Plan of action

As the days wind down we are trying to stay on top of all our options and keep you posted as well.

After visiting countless communities and meeting with non-governmental organizations all around the western highlands, we´ve been circling four main areas or communities.

In no particular order,
1. Toj Mech
2. Momostenango
3. San Vicente Buenabaj
4. Sololá

There are various reasons for our elevated interest in all four, but as a group they represent the contents of most of my thought bubbles.  Over the next two weeks we will be buckling down and exploring the actual feasibility of a Manna presence in each of these 4 sites.

Enjoy your lazy Sunday, Dana

What a week!

The past few days have been very exciting ones...
Monday brought the arrival of Lori and Chris, and we´ve kicked our lives up into fifth gear ever since..

On Tuesday we jumped at the opportunity to visit the small town of Toj Mech, about 30 minutes outside Xela center.  Chris will report more about that soon in his very own guest blog...

Some happy kids in Toj Mech´s library, pretending to read like I told them to

Wednesday the four of us traveled to Totonicapan (a great name for a Nicaraguan bakery, as Chris pointed out) which is a department, and the largest city within that department.  There we met with another one of our new Peace Corps friends, Casey.  She showed us the ropes and introduced us to their beautiful Casa de Cultura.  The Casa de Cultura has been running for 37 years, and gives creative art and music classes among other things.

We returned to Xela to go to a Buena Vista Social Club performance, only to find a huge celebration going on in parque central.  Apparently it was the 100th anniversary of Xela´s soccer team, the Super Chivos!  Go Xela!

Not a very good picture, but will definitely give you an idea of the madness.

With Thursday came another early morning and a trip to Momostenango.  In the morning we had a meeting with am extremely helpful man named Cesar-- so organized he offered to show us his power point presentation!  We opted for the white board instead to share our respective organizational pillars.  Cesar was able to give us some cold hard facts that, though a bit dated, helped push us in the right direction.  For instance, did you know that 56% of people in Momos make less than US$1 per day, and are thus in the extreme poverty category, and 95% are below the poverty line?

On a more uplifting note, our next informative meeting was with our old Peace Corps friend, Rebecca, and a visit to a nearby women´s organization.  On our way home we stopped through a smaller Municipio called San Fransisco del Alto to meet, yes, another Peace Corps volunteer named Ana.  Here we were actually able to visit a smaller community (Aldea) to get a feel for the quality of life here.

 

Just so you have an idea, Toto is in pink, Momos is in yellow, and San Fransisco del Alto is blue.

Finally Friday.. phew.  Oh, but wait, another early morning to go build stoves again in Llano de Pinal!  This time we got to complete a stage 2 stove!  Yes, I have completed each stage once, and am now open for business in case you would like one in your very own backyard and/or kitchen.

 

Our completed stage 1 stove from last week, and thus our starting point this week.

Our completed stage 2!

And that was some vital information for your everyday life..

Dana

Two birds with one stone (or cement block in this case)

Finally Friday, and another round of stove building.  I went to Llano de Pinal, the biggest of the 10 communities that Primeros Pasos serves, and this time I got to start from stage 1!

Stage 1 consists of measuring and leveling until you just can´t do it anymore. If the oil in the frying pan runs to one side, you can always blame whoever built stage 1.

Literally building a stove from the ground up!

When I heard that Pop Wuj´s stove builders worked with Llano de Pinal I jumped at the chance to both build and investigate the community more closely.  There are 2,000 children that live within the community limits alone!  Good thing the government sent funding their way and a brand new school was built just last year.  I also got to visit the only kindergarten in the whole community.  I´m not sure where all the kids are, because there were only 20 in the class...

The brand new Basico school in Llano, with a separate building for adult education, a soccer field, and a women´s education wing!

Our completed stage 1 stove-- all level and ready to cook hundreds of tortillas.

The very sweet family who are now the proud owners of a stage 1 stove!

Maddie couldn´t come build this time because she was attending a general meeting with nearby peace corps volunteers, including our friend from San Vicente Buenabaj.  Maddie made a lot of great contacts, and for starters, we will be visiting one volunteer in her community outside of Sololá.

That will just about wrap up the week, but Sunday brings the most exciting news of all!  CHRIS TAYLOR AND LORI SCHARFFENBERG ARRIVE!  For a full week, Maddie and I will have the pleasure of showing them around the wonder that is Xela.  We are so excited to have them, because let´s be honest, we wouldn´t be here without them.

Thanks for reading,

Dana

A diamond in the rough

What great luck!  Tuesday after Spanish class we heard from Philippa Wood, a Peace Corps volunteer who happened to be in Xela at that very moment!  All of a sudden our week got very busy.  We accompanied her on the hour and a half bus ride back to her community, San Vicente Buenabaj, for the night.  We got a tour of the Clinica de Salud, met the town mayor and much of the clinic staff.

  A beautiful view of San Vicente Buenabaj

Maddie and Phil deep in important conversation I bet.

Wednesday we had the incredible opportunity to accompany Phil, a rural health technician, and a health promoter on a survey of the community.  We went house to house in one of the smaller communities within San Vicente called Xemuj (pronounced Shamu) assessing their houses, quality of life, needs, etc.  Every year the clinic tries to survey and vaccinate the entire community, population 2,680, house by house, and in the past they have gotten to about 97%.

How impressive...

We are still pondering over the town of San Vicente Buenabaj for Manna, but it´s possible with Phil´s good work, they already have enough help.

Thursday we finally visited the Primeros Pasos Clinic for the first time!  The clinic is staffed with fantastic, organized people who actually work together for the bettering of society.  A breath of fresh air, and a good sign of things to come since we will definitely be working together in the future, no matter where we end up.

So far a great week, tomorrow comes another round of stove building! I hope you´re as excited as me!

Dana

Building Stoves

While investigating a nearby Spanish school´s social projects, we met Dave and Kathy of Canada.  They have been working on and off in Guatemala for 3 years now building stoves in rural communities.  Maddie and I jumped at the chance to help, as we realized that would be a great way to gain entrance into the communities we were building in.

These stoves are better for two reasons..
1) Cooking doesn't fill their homes with smoke (see vertical metal pipe in picture 3).
2) It uses half the firewood which equals less work and less tree chopping.

There are three stages to the production of each new stove.  Building them consists of cement mixing, playing with mud and bricks, and learning so much useful information no one bothered to teach me in school. Also, it reminds me of my days in Ecuador.. sigh.

This past Friday we took a bus to Pacaxjoj to finish 3 stoves.

This is a completed stag 2 stove, and where our work started on Friday.

Here we are filling in the center with pre-soaked bricks.  The bricks must first be soaked or else they will absorb all the moisture from the wet cement.  We later filled in the crevasses with clay since it is more heat-resistant than cement.

Families can choose to cover their stoves with tile, but they must purchase those independently.  Here is our team after completing the final stage!  This stove will be ready to cook on in 3 weeks, once the clay and cement have dried.

Finally, the family with their new stove!

I always knew the way into a person´s heart was through their stomach...

Making Progress in Loma Linda

Our first community visit went very well, but alas, it is not for us.  Maddie and I spent the majority of the day on Tuesday finding the right buses to Loma Linda, and after only 5 hours we arrived!  Don´t worry, somehow it only took us 2.5 hours to get home...

Loma Linda is an incredible little community that was only founded in 1976 by a Spanish priest.  All inhabitants abide by a number of rules that keep the town running smoothly and peacefully.  Most of the rules can be found in the Ten Commandments, but additionally, there is no alcohol, no gossip, and all members must be Catholic.  Break the rules and you´re out.

Judge all you want, but Loma Linda is so safe that you could drop your wallet in the street and find it in the same place the next day (if it wasn´t already returned to you personally).

Also, I wish all of Guatemala would mimic their efforts in the community development realm.  They harvest coffee plants and use the pulp to compost new plants.  They just built their first modest hotel, with the help of a loan from FUNDAP, a Guatemalan NGO.  In the future, Loma Linda has grand plans of becoming a self-sustaining community.

A one-year-old coffee plant that was fed only composted coffee pulp!

We spent our measly two days soaking up all the information we could from Loma Linda´s community development organization, ASODILL.  Pascual and his wife Rosa (coordinator and director, respectively) were incredibly hospitable and willing to answer all of our never-ending questions.  He even introduced us to a couple engineers from FUNDAP who regularly assess the projects in Loma Linda.  Yes, we will be meeting with them again in Xela later this month, and hope to work with them wherever we may be in the coming year.

Maddie saying bye to Loma Linda

So, we haven´t found our new home yet, but knowledge is progress.

Onward!

Dana

Contacts, Contacts, Everywhere!

So much to report, but first, a drum roll please....

Our groceries cost US$8.30!  Congrats to the 42% of you who guessed correctly.

Now if you think that´s exciting news, hear this!  We spent last week meeting with various organizations...

Primeros Pasos
A wildly successful clinic operating in the Palajunoj valley (a 15 minute bus ride outside Xela).  More than 15,000 people live here, but somehow there is only one government-appointed doctor and nurse.  Primeros Pasos staffes a physician, dentist, lab director, and dental assistant, and sees about 8,000 patients per year.  They run health education, women´s education, and children´s programs, all of which are well-attended and/or received.  I´m hoping to take a page out of their book of successes, so we´ll be visiting the clinic at the end of this week!

EntreMundos
A non-governmental organization that specializes in supporting other NGOs.  They link active Guatemalan-run organizations with resources and volutneers.  Don´t know exactly what you´re interested in?  EntreMundos can find the volunteer org. that´s right for you!  So far, they list over 160 orgs. on their database ranging in fields from development, health, and human rights to women´s empowerment, the environment, and indigenous rights.  Their database has been invaluable to us-- it´s like being handed the answers to your questions on a silver platter, without the middle man.

Somos Hermanos
A student immersion program for pre-med students.  After two months of homestays, immersion, and Spanish lessons, each student chooses an internship site to work at for the remaining 4 months of their stay in Xela.  Perhaps Manna could take some interns off their hands?  (a thank you must go out to the one and only, Will Hamlin)

Pop Wuj
A socially-minded Spanish school focused on community development!  Maddie and I are going with the school´s directors on a stove building project next weekend to introduce ourselves to the communities they work in.  Cross your fingers!


So, those are some of the very exciting connections we have made so far!  While last week was filled with meetings, this week will be filled with community visits!  Tomorrow we leave for Lomo Linda.  We´ve heard great things about the community from several sources, and have a meeting with the community leader in the afternoon.  We´ll report back soon.

Other various tidbits include my inability to stop salsa dancing, the hosting of our successful dinner party on Saturday, our travels to Los Fuentes Georginas, my first Spanish lesson today, and the fact that I´ve been on the internet for 4 hours.

Think sulfur hot tub...

A couple women digging for some nutrient rich clay.

More soon,
Dana

Last days in Antigua, First days in Xela!

Saturday, the 30th, Maddie and I climbed up to Cerro de la Cruz, literally Hill of the Cross.  We thought it was going to be an actual hike, so we braced ourselves... only to find out it took 15 minutes to get to the top.  Oh well, still a beautiful aerial view of Antigua from the North.

View of Volcan El Agua and Antigua from Cerro de la Cruz

Monday we had our first meeting with Judy from Nueva Vida.  Judy arrived in a small town called Santa Maria de Jesus in the early ´90s as a missionary.  Since, she has built, directed, and sustained a school for special needs children.  She started with 8 children and 1 teacher and now runs multiple classes of grades K-6.  Santa Maria de Jesus is a Mayan village of 24,000, situated on the side of Volcan El Agua (in the above picture).  Over 90% of the community is indigenous and speaks Cakchiquel as their first language. It has the highest poverty rate in the state and has a 44% illiteracy rate. Most adults who are literate have only up to a third grade education, although this statistic is slowly improving.  If you´d like to read more about Nueva Vida, read Judy´s blog, http://www.newlifeguatemala.com/.

She had so many wise words to share with us...

1. You can do a lot ineffectively, or you can do a little well.
2. It's always possible you don't know the whole story.
3. The less you say, the more people presume you know.
4. You'll never do everything 100% right the first time.

After spending 5 hours with Judy, Maddie and I caught a bus to Xela-- Our somewhat permanent location for the next month.  Our 3 bedroom apartment is incredible and only 2 blocks from the park.  We have one roommate named Ellie who works for Habitat for Humanity: Guatemala (shout out to Alex Dey!)

Come on in for the grand tour of our apartment, where we will be diligently working till the end of February!

Here is my bed and desk!  Thanks for the speakers, Miriam.

...And the other side of my bedroom.

The view from my window and our living room :)

... and the view to the left

Please have a seat in our living-dining room!  And say hi to Ellie on the left.

Now, here´s the fun part!  How much do you think Maddie and I spent on groceries today!?  Please take our poll in the righthand margin above.  Results will follow in our next posting!

More to come shortly.. thanks for reading and playing!

Dana & Maddie