Tuesday SOL 11/11/14 - Guatemala 2014 #1 - The People

I'd like to introduce you to some of the people that I was privileged and blessed to work with and spend time with during my Guatemala adventure this year.

Allan & me with a view of a volcano

at Lake Attilan

My brother, Allan, was moved to once again join in our journey to Quetzaltenago, aka Xela (pronounced Shay-la).  It is the second largest city in Guatemala, toward to western coast at approximately 8000 feet above sea level.

Our Team - Willie (with the machette) is our Thrivent Team Coordinator

Our team consisted of 13 people from Arkansas, Illinois, Ohio and Oregon.  We were joined with another team of 11 people from Florida, Tennessee, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Wisconsin, plus three Habitat coordinators.  With this amount of people, we could divide into three groups and work on three different houses.






Our Habitat coordinator is Fredy.  He has been been with Habitat Guatemala for five months and lives in San Juan de Laguana with his wife and little boy.  He is fluent in Spanish, Mayan and English.  He was very helpful and knowledgeable and a delight to be around.  We were truly blessed to have him on our build.

 Our family consisted of Luis and Estrella, their daughter Cristol and Estrella's sister, Maria.  Their story:  Several years ago, Estrella & Maria's father came to the U.S. and became a citizen, had all the paperwork together to bring the whole family to the States.  One month prior to completion of the move, he died and the process came to a halt.  Earlier this year, Estrella & Maria's mother died from brain cancer.  Maria was diagnosed with a brain tumor which was malignant.  She had surgery, chemo and radiation and at the moment is in remission. They had to sell their Mother's house in order to pay for all the medical expenses for the mother and Maria.   Habitat is helping them to build a handicap accessible home - slightly larger than the usual houses (10 x 20), but still relatively small (15 x 25).  They currently live with their Grandmother.  They are a delightful family and they feel truly blessed and thankful for all that they have.  Their faith is very strong and they couldn't stop thanking God and us for helping them.

 They are blessed to have some wonderful neighbors who welcomed us with open arms.  The first day we met Deysi - a 5 year old charmer.  She became quite attached to Elaine (a retired teacher) and me.  Elaine brought out the crayons and color book and stickers.  That was all it took.  First one page, then another and before the week was out, all the pages had been torn out of the book and placed safely in her home.  She has a sister, Estefani who is 3 years old and wanted to be a part of the coloring sessions too.  Then came another neighbor to join in the fun.  Elaine felt bad that she wasn't doing more to help with the build, but community building is all part of this venture.  She was a hit!  Once a teacher, always a teacher.  The girls loved her and vice versa!

 The second day, Deysi came out in her "Sunday" best.  Of course, we couldn't resist taking pictures of her.  What a cutie!  The next time we looked, here comes Estefani all dressed up and ready for some pictures, too.

The next day, here comes Momma (Flor), all dressed  up with her one year old, Esvin, and wanting her picture taken also.  They were delightful.  Of course, they didn't speak English and we were blessed to have Naomi on our team, who spoke fluent Spanish.  So at least we could understand what was being said.

One day Elaine and I were coloring with Deysi and we started singing "Jesus Loves Me" with the motions.  Deysi was in awe and did the motions with us.  We sang it thru several times and then finished coloring.  She said something to us and we asked Namoi, who told us that Deysi wanted us to sing it again.



The masons were absolutely wonderful - they accepted us as fellow workers, explained what they wanted done and left us to do what we could.  They were happy with our accomplishments.  The head mason, Umberto (in the blue shirt) was a happy fellow and his 13 year old son worked along side of him every day.  Marco had worked with his Dad since he was 8 years old.  He knew exactly what was needed and was quick to react.

The people we met helped to make this mission/build trip absolutely awesome.  Their love of life and God is unbelievable - they have little, but yet have so much.  We could all take a lesson from this - sometimes we have so much and yet .....

Next week, the build.