Houses made of plastic bottles, tires and adobe

Hi- thought you might enjoy seeing these cute little houses.

We are starting to build a classroom at one of the daycares using this concept. Not only does this type of construction make use of local material and methods, but it also provides a great opportunity to recycle and clean up the communities. The children collect the bottles and fill them with dry garbage- chip and plastic bags, paper,etc. Then they are given a pencil for every 2 bottles they bring in. The man who designed the houses in these photos is working with us to design the classroom that will be 4.2 meters by 6 meters.

Brian and I met with a worker today to outline the dimensions of the classroom and order all the materials to start building tomorrow. We will send pictures as the project progresses. We are excited to be a part of something like this!

All the best to all of you.
Sheila and Brian.

February 2nd 2012

Hola everyone - We had a great day today!

The kids at Chacap are very
Interested in Brian's drill.

It began when we joined friends to visit a seniors drop in centre in San Juan. We found a group of lovely energetic seniors, all beautifully dressed just waiting to meet us. They come to the centre every week day and join in a variety of activities. Today, after the introductions all round, we walked through town and up to a girls' school. Some in this group were in their eighties and nineties but they could really trot along! Wonderful to see. At the school, which had been made of cement and plastic bottles, the girls were introduced and then they paired up with a senior and asked questions in an attempt to learn the life histories of these early residents of San Juan.

Brian and I really enjoyed this activity. We met a former mayor of San Juan who had been responsible for bringing electricity to this village, 36 years ago. He also told us that the village had once been piled with garbage but now it is the cleanest pueblo around the lake. When asked about his grandchildren, he told us that he had 27!! He was 91.We will visit again and may have this group prepare some crafts as prototypes for the daycares. When we left, theseniors were setting off through the coffee plantation to climb a big hill to picnic in the forest. What an inspirational group.

Delores in her kitchen in Punyebar

This young boy is totally engaged with
The new building toys at Punyebar.

Former Mayor of San Juan

The Lego car man

Children playing with Lego

In the afternoon, Brian and I travelled by tuk tuk, two towns over, to San Marcos to visit and exlore a bit. Then Brian went up the mountain in the chicken bus.He was the last person to be able to get inside, and had to bepushed in from the back to even be able to get in. After that, an additional 8 people were sent up the ladder at the back of the bus to sit on the roof!! Then, inside, the money collector had to climb over the backs of the seats to get through all the people to collect the fares! Brian could not believe it.But he took pictures. Luckily, everyone arrived safely to the top of the mountain- a very steep, twisty climb to Santa Clara. From there Brian took a tuk tuk out to Chacap to pay the 2workers who are helping to build our classroom at the daycare centre. They had done a great job and were even ahead of schedule. Nice for a change. Brian then returned to Santa Clara and returned down the mountain in the back of a half ton truck. This afforded great views of the lake and various pueblos on the way down.

Brian inspecting work

Mixing cement

Brian is buying screening in a small
Hardware store in Santa Maria, about
A half hour from Punyebar.

Brian is installing new screens on
Classroom windows at Punyebar.

Sheila got things cleaned up at home and made supper. A gentle rain at supper time cooled things off nicely and provided stunning lighting for photos.

One of the pictures were are including this time shows a saddle made of tires and animal hide that we noticed on our walk this morning. You just never know what you might see down here. We are enjoying our associations with many other groups this year but it does keep us busy!

Enjoy the pictures and we send along thank you for all your support. Sheila and Brian

January 29, 2012

 Last Saturday, we reconnected with a good friend, Nancy Lynne from San Pedro. She is working on an educational and cultural project that centers on Lake Atitlan. With our expertise in Environmental Studies and Brian’s knowledge of the Sunship Earth Program, we have agreed to join forces to work on curriculum.


Games

 Sunday, we were invited to a quince anos ceremony for the daughter of our guardian. Here, when a young girl turns 15 years old, a big fiesta is held in her honour- a sort of coming of age party. Families save from the birth of the girl until her 15th birthday to be able to hold this party. We dressed up and went to Cristobol’s house for a meal and visit with his daughter, Irene and her family. People arrived all afternoon to enjoy fellowship with the family and present gifts to Irene. It was pretty nice to be invited. This is the second time we have been invited to a quince anos ceremony. Another part of the celebration takes place at the church and another part is celebrated at school with classmates and staff.

Monday, we met with Courtney and Owen who run a group called Rising Minds. They organize volunteers who come to this part of Guatemala and are interested in becoming involved in projects. We touched base with them last year and put them in contact with Paty, the director of Infantiles S.O.S. Currently, they have some volunteers working on a project to build bathrooms at our Punyebar daycare. So, we arranged to join them on a trip to the daycare the next day and see what they were doing. They are using an interesting form of construction which makes use of plastic bottles and trash. Kids in the community are asked to bring in discarded plastic bottles stuffed with dry trash. For every 2 bottles they bring in, they are rewarded with a pencil.


Finishing walls of washroom
for daycare

Building walls of washroom
with plastic cans

To do this construction a mixture made of mud , dried horse manure or pine needles which add fiber and cement , is placed on the ground as a footing. Then the bottoms of the bottles are forced into the wet mud. Vertical supports of wood poles are imbedded into the footing every 2 meters, they provide the main strength for this type of structure. The bottles are placed one after another until a vertical support is reached. As can be seen in the photos, the vertical supports are simply small tree trunks. After the first row is completed a wire is connected to the post and then passes through the neck of each bottle and attached to the next post which provides some integral strength. This is continued until the wall is formed. Then the complete wall is covered with layers of the mud mixture. This will provide a strong but inexpensive way to complete a bathroom. It is hoped that families who look at this will see a cheap way to build should they need any additional living space at their own home. And, it helps to clean up the whole neighbourhood as a whole by making use of the plastic garbage!

loading wood

Transporting wood

Brian mixing cement

Walls made with mixture of mud,
dried horse manure, pine needles
and cement

 


  

 


 

While up at Punyebar, I completed my initial assessment of this centers’ needs for this year and took pictures to send back to you, then we all departed to Chacap to do the same there. We decided to move the kitchen to a smaller space, which would leave the larger room for a classroom. It will need a cement floor, though. And because enrolement is growing at this center we are going to build another classroom using the plastic bottle technique. So... suddenly, we are getting much more busy.

The start of the 2012 project

Hello everyone –more news from the Guatemala Daycare Project, January 24th,2012

Brian and I have now been down here for 2 weeks. The street vendors were really happy to see us again, because there are few tourists about, perhaps because of the general situation with the economy everywhere and due to the fact that heavy rains this past year have caused a great deal of destruction. Many people have had their houses and crops lost to the lake. The new docks built around the lake last year are also under water by several feet.

Our first job was to reinstate our cell phones and computer modem to be able to communicate with our contacts, both here and back home. Then we visited the Suden , a huge warehouse type second hand store run by a Canadian couple who this year shipped a great deal of goods for us and stored them until our return here in January. We arranged to transport the shipment up to Solola (15 km.) to the Infantiles SOS office. A most pleasant pick- up truck driver arrived and helped us move everything in two big loads. Then Brian and I returned a few days later to Solola to unpack, sort and repack the goods for the daycares. The daycare teachers then arrived and hauled away the goods for their respective centres. They were so happy when they saw the variety and quality of supplies they were receiving! Thank you to everyone who donated to this effort. The van and truck were packed full when they pulled away from the office for the journey back to the daycares. The pictures tell it all! It would have been quite some ride.

Brian unloading the supplies at the
Infantiles SOS office in Solola.

All the goods had to leave Suden through
this small door!

Office staff sort all the goods for each
daycare centre.

Hola from Guatemala

 Thank you to all of you who donated goods and showed an interest in knowing more about this Daycare Project. Brian and I arrived in Panajachel  in early January and got right to work.

Our goods had arrived from Canada a couple of months before.We hired a pickup truck and driver to help us move all the boxes of books,toys,clothes,lego,etc. from Suden , the place where all these things had been stored for a few months - to the office of Infantiles SOS in Solola about 15 km. away. Suden,-is a terrific place for the very poor to buy all kinds of goods at very low prices. It is run by a wonderful couple from Quebec, Canada who kindly shipped our goods down. We can not thank them enough for their generous offer!

Immediately we began the job of unpacking, organizing, repacking and distributing of all these wonderful things to the various daycare centres on both sides of lake Atitlan.  A BIG job. Due to the heavy rains this year, there had been a lot of damage done to roadways but now the roads were being worked on and in some places they are being widened and guard rails added. Yahoo.

 Sheila and Brian.

Two truck loads were delivered to
 the Infantiles SOS office

 Our mountain of supplies stacked in the office 

Brian carrying the goods up the

steep steps to the Infantiles SOS

office in Solola    

The start of the 2012 project

Happy New Year. Things have been hectic for us for the last month, I'm afraid. We had so much to do before we left Wakefield. While on the road, we had trouble connecting  the computer and had to get some help to do so. Now we are in San Antonio, Texas visiting friends. We fly to Guatemala on Sun. We certainly appreciate your efforts to help us with this webpage. Here is a little info to get you started. When I get settled down there, I can send some more- for instance a good map. Good luck.
I have more written out by hand but have not had the time to type it out. I will send along more as soon as I can. Good Luck. Sheila