Hey ya'll well this is the end of my 9th week meaning I only have to more weeks left. It's exciting to be going home but I am also very sad to know I will be leaving. This is probably the second to last update you will be receiving.
Things went so well this week. We were able to finish all three stoves without a hitch. It was tough work, and this week has been unusually hot and we have not seen rain since last week. The families have been so nice to us, cooking us lunch and offering us drinks. Also the mason we hired has been fantastic. He is the brother of one of the women we are building stoves for. He learned everything quick and has been putting us to shame with his skills. I am confident he can build a stove on his own, which some of the villagers have taken notice of. He is already being offered to build more stoves that we aren't even funding.
Kevin was able to find more donations for us to build 2 more stoves in the community. This will give 5 families stoves in total, almost half of the womans group we are building for. We should complete those by Thursday of next week. The peace corp volunteers have been working closely with us as well. Our hope is that this project can continue without us there. All they should need is donations. We only have to build 6 more stoves to give everyone in that community a stove. If you are at all interested possibly making a donation towards a stove please contact me. They cost a little over a 100 US dollars to construct, so any donation can make a huge impact. I will be able to send these donations down to Comintancillo and have the peace corp continue the project. We will probably be setting up a donation account through friendsofguatemala.org.
In other news from the week, our visit to the Xocomile water park with the fammily was soooooo fun! This might have been the best water park I have ever been too! The rides were amazing and the kids didnt even stop to breath when they were riding them. Little Georgina and Irving past out completely on the way home. I was really cool to see their reaction to it all. They hardly ever leave Comintancillo, and they had never heard of Burger King when we went there for breakfast. At times I was worried they might be overwhelmed, but I think they really enjoyed themselves at the water park.
Things are starting to wind down here, this is our lat full week in Comi, the next blog will be from xela or antigua. Hope everyones summers are coming to a good end.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Stoves!
Stove project got underway this week! I am sore all over and both my brain and body hurt! We had to coordinate the purchase, transportation and delivery of over $500 worth of materials for the stoves this week, all in Spanish. Amazingly enough everything went extremely well, granted our driver was late and we had to go to a different store to get more materials. We managed to get one stove built and the rest of the supplies delivered to the other 3 families. The community, chixal is about an hour walk away up hill. We made the walk the first time to meet all the community memebers and give our charla. I was dead after it haha. Luckily we were able to ride in the delivery truck the next time when we delivered supplies. The delivery was tough as the three families lived at least 100 meters off the main road. This meant we had to carry the 50 pound bags of sand up and down hills to there houses. That was a long day. It was nice though seeing the community come together to help move those supplies, they seemed really excited. I also had to try 3 different kinds of arozz, which is a suggary rice drink that each family has a special recipe for. After three large glasses from each family as thanks, which i couldn´t turn down, my stomach was claiming mutiny!
We also built our first stove of the project this week. This one was for our host mother. For as much as she cooks for us its really the least we could do. I think she thanked us about 10 times in the last week. It was really fulfulling to see that pure joy that the whole family seemed to take in just having a wood burning stove. The stove was tough to build though. This was the first one kevin and I had built without the help of Justin. It took us three days, as we also did not have the help of a local mason. But it turned out awesome and when our host mother saw it the frist time she exclaimed "que bonita!". I am really excited to start on the next three!
When are finishing up our 8th week here. I am really starting to feel comfortable here and its wierd to think that we have about 2 more weeks left in Comi. I think about how nice it has been to get to know our host family as well as the store owners and other peace corp volunteers. I am so grateful for how they welcomed us into their homes and have been nothing but helpful and nice. I constantly see people walking around without shoes, children malnourished, women farming until the sunsets, men drunk stumbling though town. But with all of these harships the people still great you with a smile, and a hello, even though they know that we live beyond comfort, with the best healthcare systems and are always well fed. It truly floors me. I know I am going to miss it and while I am excited to go home, I know a small part of me in going to be left here.
I love all the responses so keep them coming. Also we are taking our host family with some of the peace corp volunteers to Xocomile next weekend. Xocomile is apparently the best waterpark in central america and I have been told it puts American ones to shame. It should be fun!
We also built our first stove of the project this week. This one was for our host mother. For as much as she cooks for us its really the least we could do. I think she thanked us about 10 times in the last week. It was really fulfulling to see that pure joy that the whole family seemed to take in just having a wood burning stove. The stove was tough to build though. This was the first one kevin and I had built without the help of Justin. It took us three days, as we also did not have the help of a local mason. But it turned out awesome and when our host mother saw it the frist time she exclaimed "que bonita!". I am really excited to start on the next three!
When are finishing up our 8th week here. I am really starting to feel comfortable here and its wierd to think that we have about 2 more weeks left in Comi. I think about how nice it has been to get to know our host family as well as the store owners and other peace corp volunteers. I am so grateful for how they welcomed us into their homes and have been nothing but helpful and nice. I constantly see people walking around without shoes, children malnourished, women farming until the sunsets, men drunk stumbling though town. But with all of these harships the people still great you with a smile, and a hello, even though they know that we live beyond comfort, with the best healthcare systems and are always well fed. It truly floors me. I know I am going to miss it and while I am excited to go home, I know a small part of me in going to be left here.
I love all the responses so keep them coming. Also we are taking our host family with some of the peace corp volunteers to Xocomile next weekend. Xocomile is apparently the best waterpark in central america and I have been told it puts American ones to shame. It should be fun!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
At little less shenanigans
Hey everyone don’t worry this one is nowhere near as long as the last one. I apologize for any burned corneas from reading the last one.
I wanted to say thank you real quick, for those who have emailed me about the blog. I truly appreciate the support and it is nice to know someone is actually reading all this! It’s also nice to get updates on what going on back home, so keep them coming!
This week had none of the shenanigans like last week, but it was interesting all the same. We spent the week planning out our stove project. We also learned of the community and families that we would be building the stoves for. The community is called Chixal (chishal), which our host mother thought was funny, since chix in Mam (the Mayan language here) means to go the bathroom. We got quotes on supplies as well and planned the transportation of the supplies. We also worked with Kelly, one of the peace corp volunteers in Comi, to create a charla. Charla translates loosely to seminar. We have learned, and seen first-hand how important education is to aid. Its goes along with the biblical saying “give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life.” It’s not enough to just give these families a stove. We need to teach them why a stove will improve their health and hygiene, and save them large amounts of money on wood. We will be giving that charla next week. Kelly will also include some new cooking techniques in it as well.
We are also trying our best to make this project inclusive of the whole community. We are buying all the supplies locally, hiring a local driver, and paying a mason to work with us and learn how to build stove for the future, as well as requiring the families to pay for 20% of the stove. These were all things I never considered when I first got here. I feel very blessed to have been able to work with Justin on his stove project early on. He showed us not only how to build the stove but how to make them impact the community in the most positive way. I have seen and heard about aid projects were organizations just come in and hand things out. Only about a third of it ends up being successful. For instance, recently a Canadian organization came in and gave out dental care visits for 5 Q (about 60 cents US). Now the few local dentists that are actually here are going out of business because everyone in the community is waiting for the next much cheaper visits by the Canadians. They are also putting off needed dental care in waiting for the Canadians (it only costs a 100 Q for a visit to a Comintancillo dentist, about 13 US dollars). Another stove project done here about 3 years ago failed miserably. They built 40 stoves, and today only above 15 are in use. The simply came in for 3 weeks, built all the stoves (for free) with no education, and left. Most of the families sold pieces of the stove for money, others used it as a shelf, and others cut off the chimney because they thought that smoke meant a good fire. We hope through our methods this won’t happen to our project.
Because we have been doing mostly planning here, we have had more time to spend with our host family and in the local community. One thing that was really moving was going to church with Alex, one of Dona Hilda’s (our host mother) sons. While my Spanish is getting better I knew I would have trouble understanding the mass. What I forgot, however, was that it was a Catholic mass. They are the exact same as in the States, just a different language. It hit me during mass, as I said the Our Father, Kevin and I the only ones saying it in English; that all over the world, even in the poorest places, people celebrate mass the same way we do! Another thing to note was how packed the church was. Sunday is not a day of rest for most people in Comintancillo. They need to work their farms each day just to put food on the table. Yet the whole community it seemed took an hour and half out of there day for God. It’s makes me cringe to think that I won’t drive 10 minutes to church sometimes because I want to watch some football game. Things are sometimes painfully put into perspective here. Another cool thing during the mass was the Peace Be With You. No one shook hands... they all hugged each other. You have to note that I stand at least 2 feet taller than everyone there, not to mention my skin color which many people in Comintancillo only see in photos. I might as well have been an alien, but people in front and behind me in the pews, people I have never met, hugged me.
We hung out later that night with Alex and some of his friends. I really enjoyed this. Alex is 20 but him and his friends flirted with girls like they were 16. I guess courting kind of changes when you share a room with your mother, brother and two sisters and don’t have a car. His friends were also really eager to learn some English. They kept playing songs for us ranging from Eminem to Michael Jackson, asking us what they were saying. I was glad that I didn’t know translations for some of the words to Eminem songs. They laughed when I told them what Thriller was talking about. It’s weird how American culture permeates here. From rap songs to Ohio State T-shirts, from school buses from South Bend to Coke products, from Lays Potato chips to Michael Jackson. It’s almost surreal.
Next week we start work on our stoves and it will continue into next week. It’s weird to think we now have less than 30 days until we are back in US. I know that time is going to move quickly, especially with all the work we have. I hope I can make the best of the time remaining.
I hope everyone is doing well back home! Paz y Salud, Buen Dia!
I wanted to say thank you real quick, for those who have emailed me about the blog. I truly appreciate the support and it is nice to know someone is actually reading all this! It’s also nice to get updates on what going on back home, so keep them coming!
This week had none of the shenanigans like last week, but it was interesting all the same. We spent the week planning out our stove project. We also learned of the community and families that we would be building the stoves for. The community is called Chixal (chishal), which our host mother thought was funny, since chix in Mam (the Mayan language here) means to go the bathroom. We got quotes on supplies as well and planned the transportation of the supplies. We also worked with Kelly, one of the peace corp volunteers in Comi, to create a charla. Charla translates loosely to seminar. We have learned, and seen first-hand how important education is to aid. Its goes along with the biblical saying “give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life.” It’s not enough to just give these families a stove. We need to teach them why a stove will improve their health and hygiene, and save them large amounts of money on wood. We will be giving that charla next week. Kelly will also include some new cooking techniques in it as well.
We are also trying our best to make this project inclusive of the whole community. We are buying all the supplies locally, hiring a local driver, and paying a mason to work with us and learn how to build stove for the future, as well as requiring the families to pay for 20% of the stove. These were all things I never considered when I first got here. I feel very blessed to have been able to work with Justin on his stove project early on. He showed us not only how to build the stove but how to make them impact the community in the most positive way. I have seen and heard about aid projects were organizations just come in and hand things out. Only about a third of it ends up being successful. For instance, recently a Canadian organization came in and gave out dental care visits for 5 Q (about 60 cents US). Now the few local dentists that are actually here are going out of business because everyone in the community is waiting for the next much cheaper visits by the Canadians. They are also putting off needed dental care in waiting for the Canadians (it only costs a 100 Q for a visit to a Comintancillo dentist, about 13 US dollars). Another stove project done here about 3 years ago failed miserably. They built 40 stoves, and today only above 15 are in use. The simply came in for 3 weeks, built all the stoves (for free) with no education, and left. Most of the families sold pieces of the stove for money, others used it as a shelf, and others cut off the chimney because they thought that smoke meant a good fire. We hope through our methods this won’t happen to our project.
Because we have been doing mostly planning here, we have had more time to spend with our host family and in the local community. One thing that was really moving was going to church with Alex, one of Dona Hilda’s (our host mother) sons. While my Spanish is getting better I knew I would have trouble understanding the mass. What I forgot, however, was that it was a Catholic mass. They are the exact same as in the States, just a different language. It hit me during mass, as I said the Our Father, Kevin and I the only ones saying it in English; that all over the world, even in the poorest places, people celebrate mass the same way we do! Another thing to note was how packed the church was. Sunday is not a day of rest for most people in Comintancillo. They need to work their farms each day just to put food on the table. Yet the whole community it seemed took an hour and half out of there day for God. It’s makes me cringe to think that I won’t drive 10 minutes to church sometimes because I want to watch some football game. Things are sometimes painfully put into perspective here. Another cool thing during the mass was the Peace Be With You. No one shook hands... they all hugged each other. You have to note that I stand at least 2 feet taller than everyone there, not to mention my skin color which many people in Comintancillo only see in photos. I might as well have been an alien, but people in front and behind me in the pews, people I have never met, hugged me.
We hung out later that night with Alex and some of his friends. I really enjoyed this. Alex is 20 but him and his friends flirted with girls like they were 16. I guess courting kind of changes when you share a room with your mother, brother and two sisters and don’t have a car. His friends were also really eager to learn some English. They kept playing songs for us ranging from Eminem to Michael Jackson, asking us what they were saying. I was glad that I didn’t know translations for some of the words to Eminem songs. They laughed when I told them what Thriller was talking about. It’s weird how American culture permeates here. From rap songs to Ohio State T-shirts, from school buses from South Bend to Coke products, from Lays Potato chips to Michael Jackson. It’s almost surreal.
Next week we start work on our stoves and it will continue into next week. It’s weird to think we now have less than 30 days until we are back in US. I know that time is going to move quickly, especially with all the work we have. I hope I can make the best of the time remaining.
I hope everyone is doing well back home! Paz y Salud, Buen Dia!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Tajumulco, Honduras, and a New Project!
Hey everyone long time no post!
Well a whole lot has happened since my last post. I have climbed Tajumulco, set up a new project, and been to Honduras and back in the last 2 weeks!
I’ll start with Tajumulco first. This may have been one of the craziest, dumbest, out of control things I have done in my entire life. We asked around with a few of the peace corp workers on the best way to climb Tajumulco. They all made it sound so easy and told us we could easily follow the trail and wouldn’t need a guide. Justin and Laura, the peace corp workers we have been working closely with in Comintancillo, gave us everything we needed to climb; packs, tent, rain gear, wool sweaters. We left from San Lorenzo, where I left the blog last, and took two 45 minute bus rides to get to the base. We were having awesome weather the week before with miles of visibility and no rain. Unfourtunately two days before our climb we had the opposite, rain, cold, and low visibilty. Perfect conditions for a 4,500 foot climb! We met up with two Peace Corp climbers who were working in Coban who wanted to climb with us. The climb started off easy, we had low visiblity but it was warm and dry. I climbed the first half in a t-shirt and shorts. We stopped about half way from base camp after a good 2 hours of hiking for a snack. This is when things got bad. Soon it started to get colder and rain. The rain came with about 20 mph winds and we got soaked even before we could get a rain gear on. We finally made it to camp after about 2 hours of hiking. We had to scrabble and get the tents up to avoid hypothermia. I wasn’t warm for another 3 hours. It was too wet to start a fire and we decided to all sleep in one tent to stay warm. We were asleep by 7 pm as there was nothing else to do and we had to be up by 4 am to summit.
4 am came quick and It was still raining! We put on everything warm and waterproof and headed for the summit. We had trouble finding the trail at first with only headlamps, but we managed to keep a pretty good pace. Soon the sun started to rise and we realized we were not going to get a great view we could barely see 20 feet ahead and once we reached the face of the summit we could barely see each other. We headed down without even staying on summit. We were cold, tired, wet, and disoriented. We packed up at base camp and started out descent. We followed the trail for at least 2 hours, but the rain picked up and we lost trail quickly. This is when things got bad. We were soaked and out of food and water. We had no idea where we got lost and we realized that if we went down the wrong side of the mountain we could end up in the jungle or nowhere near civilization. Deep down I am sure everyone was panicking. We decided to head back up the mountain and try to find the trail even if it meant going all the way to base camp. After about 2 hours of hiking and still no sign of the trail, Kevin spotted in the mist what looked like people. Sure enough it was a guide and two hikers. What a Godsend! We made it down safely with the guide.
The trek wasn’t over though we had no place to get warm and we were 2 buses from home. We caught the first bus easy, but at the second bus stop no buses came. The wind was howling and rain was still intense. We were freezing and miserable. Again out of nowhere an SUV stopped and asked if we needed a ride. He had a full car with his wife and three kids, but they all pilled in the back to make room for us. He drove us 45 minutes right to the front door of our place, and wouldn’t accept any money. A man with his family stopped for 4 soaking wet gringo strangers and there huge packs. I really I amazed at how generous some of the people are here! God shows himself in the most unique ways.
The following week we met with Ruben, the president the NGO we are working with AMMID. We discussed how we could make the best impact possible in our next 6 weeks. After considering our 4 weeks of experience in stove construction, Kevin and I decided to run our own stove project. We are going to use the $500 we raised to build 4-5 more stoves. We would build the stoves for families that are selected by AMMID for their need and participation in AMMID programs. This worked out perfect as it would take at least a week for the families to be selected and Kevin and I would be traveling to Honduras for a week. When we returned would require the families to attend “charlas” or seminars that educated them on the health benefits of the stove as well as cooking methods for the stoves. This will hopefully bridge some of the cultural barriers that cause some of the stove projects to fail. After the meeting we felt excited and content knowing we would have a solid amount of work when we returned.
On Wednesday we started our travel to Honduras, we headed to Xela first. The following day we head to Pananchel, which is a city on Lake Atitlan. Lake Atitlan was absolutely beautiful, it was a lot like Lake Tahoe with mountains all around and the water a crystal clear blue. There is so much natural beauty in Guatemala that I really was not aware of. We met up with Mike and the rest of his friends that we would be traveling with us to Honduras. The next day we headed out onto the lake with some kayaks which was even more beautiful. Later we headed grabbed our buses and began to head to Honduras. Our first stop was Copan, which is just across the border. This also happened to be the day after the military coup occurred in Honduras. At first we weren’t even able to cross the border, but the decided if we paid 20 dollars a person they would let us cross. So we basically bribed the border officials to get across...
The next morning we headed to the Copan ruins. They were huge! The structures there were over 3000 years old and some of the temples still stood 70 feet tall. I took some really cool pictures so stay tuned for those. We walked around for over 2 hours and it still wasn’t enough to see them all. We also saw these huge beautiful birds called MacCaws. I got pics of them too!
We jumped on the road straight from the ruins. The plan was to head to La Seba, a border town about 6 hours north of Copan where we could catch a ferry to Roatan. We had been watching the news at the Hotel and we heard of street riots and we were a bit worried about encountering them. It was weird being in a country that had a relatively unstable government. It was also interesting speaking with some of the locals. They seemed very somber and worried. We take a lot of things for granted in the US but man, I can’t imagine not even being sure of my own government.
We didn’t get very far. We hit a police road block about an hour into the drive. They told us that they weren’t letting anyone through and that the roads into La Sabe had been shut down. Great! We had to find a way to get to Roatan as we had already paid for the villas we were staying in. Mike managed to charter us boat from a port town in Guatemala which I have since forgotten the name of, so we drove back out of Honduras and 6 more hours north to the cost. We arrived at dark and the boat we were taking was leaving at 4 am the next morning. We didn’t even get a hotel. We left before the sunrise on a boat ride that would take at least 11 hours. The boat was also nothing more than a bunch of open air bench seats, again great idea. At first the ride was easy and enjoyable, especially when the sun rose, but then things got bad. The seas got rough and about half of us got sea sick. It was miserable for at least 6 more hours and then things got even worse. The three Guatemalans running the boat said they were lost and low on gasoline. They didn’t have a radio, a map, or even a working compass! Luckily one of us did and we made the decision to head south and hopefully hit the cost. Ha ha I laugh about it now, but we were low on gas with no idea where we were and we couldn’t see land. So yah two impending doom situations in one week! We boated south for about another hour and miraculously we saw land coming out mist, and as we got closer we saw it was Roatan! Ridiculous, we went through travel hell for 2 days and we finally got a break!
We got to Roatan, finally and went into our amazing villas which had a fantastic view of the bay, as well a fridge full of beer and our own private pool! But best of all they had a soft bed! For the next four days we worked on our scuba certification. Roatan is known for its brilliant reefs and sea life. We were not disappointed. Scuba diving is one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. It’s like flying under water and everywhere you look there is something you have never seen before. We saw sea turtles, puffer fish, groupers the size of me, eagle rays, eels, sharks! It was amazing! We spent the whole week diving in during the day, and chilling out and enjoying the beautiful nights with friends at the villas. I loved the vacation, but the end came too quick!
We had to scramble to leave on Saturday because the president of Honduras was attempting to return Sunday and we knew it would make the country almost impossible to travel in. We took the way out that we were supposed to take in. Things went pretty easy, though we encountered two break downs on the buses! We made it across the border by nightfall and spent 4 of July in a small border town in Guatemala. To celebrate the occasion we did the most American thing we could, we ate at McDonalds and then saw Transformers, in Spanish hahahaha. Kevin and I made it back to Xela the next day were I am writing to you know. We will be returning to Comintancillo today and begin our project work next week. I certainly miss the simplicity there and I am excited to go back and see the kids.
So thats 2 weeks in about three pages for you! Sorry for taking so long to get this out. I will be doing these weekly again so stay tuned for more updates, also when I get the pictures together I’ll send out links to those!
Hope everyone had a fantastic 4th!
Adios y Buen Dia!
Well a whole lot has happened since my last post. I have climbed Tajumulco, set up a new project, and been to Honduras and back in the last 2 weeks!
I’ll start with Tajumulco first. This may have been one of the craziest, dumbest, out of control things I have done in my entire life. We asked around with a few of the peace corp workers on the best way to climb Tajumulco. They all made it sound so easy and told us we could easily follow the trail and wouldn’t need a guide. Justin and Laura, the peace corp workers we have been working closely with in Comintancillo, gave us everything we needed to climb; packs, tent, rain gear, wool sweaters. We left from San Lorenzo, where I left the blog last, and took two 45 minute bus rides to get to the base. We were having awesome weather the week before with miles of visibility and no rain. Unfourtunately two days before our climb we had the opposite, rain, cold, and low visibilty. Perfect conditions for a 4,500 foot climb! We met up with two Peace Corp climbers who were working in Coban who wanted to climb with us. The climb started off easy, we had low visiblity but it was warm and dry. I climbed the first half in a t-shirt and shorts. We stopped about half way from base camp after a good 2 hours of hiking for a snack. This is when things got bad. Soon it started to get colder and rain. The rain came with about 20 mph winds and we got soaked even before we could get a rain gear on. We finally made it to camp after about 2 hours of hiking. We had to scrabble and get the tents up to avoid hypothermia. I wasn’t warm for another 3 hours. It was too wet to start a fire and we decided to all sleep in one tent to stay warm. We were asleep by 7 pm as there was nothing else to do and we had to be up by 4 am to summit.
4 am came quick and It was still raining! We put on everything warm and waterproof and headed for the summit. We had trouble finding the trail at first with only headlamps, but we managed to keep a pretty good pace. Soon the sun started to rise and we realized we were not going to get a great view we could barely see 20 feet ahead and once we reached the face of the summit we could barely see each other. We headed down without even staying on summit. We were cold, tired, wet, and disoriented. We packed up at base camp and started out descent. We followed the trail for at least 2 hours, but the rain picked up and we lost trail quickly. This is when things got bad. We were soaked and out of food and water. We had no idea where we got lost and we realized that if we went down the wrong side of the mountain we could end up in the jungle or nowhere near civilization. Deep down I am sure everyone was panicking. We decided to head back up the mountain and try to find the trail even if it meant going all the way to base camp. After about 2 hours of hiking and still no sign of the trail, Kevin spotted in the mist what looked like people. Sure enough it was a guide and two hikers. What a Godsend! We made it down safely with the guide.
The trek wasn’t over though we had no place to get warm and we were 2 buses from home. We caught the first bus easy, but at the second bus stop no buses came. The wind was howling and rain was still intense. We were freezing and miserable. Again out of nowhere an SUV stopped and asked if we needed a ride. He had a full car with his wife and three kids, but they all pilled in the back to make room for us. He drove us 45 minutes right to the front door of our place, and wouldn’t accept any money. A man with his family stopped for 4 soaking wet gringo strangers and there huge packs. I really I amazed at how generous some of the people are here! God shows himself in the most unique ways.
The following week we met with Ruben, the president the NGO we are working with AMMID. We discussed how we could make the best impact possible in our next 6 weeks. After considering our 4 weeks of experience in stove construction, Kevin and I decided to run our own stove project. We are going to use the $500 we raised to build 4-5 more stoves. We would build the stoves for families that are selected by AMMID for their need and participation in AMMID programs. This worked out perfect as it would take at least a week for the families to be selected and Kevin and I would be traveling to Honduras for a week. When we returned would require the families to attend “charlas” or seminars that educated them on the health benefits of the stove as well as cooking methods for the stoves. This will hopefully bridge some of the cultural barriers that cause some of the stove projects to fail. After the meeting we felt excited and content knowing we would have a solid amount of work when we returned.
On Wednesday we started our travel to Honduras, we headed to Xela first. The following day we head to Pananchel, which is a city on Lake Atitlan. Lake Atitlan was absolutely beautiful, it was a lot like Lake Tahoe with mountains all around and the water a crystal clear blue. There is so much natural beauty in Guatemala that I really was not aware of. We met up with Mike and the rest of his friends that we would be traveling with us to Honduras. The next day we headed out onto the lake with some kayaks which was even more beautiful. Later we headed grabbed our buses and began to head to Honduras. Our first stop was Copan, which is just across the border. This also happened to be the day after the military coup occurred in Honduras. At first we weren’t even able to cross the border, but the decided if we paid 20 dollars a person they would let us cross. So we basically bribed the border officials to get across...
The next morning we headed to the Copan ruins. They were huge! The structures there were over 3000 years old and some of the temples still stood 70 feet tall. I took some really cool pictures so stay tuned for those. We walked around for over 2 hours and it still wasn’t enough to see them all. We also saw these huge beautiful birds called MacCaws. I got pics of them too!
We jumped on the road straight from the ruins. The plan was to head to La Seba, a border town about 6 hours north of Copan where we could catch a ferry to Roatan. We had been watching the news at the Hotel and we heard of street riots and we were a bit worried about encountering them. It was weird being in a country that had a relatively unstable government. It was also interesting speaking with some of the locals. They seemed very somber and worried. We take a lot of things for granted in the US but man, I can’t imagine not even being sure of my own government.
We didn’t get very far. We hit a police road block about an hour into the drive. They told us that they weren’t letting anyone through and that the roads into La Sabe had been shut down. Great! We had to find a way to get to Roatan as we had already paid for the villas we were staying in. Mike managed to charter us boat from a port town in Guatemala which I have since forgotten the name of, so we drove back out of Honduras and 6 more hours north to the cost. We arrived at dark and the boat we were taking was leaving at 4 am the next morning. We didn’t even get a hotel. We left before the sunrise on a boat ride that would take at least 11 hours. The boat was also nothing more than a bunch of open air bench seats, again great idea. At first the ride was easy and enjoyable, especially when the sun rose, but then things got bad. The seas got rough and about half of us got sea sick. It was miserable for at least 6 more hours and then things got even worse. The three Guatemalans running the boat said they were lost and low on gasoline. They didn’t have a radio, a map, or even a working compass! Luckily one of us did and we made the decision to head south and hopefully hit the cost. Ha ha I laugh about it now, but we were low on gas with no idea where we were and we couldn’t see land. So yah two impending doom situations in one week! We boated south for about another hour and miraculously we saw land coming out mist, and as we got closer we saw it was Roatan! Ridiculous, we went through travel hell for 2 days and we finally got a break!
We got to Roatan, finally and went into our amazing villas which had a fantastic view of the bay, as well a fridge full of beer and our own private pool! But best of all they had a soft bed! For the next four days we worked on our scuba certification. Roatan is known for its brilliant reefs and sea life. We were not disappointed. Scuba diving is one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. It’s like flying under water and everywhere you look there is something you have never seen before. We saw sea turtles, puffer fish, groupers the size of me, eagle rays, eels, sharks! It was amazing! We spent the whole week diving in during the day, and chilling out and enjoying the beautiful nights with friends at the villas. I loved the vacation, but the end came too quick!
We had to scramble to leave on Saturday because the president of Honduras was attempting to return Sunday and we knew it would make the country almost impossible to travel in. We took the way out that we were supposed to take in. Things went pretty easy, though we encountered two break downs on the buses! We made it across the border by nightfall and spent 4 of July in a small border town in Guatemala. To celebrate the occasion we did the most American thing we could, we ate at McDonalds and then saw Transformers, in Spanish hahahaha. Kevin and I made it back to Xela the next day were I am writing to you know. We will be returning to Comintancillo today and begin our project work next week. I certainly miss the simplicity there and I am excited to go back and see the kids.
So thats 2 weeks in about three pages for you! Sorry for taking so long to get this out. I will be doing these weekly again so stay tuned for more updates, also when I get the pictures together I’ll send out links to those!
Hope everyone had a fantastic 4th!
Adios y Buen Dia!
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