Mission Trip Moments

Here are a few pictures and videos that really do not fit into any category, but are definitely worth seeing:

An important part of any mission trip is a time of decompression after the workweek is finished.  Our group traveled to Antigua, Guatemala for a day of R&R before heading back home.  While there, many of us had the opportunity to relax by zip-lining at 70 kilometers per hour, five hundred feet in the air, from one mountain to another...twice :

A video of chickens:

Check out the ears on this cow!  

(But don't talk too loud about her ears, this cow can hear you from Guatemala)

Obey the signs:

Volcano time!

A picture of the large volcano from the roof of our hotel in Antigua

What really goes on at the Airport in Panama City, Panama:

A visit to one of the world's most important Mayan archeological sites.

Before our work began Julio, our guide, took us to see some of the Mayan Ruins in the area.  There are 23 languages spoken in Guatemala, many of them are rooted in ancient Mayan.  The people in the village of Naranjito still speak Kaqchikel as well as Spanish.

The Children of Naranjito

There are over 50 children in the village of Naranjito.  Their school house has two classrooms.  One class is for 1st-3rd grade and the other is for 4th-6th grade.  After school, the children help to clean up the school house by sweeping and mopping.

Everyday Debbie (one of our Missionaries) organized a Vacation Bible School for the children of Naranjito.  This Bible School occurred while other members of our team built latrines.  On our last day in the village, all of us got to be a part of this Bible School in the form of a children's fair.  

This is a great video of a mother making a blouse on a loom in front of her home.  Her daughter is also a part of this video.  (Her daughter was very excited to watch herself when we played back the video for her on the camera). Many handmade items like this cloth are sold at the market in San Martin.

Guatemalan Cuisine

Breakfast and Dinner at the Full Moon Cafe
We ate breakfast and dinner everyday at the 'Full Moon Cafe' in San Martin.  It is about a twenty minute walk from our hotel, owned by Mark (an American).  Mark's food was delicious.  He made us both traditional Guatemalan food as well as American food.  A traditional Guatemalan breakfast consists of rice, black beans and a number of local fruits.

Lunch in Naranjito

We ate lunch everyday in the village of Naranjito.  These meals (often taking a number of days to prepare) were made by many of the women of the village.  Some of these women lived in the homes where we were building latrines.  Everyday they made us homemade corn tortillas, fruit juice (or 'Fresco') from the fruits that grow in the village and often served us local vegetables that we had never heard of.

POLLO CAMPERO

This is Guatemala's most popular fast food restaurant.  They serve fried chicken, pizza, flan in a cup and a number of other seemingly unrelated food items.  This particular Pollo Campero was protected by a guard armed with a shotgun.  Though not even he could protect Rob from getting sick from eating here.

Travel in Guatemala

There were three major modes of transportation in the towns we visited that we would like to share with you:

#1. Riding in the backs of pick-up trucks.
This is how we arrived at the worksite each morning, riding down a dirt road in the back of a pick-up. Here are Jesse's thoughts on the pick-up rides:

#2.  Riding in a Tuc-Tuc.  

These are the cabs of San Martin.  Julio (our guide) told us that they may have been given the name 'Tuc-Tucs' because of the sound that the engine makes.

#3.  Old American school buses.  

These seem to be the main form of public transit.  Most of these buses are painted bright colors, covered in chrome, and equipped with huge horns.  We literally saw well over one hundred of these buses just in our drive to and from the airport in Guatemala City.

Latrine Building, Naranjito Style (Part Two)

After two days, the latrine begins to take shape. The community of Naranjito is incredibly well organized. A committee of community leaders decided the order of when each family would receive their latrine. This latrine is being built for a widow with seven children.

Leveling a block using a plum line

How to place blocks AND LEARN SPANISH, in one easy video!

Getting ready for a roof

Wooden beams need to be added so that we have something to nail the roof to.  The tool that Pedro is using is made specifically for this purpose only.

Roofing Materials:
Rob used garden sheers to cut the tin roof to shape, and a hammer and knife to cut out the hole for the bright orange ventilation pipe.

AFTER 3 DAYS OF HARD WORK:
A completed Guatemalan Latrine!

Latrine Building, Naranjito Style (Part One)

Most homes here in Naranjito have latrines, though these latrines do not have roofs, ventilation tubes, or permanent walls (the walls are made of bamboo shoots tied together).  Because of this, the current latrines can make people sick.  Part of the price that we paid to get to go on this trip paid for the building materials for all 41 latrines that are needed in Naranjito.

The latrines that we are building are made of concrete blocks, pronounced 'block' in Spanish.  These blocks have to be moved by hand (or head) to the location of the latrine.  Here, Susan attempts to move a block like the locals.  (Watch the woman behind Susan to see how it is done).

Each latrine begins with a square hole five meters deep.  This hole was dug by Pedro's fourteen-year-old son.  It took him six days to dig.  Pedro is a mason in the village and taught us how to build the latrines.

Setting the floor of a latrine.

The most difficult part of building latrines is digging the holes in the hard Guatemalan Clay to begin setting the walls.

The cement that is made for the latrines is intentionally semi-permanent.  The reason is that after 7-10 years, each latrine needs to be taken apart and moved (block by block) to another location.

When a block needs to be cut to fit, it is cut with a machete.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the entire experience, where Rob is being taught how to cut cinder blocks by Pedro.  We did not come to teach, we came to learn and to share.  Who would have thought that cutting a cinder block would embody this ideal so well?

After one full day of work...

Naranjito

We worked in the village of Naranjito, or 'Little Orange Tree' in Spanish.  Naranjito is a small community of about 65 families located about fifteen miles away from the town of San Martin.  Since the end of Guatemala's civil war in 1996, the village has taken steps (with organizations such as BDP and Bride Builders International) to improve the way of life for its people.  These improvements include: a bridge connecting the village to the main road, a dirt road through Naranjito, running water (though not drinkable), electricity, a 4-room school house, a church, and now:

clean latrines.

Susan's initial impressions of the village:

Here are some photos of our daily drive through Naranjito.

A view from the school on our first day of work in Naranjito.  In this video you can see one of the sinks where washing takes place.  There are many of these sinks scattered around the village.