Friday Photo Post: Children in Santa Maria de Jesus

These are some of my favorite pictures from Guatemala. It would have been fun to be able to visit with the children and ask them questions.

Street Artists in La Antigua

Our last few hours before heading to the airport were spent walking around Antigua. On the way back to our host families, we walked by some street artists near the Santa Catalina Arch.

Just before we saw the street artists, I took this photograph. It was one of my favorite scenes, so when I saw the watercolor painting below of the same scene, I decided it would be a great souvenir from our trip to Guatemala. It now sits on a table at the bottom of our stairs, so every morning when I go downstairs and I see it and think of La Antigua Guatemala .

Related Post: Friday Photo Post: Arch of Santa Catalina

Farming in Guatemala

It was interesting to see how the people of Guatemala use every bit of space they can for farming. Some of the fields are on very steep hills and everything is done by hand: cultivating, planting, irrigating and harvesting.



Most of the farmers rent the land for their fields, and even though they work long hours, they barely make enough money to support their families.

From Houses to Homes

While we were in Guatemala, we visited with Oscar Mejía, a friend of the Larsens who they previously met through God's Child Project. Oscar is now working with another volunteer organization called From Houses to Homes, and because of our interest, he took us to Santa Maria de Jesus to show us what they are doing in that community.

During our visit, we met a family whose new home had been finished the day before. The old house had dirt floors and walls made of dried corn stalks. The new home is made of cinder block walls and concrete floors. There is also a concrete front step.

The Old House

The New Home

The Family and Neighbors

The family graciously showed us their old house so we could see what an average home is like for people in the area. They were very friendly and answered our questions and let us take pictures. The neighbors were very curious about us, and they came over to see who we were and what we were doing.

For more information about From Houses to Homes, you can visit their website. If you have questions about the program, you can use the contact form or the email address listed on the site.

Friday Photo Post: Arch of Santa Catalina

With Volcán de Agua in the background

From Fodors: The only remnant of the once-enormous Convent of St. Catherine is this beautiful yellow arch that spans 5 Avenida Norte, a street locals call Calle de Santa Catalina. The convent was founded in 1613 with only four nuns, but by 1693 its growing numbers forced it to expand across the street. The arch was built to allow the sisters to pass from one side to the other unseen.


* Thank you to Jennifer Victor-Larsen for the last photograph

Fiesta de Santiago Parade

On July 25, La Antigua Guatemala celebrates its patron saint with Fiesta de Santiago. Fireworks, music, parades and a fair are all part of the festivities.


*Thank you to Jennifer Victor-Larsen for the first and last photographs

A Day in Parque Central

Central Park in La Antigua Guatemala is a great place to sit and relax, enjoy an ice cream cone, and watch people go by.



*Thank you to Jennifer Victor-Larsen for the last photograph

Churches in La Antigua Guatemala

Iglesia de la Merced

Cathedral de Santiago

*Thank you to Jennifer Victor-Larsen for the last two photographs.

Friday Photo Post: Chichicastenango, Guatemala

Thank you to Jennifer Victor-Larsen for these pictures of Chichicastenango.

Something that really struck me was how differently the Mayan children behaved compared to American children. In a busy market like this, American children would be running all over, making a lot of noise. The Mayan children were usually sitting or standing close to adults, and playing quietly or watching other people. Young girls would carry smaller children tied on their backs like the mothers did. I can only imagine the reaction of a ten year old girl from the United States if you expected her to carry her two year old sister or brother around on her back all day while helping at the market.

Chichicastenango Market

If you go to Guatemala, I highly recommend a visit to the market at Chichicastenango. This is where we found the best deals on souvenirs, and where we had the most fun haggling for those gifts.

Even if you aren't interested in buying souvenirs, Chichi is a great place to people watch. Taking pictures can be tricky, because it is very crowded, but I managed to get a few good shots. I saw some tall photographers and wished for their height. I am 5'1", and it was difficult to see over the crowd.

Fruit From the Santiago Market

Panajachel

Taking a break from building the house, we went to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. We also took a boat across the lake to Santiago and visited the market there.

At the market, we had the chance to taste some fruit that was new to us. The first was pitaya, or dragon fruit, which comes from a column cactus. It tasted light and refreshing.


I don't know the name of the other fruit. I thought it was licha or liche, but after doing a google search, I don't think that is correct. Does anyone know what this fruit is called?

* Thank you to Mike at Vagabondish for identifying the fruit as rambutan!

After the skin was peeled away, it resembled a large peeled red grape, and it tasted like one, too. Both fruit fit in the "peel it yourself" category of okay to eat, although we used a knife to quarter the pitaya.

Someone from God's Child Project came with us to make sure we stayed out of trouble. ;-)
I'm glad he was there, because he is the one who pointed out the fruit. If he hadn't, we would have walked right by it and missed out on a new experience!

Visiting the Homeless and Malnourished

During our stay in La Antigua Guatemala we visited the Santa Madre homeless shelter where we served a meal and washed dishes. We also visited a malnutrition center in San Juan, where malnourished children are sent for treatment. Both experiences were difficult. The little we could do to help did not seem enough.

The malnutrition center was a more positive experience, in that we were able to give the children individual attention. It was a great feeling to make one of them smile or laugh. The center was also a more hopeful place because the children were getting better, and several of them would eventually be reunited with their families.

While we were there, we held, fed and played with infants and young children. There were also opportunities to help out by giving baths and changing diapers.

With the older children, we played outside on the swings and shared bubbles and balloons with them. Some of the children filled balloons with water. Their mischievous expressions made me laugh and their eyes sparkled with delight. Some children, though, were more serious. They would watch us, but didn't interact. I just wanted to pick them up and give them everything they needed to be able to run and laugh like the others.

The saddest part was finding out the baby you thought was 2-3 months old was actually 1 year old or the child you thought was 2 years old was actually 4 or 5. Some of the children had been in the center for several months.

KVLY TV in Fargo, North Dakota, has a video clip of the malnutrition center and homeless shelter in part three of its series on God's Child Project.

Friday Photo Post: Cerro El Niño, Pastores

Community Laundry Washbasins

On work days, we sat in the back of a pickup truck as it drove up this very bumpy dirt road. At the end of the road, we got out and walked up a paved path, then dirt paths to the work site located in the neighborhood of Cerro El Niño in Pastores.

One of the houses we could see during our walk up to the work site.

The dirt path that led us to the work site.

You had to watch your step on the dirt paths because of erosion, but it wasn't too bad. It was a mess when it rained, though.

A Means to an End: Building a House

The original house

In my acrostic list, I mentioned walking uphill. To get to our work site, we walked up a very steep road, then up and down dirt paths that led to the family's home.

We were lucky because the building supplies were already at the site. That was huge, because the supplies included 100 pound bags of cement mix, cinder blocks for the foundation, sand for the concrete, rock for the aggregate concrete, lumber, and the wallboard. We did have to visit a previous work site and bring a heavy toolbox, ladders, wheelbarrow, shovels, etc down to our site, and that was just enough fun for us.

We were able to complete the house in only three days. I give all the credit to our very skilled and ever patient jefe, Edilser. Our first job was to cut rebar with a hacksaw. We used the cut rebar as stakes to hold the string that would mark the borders of the house, and later it was used in the cinder block as support. Once Edilser measured out where the walls would go, we used pickaxes and shovels to dig the trench for the foundation. At the same time, others were mixing concrete with shovels and later on, hoes.

When the trenches were complete, Edilser laid the four corner blocks and attached string guidelines for us to follow for the rest of the block. After a demonstration of what to do, he let us loose. I never thought I would be a bricklayer, but I gave it a try. I am definitely a better brick tender! We did three courses of block and each time, Edilser laid the four corner blocks and set the string guides.

After the block work was done, we had to mix the concrete for the floor. This had rock in it, also, which made the mixing very difficult. Jen and Nels did most of that work with help from Edilser and even some from Ian. Once it was mixed up, the rest of us formed a bucket brigade to deliver the concrete to Edilser, who did the floor. Miriam, the wife and mother of the family, was happy to use the extra concrete to cover the dirt floor in their bathroom. You can see the bathroom in the picture of Jen and Nels mixing concrete.

On the last day, we used the only electric tool we had, a circular saw, to cut the lumber. Some of us used a hand brace bit drill to drill holes in the 2x4's that would lay over the top course of block. The wood had to fit over the rebar that was sticking out of the foundation. While some of us did the framing, others were busy painting the exterior side of the wallboards.

After lunch, Mario and Mickey from GCP stayed to help us finish the house. When the framing was complete, the walls went up. As we walked around, pounding nails in all the boards, Edilser and Mario were putting on the metal roof. We cut out a window and Mickey put in a door. Once the roof was complete, the gutter and downspout were installed.

With all the excitement of finishing, neighbors coming over, and cleaning up the work site and putting away all the tools, I actually forgot to get a picture of the completed house. We realized that after we brought all the tools and ladders down to the truck, but we were too tired to walk all the way back up to get a picture. Luckily, we did manage to get a shot of our service team with the family in the doorway.

Miriam and her daughter Jennifer were excited about their new house, and when we presented the house to them, Miriam had us in tears as she expressed her gratitude. Luckily, Jen from our group is fluent in Spanish and was able to translate Miriam's words. Unfortunately, Miriam's husband wasn't home from work before we left, so we weren't able to say good-bye to him.

*related post: God's Child Project

The Dreamer Center

The Dreamer Center

The Library

Here are some pictures of the Dreamer Center to go with yesterday's post on God's Child Project.

God's Child Project/ La Asociación Nuestros Ahijados

Patrick with students at the school

Ian and I joined five friends to form a service team for God's Child Project in Guatemala. Patrick Atkinson, the founder of GCP, was in Antigua and led our orientation the first day. "You are here for three reasons, to learn about yourself, to learn about your god, and to learn about the poor" Building the house, serving a meal at the homeless shelter, and visiting the malnutrition center in San Juan were all just means to an end.

He also told us we would be receiving a gift from the people of Guatemala. From the people we met, we would discover the power to choose what we focus on while we deal with everything in our lives.

The families we would be helping were very poor, but they choose to focus on things other than poverty. They focus on the positive things in their life, so we shouldn't be surprised to see the friendly smiles, and the willingness to share what they do have. What a contrast to wealthy people all over the world who have incredible resources, but are unhappy because they focus on negative aspects of their life.

The orientation also covered the history of the organization, tips for health and safety, and a tour of the Dreamer Center. The Dreamer Center includes a school, medical clinic, dental clinic, and rooms available free of charge for community events.

The main goal of God's Child Project is to help families break the cycle of poverty. They do this by encouraging children to stay in school. The project helps pay for school supplies, uniforms, admission fees, food, bus fare, medical care and other expenses. The family receives extra money if the child gets good grades in school. This works as an incentive for the parents to encourage the children to study. If the families did not have this help, many of the children would be working to help support the family.

God's Child Project has several websites, and navigating them can be confusing, but there is a lot of information about the program and the services they provide for the families of Guatemala.

Some of the sites:
www.godschild.org
www.gcpnc.org(the office in Bismarck, ND)
www.gcpvolunteers.org
www.gcpserviceteams.org
www.ana.org.gt (La Asociacion Nuestros Ahijados)

Wearing La Asociacion Nuestros Ahijados tshirts, some of the people in our group had locals on the street comment about Patrick's project. Everyone had good things to say about it. One man added that it was one of the few organizations that doesn't "sell" the children of Guatemala, a reference to the practice of foreign adoption. After our experience as a service team, I was impressed by GCP, but to hear positive feedback from the people who live in the community really confirmed that impression.

*related post: Defending Voluntourism

Guatemala Acrostic

Ian at Iximche, Tecpan

Did you ever write acrostic poems in school? It's when you write the letters of a word in a vertical line and use those letters to start each line of a poem. I'm not so talented in the poetry department, so while I get my thoughts and pictures from our trip in order, here is an acrostic list to whet your appetite.

Awaking to roosters crowing, dogs barking, and birthday fireworks explosions
Native Mayan dress on women and young girls
Trying new foods like pitaya and liche
Ice Cream (helado) from Marco Polo
Greetings from strangers
Uphill we walked, and walked, and walked
Arts and crafts

I'm Leaving, on a Jet Plane...

I'm heading to La Antigua Guatemala. If I'm lucky, I'll get some photographs like this one of Iglesia de la Merced from rudygiron's photostream on flickr. You can also see it on one of my favorite sites, La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo blog.

Doug won't be with me on this trip, but I'm not traveling alone. My son, Ian, is going with me, and we'll be traveling with friends.

Hasta luego, amigos!

From other Travel Blogs...

Ruins at Ephesus in Turkey

It was another good week for interesting travel articles. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Timen at in my All Stars has launched the Trusted Travel Blog Network. Check it out, and be sure to nominate your favorite travel blogs.

2. Gadling had several good travel articles, including Do It Yourself Volunteering and Spanish Immersion in Guatemala by Jamie Rhein, and Talking Travel With Matthew Polly by Justin Glow.

3. Conor Grennan from How Conor is Spending All His Money shares another great story about his orphanage in Nepal with Sock Puppet Photos.

4. Ian at Brave New Traveler started a Flickr Photography Pool and invites you to share your travel pictures.

5. Ubertramp has more travel tips with How to Choose a Backpack.

6. Learn about Nicaraguan Communications at Our Man in Granada.

7. Smarter Travel has an interesting article on Taking the kids to the Galapagos Islands.

8. National Parks Traveler has some good advice for visiting Arches National Park near Moab, Utah and Acadia National Park in Maine.

9. Pia Taylor at Backpackers.com writes about keeping your valuables safe when traveling.

10. Last, but not least, This non-American Life made me laugh with a post on Nudity Season.

For more great travel articles, check out the section labeled "From other blogs..." in my sidebar.

*The above picture was taken at the ruins of Ephesus in Turkey.