johana has learned English from Delfina and Miriam and also by interacting with customers. By the way, most of their customers are Americans. Apparently we spend more than anyone else who visits them.

The women have also started an organic chocolate business, run by young people from San Juan La Laguna. The intent is to provide another option - besides weaving - as a means for young people to learn a skill and to earn a living. As some of you know - and as all of my fellow volunteers now know - I love dark chocolate. Not surprisingly, I bought a LOT of chocolate products. The chocolate for drinking comes in a round disk about an inch and a half thick. You make the hot chocolate by mixing the chocolate and hot water. It’s delightful. Delfina’s husband raises bees and makes honey, which they also sell at the chocolate co-op.Naturally I had to buy some of that as well. Between my purchases there and at the weaving co-op, I probably single-handedly raised the GDP of the village.

We did more than shop on Monday, lest you think otherwise. Once we arrived at San Juan La Laguna and trekked up the steep hill directly in front of the dock, we made our way to the chocolate co-op. A charming young fellow told us - in good English - all about the process by which they make the chocolate. They buy the cacao beans from growers on the coast. Then they break open the beans, remove the seeds and roast them. After roasting, they crush the beans into a fine powder using a stone roller and a mealing stone. For their dark chocolate they use 70% cacao, 20% organic sugar cane and 10% lemon juice. The chocolate has a slightly grainy texture, which I really like. It’s delicious!

After our visit, we piled into a van and rode up into the hills. Then we piled out of the van and left the road to walk through corn fields, which gave way to coffee plants shaded by avocado trees. The ground was littered with overripe avocados. Such a shame to see so many avocados going to waste. The avocado trees are planted to give shade to the coffee plants, which grow best under some shade. I’m not sure what other sorts of vegetation we passed by and through, but we made our way through fairly dense flora, now and then catching a glimpse above the tall corn and other plants of the green hills and volcanos rising up against the blue sky. After trekking through some dense foliage, we arrived in an area populated by the trees from which we harvested bark. The women use machetes to first skin the bark off the trees and then gather up the bark pieces from the ground. They don’t own the land where the trees grow; they rent it - which is where part of the 20% or each sale goes.

Once we collected enough bark, we made our way back to the van and rode back down to the weaving co-op. There Juana explained the cotton’s journey from raw material to finished product. The co-op buys the cotton, which still contains its seeds. They have to remove the seeds without pulling the cotton into tiny pieces. We all tried our hand at this and it’s a painstaking process. It’s quite hard to remove the cotton seeds without pulling apart the cotton. Once that’s done, the cotton is spun onto a spindle. Juana made drawing the cotton out into a thin thread and spinning it around a spindle look easy, but it’s not. A few of us tried, unsuccessfully, to replicate Juana’s efforts. Next the cotton thread is gathered into skeins and dyed using natural dyes made from plants. There is an amazing variety of beautiful colors the women make from things like basil and mint and tree bark and all sorts of plants.

An enormous amount of work goes into producing the cotton thread used for the women’s weaving. Once the thread is made, they use a back strap loom to weave their textiles. The back strap loom is so called because the loom is attached to a strap that goes around the weaver’s back. The other end of the loom is fastened to a post or some other inanimate object. In the past, weavers kneeled on the ground for hours to support the loom and keep tension on the threads. Now the weavers sit on a low stool, alleviating much of the stress on the body. Even so, it’s still a laborious effort.

Each piece sold at the co-op has a tag with the weaver’s name and the amount of time it took the make the piece. As I mentioned earlier, I’m astounded at how relatively inexpensive the textiles are given the amount of time and labor necessary to create them. The women produce all sorts of things incorporating their textiles. There are scarves, blankets, pillow covers, notebooks covered with textiles, shawls, placemats, table runners, hair clips and barrettes, pieces of whole fabric, purses, little zippered pouches, larger zippered pouches, wallets and a few more things I can’t recall. My group spent a good deal of time browsing, choosing and buying. Just as we were getting ready to leave, there was a heavy rainstorm.

We stayed a while longer in the co-op hoping to wait out the rain. When it let up some, we ventured out. The streets weren’t easy to navigate, as the water ran in small rivers down the streets and there were places where it was impossible to cross without submerging your feet in a mini river or tiny pond. Ultimately we made it to our next stop, an art gallery cooperative consisting of nine men and one woman, Gloria, the sole female member, welcomed us in and explained a bit about how the co-op works. Most of the paintings done in oil. One common style of painting here shows a view from above of everyday Guatemalan scenes, like people harvesting fruit or coffee or a healer working on a patient, The colors are bright and the painting technique involves leaving the paint raised up a little bit. I’m sure an art aficionado could explain the technique better than I, but I’m what you’ve got right now. I can tell you that I asked Gloria if this style of painting originated with one artist which then became popular, ]] and that is indeed the case. You see these paintings everywhere - in the markets, on the streets, in galleries. Once again, I did my part to support the local artisans and bought a painting.

I then met up with my fellow volunteers at a coffee shop near the dock, where I enjoyed a tasty mocha and Jackie B. bought me a piece of dark chocolate, which was quite yummy.  Speaking of Jackie B., she wanted me to make sure to mention that she was kind enough to lend me a pair of capris for the duration of our stay. I arrived in Guatemala prepared for colder temperatures than I’ve experienced. I have  only long pants and long-sleeved shirts. I’d understood that the days were springlike and the nights were cool enough to need a fleece. Sadly that’s not been the case. The days have been quite warm - warm enough that I’ve been pretty hot walking around in my unsuitable clothes - and the nights are definitely cooler, but still not cool enough for a fleece. Some of my fellows would disagree, but to each her own. I think part of my problem is that while it may be a bit cooler, it’s still awfully humid, for me at least. So what’s all this have to do with the capris? Well, given my long pants were making me super uncomfortable, Jackie was kind enough to lend me a pair of her capris, so that I could be a little more comfortable. And that is the story of the capris.

I’ll be you’re all wondering, “When is Alice actually going to build anything?” Building begins “tomorrow,” Tuesday, but it’s actually Friday night and we’ve built all 12 of our stoves; I’ll begin to tell you about it tomorrow, though I’ll likely be posting this tomorrow, as the internet connection here is non-existent this evening. My computer says I have wifi, but I don’t. Technology!

[aliceinguatemala]

Sunday and Stoves

(Due to technical difficulties, I can’t add pictures to this post, so please see my next post for pictures related to this post.)

Sunday morning we got up, had some breakfast on the hotel’s terrace and set off in our bus for Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. (By the way, tumblr doesn’t give you the option of using accents over vowels as one does in written Spanish - or at least I can’t figure out how to do it. I mention this as Lake Atitlan should have an accent over the second “a.”) Before we left Antigua, we drove up to the Parque Cerro de la Cruz, which translates as Hill of the Cross Park. You can walk up 330 steps from below or you can drive up. In the interest of time, we drove up, but I’m certain all of us could make the climb, no sweat. Well, okay, probably sweat, but still. The view looks out over the city and you’re able to see all three volcanos, but the one that shows up most prominently in pictures looking straight out from the cross is Agua. We took our first group photo and then hit the road.

The trip took a little over two hours. We stopped at a rest stop where various vendors sell art, clothing, food and natural bath and body products. I bought some avocado body lotion at a great price. When I travel to other countries I am often surprised at how little artisans of all kinds charge for their work, based on the amount of labor involved. I’ll say more about this when I get to our visit to the weaving cooperative in San Juan la Laguna.

We arrived at the Cacique Inn here in Panajachel around 12:30 or so. After settling in and having lunch, we had a little free time before going off to the Habitat office here. Many of us walked down the main street to the lake, where a beautiful view awaits. But to get to the view, you have to walk down this street lined with restaurants alongside vendors selling t-shirts, locally woven and embroidered clothing, backpacks, bags and whatever else can be adorned, pottery, tchotchkes and various other sundries. You may also be followed, as we were, by one or more young boys trying to sell their wares. Jackie B, who is quite softhearted, made the mistake of paying attention to one of the young vendors. Encouraged by her attention, he followed us all the way down the street until I, the callous New Yorker, told him that we weren’t going to buy anything and he went off to try his luck elsewhere. It’s challenging to constantly say no and fend people off, especially kids, but as many of us know, especially those of us who live in New York, you’ve got to draw the line somewhere. Otherwise there will be nothing left of yourself and your soul to help those you can help.

During our orientation, we learned about the work we would be doing. Besides building houses for families, Habitat also has a program where they build smokeless stoves and latrines, as well as provide water filters. A family must pay something toward these projects and in the case of the stoves, they pay 150 Quetzals, which is equivalent to about US $20; the total cost of the stove is about US $150. On our build, we’re building only stoves. We have three teams of four and we each build a stove a day for four days. So you math whizzes will have determined we’re going to build 12 stoves.

Many of the poor Guatemalan families cook inside over an open flame. Over time, the room can become black with smoke. Tom showed us a photo of one room that had developed stalactites, or as Tom calls it, “carbon crud,” on the ceiling from years of cooking indoors over the open flame. The Guatemalans with whom we’re working generally live in a collection of cobbled together huts or cinder block dwellings. A room can stand alone or share a wall with one or two other rooms. 

Both of the stoves my group has built the last two days have been in kitchens that you enter directly from outside. To get to another room, you need to go outside and then come back inside the next room.  Often times these dwellings are covered over by a tin corrugated roof and have doors held closed by string, rope or wire. 

The “bathrooms” are often, as our last two have been, a cement “toilet” over a hole in the ground with “walls” of bed sheets or tarps strung up on bamboo poles held in place by string and whatever else is available. If you visit the loo, you’ll be sharing the space with a lot of flies.

Often the areas surrounding the homes of these families have tools, wood, plastic buckets, chicken coops, dogs and cats and detritus scattered about. Yesterday there was one small, pink plastic shoe left abandoned by a small puddle in the yard. Today a bright yellow plastic hair clip shared the same fate, minus the puddle. We’ve been working in an area twenty minutes or so from Pana. Our families might own a small plot of land which cannot be farmed so they work in other people’s fields. Or in the case of the two brothers and their wives, from yesterday’s build, both brothers supported the family by embroidering fabric which is fashioned into clothing.

Thus far our building sites have been surrounded by fields of tall corn stalks. Today there was a stark contrast between the beauty of Lake Atitlan, which we could see from our site, and the poverty in which the family lives. On our way to their home, we walked in past a cow tied to a rope standing down a slight hill from a grouping of sheds and huts of a neighboring family. Approaching our family’s site, we passed a pig in its pen and some chicken coops with their occupants in residence though they were later let out to roam. Taking a snooze in the dirt were three dogs. Laundry hung everywhere, strung along clotheslines. 

There were three or four “kitchens” in the family’s compound which were outside and covered by makeshift tin roofs. One of them had a stove, though not up to the quality of those we’re building. And when I say stove, I don’t mean a Viking range. I mean a stove built with large, handmade bricks, mortar, sand and cement. A plancha, a stainless steel cooktop with three “burners,” sits across the top. The burners are circles of metal you lift off with a special tool, which looks sort of like a candle snuffer outer. There’s a small hook on the end that goes into the small hole in the “burner” so that you can lift it off the plancha. The stove is heated by a wood fire made directly underneath the plancha. The chimney is made of aluminum and goes up and out through the roof. Hence, the smokeless stove.

At orientation we learned about the stoves and latrines and water filters, even though we’re building only stoves. Each of these three items vastly improves the health of the families. There is a significant difference between before and after cooking areas. 

After our introduction to the local staff and our work, we enjoyed some delicious tres leches cake. Being a connoisseur of cake and dessert in general, I can say that tres leches cakes vary greatly in taste. I’m partial to the homemade cake I first had in Oaxaca years ago. Most times when I order tres leches in a restaurant, what I get doesn’t come close to that first cake. I’m pleased to say this one did. I’m also pleased to say that delicious as the cake was, I was virtuous and left about half my piece on my plate.

We returned to our hotel shortly after our cake, which was served with cola. I believe most of us declined the cola. The cake on its own was sweet enough. According to Sandra, one of our terrific field coordinators, Guatemalans put sugar in everything. You get fruit for dessert, it’s got sugar on it. You want a cold drink, it’s got sugar in it. That’s not to say these things aren’t good, but they’re super sweet.

On the way back to the Cacique Inn some of us got sidetracked at this cool shop selling shoes, boots and bags with the local weaving incorporated into all the designs. Karen and Jackie B. both got some neat shoes - Karen some colorful ballet flats and Jackie some shoes that look like Tom’s shoes, the original design. I have my eye on a couple of the very attractive handbags made of leather and woven fabric. As I’ve already mentioned, I've already made some purchases. And I haven’t even told you about the shopping I did at the women’s weaving cooperative in San Juan la Laguna.

Later that night we met with four of the women from Casa Flor Ixcaco, the women’s weaving cooperative. They told us about their business and how it had come to be and how it’s managed now. We heard about their plans and dreams for the future. After their talk, we had dinner together, and the next morning we took a boat ride across the lake to their village, San Juan la Laguna. And that is where I shall pick up in my next post.

Hasta luego para ahora.

[aliceinguatemala]

Saturday

Hola. Now it’s Tuesday, but first I have to tell you about Saturday (and then Sunday and then Monday) before today. Fortunately there isn’t too much to tell you about Saturday. As Mom likes to take her time in the mornings, I set out to explore more of the city and to exchange some money. Exchanging money in this country is quite a process. It’s best done at a bank, as they have the best exchange rates. But you’ve got to be careful to bring pristine bills with you or the banks won’t change them. The first time I went in to exchange money, there was an extremely long line. I think there must have been at least 15 people ahead of me. After standing there for about ten minutes, during which I took out my cell phone and was advised by the armed guard to put it away, I decided to look for a less busy bank. During those 10 minutes, maybe one or two poplin line moved up to the counter. There were three tellers and all three had customers at their stations for at least five minutes. I’ve no idea what was taking so long. A little later on I tried my luck at another bank and didn’t have to wait in line. However, once at the counter I spent probably ten minutes waiting for the teller to change my money. She took my passport, typed a whole bunch of stuff in the computer and then typed some more stuff into the computer. Then my teller stepped away to return with a band of bills, which she then had to stand and count before resuming our transaction. But the good news is, the exchange rate was extremely good. 

Having walked around for a little while, I started to make my way back to the hotel. I was carrying the tourist map which didn’t show the location of my hotel, as it’s a ways away from the city center. I thought I had a pretty good sense of which direction to go - and I sort of did - but I tried a different route than the one I’d come by, wanting to see some different scenery. My plan backfired, as I couldn’t determine from the map if I was heading in the right direction. I was getting quite hot walking and suspected I was headed the wrong way, I stopped to ask directions and I was indeed walking away from our hotel. I turned around, not relishing the idea of continuing on in my current sweaty state. Luckily, a tuk tuk passed by and I flagged it down.

The tuk tuks here aren’t like those in Southeast Asia, which are bicycles powered by the drivers’ own feet. Here the tuk tuks are compact, narrow three-wheeled vehicles with a bench seat behind the driver and room enough for two average-sized people. As I mentioned before, the streets are uneven cobblestone and the tuk tuk drivers speed along them. You can imagine what my ride was like. We zipped along, at one point wedging in between two larger vehicles and somehow squeezing through when one of the cars managed to get out of our way. I arrived at the hotel in one piece, my ride costing less than two bucks. Oscar (our hotel manager) asked me if the driver had helped me with my bag; I said no; he said good. I assumed from his question that some tuk tuk drivers will “help” you with your bag and then help themselves to your belongings. That’s no bueno. 

I collected Mom and we went off in a taxi, again with Elaceo, to a place up on a hill called El Tenador. The views are said to be less grand than those of Cerro San Cristobal, but truth be told, Mom and I both preferred El Tenador. The restaurant’s ambiance is nicer, the food is tastier with a more interesting selection and the surroundings are more interesting. From our table, we could look directly out on both the Agua and Fuego volcanoes. The property has zip lining, but it’s far less touristy and obtrusive than Finca Filadelfia. More prominent are the whimsical sculptures scattered throughout the nicely landscaped grounds. There are also three or four gallery spaces on the property, displaying sculpture indoors. We had a lovely lunch and enjoyed the volcano views.

Agua volcano

Fuego volcano (on the left)

Sculptures outside one of the galleries

Another sculpture on the grounds

By the time we got back to our hotel, I had to jump in a taxi to go to meet my Habitat group. We stayed at Hotel San Jorge on the other side of town from Hotel Cirilo. I and my fellow volunteers got acquainted on the hotel’s rooftop terrace before going to dinner. Dinner was at a place called 7 Caldos. (Caldo means broth.) We had a nice dinner - and I in fact had a broth - the chicken broth. I burned my tongue, as I was too impatient to wait for the broth to cool. I expected a chicken soup more like those I’ve had in Mexico, where the broth is simmered quite a long time, giving it a richer flavor, and more interestingly seasoned. I know I keep disparaging Guatemalan cooking, but I’ll tell you this, I’ve since had some very good homemade Guatemalan food. But you’ll have to wait until I get to Monday to hear about that.

[aliceinguatemala]

Pueblos

I’m so far behind! It’s already Monday night and I haven’t even told you about Friday. Mom and I took a tour of the pueblos (towns) surrounding Antigua, arranged by our hotel manager, Oscar. I thought it would be a more organized tour than what we wound up with. Oscar uses a taxi service run by Edwin and his two older sons. Elaceo, who drove us almost every time we needed a taxi, was our “tour guide.” He speaks virtually no English and is studying business at the local university. He was very nice, but as Mom noted to me, perhaps someone with a bit more sophistication may have given us a tour slightly better suited to our interests. 

That said, one of Mom’s favorite things in Antigua was our visit to a market in Santa Maria de Jesus, an indigenous town that sits inside the volcano, Agua. Obviously the volcano is no longer active - or I might not be writing this right now. The market isn’t a tourist market at all, but a real local market selling food and many practical household items. Locals sort through piles of clothing set out on the ground, many of them clearly secondhand. Clumps of women gather around the clothes, picking them up, inspecting them and deciding what they would like.

There a few vendors selling shaved ice, flavored as you choose. A couple of the vendors had mechanized shavers, but one man still operated his grinder by hand.

On the more healthful side of things, there are lots of women selling fresh fruits and vegetables. There’s also meat and fish to be had. And the most interesting - and least appealing to this gringa - were the cooked iguana and armadillos that you could pick up and take home for a ready-to-eat meal (pic below). I’ve seen many unusual things at markets around the world, but this was the first time I’d seen either of these creatures prepared to set out on the dinner table.

As we drove along the streets of Santa Maria, we passed donkeys laden with bundles of wood or other wares. Most all of the women are dressed in traditional colorful Mayan costume. The men no longer wear traditional dress, because, as I learned yesterday, years ago it made it harder for men to get jobs if they wore traditional clothing. Some men still wear Mayan style clothing, but generally only on special occasions. Though I have seen a handful of older men traditionally dressed in Solola and the surrounding countryside.

After strolling around the market, we went San Juan del Obispo to visit an organic artisanal chocolate maker. We learned a little about the process of making chocolate. And we of course purchased some of their product. After all, it would’ve been rude not to do so.

We also saw a church in San Juan del Obispo. I tell ya, Antigua is lousy with churches, and every small town surrounding the city has a church. Many of the churches we have seen are a bright yellow, though apparently there are also white, rosado and natural stone colored churches. I’ve seen a few of those, but the majority have been some shade of yellow. And also, every church has a cross and a fountain in front of it, except in Antigua. If I understood Elaceo correctly, because space is limited, there are only two churches in the city with both a cross and a fountain. One is La Merced, a large and beautiful church near the center of Antigua, and I’m sorry, but I cannot remember the other.

Leaving San Juan del Obispo, we next visited San Pedro las Huertas where women carry their laundry to the town square to wash it at the public washing station in the town square, across from the requisite church. There’s a long shallow rectangular basin, with individual washing spots ringing the rectangle. Water flows continuously from a spout at the top of the basin. I didn’t get a great picture, so I grabbed this one from Pinterest.

The public laundry was another highlight of our tour. We next visited Ciudad Vieja, which actually doesn’t look very old. (Vieja means old in Spanish.) You might ask, as I did, why doesn’t the city look old if it’s called the Old City? Well I’ll tell you. Way back in the sixteenth century there was an earthquake, which broke the natural dam that had been holding back a great deal of water contained in the volcano Agua’s basin. The water rushed down to the city, bringing with it rocks, and together they wiped out the city. So the city as it exists today is built on top of the old city. It seems to me as if the current city should be called Ciudad Neuva, but no one asked me.

Since Guatemala is famous for its coffee, I asked Elaceo if he could take us to a really good coffee finca (farm). He took us to Finca Filadelfia, which is actually a big tourist outfit, with horse rides around the plantation and zip lining. Needless to say we didn’t stay long. We did buy some coffee from their gift shop, though the coffee was in a small display mixed in among all the kitsch.

We ended our tour after FF, asking Elaceo to drop us off at Nim P’ot, which is a cavernous indoor market selling local artisan works ranging from pottery to weaving to wooden painted masks, along with coffee and chocolate and t-shirts and jewelry and even a used books section. What’s nice about this market is that you’re free to wander about the market without any vendors pressuring you to buy their wares. I bought some beautiful scarves woven in the village of San Juan La Laguna, which is one of the 11 towns surrounding Lake Atitlan. We bought a lot more stuff, but some of it might be for some of you reading this, so that’s all I’ll say right now.

We had another not so exciting meal at Los Tres Tiempos, down the street from Nim P’ot. Interesting side note about the restaurant’s name...Many eateries are called los tres tiempos. I wondered why. The answer is that many of the places sell tortillas and they sell them three times a day, for each of the three meals. They’re made fresh for each meal. Interesante, no? 

Back to the meal. Perhaps I am ordering poorly, but again, my food was rather bland. But we made up for it by eating vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce when we got back to our hotel. But before that, we went into a store on this same block with clothing made here in Guatemala. The styles are more contemporary, but the fabrics have the feel and spirit of more traditional patterns. I don’t know what the store’s name is, but the brand is Chula. And this many not come as a surprise to many of you, but I bought a top. One does have to support the local economy after all. Doesn’t one?