April 2012... Big 30, bottle lights and water tanks..

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 30^th 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...

I know whats coming next alright................

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...

 This is us trying to teach colours phentically as well as the proper spelling... Kids are having trouble pronouncing there THs for some strange reason ive noticed ha ha

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.

growing lad what can i say

 This is the waterfall at la chifel (name off top of my head sorry)

This is a natural paper co operative run by an american woman for Mayan woman in a nearby village.

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...

                                             

 Guess what a lot of roofs have Lamina (galvinised sheeting). Working holiday showing the Zapatistas how to make bottle lights. Gonna try anyway. Have to write them a letter first to explain and ask permission..

 This was our guide of the complex. There were kids and other people wihout the balaclavas but obviously taking pictures of them was forbidden for security reasons.

 This is the school. And I thought the De La Salle was a little bit too extremist at times.. Still though they are providing the kids with an education that they wouldnt have otherwise recieved.

 

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. 

My plans for next month. This weekend I am going to go to Antigua to visit some friends, including Dona Lily and Hilmar. Hilmar is also doing bottle lights with a cheaper epoxy so need to see how well they work and what type it is. Possibly could bring the cost of the bottle lights down to under 15q or 1.50 euro. After that I am going to Coban for 2 weeks. For a few reasons. I am going to do some bottle lights with the commnity living in the dump and another close by. I also need to organise places to stay for the tikal trip in July in both Coban and Flores (near Tikal). I am also going to do some intensive spanish classes to give my spanish a bit of a boost. I also need to start training for this half marothon in Coban on the 26th of May. Big thank you to everybody that has agreed to help with fundraising for both the Tikal trip and house building project. If anybody else is interested please send me an e mail and I will send you on the details roryoconnor25@gmail.com. Hopefully with running this race I will have somewhere close to the funds needed for both. I am also going to start pricing the house project. A lot to do but will let you know how it goes in a few weeks.

One last thing I nearly forgot, I am now officially a chicken farmer.......................