Quezaltenango (Xela)

After a few of our Italian chavos left Puerto Escondido things started to feel pretty lonely.  The balcony that was usually covered with cracked open coconuts, two of the most comfortable hammocks ever, bottles of beer and water, nutella, other food scraps, garbage, flip-flops, and most importantly our chavos was now empty, clean, and depressing.  So Kendra and I decided to upgrade from our cabaña with our 2 wire-mesh beds and one table to one with a few more comforts - a bathroom, more comfortable beds, and more space to put our stuff.  We needed a few more comforts to alleviate some of the sadness we felt at losing part of our family.  With our chavos gone, and our trip coming to an end we decided to head to Quezaltenango (aka Xela) in Guatemala.

Kendra and I both arranged home-stays for our 2 weeks in Xela.  Kenda enrolled in Spanish classes while I decided to help out with some volunteer projects in the area.  The first week in Xela I helped put up posters and hand out flyers for a charity event during the week.  Thursday day I went out to a village called Pacaxjoj (i have no idea if thats how you spell it) to help build some stoves.  There are a lot of respiratory problems in the village and infant deaths due to respiratory problems because the locals basically have fire pits in their house that they use to cook on.  So a group of volunteers has been building safe stoves in many of the houses to help prevent these problems.  My job involved laying conctrete blocks and smooshing cement in between to adhere them as well as checking that they were level.  Chris, Travis and I were the only ones that went out on Thursday.  We got fed by the family in whose house we were building the stove.  In the evening we played a game of soccer with a bunch of the local kids and a few grown-ups.  There was a big turn out so we had 3 teams of 5 players each.  Each time a team scored the team that was scored on would be replaced by the third team.  It was a fun game, we didn`t keep score, so we don`t know who won, but we all had heaps of fun.

The three of us spent the night in a house/shack in the village and ate beans from a can, peanuts and bananas for dinner.  There were only 2 beds so I slept in a hammock, which ended up ot being very comfortable, but it was very peaceful, though cold, sleeping up in a rural mountain village in a shack where the walls don`t connect with the roof.  The roosters crowed early in the morning and a light drizzle pattered the tin roof while we slept.  We went to bed early, tired from laying blocks, climbing the mountain paths, playing soccer, and being at high altitude.

The next day a bunch of volunteers came out from the school Kendra is studying at so we had 2 groups working on 2 separate stoves.  This time we were laying bricks on top of the concrete blocks.  I was designated "clay representative," a very important position.  I was in charge of throwing, slopping, and smooshing clay mixed with brown sugar on the inner edge of the stove-to-be.  Apparently this concoction works better than cement because it eventually cooks from the heat and will not crack, unlike cement.

That Friday we had the charity event to raise money for more stoves.  The project is entirely funded by donations and fundraising.  I ended up helping out behind the bar most of the night which was pretty fun.  Unfortunately, I ended up staying until about 4am to help clean up at the end then had to wake up before 7am because I was signed up to go on a school trip the next day.

The trip was to a fare-trade coffee farm where we learned about the coffee making process and how aweful the plight is for people who work on non-fare-trade farms.  It was pretty depressing to hear that most of the people who work on coffee farms are worked like slaves.  The company provides them with food and housing, for a fee of course, so that by the end of the work week the workers generally end up owing the company money instead of receiving a salary.  The roasting and selling of coffee was not actually done at the farm so unfortunately we were unable to sample any of the apparently delicious coffee, though we did get to taste some of the beans when they were dried but not yet roasted.  They pretty much tasted like dried beans.

After the coffee tour we were taken to the site of a ghost-village where the volcano Santiaguito had destroyed the village 12 years ago.  We were taken on a nice walk across some rivers and a very scary suspension bridge to a really beautiful lake where we were able to swim and relax for an hour before heading home.

The next Monday I went to a local daycare.  It was inauguration day, so me and a couple other volunteers measured, weighed and recorded the age of all the kids afterwhich they performed a short dance and puppet show for us.  On Tuesday I went back to the daycare to help paint the walls a lovely shade of teal green.

Tomorrow and Friday I`ll be going back to the daycare in the afternoon with another student from Kendra`s school to play with kids and help the older children with their homework.  Thursday I`ll be working on stoves again, and Saturday a big group from the school is going to watch a major football game at the stadium (by football I think they mean soccer, but I`m not sure).  Kendra and I would like to check out some natural hotsprings on Sunday before heading to Lake Atitlan probably on Monday.