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.