The team that built the home and the family

It was a wonderful experience that truly makes a difference in people´s lives

My home stay family

Ilse was a tutor, cook and friend.  Her husband Oscar was rarely around when I was in the house. Marta is a 20 year old from Germany who wants to major in International Business. She is fluent in English, Spanish and German, a very good start.

The work the family members do to get a house built

This guy carried five blocks at a time over a distance of about 75 yards over uneven and even sandy soil for three hours straight. His home will be built next week and the family must get the materials from the street to the house site by the time the work will start. The materials were just delivered this morning (Friday). His wife matched him step for step with two blocks on her head for three hours!!

The finished house

This is the matriarch´s home. The blue house in the background belongs to one of her children´s family. Another child will receive anew house next week. All the corn stalk homes bordering the steep hillside will be abandoned for these safer homes.

A pinata celebration of the completion of the houses

The pinata is traditional at celebrations in Guatemala and the children are given fist oportunity to break it open with a stick. Hidden inside are candies and small toys. When the pinata is finally opened there is a mad dash to collect the goodies.

The family we worked for receiving the keys to their new home

The inside of the new house with the family. The son has something wrong with his foot but did not let that stop him from helping us in everyway possible.  Mom was just so effusive as to how much this meant to her. She was unable to contain her emotion and it spilled out into the room.

A suggestion that was adopted

This site is so hilly, I suggested that we provide steps for the matriarch of the families´ home. She scours far and wide for wood for their cooking fires and I thought a few steps at the end of her journey, in lieu of walking up a sandy slpe would be nice, The Guatemalan workers adopted the idea and we created steps.

Concrete mixing Guatemalan Style

17 wheelbarrows of sand are placed on the ground. & bags of cement are placed on top and opened. Then a group of people take this material and make two volcanos. Then those two are moved by shovel to make one large volcano. Then 6 wheel barrows of stone are added. The masons then make a crater of sorts and water about 100 gallons (no one measures) are added. The result is concrete.

The inside back wall of a typical hose we are building here

There are two grade beams in this construction and 4 vertical reinforced columns in this wall. The scaffolding shown  is typically used. The finish is  two inches of concrete on the floor and a water based (similar to a whitewash) paint on the walls. The inside of this house will be sky blue.

The safer way to travel on some of these roads

A lot of wood and food is moved by animal poert and people power here

Road leading to the third house

The road is rutted and the drainage is that hole on the side of the road along side the man shown walking here.  The slope of the road is about 6 percent

View of the 3rd house construction site

This is a very hilly area. The ground rises about 100 feet above these structures and I am concerned for their safety in aheavy rain. Yhere are five families living here. We are building homes for two of these families.The people farm the area in the hills behing the houses. The existing houses are made of metal and corn stalks.

Typical view of the horizon Antigua Guatemala

The city lies in a plain surrounded by mountains and volcanos. The width of the bowl is at most three miles.Most building are single story and the roof tops half metal and half clay tile.

The ¨Chicken Bus¨

This the way most people here get from town to town. The fare is very low but they are crowded and you do not see many gringos on them. The name was assigned in the past when people used to bring their farm animals  to the market on the bus. They generally take off with a cloud of unburned diesel fuel.They also have a conductor who loads baggage on top if necessary.

The cells the nuns lived in

This was a simple monastic life. There are 20 identical cells like this, very spartan in which the nuns lived. They were precluded from contact with the outside world.

One of two convents for cloistered nuns in town

This is the court yard in one of the convents in town. All of these older buildings were massive and impresive.

The newly renovated Hacienda of the captain general of Central America

This palace was destroyed in the earthquake of 1773. Prior to that it served as the seat of government power throughout Central America, less Mexico. A typical day in January here is about 80 degrees and mostly sunny. This city is about 4800 fet above sea level which moderates the climate.

The construction team and the recpient family

The camera had to have some funny lens on it. Maybe it was the great meal. It was a tough house to construct on such a limited site but a very rewarding one. the two guys on either side of me are incredible hard workers. Hector on my left looking at this photo and Abel on my right. Jean and Stan were the other volunteers.

The finished house

The colors are selected by the family from a very limited palette.An operable window and door were installed after this picture was taken. To the right of the door opening is the old corn stalk house. I learned yesterday that, as recipients of a home, the family is also entitled to school supplies and  medical care at the free clinic that the organization de casas a hogres is currently completiing. It has been impressive.

The celebration of the completion of houses for two sisters

Two houses were built about 10 meters apart for sisters. The house I worked on is shown here.At the table are all the workers, paid and volunteer, the father and mother of this house and the sister of the other house. The meal was served by the ninos. It was an elegant Mayan meal served and received with gratitude.

The family for whom we built the second house

These are a very humble, greatful people. They worked hard each night to prepare the crowded site so we could concentrate on the house. They also prerpared a feast for us that was served as the first meal in their new house. Quite an honor!! This is the inside of the finished 13 by 19 foot house.

Volcan Agua

It is harg to see through the haze but there appears to be a halo about the top of this volcano, which dominayes the horizon around Antigua

Volcan Fuego

The is Volcan Fuego.

It spouts off a blast of steam secerl times during the day but I uaually only see it when travelling to the job site. The cloud layer below the peak is a combination of water vapor and soot from the incomplete combustion of wood. These folks have this view everyday but are too busy eeking out an existance, they don`t seem to notice.

Walls are half way up after two days

This is the status after two days of work. The folks in the picture are the other volunteers working on this house with me. In the background is the existing house.

Foundation of the Second House

This the foundation of the second house we are building. The size is 13 ft by 19 ft. I do know yet how many people will live in it. To the right of the foundation is the curret house. The walls are dried corn stalks. Inside the is one queen size bed and a tv that I know of. There are bamboo mats hanging outsude the door which I suppose are for sleeping.

A view down one street of the market.

This one of  the market streets in an area 10 square blocks, The vendors are everywhere including sending their children up to prospects trying to sell trinkets. It is an incredibly hard life by ouw standards. The children are ultimately locked into this life.

Sunrise on the Lake

The Floats

The flower wreath in the upper part of the picture is a float carried by about8 men. These are heavy items that they carry up the uneven stone steps of the church about 12 up. The children run before each float with incense cans. Between the smoke, the smell, the fireworks going off, the bell ringing, the paper from the fireworks falling back to earth, and the serious nature of the procession, it is quite a spectacle.

A Mayan Procession to a Church in ChiChi which dates to 1546

The church bell starts ringing (incessantly) half an hour before the procession appears. Then the fireworks start. They load and fire off the mortars from the church steps. Ocassional they fire them off in the middle of the procession. This of course takes place in the middle of the busiest market day of the week. Quite a show.
The guys in the bottom picture are the witchdoctors. They treat 65 percent of the population

Sunset on Lake Atitlan Two Views

This lake is formed in the remails of an ancient volcano, I visited and took a water taxi across to a Mayan Village with a church built initially in 1547. It took almost 1 hour for the water taxi to cross, 

In with the new

 A new secure block structure with a lockable door and operable window. The family chooses the colors from a very small palette. The inside color is  celeste which we would call sky blue. The window looks out over a saddle between two small mountains.

Out with the old house

This was the home. Some concrete block walls but mostly pieces of bamboo for wall, along with some sheet metal for the roof and one side.

The whole gang

A picture of the crew and the family

The recipient family

This the family that will live in the 9 by 15 foot house (room) we built. The mother, second left, was overcome with emotionas she saw a better life for her kids. These are incredibly hard working people. They made us a delicious lunch today anid all the other hubbub.

Our mode of transportation to the job site

This was the crew of volunteers I worked with on the first house. The empty spot in the back of the truck was my seat. Imagine a 78 by 30 inch door standing straight up behind the cabtie on with a rope and travelling about 20 km along highway and dirt roads. That´s how we went this morning!

Progess as of noon on Wednesday

Here we had completed 9 of the 13 courses. It is amazing the adaptation they have made for the lack of machinery. The soil is a sand material that is eroded from the volcano that created the area. There is about a 3 inch space between this building and the neighboring structure.

Cooking with a wood fire.

This the woman of the house, a very pleasant hadrd working woman, This is her kitchen, note the smoke it is ubiquitous. The walls are made of bamboo that has been blackened by the smoke. She made a noodle, mayo and vegetable dish yesterday that I tried, it was very good. Today a soup, similar to the Haitian rice soup. Hwere she is cooking black beans.

This is my helper

Constantino, or as I call him Aqua Hombre ( water man) is often around helping. He moves some block but mostly he adds water when I am mixing cement. He is only too anxious sometimes and dumps buckets when I am looking for a half gallon. A realy nice boy. He starts school next week as their calendar does not coincide with ours. He denys liking school!

An example of the slope of the land

Today the sky was constantly changin. The slope to the left is actually a mountain the top of which is not visisbe in the clouds. People in the US would pay 500,000dollars for this view.

A view from the front yard to the land that feeds the people

I added this picture to show slope that the Mayan people cultivate. If you look carefullyover the roof of the white building, you can see rows of something. That something is cut corn stalks!! Above it is carrot and the trees are nuts. The foreground is the yard of the home we are working on.

The crew after a hard days work

We have just completed three days of hard physical work. Dug a foundation, mixed and poured the footer,erected 13 courses of block , after hand carrying them and mixed all the mortar. The walls are reinforced with concrete headers and vertical columns. Did I mention we mixed that also.This is the existing home.

A Guatemalan Worker

The people of this country are hard workers. They will find ways to make a living. I have seen people do work that no on in the US woudl do, and they laugh and enjoy it.

The street with a volcano in background

Cobblestoned Calle Santa Lucia and Volcano Aqua. Antigua was once the capital of Guatemala. After a very wet winter the volcano filled up and the side wall failed. The whole town was destroyed and they moved the capital. The name was then changed to La Antigua, the old capital.

ARRIVED IN GUATEMALA

The front door of my new home. This home is down a long enclosed driveway off of Calle Espirito Santo.

The Day Before Departure

Getting all the paper work in order and checking the weather.



There is a prediction of snow. The last time it snowed the airports were closed for a few days and 1000's of flights were cancelled

Getting Ready

Laying out the gear to load into the backpack. Six days to departure!!