Magdalena - Bit of work?

Ok so last Wednesday Hilmar asked me was I interested in going doing a bit of work with his brother and a few lads who were starting to build a house for a family in Magdalena. You expect the men over here to be animals for work. Animals and the rest..... Basicaly we arrived on site about 8 o clock. Set out the foot print of the foundations and then levels. All using a hose pipe, a square, some fishing line, and the 3/4/5 rule. Right job none of your fancy total stations here. This was the calm before the storm.

The building is about 9 metres by 7 metres with 23 metres of internal walls. 55 l/m in total of foundations about 450 wide and approx 700mm deep. I here you ask "bring out the digger" in response "we were the diggers". 2 shovels, 2 picks and away we went. In fairness I had to keep up for prides sake and ye couldnt have them thinkin that Irish were soft but my God am I in bits after it. Say a few people who have worked with me reading this now doin some laughing. My spanish teacher asked me the next day was I used to that kind of work. So I told her honestly normally im the lad standing there giving moral support and looking important : ) Nowhere to hide now from Monday though. To be fair I enjoyed every bit of it was great exercise and the boys were good craic. They were handy out at the setting out too. Builders over here know how to do everything from foundations to putting the roof on. I know its a good bit more basic but i checked the lines for square for curiosities sake and they were bang on. 

Currently home of the family we were digging the foundations for new house. 5 kids and parents.

RFI anybody? Go on with yourself now.... (Say Mullett would love these get a weeks work out of it)

The 3 boys I was working with. Johnny on left, its gonna be his house. Thats Hilmars brother dennis in middle. Few photos of me to follow with a wet t shirt wrapped round me head dont worry be here soon.

Dona Lily - Santa Tomas

For my time in Guatemala I have been staying with a small family in Santa Tomas. Inlex organised the home stay and I have to say I couldnt have wished for more. Dona Lily and her daughter Astrid are two of the most genuinely pleasant and happy people I have ever met. My spanish is still only so so but we still always manage to have a bit of craic all the same. The house is scrubbed about 20 times a day and Dona Lily really couldnt do anything more for me.

The house is modest but beyond first impressions I can guarantee you will not find a spec of dust anywhere. There was once running water because there is shower etc plumbed in. However due to water shortages the mains is generally only turned on for about an hour 4 or 5 times a week. So what Dona Lily does is fill up a large barrel of water when the mains is turned on and then use this to wash clean etc. The story with the shower is simple. Boil a pot in the kitchen, mix it with cold water in a large basin. Pour warm water over body with a smaller basin. Sounds like a lot more work then it actually is.
There main income is from a little peice of land beside the house (1/2 acre maybe) which is used for subsistence farming really. Astrid also has work occasionally in Guatemale and then when Inlex organise a room for somebody like myself they recieve a fee of about 150 euro a month for lodging and two meals a day. Believe me it is worth every penny because in a month I dont think I have eatin the same dinner twice, I have always enjoyed it, which is a lot for fussy lad here and she even gives me fruit every day for my lunch. Spoilt I am sure.
I am really happy that I stayed with Dona Lily for these reasons but also one a little more important. I know she really needs the money. One more than one occasion she has somewhat nervously lied, telling me that she had a big lunch that day or didnt feel like meat tonight when she noticed me comparing our plates. I try to get the clothes washed a bit more than needs be but were talkin 2.50 or 3 euro a go never gonna make her rich. Have to say though I think Dona Lily and Astrid have just about enough, nothing extra besides.

Main Street Santa Tomas.....

Dona Lily's House......

My Bedroom

I need to get a rant off my chest too im afraid... Another volunteer I know is staying with a family a little bit more well off. They own a small shop, have TV and internet, dress a bit more trendy etc.... Would anybody be suprised if I told them that most nights she got beans and eggs for dinner and that 5 euros was the charge for getting clothes washed? The normal price is 2euro by the way. I know I am proabably being a little pedantic, but you have to admit it is universal that the people with less tend to give you more. Now if im honest the absolute majority of people in Guatemala I have met are genuinely friendly. Not necessarily because they are interested in your money, but interested in why you are here. So dont let this little rant influence you in your opinions of Guatemalan people in any way.

I went to church with Dona Lily last night. I am not a reformed Christian so dont start ok, I was interested though for curiosities sake and it meant a lot to her because other host families has brought volunteers a few weeks and she was very proud of the church. I am not going to give my opinion here just going to mention the things I noticed that were different from say a Church back home.
- Mass was held in a large galvinised shed
- Just outside the entrance there was a stall selling taco's and donuts
- Mass started with about an hour of singing and dancing, complete with one male solo singet, two backing singers, drummer, keyboard, guitar, zaxaphone, and 6 dancers wearing glittery gowns with tamborines.
- During this first hour or the following hour and a half people came and went as they pleased to the toilet for food etc.
- The format of "mass" proper was like this. The preacher handed out snipets from the bible on small cards to people in the congregation. Somebody read there card out aloud over a mike then the preacher made a few comments. The topic was then up for discussion to all to debate etc. This went on for a bout an hour.
 - Last have hour was more singing but this time with the preacher as the main act.

Christmas Party - Santa Lucia

Some of you may have noticed an appeal that has started on Facebook. Thanks to everyone who has already pledged money already I really appreciate it and the kids in Santa Lucia will appreciate it ten times more. To be honest it has kind of snow balled since I first mentioned it on Facebook and I got caught on the hop by the swift and genorous response from everyone. So just so that there is no confusion, in my own head first and foremost this is the plan.
All volunteers both Guatemalan and European are to meet up on St.Stephen's day at the centre. Here teams will be made and specific tasks allocated so that in the week between Christmas and New Year the follwing is made possible.

The 150 kids who attend the centre are to be given 2 tickets on xmas day or the day before along with a measurement of coat/shoe size being taken.

The first ticket is for a trip to the Zoo, possibly on Wenesday 28th
A trip to the Zoo for the 150 kids > 80 e
Snacks and a drink on trip > 60 e

The Second is for a Party in the Centre on Friday the 30th
A special festive dinner > 100 e (usual price 35e)
After dinner gifts for each child. Either a
coat or a pair of sandals/ shoes depending
on money raised and deal to be done > 800e
After dinner games and activities such as
pinata's > 130

We have a grand total target of about 1200 euros. I think with the repsonse already recieved from home, as well as volunteers over here donating this target is more than achievable. If we fall below the 1200 mark then I will have no problem in all good consciounce taking a little from more from the Chiantle fund.

However, hopefully the 1200 target will be exceeded. In this case it is pretty simple. The money will get spent on the week mentioned whether it be on warmer coats then first budgeted for, or coats and a pair of sandals or more pinata's......

It would be nice also to buy some more games
or activities for the children such as a basket
ball hoop, some footballs (they currently play
with oversize ping pong balls) some board games etc.......

If you are wondering how you can donate then hopefully in the next few days it will be possible to leave money in envelopes or in a cash bucket in either Ernie's Bar in Wicklow Town. If this is not possible then it is possible to lodge money into my own account but I cannot send my account information over the internet for obvious reasons. Unfortunately it is not really viable to do a money transfer from Ireland to Guatemala in time for Christmas at least.

Thanks to Viv and Shar for giving the idea some life, to Ashford National School, Ashford GAA, Elaine Cullen, Sally Cullen, Aunty Mary, Mammy Liz, Joe Nolan, Una McMahon, Emma Nolan, and Louise Doyle who have already pledged money and to anybody else planning on doing so. Also thanks to Marisa (and her two daughters) and Alex from Inlex gt.inlexca.org , Hilmar, Eli, Michael Dempsey and to any other volunteers who are thinking of getting involved.

Hilmar and his work in Santa Lucia - Part Two

If you read the first blog on Hilmar... you will see I mentioned a young couple with a sick 2 month old baby. Hilmar told me today that the baby died last night. Have to say it really got at me as I was holding the baby this time last week and I cant help thinking it was preventable.
When I think about it, yes it is expected that babies could die in Guatemala but I dont think it makes it any easier on the parents. Just because people have no money doesnt mean that there hearts are broken any less than say a person in Ireland. One aspect is probably worse in fact. In Ireland any normal parent would sell everything they own and get a lend of as much money as was needed to pay for there 2 month olds health. This simply wasn't an option.
I went to the house with Hilmar to drop off some food and it was the exact same as a wake in Ireland would be it just happened to be in a Galvinised shack on the side of a hill. All neighbours and family sitting around talking trying to console as much as they could.
If possible I will try to end on a poitive note. I was talking to Hilmar afterwards and basically asking him how he copes with it all. Really what I got from him was that he realises that he is never going to change everything but he keeps trying nonetheless because sometimes the work he does makes a difference and thats worth it.

Going digging a foundation by hand with him tomorrow. Say I wont have many welts tomorrow night though....

Hilmar and his work in Santa Lucia

This is a project run in Santa Lucia to give the kids in the area 2 decent meals a week. Basically every Tuesday and Thursday the kids are fed with a high protein meal (which also happens to be delicious I must say) in a purpose built canteen. The project also has a church with mass being said about 5 times a week, and a roof garden with some veg and some chickens.

Guatemala is the 4th worst country in the world for malnurishment in children and these children are among the poorest so it is very unlikely that they are getting anything close to what they need. As you can see in the photos the children are all small. This is not necessarily because they are young but because of the lack of a proper diet. There is a small black haired girl in a lot of the photos that looks about 4 at the most but is actually 8. Only about 5 percent of people in Guatemala actually own their own property. This shanty town of about 30 houses is built in a steep valley. Basically nobody would normally build here because of the treat from landslides and the difficulty getting materials in and out but the people here have no other option it is as simple as that. The area has the typical problems associated with poverty such as drug abuse, low self esteem, alcoholism, teenage pregnancy all of which Hilmar is trying to tackle by showing the kids that anything is possible if you keep trying. We had the chance to walk around the town and meet some of the families. For example one family was one that the 4 kids were under 11 (one being the little girl who looks 4) living in a one bedroom house with the mother and father both working when they can but never enough and the kids left to fend for themselves whenever both parents were lucky enough to have work. This family was lucky enough in that they had a well built concrete structure provided by the same people as the community centre. The young couple next door are living in a structure made of some timber and galvanized sheeting. It gets cold here in Guatemala at night because of the altitude and with the risk of landslides on the site I really wouldn’t spending a night there never mind raising a family. The young couple had a two month old baby who was sick but as neither of the parents had been working for over a month they were finding it very hard to pay for medicine. There is no social welfare or free health care in Guatemala.
Basically myself and Denise (class mate in Spanish school) go here at 12.30 and play with the kids for about an hour or so and then help dish out the food and clean up afterwards. Gonna hopefully do a bit of construction and maintenance work before I leave too. We are by no means vital in anyway to the project but I do think the kids really appreciate it to be fair and it is really enjoyable. Before I left I raised some money, thanks to all involved again, and the total sum was 2,100. Initially I planned on bringing it all to Chiantla but after spending some time here I decided to donate a 100 euro to the project. I did this for two reasons, one it is definitely a worthy cause and the other is simply that the project didn’t have enough money to open the first week we were there. It costs about 30 euro to feed the 100 or so kids that turn up on any given day so this money has paid for about 300 dinners in total. Pretty good financing on the part of the project.
The project itself is run by a pretty remarkable person. Hilmar is a local man who about 3 years ago decided that he wanted to do something to help the people of his community. When he started feeding the kids they were sitting on the ground with some food. In the space of only 3 years he has managed to raise enough money to build the community centre and church, feed the kids on a regular basis within this time along with building numerous houses and spreading the project into other communities. He is pretty inspirational to be fair and so positive even though he has the worries of 30 or so families. When people need something they go to Hilmar. He has managed to build up relationships with Christian organizations in Guatemala and in Canada and the US who help with the financing but when he started out there was none of this. In the best possible way a meeting with him really makes you take a look at yourself. Hilmar is not a priest or a missionary in fact as well as looking after the 100 kids in the project he manages to raise his own 3 kids, the youngest 8 months and provide for his wife too. gt.inlexca.org

La Barronna - Tortugas

This section is not neccessarily about me but it I consider it relevant to volunteering and after all it is my blog....

I visited a turtle sanctuary for the weekend with some other volunteers that are with Inlex gt.inlexca.org  to visit a German volunteer who had recently started volunteering there. La Barronna is a small fishing village on the border with El Salvador. A relatively steady income for the inhabitants for many years has been the sale of tortuga eggs. This has affected the numbers detrimentally and it will not be long before there are no more turtle eggs left. The project in La Barronna has two aspects. One is through education, by explaining the situation to the locals the project has managed to convince them to donate 20 percent of the eggs found to the sanctuary so that the eggs can be let to mature and realeased into the sea. The project also does a lot of work with education of kids and adults alike teaching them English, which helps create a good relationship and trust can be formed. The other aspect of the project concentrates on trying to find the turtle eggs before the locals so that more eggs can be cultivated in the sanctuary. This envloves 4 hour patrols of the beach every night looking for the tracks of turltes leaving the sea so that the eggs can be located.

While we were there we did find tracks but unfortunately a local had got there before us. We were however lucky enogh to see 3 sets of hatchlings coming up from the sand and we helped release them into the wild.
For the duration of the stay we stayed with a typical family of the region. Quite an eye opener. Cooking using an open fire and pigs running round the kitchen. I decided to sleep in a hammock the first night because of the heat and got some fright when a big sow woke me up sniffing around me. Probably thought my soring was some kind of mating call what? There are a lot of pigs in la barronna but as one of the volunteers explained a pig is like a savings account in Guatemala. There is the initial investment then regular investments (feeding) until such a time as the pig and the investment matures for a healthy profit.
The father of the family also took us into the magroves in traditional boats used for fishing. Was very cool, nearly calfed lifting the boat over sand bars mind you but was worth it.

Introduction as to why and how I became a volunteer

Introduction

For those of you who don’t know me personally this is a brief introduction, and also an explanation of how I have come to the decision to come to Guatemala to volunteer.

Who am I?

My name is Rory O’Connor I am 29 years old, from Ashford in Co.Wicklow, Ireland. I went to Ashford National School and De La Salle Wicklow secondary school. In 2004 I was awarded a BSc Degree in Construction Management by Waterford Institute of Technology. This qualification has allowed me to work as a QS, Site Engineer and most recently as a Project Manger both at home and abroad. Last year I did a Masters in Sustainable Architecture, well still a thesis to do but am hoping to get some inspiration on a topic while here.

First Experience of Volunteering
My first experience of volunteering was while in South East Asia as part of the round the world trip in 2006. Cormac Creed a former life coach (Hi Dad if your reading. Mam says hi...) of mine whilst working JT Magen in New York, told me about a place I should visit in Cambodia that he had done a lot fundraising for. To be honest I went there initially out of respect for Cormac. Myself and my good friend Mairead Lucey spent a little over a week only in SCD Cambodia (http://www.scdcambodia.org/) orpahanage with Chan Norn. To be fair my expectations were blown away. The kids were so happy not just for kids with nothing, they were genuinely happy kids. They were always happy to see you and appreciated every little thing that you did for them. Whether it be buying them a pencil or playing a game of football with them the smile you got was ten times of a reward for the act you had done. My time there has always stayed close to my heart and if I am honest I knew I would do volunteering of some sort again, in my life from that point on.

Experience of Central America

From leaving college up until recently I have worked in the construction industry in varying capacities but generally for comparatively speaking well paid jobs. With this money I have done quite a bit of travelling in this time and it would be fair to say that some of the most diverse and enjoyable has been in Latin America. This has also aided in compounding the regret I have for not concentrating in Spanish class in WIT or making the effort to become fluent since. It is fair to say that most ordinary people in Latin America do not speak English. Nor should they have to, but it is always with regret that the warm smile often encountered cannot be communicated with better than a Hola or Gracias. Also if im being realistic its pretty impossible to be of much use as a volunteer if you can’t communicate with the people you are supposed to be helping.

The Decision

Last March or April, I met a family friend Michael Dempsey who had just returned from Guatemala where he was volunteering as an English teacher. In fact he was my school principal many moons ago. Probably the most interesting cup of coffee I have ever had. He told me how EIL had set him up with Inlex a Guatemalan charity. Inlex  gt.inlexca.org set up volunteers in positions they are suited to and also teach them Spanish first. The more Michael told me about his experience I knew that I had to do something similar. Something in my heart told me that of all the ideas going round in my head this one was right for me. So the BMW E20 that I was going to buy didn’t get bought and pretty much everything besides my laptop, I pod and clothes got flogged off. Can’t bring a sofa on a plane sure.

Why Now?

The last construction company I worked for went out of business over two years ago. Since then I set up my own business and completed a Msc in Sustainable Architecture with CAT. I was busy sporadically and the Masters helped to fill in the time when I wasn’t so busy. I actually had been the busiest I had since April up until September. For most of this time I was in a long term relationship which finished a few months back. To be fair neither work or Becky would have stopped me doing this sooner if I had of really wanted but I had them as barriers or excuses in my own head so as soon as I was both single and work had dried up I new in my heart of hearts what my next step would be.

Getting Organised

I called EIL on Wednesday 7th of September, having finishing a project on the previous Friday and knowing that there wasn’t much else coming down the line. I arranged an interview for as soon as possible and went there the following Monday and paid the deposit for the programme to start on the 27th of October. I could have went in September but I had a few loose ends to tie up and had to get the remainder of my fee together. With the little savings I had I paid for my return flight the next day.
EIL put me in contact with Joseph McLean. A volunteer who they had arranged a construction related placement with a small charity called Seeds of Help in Huehuetenango near the Mexican border in a place called Chiantla. Joe was very helpful and it was on his advise that I decided to fundraise money for construction materials for the project I would be working on. Joe explained that often the man power is available but simple materials such as cement or steel were just too expensive for the people who needed them.

Fundraising

I decided to host a poker night and a benefit night which included a raffle, an auction and a charity waxing to raise money. The poker night raised €350 and between the charity night and other private donations the remainder of the €2100 euros was reached. My most sincere thanks to, all who donated or helped in any way, or went out of their way to attend either function. Special thanks to Elaine and Deirdre for agreeing to wax myself and the lads despite what their stomach’s may have told them. Gazza, Joey and Viv for agreeing to be waxed. Leighton for getting the Jerseys signed for the Auction. Debbie (Aristacuts), George (Chester Beatty’s), Bash Barry (Martsworth), Nuala (Ashford Pharmacy) and Padhraic Humbey (Diageo) for providing vouchers and prizes for the raffle. Chester Beatties and Ernie’s Bar for providing the venues. Mam, Dad, Trina, Shar, Viv, Sprock, Gaz, and Conor for encouragement and support for which I could not have held the functions without and support which made the trip possible.