I started off April hitting the big 30 on the 5th. Thanks to everybody for a great night in Lava and in Reillys for a finish. Ellie, Beverly, Anamaria, Malcolm, Gavin, Damien to name a few. Plenty of pictures showing how I celebrated in the traditional way on Facebook so don’t need more here. Needless to say I ended up standing on a bar singing Go on home British Soldiers... Lovely rendition, not to be repeated until next Paddy´s day at least.
The more touching and more authentic Guatemalan Birthday celebration was held in Chiantla with Brenda and her family, Seno Cony, Dona Eulalia, Sylvia and co, Stefan, Denise and Stefan´s parents. I was very humbled is all I can say. The preparation of the food and gifts, the effort made by Stefan and Denise to get there in the first place. Easter week or Semana Santa as it´s known here is an absolute holiday and celebration so buses aren’t easy to come by and they were coming from the lake 4 hours away. Presents were pretty special too. I got a clatter of T shirts, books, hand drawn pictures (Sylvia, Kimberly, Luis and Maira) etc. Special mention has to go to Denise who made a picture album of our times together so far in Guatemala and Stefan who bought a book on the internet that we had talked about, getting his parents to then bring it over on the plane from Germany. Seno Cony wrote out the method of building bottle lights in Spanish. The gifts as nice as they are, were nothing in comparison to the feeling that everybody made such an effort. Very special 30th by anyone´s standards.
Thanks to the family back in the old country too of course for well needed presents of the monetary kind which was also very vital...
Typical Guatemalan fashion getting cake on my face. Seen this one coming but well deserved for me laughing at the kids getting it done to them a few weeks before I suppose.
After the Birthday celebrations Denise decided to stay on and live and work in La Cumbre for a little bit. Below is a few pictures of the week or so spent working with schools and women´s groups.
This first picture is of Denise on her first day aclimatising to life at 10,000 feet (3,500m) with a short one hour stroll to Escaputzy. Not easy at best of times but one first day, hats off.
A but when the sun clears hard not to appreciate the scenery.
We did quite a bit of English teaching while Deinse was here. Its always good fun with the kids but its also part of the ciriculum and when some of the teachers havent a word its a pretty basic way of actually helping the schools...
Below are photos taken one day in Nuevo Progreso, we were playing games like throwing a ball and shouting blue and then the kid got to throw the ball when he or she answered Azul they then got to throw it to the next person and so on. Yea I did drop it a few times shut up.................
As myseld and Denise both arrived on the same day for spanish school we both needed to do a Visa run (need to renew holiday visa every 90 days to legally stay in Guatemala) at the same time so decided to take a trip to Mexico. San Cristobal to be persice, about 6 hours away from La Cumbre. Below is the highlights of the weekend.
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| growing lad what can i say |
For me the highlight was going to visit the Zapatistas about 2 hours into the mountains outside San Cristobal. The Zapatistas started out as a rebel group fighting against the Mexican government about 20 years ago. The people of the Chiapas region are pretty much neglected in every way by the Government. All the while the region is being raped of its many natural resources with none of the money filtering down to the poorest people for health or Education etc... Nowadays the Zapatistas have pretty much given up on arms but in saying that the Police or army do not venture near their area and we had to wait for an hour outside while they looked at our passports and had to fill out a questionaire as to why we wanted to visit etc.... The really interesting part for me was that they have managed to organise co operatives making clothes and producing food to improve the quality of the lives of their people. Socialism at its best gotta love it. They also have a hospital and schools, both of which the national Government had failed to provide previously...
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| this is the Zapatista football team complete with balaclavas. least if you missed a sitter knowbody would know who you were I suppose..... wacka wacka wacka...... |
Right so back to the work part of life for a little bit. Below are a few pictures of bottle lights I have made and installed in various schools and houses throughout La Cumbre. There are 8 in all, one in each community we work with. The idea being that the people will see the benefits and want to make their own. A bad time at the minute in La Cumbre as most people make money off growing potatoes. Planting them at the miute so not a whole lot of cash in the region to buy materials even if they only cost 3 euro. Going to give them time to save and also look into different epoxies to try bring down the cost. Anyway here is a few pics...
What is this dirty eigit of a gringo planning on doing with the toy space ship I ask you.......
And hey presto let there be light.....................................
Also in the last few weeks we have started to build rain water harvesting tanks with two communities. As many of the remote villages have no running water and its practiacally dry for half of the year these tanks really improve the condition of peoples lives.
Other news. Sylvia got her first report card the other day. Did really well lowest mark was a B. Really proud as should everybody who gave her the opportunity to go to school. I will scan it when I get the chance.
One last thing I nearly forgot, I am now officially a chicken farmer.......................
