Feb.15th Last Day of Stove-Building 2011

Tom asks which mason I might work for? I told him I've not worked with Don Juan before. Great. Don Juan has been afriend of Tom and Rita from the beginning of Guatemala Stove Project. He was the first mason that said that he could help with the building of cement cookstoves for the indiginous people like himself. As with other masons, he is also contracted for carpentry and other work. It was to Tom's advantage to talk to a usual trusted group who could carry out their work and the work of GSP if Tom was not around. GSP would be fund-raising year-round but they could not be in Guatemala year-round.

The biggest setback is for the women volunteers this morning. When asking about banos (bathrooms) some are told there is a convenient gutter right here. So they do inquire and see that they are able to find this sanitario a block uphill as long as a local is keeping away the stray dog. This is the extreme poverty where they are not enabling themselves to even build a simple outhouse.

The funny part is when Tom is trying to optimize every volunteer working group. One of the things he likes is a Spanish-speaking gringo in each group. Since a few people are away today Tom can be a bit cur-fluxed(?) Our team is settled when I state that Janice is a great Spanish speaker and it would be great to have her on our team. (I didn't know if my plea would have any influence but Janice did come onto our team.)

Don Juan is so kind to us and he gave me the biggest grin I've ever seen when we were finished our stove. It was known that he could finish early about 2:00pm and then he had another stove to do by himself up the hill with another family. I won't forget the stove-building days because of the hard work...... but it is the the richness of spirit and attitude that everyone has that I'll continue to remember.

Supper is at a retaurant called R.E.D. The R is probably for revolutionary (not really) and I keep mentioning the word "subversive". This is an out-of-the-way place which the chef-owner says was started by Guatemalans sometimes born in US but expelled for immigration reasons. The restaurant believes in buying locally where possible and promote locally. (Very subversive.) I order a Thai-inpired noodles vegie/chicken dish. Everyone is happy with the chef's selections.