Summer Volunteering Opportunity

Does the thought of Building a Sustainable House, and Future for a Guatemalan Family in Desperation, Interest You...

This August we need 8 people to come to the Western Highlands of Guatemala to construct a sustainable home, for a family not only living in poverty, but also living in constant fear of harrassment and sexual abuse. 












Why...

Dona Eulalia and her family are in desperate need of a new home. They currently live in a tin shack which is not untypical of Guatemala, the real problem in this case is their neighbour. The plot of land they live on is leant to them by a family member, their immediate next door neighbour is a paedophilic uncle who has attempted to abuse the two eldest girls. Sylvia 14 and Maria 12. He also enjoys tormenting the rest of the family especially when Dona Eulalia is lucky enough to find work washing clothes. Why... Who knows but as he said himself, they dont have enough money to do anything about it through legal routes. This is Guatemala where things like justice are reserved for the rich.

I met Sylvia and the family before Christmas when I agreed to spend monies raised in Ireland on Sylvias first year of school at Fe y Alegria (http://www.feyalegria.org/) which is a charity run boarding school close to her house. Semillas De Ayuda (www.seedsofhelp.org) the charity I am working with here give scholarships to another 12 students at varying levels, a lot at Fe Y Alegria before they hopefully reach University. Typically the poorer children finish school at 12 years old maximum before starting work full time. Seeds of Help offer a chance to the poorest kids who show an eagerness to learn. Sylvia had been offered the chance before but as her mother was ill and for her own protection she was sent to work in the city minding an elderly women for 20 euros a month.

Giving Sylvia a chance to study will hopefully stop the cycle of poverty in this family eventually. For the moment however there is only one solution for the families safety and prosperity. We need to build them a house away from the constant treath of their neighbour. Normally Seeds of Help do not build houses, they have a strict policy of helping people to help themselves but as discussed with Walter (Founder), and Brenda (Project co ordinator) there is unfortunatley no other option in this instance. The family will simply not be just given the house and will have to pay for it over a period of time, not for any monetary gain but as I have learned since I have been here it is totally un productive to give rather than help.

What we need...


8 hard working, compasionate, and open minded people to travel to Guatemala for the Month of August to build a homestead for the family.


16,000 euro in total (2,000 for each person) to be fundraised to purchase land, construct a house and build a future for the family. (flight cost of approx 1,000 not included but could possibly be also included in fundraising figure)


The 8 people to individually or collectively fundraise for the project 8,000 euro of which is needed to purchase a site before the end of May or there abouts. 


What Will You Recieve in Return...


I can guarantee 100 times the enjoyment and satisfaction, of the effort put in. Thats for a start....


The chance to construct a house using totally sustainable building materials and practices... 

Free transfers, food and accomodation for the duration of the project.

The chance to learn basic, or improve your Spanish

The chance to visit a genuinely beutiful country and experience the beutiful and open hearted Mayan culture of the Western Highlands of Guatemala. 



Do some exploring and travelling before, after or on weekends during the project....

But most of all to truely make a difference.....

To register your interest or for all queries contact e mail me at roryoconnor25@gmail.com  

For more information on Seeds of Help or our work here log onto.       

www.seedsofhelp.org

www.seedsofhelp.org/blog

you can also check out my personal blog of my time here by simply click on the links on the right hand side.

Thank you for reading...

Regards,

Rory O Connor

P.S. for any of use needing some extra inspiration I leave you with the wise words of Eddie Vedder (see link below)

Randomness Month 4 Part 2

Right to start with i{d like to go throught a few little projects I have been working on outside of a work, some that will eventually be encorporated into the Seeds of Help work. 

This is a typical bottle light, the type I first seen on Youtube and the inspiration for the others. It literally takes five minutes to make this type and with a cost of less than 3 euro in total. I think the photo is pretty self explanatory. Today I was walking by a hardware store and seen a lenght of guttering that is pretty much the exact size of a clay roof tile here. Cut it in 5 to make it the right lenght. I was thinking of suggesting using only  the wall lights in houses with roof tiles but to be honest the ones in the roof are way more effective. The wall lights are still worth doing when the roof is not an option (for instance a floor upstairs preventing light from the roof), especially in houses without electricity. With the 3 options Lamina, wall and now roof tile, bottle lights I think all eventaulities are covered. We plan on introducing them to the womens groups in the afternoons this week and are going to have a workshop next Sunday.

Had to repair my wall bottle light because the first epoxy resin I used was crap so let the water out. This is why we tested them out first though. Went a bit mad painting, few reasons for this, the first was to reflect the light arounf the house a bit more, the second was to use up the white paint because I want the tin for making carbon, and the third is because I was going a little bit mental. I was trying to live off 10Q or 1 euro a day for the month of Febuary. This effectively meant no drinking, eating meat, leaving La Cumbre. To be honest I failed but I am not a bit ashamed. I lasted 28 days off drink which beats my former record by about 22 days i would imagine. I spent about 430 Q or 43 euro in 21 days on food. I eat chicken twice and fish once in 20 days. For me this is amazing, I normally eat meat at every meal never mind every day. I done it to try and see how half the people of the world live on 2 dollars a day or less. I still dont know for sure becuase I wasnt able to do it only spending 2 dollars on food, never mind anything else that is required in life. I am guessing that they have shockingly bad diets, solely rice or tortillas, and go hungry a lot of the time.
What did I get out of it? I hope I have retrained my brain a little that I dont need to drink every weekend, and dont need to eat meat every day. To be fair I am not going out this weekend by choice and fort the last week I havent eaten a whole lot of meat. I will say one thing though, I am a social person, I really know that now, the last week before I stopped with teh experiment I was going a little mental. Prooh is in the pictures I suppose, but other than that not being a fluent spanish speaker means that to really express yourself is impossible and I was starting to get very kranky. At this stage I knew what was wrong with me and it would have been totally counter productive of me to stay at it and be no use to anyone. I headed to Xela and the lake for some R and R and it was the best thing I could have done. Had a few drinks, nothing too wild met up with a few cool people and had good conversation. Every second or third weekend I need this and when I recognise it I would be a fool to ignore it.
Below is one of the less healthy creations I had, homemade chips with, fried red peppers, onions and garlic with mayonaisse, ketchup and hot sauce.

My cooking stove wasnt working due to no draw becuase there were leaks all around the flu so with a little extra sand and cement I had left after patching the bottle light I fixed this. Works a lot better now, still needs an outside air intake the same size as flu afront of fire but that is on the way...

Below is my budget chicken coop in progress. 12 euro for all the timber bit rockedy now but on my Mammys orders I have to insulate it so the chickens will lay the eggs. And we all know I have always done what my mother has told me. As far as I am aware there was a discussion with Auntie Mary as well so god love me going home if I ignored the two of them. Anyway my little chickens are gonna be the warmest in La Cumbre when im finshed lining it with sacks and stuffing them with saw dust. Might get one of the young lads that do call the odd time trying to sell me things, to look after them for me when im not around, thinking an egg a day might do the trick.

Right so what ye make of this little buety hey. Went to the dentist for a filling the week before, white filling and the lot, looked perfect, said to me that I needed to come back for a coating the week after. To my suprise I got some mouth jewelry for free ha ha ha. Was going to go back for a cleaning but dunno might end up like jaws from James Bond. Didnt get an injection the second day for pain either, blood spattered on my face afterwards, Hard or what? A to be honest it didnt hurt the second day at all and did get an injection the first day. Thinkin bout getting changable covers for it made what ye think?

Below is a totally community funded and built new classroom being built at Nuevo Pregresso. At the minute there is 134 kids in one room with 3 teachers. Nice to see the Adobe in progress. When I say Adobe I mena the blocks are muck and clay mixed together and cut into a mould then left to dry. The mortar is muck again mixed with lime, mixed together by stepping on it and hacking it with a pick. Very labour intensive but a cheap, relatively warm solution. The house in August will definitely be Adobe but we will need to stabalise it a bit for lateral movement due to higher risks of earthquakes in Chiantla. La Cumbre sits on 1km plus of rock so not really a worry.

Adobe block......


Right so what we have been working with the kids on since Christmas, amongst others, was organic material and inorganic material. Discussing what can go into a compost heap and what cant etc. This week we have been teaching them (and me) how to actually make a compost heap.This is also at Nuevo Progresso.
I have also been doing a bit of English teaching. I know I know need to learn how to speak it properly myself first but there ye have it all the kids in La Cumbre are going to be mumbling English in a Wicklow accent now. I have to tell you this story. I was teaching them numbers and the kids are really interested in speaking English and were asking what all kinds of things, names etc were in English before and after the class. One kid pipes up and asks what a gringo is in English well I couldnt stop laughing for about five minutes...

Valentines day we happened to be at Los Cushumontanes the school very close to my house. The fundation and the school had organised an activity which included games and giving gifts and eating cake mmmmmmmmm cake.............

Some of the gifts the kids made with Seno Sessy 

mmmm ive got an idea.........

why not bring up two plates.................

Some of the cake actually went into their mouths

After school on tuesday we had a pancake and fruit feed at my house. Pics ill have next week they werent taken on my camera. Big thanks again to Mammy for working out the right weights and amounts in "mugs". It was carnival too so got destroyed with eggs too, luckily they were filled with paper.

Still cant get over the view from the oul half door. Yes I do lean out and look at the sheep. Ye proud Al? 

On a bit of a sad note I have to mention something. Dona Carolina the woman who I lived with in La Cumbre before christmas had a stroke the other day. Now I found out because I asked Brenda what happened her the next day. I called in to her the other morning and she had a scarf wrapped round her face. She told me she got an infection but the truth is that she had a stroke. Her youngest child is one next Saturday. Now my first question naturally was why wasnt she in hospital. The answer I am sad to say is that there was no point. There is no doctors in them and definitely no specialists. So Dona carolina is just getting on with it, her husband didnt get time off work, she had Wilfred tied to her back doing the house work when I called in the other morning. Crazy....

Randomness Month 4 Part 1.....

Right so this month decided to take her handy on the travelling and socialising front so mostly work related activities in the first two weeks of the month. The routine every day is mostly visiting schools in the morning and teaching them things like recycling and visiting womens groups in the afternoon. To be honest a lot of the time now is spent on introduction and discussing what the plans are for the year ahead also. 

Painting the School name at Nuvo Pinal at the request of the teacher. Have to return next week with red and green paint to paint Seedsofhelp symbol.

 If you have been reading blog this washing station will be familiar. We painted the washing station white and Wrote Semillas de ayuda. Symbol to follow. The community themselves decided to go ahead with the roof during the xmas holidays. Kind of proof in the Seeds of Help ethos of helping rather than giving. Was really happy on return here to see that the wall had been rebuilt by the community during the xmas also. When we ran out of stones for the soak away they insisted on using the stones from the wall. I was more than a little bit dubious as to when it might get repaired. Gladly by skepticism was unfounded.....

 Right so this is a project I took inspiration from a project in the philipines where they use old plastic bottles, filled with water and bleach, as lights in lamina (galvinised sheeting) in the roof to provide light. They say it acts as a 50w bulb when sun light hits it. The reason is that when light hits water it refracts at 360 degrees so gives off a lot more light than glass can for instance.
My house like most in la cumbre has a ceiling and a tile roof above. Not anyway simple to install a bottle light into. I decided to try using bottles in the walls instead. It requires two 3 or 3.3 (super cola) bottles glued together to span the depth of the wall. (In the ceiling the max recommended is 2 litre bottles becuase of the weight of the water in the bottles.) Some tim foil the width of the wall to aid in getting the light to the inside and a bit or repair work around the hole afterwards. It costs 3 euro for bleach and epoxy and another 3 euro for the bottles but these can be easily found..

 Hard to make out but I decided to paint the area around the wall white so as to get some extra reflection. All in all the project was a success and it will definitely be a future workshop topic in La Cumbre and Coban.

Night time now but the water in these bottles is getting cleaned of bacteria during the day from ultra violet rays from the sun. They are filled with tap water so are relativelt clean to start with. The water would require filtration through a charcoal filter first before filling, with really dirty water.

Shower curtain for new fancy shower, and stowed away normally (below)

Right so to tackle the cold tried a bit of sinmple draft proofing. Siliconed up gaps in doors and windows to stop air infiltration and stuck a blanket to the door to stop cold coming through metal door. With extra made a draft excluder for bottom of door. Works well. Proof is that in the morning the area between the blanket and door there is a lot of moisture.

Last weekend As I didnt have much else to do I helped Roberto build a Latreen (outside toilet).

Agreement was that we would build my chicken coop this weekend. Something popped up for him and I got a stomach bug so we postponed till during the week have all the materials waiting to go so hopefully have the chickens in it by Friday, fried eggs Saturday morning. Also hoping to get a sample bottle light in lamina completed this week. Also in the pipeline is a stove made from clay bricks and lime, was going to make one from an old gas bottle but the cost is too much for it to be realisticly repeated by people in La Cumbre. 30 euro for bottle alone. Months wages... I also had planned on making carbon in the stove but this is actually uneccesary and can be done in any fire really. Dont want to limit how people repeat the project as the risk is that it will limit how many times it is repeated. Have the paint tin just need to use it all first (waste not want not) then I will be in the carbon (charcoal) making business, barbeques, water filters, drawing pictures, whatever ye want to use it for. After that a water filter of course.  Priced a sofa bed at weekend, 180 euro for cheapest, no thanks that will be getting made too me thinks. Adobe blocks. The sheeps wool insulation, still waiting on Roberto to get the thumb out on this, he needs to supply the wool, borax is awaiting, but hopefully in next few weeks too. Have a deadline for all this for before Easter as will have a few visitors around this time so the clock is ticking for me now.


I mentioned before that I was going to try live on 10Q or 1 euro a day for month of Febuary. Not going to plan I must say from the off. I have spent 30 on food alone in two weeks. I think I am going to manage about 50 euro for the month on food. i suppose you could say that 50 euro is what is required to eat healthily, 3 meals a day for a month. Average wage here is 30 euro a month so thats where the malnutrition problem of surviving on tortillas and coffee come into play I suppose. I had also planned on no internet, drink or meat. Well internet went out the window straight off to be honest but I am trying to fundraise for the Tikal and House appeal and they are more inportant I feel. I honeslty forgot one day and eat a peice of chicken and I straight out bought chicken at the weekend. Love my fried chicken yeeeehaaaaa what can I say. But havent drank and dont plan on doing so. Going alright shall we say....

Some randomness from La Cumbre for you.................

When the mist decends....................

But when it clears.................

Myself, Roberto and his father, few sheep and a bit of craic sure what would beat it.

Just a quick note on Sylvia and family. I met Sylvia in Brendas house on Saturday, Brenda gives her mother some work washing clothes, she is happy in school, going well. Next week I will put the pressure on her and get her to start doing a monthly newsletter. Dont expect shakespeare, she is pretty much learning to write from scratch, however it is important for lots of reasons. A thank you to everybody who has helped her and her family, has agreed to for the duration of her education, but possibly even more so that she learns that she has to do something in return for all of this. Thanks again to everyone.....