After putting Cali in her tuk tuk, I walked up to the Porch to join the team that is here for a week. They are a group of about 14 volunteers from a church in Tallahasee, Florida. They were finishing up a group meeting about the day before, making observations about the country, the people they are building the house for, talking about politics, religious make-up of Guate. They had a short devotional, we sang Seek Ye First. Then we drove in two vans up to Concepcion, a small village past Solola.
There are two houses being built. The volunteers fund-raise in order to build the houses. Each house costs $3500-$4000 each. This group has been effective at the fund-raising part. The one family is getting a two bedroom house, the other is getting a 3 bedroom house because the mother also lives with them. The first family is a mom and her 2 children and they were living in a space the size of a tiny closet, in her brother’s house. The other family actually tore down their cornstalk and mud house in order to make a space for the new house. The main organizer was commenting how the family has such faith. Someone told them a group of people were comng to build them a house and to tear the old one down in order to make space for the new one. They trusted the man who told them, and tore down their house. They were living in a tiny makeshift house, which was similar to the shack they were living in before, but not as air tight. They have almost nothing. The volunteers brought clothes for the kids, new (used) shoes for them, a few toys. Many people are living like this, especially in the country.
After looking at the two work sites, three of us decided to go with the driver to the coast (Pacific, that is). I’m trying to remember the last time I was at the Pacific Ocean, but then that became too much work so I stopped. We drove to a missionary hospital to pick up three moms and their babies too bring them back to San Lucas, a village on the other side of the lake. We picked up the dads on the way there, they were so excited to go. They hadn’t seen their wives or babies for 4 days. I’m sure that was a long time, especially for the dad who had the remaining 6 kids with him at home.
The drive was about 2 1/2 hours each way. It’s always an adventure driving on the same roads as the chicken buses, stray dogs, free range cows, falling into the road drunk men. I find it interesting how people tie their cows to the fence close to the road. Perhaps it’s because they don’t own a field for grazing and the grass by the road is public property, so they can feed them that way. We saw two drunk men simply fall into the street. People don’t flinch, simply scoot them into the ditch in a way that they are less likely to roll into the road again.
The closer we got to the coast, the hotter it got. By the time we got there, simply breathing was making me sweat. I like feeling warm and toasty, but that was tropical HOT!
When we got to the hospital, we weren’t allowed to go in. Even the dads weren’t allowed through the gates, and there were lots of other people waiting in the yard. They did let our driver Hector in because he said he had clothes for the babies (which he did) so that they could be taken home. When the women finally came out with the babies, the dad’s were overjoyed. It was touching to watch.
It was our sense that many babies who are born with birth defects are left to die. These three babies came to get these operations by a lot of networking. A volunteer who was down for a week saw that the babies who had a hairlip/cleff pallette needed special bottles to nurse. Her granddaughter also had this condition. When she got back to the U.S. she arranged to send down some special bottles. Then a lot more networking was done to find a surgeon who would perform the operations, when they would come down to Guatemala, finding a place to perform the surgeries, finding sponsors to help pay for them, arranging transporatation (which is where we came in). Long process which could have been derailed at any stage. So this was a huge huge deal to these families.
We drove to a little restaurant and they all ate. The three gringos, just had drinks. The food was all homemade, and I know I have a strong stomach for a gringo, but it’s probably not pollo-in-the-sun strong. The three of us politely declined and watched them eat. Yes, a bit of an awkward cultural moment. It probably appeared weird to them that none of us would be hungry when we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was 3 pm, but none of us were willing to contract the “turista” for the sake of one moment of cultural connectedness. Sometimes you have to weigh the pros and cons.
We dropped the two families off in San Lucas. The one family lived in a cinderblock house with perhaps 10 other people, maybe more. For the welcome home they put up balloons and gave the boy a plastic little tricycle. I don’t know how many people contributed to that gift. But the little boy was like a celebrity.
The second family was the one with 7 children. They are living in two very small rooms, if you can even call them that. They are some boards for walls, a tin roof, dirt floor, huge openings with no closing doors. Incredibly poor conditions. But again, everyone was all smiles, very grateful.
We stopped in Solola to see one of the other houses they built for a family there.
This woman has a blind autistic son and her husband was an alcoholic. Her friends were suggesting that she poison both of them and get a fresh start. One of the groups came down and built her a house that she can sell tortilla’s out of the front, look after her son in the back. After that the husband stopped drinking because he had much more hope, could see his life working. He now has a job, and was smiling continuously while we were there. Someone is also sponsoring the little boy to attend a special school, and that also gives his mom a break. This group of people is making a difference, one family at a time.
We drove into town right by Kier’s school. She had forgotten her laptop at the school and one of her friend’s said you can never leave the laptop in the school. So she called two of her teachers. He rode over on his motorcycle to let her in. Benefits of living in a small town, going to a small school. Across from Kier’s school they are setting up for a big concert (by Pana’s standards). I was excited about it until I found out it’s an Evangelical band doing mass conversions. Kind of like a modern day tent-meeting. Bummer. I was hoping it was a Guate rockband. Even though we are at least a mile away from it, sounded like we were in the front row. I wonder how late it’ll go. The good news is that their concert drowned out the service next door for one night. That’s kinda happy for me. Big evangelical service trumps small one. Hey, it’s new music, in tune, I’ll take it!
I also found out from a neighbor that our neighborhood is mini-mafia land. Apparently this makes it a safer place to live because they look out for each other here. Ok. Not quite sure how to assimilate that information. For now, I just may pretend like I never heard it. Denial. Sounds good. A bunch of them run the church. Good to know. I’ll never complain about the music in public, again I mean.
Cali went over to the family’s house after school today. But I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to her. She said she played with Laura, the youngest girls the whole time. They played with the bunny (who gave her two big scratches down her neck) and two little chicks who are running around the yard. She had tortillas for supper, but they didn’t have any salt to put on them. They also climbed up the tree and ate a small orange. Seems like the clementine with small white worms that she ate from her schoolyard hasn’t scared her off from eating fruit off of trees.
Kier and Madi did homework when we got home. I had to turn Cougartown up to volumne 42 just to hear it over the evangelical rock concert at the stadium, about 2 km away. They are loud!
Cali’s frog blog: Today I had lots and lots and lots of fun. I went to the family’s house. At first Jonathan brought me home because he forgot that I was going to his house. My mom said he might forget and to not get out of the tuk tuk and to tell him to take me to his mom’s house. I told him that and then he remembered, “Ah si, ah si!.” I wondered how my mom knew that he would forget. So when I got to their house I saw them in the kitchen making tortillas. Then I started playing Barbies with Laura. Then she brought the little chicks to me. We held them and kissed them. They were so loved, those chicks. Then she asked if I knew how to ride a bike. So we practiced stopping on the bike, you know, using the brakes. Then she asked if I wanted anything to eat. Then I said, “I don’t know.” Then she said, “Ok, you’re going to eat.” So we had scrambled eggs and one tortilla. Then we looked for the bunny and we followed her all over the yard. We just couldn’t get tired of doing that. Then we climbed up a tree to get an orange to eat. Next we went to pick up Yulissa (oldest sister) and her friend at the library. Then we went to a pottery store and they bought a yogurt and pottery bowls and plates. Next we went to the market in a tuk tuk and bought key chains. Then we walked home. When we turned the corner we saw Kier waiting for us. She forgot her computer at school, so we had to walk up there and wait for her teacher to open the door. There was a big concert across the street. Then a van dropped off mom as we were sitting there. I had my big bouquet of flowers with me. We walked home and it was getting dark. When I got home it was already past my bedtime. Can you imagine that? That is how my day went today. P.S I love you all very much.