Monday in Comintacillo

Our guide today from AMMID is a young man by the name of Erwin. Liz knows Erwin from the year before and he's a very helpful person. He soon dons on his cowboy hat and when I say that cowboys in Argentina are gauchos he says that Guatemalan cowboys are boceros. So I think of Bocero Erwin.

About 20 built stoves to review today. The reason I say approximately because there is often one or two stoves that are just too far a distance to travel with the limited time we have. Every cookstove we see today is A-Okay. The families are very happy to receive these and try to shower us with drinks and buns and whatever they have. In turn, we may present the ninos with very small items such as toothbrushes, pencils and a soccer ball(once in a while).

The most touching house was the the house of a widowed grandmother (abuela) and her widowed daughter. The abuela took a real liking to us and wanted to tell her story. She said the cooking stove made life for she and her family a lot easier. They didn't have as much firewood to gather. Their house was more smoke-free.

Our lunch was again treated to us by a number of stove-received families. The Sopa Con Carne was an amazingly extravagant(?) soup. What looked like a large turkey leg was included in every bowl. The turkey leg was a chicken leg so the community most have gone all out to procure the largest capons. (I'm not used to large lunches so I'm not able to eat any of the chicken.)

                                                                                           Comintacillo City Center Square:

Liz and I go to Italian Steak Restaurant for dinner. I don't think they have steak there very often. Since restaurants have limited supplies they usually only give you one or two choices. The choice today was another Sopa Con Carne or Stewing Beef with rice. The stewing beef with rice and plaintain banas really hit the spot....with a Gallo beer.

We heard that a contingent of dentist volunteers were to be in town. We went to the Posada Del Mar...Inn of the Sea(?) We talked briefly to two dentists and a nurse. Dentists and nurses were to participate in dental clinics for the next three weeks. AMMID always co-ordinates these dentists who arrive from both Canada and the US.