Wednesday October 9, 2013

The morning started off with some people catching up on the computer to update status or catch up on email.  Another group left the house and went out for a morning stroll to find non-instant coffee.  This ended up being a challenge and most coffee that comes in good sized bags is instant and the lack of Spanish speaking individuals makes it all the better experience.  After another great breakfast we began our day.

One group headed off to the school in Paraxaj.  This is a dual classroom school with about 50 students.  We started off with a clothing drive and started to funnel in individual students to equip them with sweaters, shirts and pants and possibly shoes.  This went over great.  While that was taking place the second team at the school was organizing games.  

This included playing with the parachute, playing soccer and drawing on the soccer field (concrete) with sidewalk chalk.  

A great moment from here was that 3 girls recognized that Peggy and Garry were a couple and the girls started to draw hearts on the court with Peggy and Garry written in them.  The groups were then rotated and the sidewalk chalk drawings went from hearts to tracing bodies. 

The 2 groups of students were then brought together and goodie bags were handed out to every boy and girl. These were prepared by the grade 2 students at Prince Albert Public School back home.  The goodie bags included craft materials, school supplies and a toy.  

After this happened Tim and Juli met up with their sponsored family and had some bonding time and exchanged a few gifts as well as a lot of love.  The families are so appreciative.

While a portion of the GMT headed to the school in Paraxaj, the other half stayed back at our housing complex to finish the walls of the build a home program which is a natural progression throughout the week.

When both teams gathered lunch was had which was amazing chicken salad sandwiches.

After lunch the larger and handiest portion of the group headed to the training center.  Some were dedicated to build a new wall out of metal studs and drywall.  There was a lot of discussion regarding how the wall should look and function and after some constructive brainstorming a decision was made of how it should be built.  The other half that headed to the training center hosted a sewing session with 5 trained ladies and they were able to completely finish a quilt.

While the handy people went to the training center the non-handy people were left behind to build a door.  It was not planned this way but this is the way it ended up.  The door came along quite well and after several bent nails were discarded the door was complete.  The team continued to load trucks with all the walls that have been built during the week and delivered to the cement pad that was poured earlier in the week.  This led to some great laughs.  The first incident was trying to fit our mason/carpenter into a single bench dodge ram along with Doug, Brian, Juli and Tim.  That’s 5 in the front of a truck that holds 3.  If this wasn’t funny enough the mason/carpenter couldn’t reach the gas and brake pedals.  He then proceeded to pull his seat forward.  This left Brian with one butt cheek on the driver seat and one butt cheek on the rest of the bench.  This was a good stretch for Brian.

The second incident occurred while moving the second load of walls to the home.  Another vehicle was added as we needed to load 2 20 foot x 3 inch boards into a very small Datsun truck.  Loading the boards into the truck wasn’t a problem but having 5 feet in the truck bed and 15 feet hanging out was an issue.  Tim then decided to sit on the boards in the bed of the truck so that they wouldn’t fall out.

This was fun keeping them in the truck but Tim managed to throw candy out the back of the truck to the boys and girls.  By the time we arrived to the cement pad there were 20-30 kids following the truck.

If that wasn’t enough the locals wanted to make fun of Brian and decided that it would be a good idea for him to get on their horse.   It appeared that Brian hadn’t mounted a horse recently and this proved to be hilarious to the locals.  The mount wasn’t graceful and the dismount was despicable.  Great laughs all around.

While visiting this home in Corrales we quickly noticed the shoes that were being worn weren’t adequate.  While coming back to our complex we headed to the Parramos square to buy some shoes and will deliver them tomorrow.

The teams then reconvened at our complex to a beautiful lasagna dinner and then gathered to share the moments of the day so that this article could be written.  We are all quickly learning that a hug goes a long way.

Tim Myers

Tuesday in Guatemala

We are beginning to get into a morning routine.  It starts with the wake-up rooster call.  If that doesn’t get us up the fireworks will do it.  Most of us venture out for a morning walk and are exploring the town of Parromas.  Today we were out walking as the children were going to school (7:00).  Carmen, as always , prepared a wonderful breakfast for us.

This morning we broke into two groups.  Two went to the newly purchased Loving Arms property which is being converted to a trade training centre.  They were able to construct a wall using metal studs (which are much cheaper than wood).

The rest of us travelled to the school in Corrales.  It was much smaller than the school yesterday with 1 principal and 2 teachers for 90 students.  Once again we played soccer, completed a craft, and played parachute games.  

The children enjoyed all and had wonderful and warm smiles.  At the completion of the games we distributed shoes and socks to the needy.  

We were overwhelmed and heartbroken to see the condition of their feet and the state of their shoes.  It was difficult to tell some of the children that we did not have shoes even though they needed them.  And yet in all of this they gave us huge grins and many “gracias”.  

Before we left handed out goodie bags to all the students and posed for a group picture.

The daily rain started a little earlier to-day and we were forced to make changes to our afternoon schedule.  Four of us went to the Training Centre where the sewing room is well equipped and worked with five ladies from the village of Chitaburuy who came to work on a quilt.  The ladies had previously had experience on sewing machines but this is their first quilt.  

They will work on one quilt this week and then they will be given 4 other packages so that they will each have a completed quilt. To-day, each lady put together a row.  They wondered why they had to be so precise with their seams but when the rows were laid out on floor they were really happy with their work.  We are hoping that the quilt will be completed tomorrow.

Because of the rain the rest of the group stayed at our residence and worked with a carpenter to construct wall panels for the Build a Home project (we did the floor yesterday).  The panels are 4’ wide by 7’ tall and then what we would refer to as cement board was attached.   The crew was challenged by the hammering of the wet (probably milled last night!) 2’ by 3’s together resulting in many bent nails. 

We realize that we are extremely fortunate to be so well taken care of.  We have a driver to take us to our job sites, fantastic translators to help bridge the communication gap, and have a comfortable residence to return to each day.  We know that there are dangers in Guatemala but we are safe and protected.

As we have done each evening, we enjoy going over our day and sharing many good times and laughs.  Life is good.

Peggy Hunter

Monday in Guatemala

Today had a surprise start for the team.  The early risers found there was no power!  This of course means NO COFFEE/NO SHOWER.  To pass the time until the others woke we went for a walk around town.  We had a full breakfast prepare luckily on a gas stove and off we went to start our assigned projects. 

One group went to the school in Parrojas and played soccer, taught crafts (friendship braclets) and games. We worked with more than 100 children. Brian brought the parachute game that was an extreme delight for the children.  Doug came back with lovely red fingernails. Thanks to Afrisoccer who donated 4 sets of soccer uniforms for this school!

The other group went to the property and cleared a land that will have a green house built on it.  We regrouped at lunch and enjoyed sharing our morning experiences.  Still no hydro!  

In the afternoon we split into two groups again.  One group went to the property and continued clearing the land and sorting and assembled the sewing materials for the sewing workshop scheduled for tomorrow.  If there is power.  The other team went to a build a home project for a Mom, Dad and five children.  They mixed cement and poured the floor for the new home.  The recipe for the cement was: 13 wheel barrels of sand, 8 wheel barrels of rocks, 6.5 bags of cement mix.  This was mixed by shovel and poured into a plank wood frame 12’x18’x3”.  We worked hard and steady covering the pad with tin just before the skies opened with rain.  This will have to dry 24 hours.  

At the end of the day we all arrived home dirty, tired and hungry.  Still no power.  We gathered again and shared our stories from our afternoon while our house Mom Carmen cooked our supper meal.  We gathered by flashlights to begin our meal and after the grace including a request for hydro God heard our prayer and we had lights!  Our meal was delicious once again.  

Taking advantage of the hydro many headed for the showers.  To complete our evening we sat together and drafted this update for you.  We feel we had a wonderful day and yes we are enjoying an after dinner coffee.  The day is now complete.  It is now 8 o’clock and we are going to bed.  Talk tomorrow.   

Dianne Pelletier

Day #1 Guatemala

Sunday October 6, 2013

Wow, what a day! Today was an incredible day #1 in Parramos, Guatemala. We were up at 5:00 am because our bodies had not adjusted to the time change yet.  We awoke this morning to the sound of roosters crowing, dogs barking and fire crackers.  It would have been 7:00 am back home.   There is a beautiful view of some volcanoes from the courtyard where we took in some of the early morning air.  We had time for a walk to the village square as locals set up for Sunday morning market. We bought 2 lbs of large blackberries, an enormous pineapple and two large bouquets of gorgeous flowers for $30Q or $4.00 Canadian. Carmen, our house mom, served a delicious breakfast and much anticipated coffee.  The blackberries were scrumptious.

By 9:00 am the team divided into three groups: one group sorted food while the two other groups were off to build stoves.

Peggy, Garry and Kelly went off to build one stove with a mason while Suzanne, Dianne and Brian went another direction with another qualified mason to build a stove in the village of Corrales. Our Greenbank fundraising purchased supplies for the stoves.  Each family that had a stove built were currently using an open pit fire inside their home to cook on, which is completely dangerous and hazardous for families. The required supplies consisted of cinder blocks, cement mix, gravel, sand, lime, water, cooking surface plate, door, and chimney.  The supplies were waiting there for us to create the stoves. One hundred and fifty lb bags of river bed sands, cement mix and water  were carried up the mountainside to the families’ homes.  It was exciting and rewarding to see the gratitude on the families’ faces as they saw a stove created before their eyes.

Julie, Tim, Doug and Angela remained at the guest house to assemble food hampers that are to be given out to sponsored families while we are here, 173 in total!  We had plenty of help from Marcy, a student completing her co-op portion of her schooling. Emma, Luisa, and Brenda, the children that live next door to the guest house with their mother, Erminia.  We had a system down and completed all 173 hampers in one hour and a half.  We then sorted some donated school uniforms, a necessity to attend school in Guatemala.  We used the remainder of our morning sorting all of the items we brought for communities throughout the week.

While waiting for the other two groups to return for lunch we went for a walk in the hot sun.  Julie and Angela climbed up the back of a “chicken bus” for a photo op. It’s worth the time goggling “Guatemalan chicken bus” for further information about them.

The afternoon we participated in a church service in Parramos.  Sponsored families were present to receive their monthly hamper. We planned activities for 85 children aged 3 to 14, consisting of a puppet show, songs, and wool craft - God’s Eye (goggle it).  Then one of the heartstrings experiences that hit us hard was the handing out of food hampers to kids and their families.  We wrapped up the day with a church group photo consisting of 127 people with their food hampers.

We headed back to our residence for a delicious dinner.  This blog had been interrupted with a spontaneous street band and float followed by hundreds of people carrying candles to commemorate the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. What an experience! 

Blessings, 

Brian Jones, Angela DeLuca

Day 1

Helping the families here in Guatemala.

We had 2 groups go out to Corrales to build stoves for 2 families while others stayed back and built food kits for the afternoon church service.

Church was very emotional serving the food kits out to the sponsored families. The photo shared is of 4 kids holding their homemade teddy bears.

Thanks Eunice Rahm for making these for the children down here.

Our first aquaintance ...

The first little child we saw on arrival. 2yr old Brenda.

You wouldn't know they are in need as they are always playing and smiling.

Arrived in Guatemala !

Just wanted to let you know that we have arrived and all is well.  We had a great flight, no issues with luggage or at customs on this end.

Loving Arms greeted us at the airport and we rode the wild roads and up the mountains to Parramos.

Tomorrow we prepare and distribute food hampers, build 2 stoves and lead a Sunday School Program with puppetry and crafts for 85 children.

It will be a busy day but we are all looking forward to it :)