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!