New Year's Day

A New Year's Day post from traveler Jamie Hamilton from Onondaga Community College:

Today is the first day of the New Years. We started off our day with breakfast from our host like usual. After that we headed to the work site to finish our stoves. The day consisted of mixing cement with hand tools and cementing bricks together. This is hard work. the sweat was dripping from my partner and mine face. Lifting and carrying all the blocks and cement all over the construction site is hard manual labor. Even the kids in the village wanted to pitch in and help build the stove by caring the buckets of cement. At 1pm we took a break for lunch. Our host were so nice by bringing the meal to us and this woman in the village allowed us to eat in the house on her floor. This was a very welcoming experience and it was nice to enjoy a meal with the stove builders who have been working so hard and helping us through the whole process of building the stove. Once lunch was over it was straight back to making the stove. Putting the finishing touch on stove is the hardest part. This smooth layer of cement had to be places on the outside of the stove. This work was primarily left to the stove makers because it was a very precise process that could not be messed up. I was unable to do this part without messing it up each time :). Finishing the stove was the best part. It was nice to see how happy the family was to have their new stove. After completing the stove we went back to the hotel to go view the New Year's Day celebrations. Once getting to central park it was to packed to see much so we headed back to the hotel shortly after. A little while after being at the hotel I unfortunately got a soar tummy and spent the rest of the night relaxing but one thing that did make me feel better was the frozen bananas covered in chocolate that we had served with dinner. This gave me a little piece of home when I wasn't feeling my best.

Jamie

More from our group from Onondaga Community College!

Another update from our group from Onondaga Community College--this time from traveler Erica Moeller: 

Now I understand Jack Johnson's song lyrics "banana pancakes" because that is what we ate for breakfast this morning. I can't get enough of the coffee down here; I just can't get enough. Don't worry I am buying plenty for home so don't be shy.

After another morning of stuffing our bellies with delicious food, we hopped in the back of the pick-up and headed up to Panimaquip on the side of a mountain to teach oral care to children. There were a lot of them. Seven presentations later, we had a community full of clean teeth and smiling faces. Yes it was a challenge to keep over 100 kids organized, but we are a determined group who works exceptionally well together, especially after living on top of each other for only 3 days.

Another meal; I love these meals. We are so lucky and thankful to have such exceptional hosts, especially when they make caldo de res (a slow cooked stew with beef and vegetables).

Off to San Jose for our first day of building stoves! Very exciting but confusing at the same time. How are we supposed to make intricate measurements and cuts with only a machete and hammer? Service is an amazing thing. Two communities working together under the conditions of a language barrier, you have to experience this to understand.

Finally some down time before dinner, which consisted of more coffee. After washing a hard days work away, we took the 5 minute walk down to the lake and mingled with other travelers over extraordinary salsa and some sort of black bean and cheese dip that nobody could get enough of. Tummies full once again, we gathered in Central Park, right outside our hotel, and watched a 180 degree view of fireworks from a rooftop; amazing. Before our host let us back into the hotel, she lit 5 feet of fire crackers and squealed in delight over our outrageous reaction.

Is the day over yet? Time to wrap this up and recharge for another action packed day in Guatemala mañana.

Onondaga Community College

Here's an update on what our current group of travelers from Onondaga Community College have been experiencing this week in San Lucas! Thanks to Mary Lee Berg for the post! 

The Onondaga Community College nursing students from Syracuse, NY arrived yesterday after an exciting trip that involved a lost passport and a last minute run to the gate for two students. We are all truly grateful to have arrived. We sailed through security and customs at the Guatemala City airport and had no trouble finding Candace waiting for us.

On the day we arrived we walked around the town and even explored the cemetery. It was our first moment of really feeling the cultural difference or maybe even a cultural divide. One of the students had been to Guatemala before and right away was more comfortable in the cemetery. She began climbing on the mausoleums. The other students and I were concerned that this would be perceived as being disrespectful, but Candace explained that cemeteries in Guatemala are lively places where people gather and are not somber at all. It was perfectly okay to climb and explore. We were even serenaded by two roving musicians playing guitar and accordion.

Later that night we lugged all our giant suitcases into the dining room to sort the donations and count up supplies. We were amazed by the generosity of our college community and many supporters from back home. It was the first time we saw all the donations gathered together in one place. We took pictures and will post those when we can.

Today we actually toured the homes where we will be building fuel efficient, vented cook stoves. I think we were all overwhelmed a bit by the living conditions. We had seen pictures and videos of Mayan homes and had even had a Mayan woman speak to our class about her life in Guatemala, but you just can't grasp it till you are here. It involves all your senses. You don't just see the poverty, but feel it as your eyes and throat burn from the smoke and you smell a wide range of noxious fumes and odors. Even Transformational Journeys rules for stove construction seem to highlight the level of poverty here. One of the big rules is that you must have a room for the stove with four walls and a roof over it with a support beam. This is necessary to make sure the stove can be properly maintained and won't be damaged by the elements.

While we were touring the homes one of the students had our infant manikin that will be used in the reproductive health community presentation poking out of her back pack. It was like she was the pied piper. She had a trail of little girls following her and wanting to see her "doll". We did let some little ones play with it, but it broke out hearts that we didn't have a hundred dolls to just hand out. Even the women seemed shyly interested in our "doll".

We are finding that we wish we could fix all the major problems of access to health care, health information, good nutrition, clean water, and fresh air. We are humbled by the enormous needs and how little we can do in nine days with limited resourcrs.

You can all be proud though. Out nursing students are representing their colleges and the United States well. Today they also did a run through of their community health teaching projects with the local health promoters. They have had to make some adjustments in how they will do their presentations to accommodate the culture. This was a very good thing that will help them develop sensitivity towards diverse people throughout their lives and careers as registered nurses.

The students who are teaching reproductive health had initially been given the green light to talk about safe sex practices and the importance of condoms. However, when they did their presentation the female health promoter became alarmed and thought women attending the presentation would be put at risk for being beaten by their husbands. The thought that we could unintentionally place women in such danger was very concerning. We understand that intimate partner violence is a problem throughout the world, but I don't think we had considered or realized that a cultural misunderstanding might trigger family violence. We must be very careful and be grateful for the wise council of the local health promoters who do so much good in the community.

The students were very respectful about the health promoters concerns and were able to adjust their presentation on the spot. They also thought critically about how the health promotion/risk reduction needs of the community could still be met and found a culturally sensitive solution. They provided the community health promoters with information, pamphlets in Spanish and 700 condoms so that the health promoters could teach members of the community about this sensitive subject one on one. The students even provided the health promoters with large color photos of what herpes lesions and HPV warts look like to help them diagnose sexually transmitted diseases because the health promoters have limited training and education and are often the first health care resource sought. Most medications can be purchased in Guatemala without a prescription.

Our students really learned a lot today about being part of a multidisciplinary health care team that is sensitive and respectful of the unique needs of a diverse patient population. Though I focused on the students teaching about reproductive health, because the faced the most challenges today, all the students are doing well and are going to do a beautiful job teaching.

Tomorrow the oral health group will be teaching children how to care for their teeth. We will be giving out toothbrushes, tooth paste, dental floss, coloring books and crayons. We will also do fluoride treatments on the children too. After all that we will start building stoves in the afternoon. That's all for now, Lee

Final Trip Reflections

Note:  The following is some additional trip reflections from another of our travelers, Louis Potts. 

Guatemala has one of the highest birth rates and lowest literacy rates in the Western Hemisphere. It is therefore profoundly revolutionary that the young community of San Gregorio has come together behind an effort to build a primary school. For centuries the Mayans have endured hardship and now seek liberation.  During our visit we talked with Andres Chajil. As a youth he and his family served as peonage labor on a nearby plantation and suffered severe social discrimination. He escaped this horrific situation, gained an education and is now an engineer in charge of crucial water projects in the region. A water tank he built serves San Gregorio and sits adjacent to the school site. He emphasized the need for universal service exemplified by our church’s “across the sea”missions. Our projects have empowered these people in manifold cooperative ways. Wives now share in family decisions, families each have contributed one square meter of rocks to the school foundation, children from three different hamlets exclaimed that we were laying the foundation to THEIR school, the regional government has pledged they will contribute teachers. One of the very appropriate devotional readings our team discussed was: “If you plan for a year, plant a seed. If for ten years, plant a tree. If for a hundred years, teach a child....When you teach a child, you reap a hundred harvests.” 

-Louis Potts

San Gregorio, Guatemala --November 2013

I have seen their faces and I know many of their names. There is Sueli the woman who organized our first mission to build stoves and who is now actively organizing the community to help build the school. She met us at the gate Friday evening and accompanied us up the hill where we received a warm welcome. There is her husband Antonio who worked along side us carrying rock and sand. There are her son and two daughters one of them named Melinda, the name of my own daughter. There is Valentino and his small friend who helped shovel sand along side of us. They are anxious and excited to have a school of their own. And there are the boys we watched carrying large rocks along with the men up the steep slope to the site of the new school. There is the entire community of San Gregorio who want a better life for their sons and daughters.

I remember my first day of school in 1948. All I had to do was show up. Someone else had built and paid for the school. It was expanded the next year to accommodate the post war baby boomers. Someone cared for me and provided a school for my education. I never knew them, but I do know these families and their children and I will give back something to our extended community, San Gregorio.

Mic Morris

Saturday November 9th On the road to Antigua.

After our morning devotion we have bordered a van for Antigua. We made a change in plan and took a different route stopping on the way at a Mayan ruin. The grounds of the ruin were larger than I had anticipated although the pyramid type structures were small, around thirty feet in height. It was quite pleasant to walk around the grounds. The domestic or palace structures were foundations only. Apparently the walls and upper structure had been adobe with fresco paintings on the interior and did not survive. There was a museum adjacent the site but eve3rything was in Spanish. On of the displays was that of human skulls and the surgical instruments they used to perform brain surgery.

 

Mic Morris

Friday November 8

This was another great day but before I describe it I would like to print a retraction to a previous writing. I told you that the aquatic/perma culture was owned by 65 families who would be moving in. I asked Candace where their children would go to school and she told me that only one other family would be moving in and that was the cottage we visited. The rest live in the city and come out to work the land. They hope to set it up as a park where people can come and enjoy similar to an arboretum.

Today our scripture was taken from Mathew 5: 1-12. It was the sermon on the mount but it was almost unrecognizable in the translation that Ted has been using. It is very contemporary and some of you might find it troubling. But he speaks about when you find your self at the end of your rope you are blessed. With less of you there is more of God. You are blessed when you feel you have lost what is most dear to you. These phrases are more penetrating that the poor in spirit or the meek or those who morn. The don't have the comfort of familiarity but familiarity often brings lack of thought or insight. I had a friend who lives part of the year in England. His wife was asked to read the scripture in their local Methodist church. Afterward, a number of people asked her what translation of the bible she was using because they had never understood the scripture before in those words and they had been given new insight. They were taken back when she dad it was the same pew bible they had always read from.

The day was long and the work was hard. Fortunately we had cloud cover most of the day but no rain. We transported buckets of sand and rock to mix concrete and sand to mix mortar. At other times we were carrying rock to lay the foundation. We were always cautioned to drink plenty of water and not to over exert ourselves. As I look back I am amazed at how much we accomplished in five days of work. When I found myself overwhelmed with the work I would look at the neatly piled stacks of rocks that the people of San Gregorio were providing ans watched the men and boys carrying those rocks great distances and then negotiating the steep hillside. They are contributing much in the way of sweat and materials to their future school. Candace said that the entire foundation should be completed in another two weeks.

Merebellla brought our final field lunch out to us. It was grilled chicken with a wonderful flavor. We also had salsa, rice cooked with carrots and some cauliflower and other vegetables.

Afrer work we adjourned to the salon for the celebration. There were banners and music from a rented PA system. The community presented each of us with a shoulder bag made in Guatemala. We exchanged thank yous for our work and their hospitality. We gave each of the masons a poncho (we had seen them too often being soaked in those early rain storms). We gave the two rock cutters protective glasses (they had been cutting stones with mallets and chisels without eye protection) Afterword we were served a soft drink and a donuts. We then bid them adios (go with God) mounted the truck-bed and headed home to the hotel. The sun was setting behind us with a beautiful sunset framed between the mountains and volcanoes. I saw in it a sign that God was with us in our adios.