Stove Construction Sta. Maria Chiquimula!

The Giant truck we used to transport all of the materials

Loading 1,440 bricks onto the truck

Doors, chimneas and hats for the stoves

The community, Tasabalquiej, waiting for their materials

The 30 women of Tasabalquiej all standing behind their soon-to-be stoves. I definitely was teary-eyed when I took this picture. The women were all so happy!

The community of Chiaj helping to unload some of the materials

A few women carrying a stove top

The 16 women of Chiaj stranding behind their materials.

Santiago (I like to secretly call him Frankenstein because he has gold teeth, no neck and slicks his hair back), the "1st Sindico" (which is like 'vice-mayor), who has ben helping me out tremendously with this project (although he can be very difficult to work with), is talking to the families about how great everyone has come together to make this project work and how it is important to have an organized community and they are setting a great standard and example for Santa Maria Chiquimula.

The community, Chuwiq'ichinal, helping unload materials

The community treated us to lunch. I thought this photo was great because we literally had lunch in the middle of nowhere, in the forest, on the dirt floor - but it was delicious.

The view from one of the homes we were building a stove in - this picture does not give credit to how beautiful this community is.

This is what the kitchen looked like before we built this family a stove.

Starting the first layer of brick.

The women helping to cement the bricks together

The first day completed - the base of the stove.

The stove was then filled with white sand and here we are building the "fire box" with brick and placing a "brown sugar/clay" mixture to hold the brick together.

The fire box almost completed.

The stove once we placed the stove top on

Building the bridge over the door to fill in the gap between the stove top and the door with pieces of iron.

The finished product :) This is Ana with her husband Baltazar and their daughter Marilena.

This is me and my buddy Miguel. I taught him how to "high-five" and "thumbs - up" , to which every 5 minutes he would ask me to high-give or thumbs up - so we made a hand shake out of it. A high-five straight into a thumbs-up but touching our thumbs together making it into a thumb print - Miguel thought of that one :) Such a cute boy!!

My improved wood-burning stove project officially started this past Monday! However, the week before I was completely stressing out. The bank account to deposite the USAID check had not been opened nor had any of the materials arrived to any of the communities. I knew I had to start the stove demonstrations Monday, if not, I knew this project would not be completed before I went home. Well, since I've been here I have come to expect the unexpected and take into account that there will definitely be setbacks. I found out Weds. we were able to deposite the check and the Muni told me they were starting to deliver the materials Friday! On Saturday afternoon when we had delivered (mostly) all the of the materials I went back home, sat on my porch and told Tuk "did that really just happen?". It was almost too good to be true. So within a matter of 4 days we were able to accomplish everything I was freaking out about. So gracias a Dios, we were able to start construction, as planned, on Monday! So far we have built 6 stoves and are building 3 more this coming Tuesday and Wednesday. The 9 stoves that are being built are "stove demonstrations" for each of the 3 communities. Each community will have 3 stoves built and the women living in that community are divided into 3 groups where they will have to watch how the stove is built. Once they have watched the 2 day process, within each group, the women have to build their own stove as well as help the other women in their group build their own stove as well. I have given them 2 weeks to build their stoves and after the 2 weeks I will be coming around to each community making sure all the stoves have been built. If not - I will be forced to take out my wooden spatula :) (aka threatening to take away their stoves) If I don't give the women a time period, they will not finish the stoves and they may even sell some of the materials, so this is my way to holding everyone accountable.

Well, it has been a loooonng week, but I am so happy with how everything is going. We had a few setbacks with the first demonstration we had due to over measuring, but we were able to fix the problem and the stoves look fantastic. I would like to thank everyone who has donated to this project - without your donations, none of this would be possible. I hope with these pictures you are able to see directly how you impacted the lives of these families with your donations. You are directly improving the health conditions in these families lives - you are saving them! If you are interested in donating please check out my website: http://www.healthyhomesguatemala.webs.com/ and click on the link "how to donate". I will be starting another stove project next year and will need all the help I can get! Thank you all so much!

Halloween/Kite Festival!

My sitemate, Val and I in Antigua on Halloween. Val was a superhero.

There I am to the right - See how crazy big these kites are?!

The back of the kite.

A view of the kites from the highest point at the festival

I had a piece of this guy for lunch that day and after reading about how dirty they are, I'm not not too sure I'll be eating this type of meat again.... except for bacon.

So for Halloween this year I was a "Mall Walker". For those that may be foreign to this concept, they are people that basically speed walk in little groups around the mall - a rather tacky form of excercise. Although I have never had the privledge of actually witnessing a mall walker, thanks to "Modern Family" Episode 1 - I was given my Halloween costume. I pretty much picked the tackiest jump suit I could find that was probably dated back to the late 80's early 90's, strapped on a fanny pack, found an even tackier visor, threw on some tennis shoes and some really awful red lipstick and that was my Halloween costume. This year I was warm and comfortable and looked pretty ridiculous.

The day after Halloween a bunch of my PC friends went to a little town called Sumpongo where they fly kites to celebrate "Dia de Los Santos" or "All Saints Day". On the first of November the Mayan community comes together in the cemetary of this little town where teams form to compete to see who can fly their kites the farthest. The kites are thought to call to the souls of the departed and to scare away evil spirits. This was by far one of the coolest events I have been to since I've been in Guatemala. There are these kites, some incredibly enourmous, completely made out of tissue paper and bamboo. The craftsmanship and the attention to detail - it was breathtaking. They were all pieces of art.

Health Promoter Clausura

Me with the 2010-2011 Health Promoters! 9 in total (one couldn't make it)

Me with the doctor, Brenda and the health promoters

Giving Abraham, our youngest health promoter (18), his diploma and ID badge.



This is what the clausura looked like.

So the day finally came! The health promoters finally graduated! And guess what, the doctor actually showed up!! But of course - as always there are always setbacks. Since I've been here in Guatemala I have learned you always need to be prepared for the unexpected - always anticipating the next step. Kinda like serving. When the cocktail is almost empty, you ask if they would like another, making sure the cocktail is right there once they are actually done with their drink - when the appetizers arrive place the order for their entrees, etc. So keeping that in mind I had to prepare for the worst case scenario and best case for the health promoter graduation. The doctor had not come to the health center at all this week and he had all the final diplomas and ID badges that he needed to sign. So I had to reprint all the diplomas and ID badges so I at least had something to give the graduates. I also had an agenda printed off and of course nothing on the agenda was followed. Key people didn't show up and I had to think fast with finding an alternative to kill the time. The health representative from the municipality failed to show up. When I called him he was in the capital, ha. So I had to run around the town hall to find someone to speak on behalf of the mayor. I ended finding the municipal secretary! haha - but it worked. Felisa had to go to Xela for a meeting so thankfully Claudia, the coordinator of the women's office was there, so I made her say a few words. Antonio, the technician from an aldea of my town didn't show up and neither did the president of the health promoters from this aldea - so once everyone who I dragged to speak said a few words, then the doctor, then Brenda (who is my counterpart here at my site) then myself, I had all the health promoters say a few words. I knew this would waste time because Guatemalans LOVE speaking forever. The doctor also agreed to give the health promoters oral rehydration fluid packets and acetemenophen to help those in their town that may have fevers, pain or diarrhea. So that was a big positive. I would say it wasn't the greatest graduation ever, but it was still successful.

What did fail was the new health promoter meeting. Ironically enough, all the women that came last month failed to show up this month but all the women that didn't show up last month came to this month's meeting... So with the women that showed up we planned for the first offical meeting to be the 17th of November. However, the only positive part of that day was kicking a drunk man out of the meeting. It was a little short man that decided to walk into the middle of our presentation and starting ranting. After a while I had enough. So once he got up from the chair he was sitting in I pushed him towards the door. He then placed his hands on the table and said he wasn't leaving. I asked nicely if he could leave and he wouldn't, he kept rambling and sluring his words. So I took the liberty of just picking him up and I carried him out of the room. Not lying. But it wasn't that easy - he threw me into the wall and then tripped on my foot and fell on the floor. Then Felisa and I proceeded to drag him out the door. I turn around the a room full of 40 silent and shocked indigenous women. One lady couldn't believe I had done that, telling me 'he was drunk, seno!" and then another lady asked me if this is what we do in the states, hahaha. So yes, I literally picked up a grown man and carried him out of a room - well more or less.

This past week I invited Brenda, my counterpart, to my house to talk about some of the issues we have been having. For the past 6 months or so I have not been working with her for various reasons. One major reason being that the doctor doesn't want her working with me. To this day, even after talking with her, I still don't understand why. The meeting was prompted after the presentation I had to give in front of the health center doctors, their bosses, my bosses, other volunteers and their respective counterparts. I did not present with Brenda but with Felisa and Antonio who has the same job as Brenda, but lives in one of the small towns (aldeas) of Santa Maria Chiquimula. The presentation sparked a huge debate between all the health staff present due to the series of HIV/AIDS workshops I conducted in Chuicaca this past year where I found out instead of 600 people, we taught over 1,000 people! Apparently the doctor never reported all the incidents of HIV/AIDS cases in that town and his bosses had no clue we had conducted these workshops. For about 20 minutes there was a huge argument in the middle of my presentation. So after that awkward interruption I finished and asked if there were any questions. The doctor then commented on how he has no clue I would be bringing midwife birthing kits in January even though I had sat down with him and we discussed planning a series of workshops with the professional nurse and the midwives.... but I commented back saying he DID know and how we had a meeting about it. That was his way of trying to make me look disorganized or whatever because he was mad I got him in trouble - but it didn't work.

So a few days later I found out from Felisa that Brenda was mad that I didn't include her in the presentation. So I invited her over to clear the air. When I confronted her about some of the issues I have been having with her and some of the comments she had made she, of course, denied every single remark. I don't know why I waited until now to express my frustrations with my work colleagues, but now that I have I feel like I can start off in a new direction. I also found out the professional nurse started her own health promoter group, pretty much completely behind my back which was basically a slap in my face. I was very upset and felt even more like I have no support whatsoever from my health center. It is so very different working with Guatemalans as opposed to Americans. They are incredibly indirect, huge exaggerators, lack constructive criticism and have no problem lying competely to your face. Or maybe they are like Americans, haha - maybe I just lack the 'real world' experience and this is just a strong taste of it.

So I'm not really sure if things will improve with my health center staff, but I can't sit around here and wait for them - I have work to do! With or without their help or support. This coming week I will be meeting with the construction workers who will be building my stoves! So we are almost ready to start construction!

Tenga un feliz fin de semana! Nos vemos

Livingston - Xocomil - Back to work...

Rio Dulce

Kiki and I enjoying the local drink, ¨coco locos¨

Judy and I - Mexicana y Peruana

Everyone on the boat - little did we know we would be on this thing for 3 hours....

So Livingston was a success :) However, taking into account the fact that I had to sit on my butt for 26 of the 48 hour trip on a school bus and a boat I´m pretty sure I will never go back there again. My butt is still sore and my knees have bruises from trying to make myself comfortable against the metal seat in front of me. We had to pass through Rio Dulce (Sweet River) in order to get to Livingston. The river was beautiful but I had seen something even more beautiful when I was in Costa Rica. We were able to taste the local food called Tapada - a soup with many different kinds of seafood. It was very delicious! The women in town were also selling coco bread which was also very good. We tried to find local music but the town was dead at night! The next morning after getting up at 4:30 am my friends and I (9 volunteers went on this trip) made sure we had seats at the front of the boat to have the better view. That was a huge fail. The water was choppy so for the next 3 hours we were trying to find ways to block the spray of water we were all getting hit with. Ahh, just writing about this trip is making me exhausted! We get back late Friday night and the girls and I decide to make a trip to a local waterpark - and that was awesome! We had so much fun! Probably the cleanest, coolest water park I have been to yet. When I get home Sunday - guess what - my landlord made an unexpected visit! How could I tell? She has her own separate bathroom next to my bathroom downstairs. Sometimes when Tuk is playing with something he accidentally loses it under this bathroom door. There happened to be a stuffed plastic bottle filled with inorganic trash - well Tuk tore it to pieces. I walk into my house to find the lower patio covered in plastic - it looked like a war zone. Then I realized there was a ton of Tuk´'s poop on the upper patio and also a leftover firepit I hadn't cleaned up yet. This lady must think I am completely weird.



So I am now back to work, I have 2 big meetings this week with the new health promoters and I also have the graduation for the health promoters finishing a year on Friday. Here is hoping the doctor actually shows up....



Here are a few photos of how the landslides affected Guatemala (photos from Phil Wood's site and BBC)

This is only 1 of many images of how the rain affected Guatemala leaving roads completely covered in land.

Tragically due to all the rain Guatemala's mountainsides were not able to stand against all of the saturation leaving Guatemala's highway system covered in massive landslides. In this picture an entire bus was buried by a landside leaving many people dead.

Here you can see the massive amount of people gathered at the accident site. In the distance you can see all of the ambulances that were called to help save the victims.

Happy Birthday Seño Valeria! Goodbye Zane :(

Yesterday my site mates and I celebrated Val's 28th birthday and also threw a going away party for Zane. We went all out with decorations, piñata, cake, games, firecrackers, bondfire etc. It was definitely a very entertaining night! Zane leaves the 12th of October - how time flew! Before I know it I will be saying goodbye to Valerie.

A Guatemalan tradition - smasing the birthday cake in your face right after blowing out the candles. We got Val GOOD!! People were eating cake off of her face for a while...

Val and the piñata.

Afternoon soccer game at the synthetic soccer field just built in Chuiquimula with some other volunteers for Val's birthday.

I'm taking care of Esther's dog Tay'in while she is in the states so Tuk has been a little less annoying now that he has regular company. However, Tay'in does not listen. They both bolted from the front door when I opened it and had to track them down on the other side of town - of course Tay'in was the ring leader. Tuk's chunky butt was just following behind like it was the coolest thing he has ever done. Of course it was a huge spectacle in my town. People all over town were leaving their stores to watch Tuk and Tay'in roam around town - it was like they were watching a parade. Today, they escaped again and while I was walking them back after chasing them down the street again we were passing by this one house who has 2 watch dogs that sit on the roof of the house barking - ALL the time - well one of the dogs (who is this boxer mix who just gave birth to puppies so she's a little chunky) got a little too excited barking at Tuk and Tay'in and SMACK, I turn around and the dog fell off the roof!!! I thought the dog was dead or at least with broken bones. Well the owner comes out of the house and the dog miraculously gets up and walks inside! I guess you had to have been there, but it was so ridiculous and I mean, really?!?! A dog falling off of a roof. I think I will be laughing over this story for a while.

So I just finished my last health talks with my women's groups. Soon we will start construction! Although it is raining season, my hope is to start in mid to late October. Ojala!

Me, Felisa and my women's group in Tasabalquiej after giving a cooking class. We made spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce with soy protein.

SO these are the spiders Tuk likes to kill and leave in the middle of my floor, dead. However, he failed to find this one! I was looking for something on my desk and this scary, ugly thing pops up! I think I spraid it with Raid for like 5 minutes. I was too afraid to kill it with my shoe.

Standfasted again....

So yesterday all of PC was standfasted again until further notice. A tropical storm came through last night and today which caused a non-stop, slow rainfall. Then tomorrow hurricane Matthew shows its ugly face. So I am stuck here at my site, completely bored out of my mind. I watched 2 movies already and plan on a third after my internet expires in a few hours. I finally watched Revolutionary Road - man that is a sad movie and then watched Baby Mama to help balance out the genres.

Yesterday and Thursday I helped my site mate Zane set up the town's first library!! The books that were donated were absolutely amazing! Most of which were all brand new textbooks and children's books. I am so excited for its opening. Zane did an amazing job getting everything all set up. He is still waiting for the municipality to hire a librarian so he can train him/her on how to run the library. So for those that have any books they would like to donate send them my way or I'll take them back with me when I leave in January. So Zane leaves for good the 12th of October! How time flew! This coming weekend we will be celebrating Val's 28th birthday and Zane's goodbye party. So this weekend should be a lot of fun!

So this is to give you all an idea of how the library is turning out. Everything you see is all donated! I helped Zane decorate, put together bookshelves and set books up. I'm so excited for the town to enjoy this library!

My promoters graduation was posponed because, guess what? The doctor decided to plan a health center excursion to the coast instead. I walked into his office to remind him about Friday and he nodded his head, paused and agreed then I asked him about the excursion to which he fumbled a bit and started apologizing and then invited me to come along. So basically, he would have been fine if he didn't go to the graduation. Ugh! Why do these people have jobs, I don't understand! Hey all, let's plan a trip to the coast even though the past month has been independence day, the queen election, sports day, and in a few weeks there will be another excursion to Livington. You would think all these people were in retirement for the amount of time they spend working. Oh and don't forget the past 3 strikes held around Guatemala where the whole health staff skipped work to go and strike. Sooo, now the graduation is on the 15th of Octobre. Let's see how this one turns out.

So now some good news. My SPA grant from USAID was approved!! I am just waiting to open up a bank account under one of my women's groups and we can start construction!! I am so excited! So hopefully by the time I come home all 60 stoves will have been built.

Also, I talked to the school director of one of the elementary schools here in town and we are in the process of building a whole classroom made out of recycled plastic bottles filled with trash! When I proposed the idea he was all for it and very excited. We set up 2 presentations for the students and for the padres de la familia (or parent representatives of the students, kinda like the PTO) in order to get everyone on board. School ends in the middle of October so the project wouldn't really start until February of next year. But they will have an assignment to collect and stuff bottles on their summer vacation. I made it so that the classroom with the most bottles will win something as well as the student with the most bottles. So I am very excited for this new project. This will not only involve the whole school, but the teachers, parents and the community. Not only will they be cleaning up their town but they will also learn about the importance of recycling and saving the environment.

This is to give you all an idea of what a bottle project looks like. Instead of using the traditional block for the walls, they are using plastic bottles, cool, right?! This just so happens to be a whole school, I am only hoping for a classroom. And look at all the students helping to build! Ownership, teamwork, bonding - all things to look forward to!

So I am very excited for the next few months to see how everything unfolds. I definitely can foresee opstacles and frustrations and probably delays, but all with patience and positivity!!

Thanks to all who have donated - without you all this stove project would not have been possible!! I am in the process of starting another project in February, so donations will still continue, so keep spreading the word!!