Atitlan

(Note:  I'm just a bit behind on blogging....this trip actually happened a few weeks ago!  Will be doing some catching up soon!)

El Lago Atitlan is truly one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It is formed by the caldera of an very ancient and very large volcano and is blessed with a steep shoreline that prevents construction of structures and habitation in all but a few areas. The result is lush green hillsides running into beautiful fresh lake water and very few structures. One very lovely structure is La Casa del Mundo where we stayed when we visited last weekend.

Our journey started with us receiving a flyer from a travel agency advertising great fares to Panahachel on a "Modern Pullman Coach with air conditioning, individual seats, and direct service". We should have known it was too good to be true. We arrived at the designated meeting spot at 6:30 on Sunday morning and found a few other gringos waiting for the bus. I was inside eating breakfast when the girls came in saying, "the bus is here and the driver says he needs more money from us". When I went outside, I found that not only was the driver demanding we pay more than our pre-paid ticket, but that he was driving a chicken bus! Chicken buses are old school buses that are brought down from the US, painted with lots of great colors, used as public transportation, and generally crammed with twice as many people, animals, and baggage than would ever be legal in the US! This was not exactly what we had in mind. After refusing to pay additional money, and many phone calls back and forth between the driver & the travel agency, we finally threw our luggage on top and boarded the bus. The only A/C was open windows, the so called "individual seats" were benches made for 2 but shared by 4, and the "direct service" meant that we stopped every 100 yards or so for additional passengers! What should have been a 2 hour trip took 3 hours, and the good news is that we got to see lots of colorful local characters. And we arrived safely. As I said to the kids, "sometimes you get to go first class...and sometimes you get to go chicken class!"

Our time up at the lake was fantastic. Casa del Mundo has incredible gardens, lovely rooms, and fantastic food. Dinners are served family style and we visited with groups from Britain, Australia, Belgium, Guatemala, and the US.  We spent the days lounging in hammocks, reading, playing card games, swimming, and eating.  It was a delightful respite.

The house is finished!

The house is finished - it looks pretty darn good and we got it done in 2 weeks! The end product is three rooms with 3 windows, 3 doors, and a bathroom with shower and toilet. The family that will live there consists of a mom & dad (ages 31 & 33) and 5 children ages 18 months to 7 years. They will be required to pay a minimal amount of rent (about $20/month), take care of the house, and have all the kids in school (except for the eldest who has cerebral palsy). They are thrilled to have a new house and wanted to celebrate with us on the final day. Although it is generally very difficult to get time off, both the mom & dad stayed home. The folks from ConstruCasa brought a cake a large bottle of Pepsi to celebrate mid-morning, and the family invited us & the construction workers to share lunch with them. It meant a lot to them to cook a meal for us and we enjoyed it immensely. They made our favorite Guatemalan meal: Chicken Pepian, rice with vegetables and hibiscus drink (which they very kindly boiled for us then indulged in a purchase of ice to cool it back down). It was easily one of the tastiest meals we've had yet!


All in all, it was an excellent volunteer experience. The folks at Constru Casa did a great job of integrating us into the project, we enjoyed working with the construction team, and were actually able to help out some. Constru Casa is a great little organization - the overhead is very low, they work closely with the Guatemalan social service organizations that already exist, and they basically do great work. We were happy to find a group that aligned with our values so closely. Thanks to Tomas, Cesar & William for teaching us how to build and for letting us get in the way a little bit while we learned.




I think Kelsey Larissa both learned some valuable lessons also. They both declared that they don't want to do any kind of manual labor for a living, and seem to understand how lucky they are to have the educational opportunities that they do (yea! Mission accomplished!!!). They both noticed that the Guatemalan kids work extremely hard just to survive on a day to day basis. And the kids here would give anything to have the "luxury" of just going to school and studying. It's annoying to think about American kids who squander the chances they have....

More work.....

"Before" shot of the type of house we're replacing:


Larissa working:


Ben working:


Larissa and Ben not working:


Kelsey and William imitating cement trucks:


Larissa supervising the supervisor:


More cute long lashed little boys; helpers to the helper's helpers:



Kids happy to be watching their new house grow:


Girls happy at the end of the work day:

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Climbing the Volcano

Sunday we climbed up Pacaya, the most active volcano in Guatemala. This is the view back to Volcano Agua (La Antigua is on the other side):


Here are Kelsey & Larissa & the guide (Eusebio) with Pacaya in the background:


Hot Lava! I am actually cheating a little with these pictures. While they are indeed pictures of lava on Pacaya, the pictures are from 2 years ago when Ben & I climbed it. This year, it was too darn hot to get close enough for pictures. In fact, Kelsey was trying to take a picture and after about 30 seconds of standing still, she decided she needed to high tail it out of there to a cooler spot. After she descended to safety, she discovered that her lower legs exposed below her capris, were scorched red, as if they had been sun burned! The lava was just too hot too fast for decent photos this year, but this is what it looked like!



One of the delightful aspects of the trip is the little kids who "rent" walking sticks. They start out wanting to charge Q5 (about 60 cents) but will quickly come down to Q2. At the end of the hike, they're staked out waiting to get their merchandise back. Quite the little entrepeneurs. I wanted a picture of this little guy, Carlos Antonio because his eyelashes were about 3/4" long. They seemed as if they were going to obscure his vision, and I imagine as he gets older they're going to obscure somebody's vision!

It's becoming a house!

So, perhaps I should've appreciated the construction schedule the first two days! Our work since then has been arduous and back breaking.....and we each do about half of what each of the Guatemalans do. These guys are strong and are willing to work hard. Our job is basically to tote stuff for the junior assitant who helps the mason. So, we bring the cinder blocks, and mix the cement, and lug the buckets of cement, and haul whatever else needs to be hauled. In the picture of the stack of cinder blocks, we notched the edge of each of those blocks by hand....and hacked holes in the bottom so the blocks could be set around the vertical pieces of rebar.
All in all it quite satisfying to see progress being made so quickly! We will have our three rooms plus bathroom done by the end of this week!

Volunteer House Building

This is our house building schedule so far:

Day 1

7:00 meet director at Central Plaza

7:00 – 7:45 wait for other volunteer who never shows up (we think he mistakenly changed his watch for daylight saving time!)

7:45 – 8:00 drive to work site

8:00 – 9:00 wait for other workers

9:00 – 10:00 look at plan, talk with family about plan, talk with neighbors about plan

10:00- 10:30 take a break

10:30 – 11:00 move trash pile from one location to another so family can burn it

11:00 – 12:00 watch Tomas, Cesar & William make measurements

12:00 – 1:00 lunch break

1:00 – 2:00 watch while more measurements are taken, heads are scratched and stakes are pounded

2:00 – 3:00 break

3:00 – 4:30 start to dig trenches 50cm wide by 70 cm deep

4:30 get on a chicken bus

4:31 nearly lose Larissa as chicken bus takes off just as she’s stepping on

4:32 – 4:45 hold on tight while chicken bus speeds from one stop to the next then slams on brakes

4:45 get off bus and breathe a sigh of relief!

Day 2

7:00 – 7:15 wait for Tomas in front of Pollo Campero (Guat version of KFC)

7:15 buy a paper to amuse us during breaks

7:15 – 7:30 ride bus to worksite

7:30 – 10:00 finish digging trenches

10:00 – 11:00 break. Discover paper is daily record of all of the drug murders in Guat city.

11:00 – 11:30 stand around wondering if the materials are going to show up

11:30 watch as hillside above our excavation collapses

11:30 – 12:00 re-dig the trenches

12:00 – 1:00 lunch

1:00 – 2:00 finish re-digging trenches; move dirt from one pile to another

2:00- 2:30 stand around wondering if materials are going to show up

2:30 – 3:00 break

3:00 – 3:30 sit around wondering if materials are going to show up

3:30 decide materials aren’t going to show up; go home

9:00 Celebrate Obama victory!!!!!!

Day 3

Rest Day When the director told us about having a Wednesday rest day, I was thinking, “I don’t need no stinking rest day”. Waking up this morning with every muscle complaining about shoveling, I was kind of appreciating this rest day! Even though it doesn’t sound as if we were working too hard, those few hours of digging trenches did me in!

They say it will take us only 2 weeks to build this house. At this rate, it doesn't seem possible, but I'll update!

Our New Apartment

We’re in our new apartment. It’s not as quaint or traditional as El Solar which was an old hacienda converted to apartments and full of antiques. But what the new place lacks in charm, it more than makes up for with the great neighbors, generous light, and a very pleasant outdoor space.   So far, we’ve met people from Norway, Guatemala, and California. The folks from the US that we’ve met are down here going through very lengthy adoption processes. Apparently, the Guatemalan government used to be fairly liberal with adoptions but has recently made the process much more arduous. Some of these families started the process thinking it would take a few months. They are encountering one hurdle after another requiring more than a year to resolve in most cases. One couple has had to get three different DNA tests from both the birth mother and baby to prove the child was not kidnapped. And that’s only the beginning. I feel for these families, but they all agree that if they have to be “trapped” someplace, these apartments in Antigua are a good place to be!

Barriletes Gigantes - Giant Kites

Yesterday was Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Day) in Guatemala. The guatelemalans honor their dead by cleaning, decorating, and visiting the gravesites. We went on an excursion via minibus organized by the school to Sumpango. It’s about a half hour drive from Antigua on a highway that is remarkably nice compared to all of the other roads and infrastructure around here. As an aside, it’s an odd experience to have such a mixture of very modern and very antiquated infrastructure. On the one hand there are cell phones and great highways and internet access while on the other hand trash is picked up by carts and food delivered by little old ladies who tote it on their heads. It’s as if some aspects of the infrastructure development were completely missed! But to get back to Dia de los Muertos: it is a very important day and in our drive to Sumpango, it seemed as if every person from miles around was present to participate. Cars lined the highway and roads leading to the cemetery, reminding us of a big music festival or sporting event. In the cemetery, families were hanging out at the gravesites, eating picnics, drinking, and socializing. Ice creams carts rolled up and down the rows of graves with the proprietors dinging the bells incessantly. Hawkers sold bunuelos, toys, and candy bars. Very colorful and noisy, but not a solemn event whatsoever.

Another particularly Mayan custom associated with Dia de los Muertos is the kite festival. This tradition originated years ago with a Mayan village that was experiencing bad harvests, sicknesses and other unfortunate events. The spiritual leader of the village told the people that perverse spirits were disturbing both the dead and the living inhabitants of the village. He suggested that they build kites to chase away the evil spirits with the noise from the crashing of the wind against the paper. The villagers made kites, flew them and their luck changed. Since that time, the tradition has been passed down and each year kites are flown to chase the evil spirits away and send peaceful message to the heavens.

In the village of Sumpango, the tradition has grown to include an International Kite Festival where barrileteros (kite builders) compete for prizes based on design, size, and flying ability. The kites are built by hand from bamboo, tissue paper, and glue. Each team travels to southern Guatemala for the bamboo and spends 2 or more months building their design. We saw some beautiful creations in Sumpango. Many of the kites measured up to 6 meters across and had elaborate and colorful designs depicting Mayan themes integrated with modern messages about climate change, environmentalism, etc. After the judging for the designs is completed, the teams attempt to launch their kites. It was thrilling to see these great beasts trying to catch the wind. The crowd of thousands cheered and groaned with the successes and failures as one after another tried to make it up. Some of the giant kites flew for a few seconds then turned upside-down and crashed, some folded in half instantly before even making it off the ground, and one or two actually launched and flew for hours. When one of the early kites folded up, one of the guys in our group blurted out, “Hecho in Mexico (made in Mexico)” which amused all of the Guatemalans around who instantly became friends with the funny Americans. The giant butterfly (above) was absolutely stunning, but unfortunately delicate - it was crumpling even before the team tried to get it off the ground.

It was even a hoot going to the bathroom even: some enterprising town folks put up a cardboard sign that said, “Sanitarios”. For 1Q each (about 12 cents), we were ushered into the courtyard by one of the children. While we were waiting there in line, another man gave us TP, and afterwards, granny showed us where to wash our hands. Our compatriot Dr. Joe quipped that he’d never had a team assist him in going to the bathroom before!

Those who know me well know that crowded dusty festivals are usually last on my list of to-do events but I surprised myself by finding I didn’t want to leave when 4:00 came around and it was time to meet the bus. It was a very fun day and an event that is well worth experiencing.