GUATEMALA 2013: Smiling students, concrete, and St. James

Pole climbing, if you make it up you win $500...pole is greased!!

sack races in the park

View from town

Dancing puppets

Arrival of Saint James

Having fun on the green roof!!

FUTBOL!!

On Day 4 the only task at the worksite is to pour the floor. As this is a short day, all volunteers make a visit to the Escuela Kemna'oj first. I have gone on about the school for many months now and actually for many years. This is the first visit for many of our volunteers to the new facility. I can never get enough of this place so I am always happy to make another visit, and always excited to hear the opinions of first time visitors to the school.

This week the school is holding a health fair. The doctor, nurse and staff from the clinic are at the school to examine all the children and their parents. The school is equipped with a doctors office and an office to register the patients as they come in. The clinic staff works very hard to bring this to the school. They transport the entire pharmacy from the clinic to the school. After the children are examined they are given any medicine that may need, and any referrals that may be required.

The most common and prevalent issue for these children and their families is upper respiratory infections and intestinal infections as a result of parasites, most likely in the dirty drinking water. These people do not have running water in their home. Most of the time they go to a common site and lug water back to their home. In Santa Maria de Jesus, where the school is located, you get water for 1 hour every other day. Some people have said that they get it every 2 days. There are "water stations" if you will where you go get your supply. It is mostly women that I observe going to get the water. They use plastic buckets of all sizes and they carry the water back on their head or in a back strap sling hanging off of their head and down their back. Water is very heavy!! When you drive by the water station you can see people either collecting the water by dipping their container into it and occasionally using a faucet. The other thing you see is dogs drinking from the water station. So you have dirty containers, dogs, and God knows what else dipping into this water. Back at the house the water is left in the buckets sitting in the yard somewhere. These people also collect rain water in large blue barrels. Sadly, I have seen on more than one occasion someone washing their hands in the water barrel and then someone else drinking from that same water barrel. If you think about how much water you use every day and how much water you waste it really hits home when you are in a place like this. Upper respiratory infections are a common and chronic occurrence here. Most of these people cook over an open fire in their cornstalk shack so everyone is inhaling fumes for a large part of the day. It is more common to see a child with a runny nose then not. It is also rather cool up here in the night and early morning. Santa Maria is about 5000 feet above sea level. Then there is the problem of little children with runny noses running around and sharing the germs.

The doctors really have the work cut out for them and are often fighting a losing battle, as the solutions for the obstacles they face are not easy to put into affect. Education is key to these problems and often you are knocking your head against the wall because some of the solutions are costly and these people have little money. FHTH is committed to educating these families through clinic talks in the community, and the school holds classes for the parents.

As you walk around the school you observe dedicated teachers and engaged students. The children are excited to see the volunteers and when they are on break from class they love to interact through play on the green roof. The school was designed with a play area that is turf. It feels like grass, something that these children do not see, as their yards are mostly made up of dirt. When I was here in April the turf was put down and the next day the children were allowed to play on it for the first time. it was hysterical because they started rolling around on it, doing somersaults, they were just having a ball!! These kids are like any other kid in the world, during recess they let off alot of steam. I love watching them!!

As always, our visitors are highly impressed. One of the most common comments we hear is this, "I expected it to be nice but this is amazing!" More kudos to the architect and interior design students!!

After the school visit it is off to the work site to the pour the floor. It requires mixing alot of concrete of which I have no real strength to do, this is tough work and very heavy. I always laugh when these this rather short in stature Guatemaltecos jump in the middle of the concrete and in their knee high rain boots and mix it so quickly. We are talking about concrete, sand and stone. Next the buckets have to be filled and passed through the bucket lie to be poured on the floor. It is a rapid process!! Sam and Nicole take turns filling the buckets, this is also very heavy work and I admire their strength!! As we pass the buckets, Juan Jose smooths out the concrete as it is poured. All sorts of funny things happen during this process, concrete gets dropped, concrete gets spilled, and sometimes the rhythm is thrown off because someone is not paying attention...sorry!!! Floor done and we call it a day! This also means we are one day away from completion and leaving this beautiful place that I love so much. I love being amongst the families, and interacting with the children. I could spend the whole day here just hanging out!

Today there is a fair in honor of St James. He is the Patron Saint of Antigua. It is a holiday so the town is very crowded to see the parade and a variety of other activities. Went for a walk around town, had a few laughs and took in the sites.

Preparing for the last day of the build we purchased a pinata to celebrate with the family. Also a gift for the new baby, some fruit and a cross for their new home.