Wellshire Group in Guatemala: Post 3 from 3/23/09

Monday was another day full of blessings for the group from Wellshire. After breakfast we had a short devotional led by Ray Johnson. We left for Chimaltenango at about 8:30am and drove straight to the Habitat for Humanity affiliate office in Chimaltenango where we were greeted with a welcome ceremony.

The ceremony started with the lighting of firecrackers right outside the office, although no no one really prepared us for that, so we thought we might be coming under attack. The local office got quite a kick out of the gringos looking around and getting ready to duck for cover. After that the director of the Chimaltenango office spoke with us and introduced us to the rest of the office staff and then we were introduced to Esther, the woman who we would be building for. Esther has four children and is a single mother with no support from the father. Two of her children are college age, but all four children still live at home with her. She supports the family and is trying to help two of her kids pay for college. We felt privileged and blessed to be helping Esther by building her a house.

We then ate a snack at the office of raisin bread, banana bread and coffee before loading up into the vans and heading out to the worksites. We split our group of 20 in half. One team headed out to the Habitat building site while the other team went to the church that houses the Healing Waters International system.

Sign outside the Habitat for Humanity office in Chimaltenango

Welcome ceremony with the Chimaltenango Habitat director Emy and Casey Leo, a Habitat employee based in Guatemala that helps run the volunteer trips. Casey Leo, and all of the staff at Habitat have been incredible to work with as we have put this trip together. We are hoping to form a long-term strategic partnership between Habitat and Healing Waters International and this trip is our first chance to start building that partnership. So far it is going great!

This is Esther, the woman who we are building the Habitat house for. She gave a very touching speech, thanking the group for being there to help her with her new home. We are so excited to be helping to build a house for Esther!

The team that went to the Habitat build site jumped right in to work. The site had been prepared prior to our arrival with a foundation poured and the first layer of concrete block laid. Our team was tasked with mixing cement for mortar, carrying the concrete blocks, mortaring between the blocks that were being laid by the masons (Habitat hires local masons to do the “professional” work and lets the volunteers do the manual labor. This is a great model because it provides employment and economic development in the community, and still provides a work experience for the volunteers.) The team at the Habitat site had a great day of back-breaking labor, and cannot wait to get back there on Tuesday! Along the way they got to know the mason pretty well, visited a local tortilleria (a place where they hand make fresh tortillas), and make a local ice cream salesman very happy (probably boosting his sales by 200% for the month in just one day.) Below are photos from the Habitat build site.

Janie and Graham Johnson mixing concrete to be used as mortar for the cinder block house being built at the Habitat site.

Rachel Wildrick and Hannah Johnson standing with Esther, the beneficiary of the house at the Habitat build site

The Wellshrie team stacking and moving cinder blocks

Janie, Rachel and Hannah mortaring the space between the cinder blocks that were laid by the mason.

The stone mason teaching and instructing the group on what to do.

The other team went straight to the church at Chimaltenango where we had worshipped yesterday morning. From there we met the pastor and a few members of the church who had volunteered to spend the day working with the gringos.

Pastor of the church in Chimaltenango

This church has a great community outreach program that we were able to plug right in to. They reach out to a local public high school and do community service there. We arrived at the high school with cans of paint and big smiles on our faces. We were told that we would get to paint an exterior wall of the high school along with some of the interior classrooms and office spaces. When they showed us the outside wall we would painting, it looked like it needed it. The paint was chipping off and there were many places that had not been fully covered the last time the wall was painted. However there was also a lot of dust, dirt and soot on the wall, and we all knew that the paint wouldn’t stick on that. Just as we were coming to that realization, I looked up and saw a fire station across the street and a half a block down. I walked down to the fire station with the pastor from the church and explained to them what we were doing. I asked them if they wouldn’t mind coming out with the tanker truck to power wash the outside of the building with the fire hoses. They took one look at the goofy, tall, blonde gringo, smiled, and said of course they would. So they drove their tanker truck over and hosed down the wall we were going to paint. I love Guatemala!

Local firemen pulled in to our project and powerwashing the outside of the school that we would be painting.

While all of this was happening, the rest of the group was inside the school getting a tour of the classrooms and playing a pick-up basketball game with some of the students. Once the wall was hosed off and dry, we set to painting. By the afternoon, half the team had split up and was painting interior rooms while the other half continued to work on the wall, which is about 25 feet tall and over 200 feet long! Below are photos from the painting process.

Julie Lays hard at work, stretching to reach those high spots.

Natalie Lays working up the ladder

Brian Lays, paintbrush and a smile

Terri Kipple, she is a painting machine!

Jim Lays, steady hand and hard at work.

Jessica Allen-Pickett, Jay Allen and Linda Lucus picking up garbage around the wall to make the painting go more smoothly

Both groups returned safely to Antigua, exhausted and smiling from ear to ear. Our first day at the work sites was an amazing success, and we are so grateful to God for the opportunity to be here serving our brothers and sisters, thankful to our families for supporting us in this endeavor, and thankful to the Guatemalans for so warmly opening their arms, doors, and hearts to us to be able to spend this time here.

Tuesday will be another work day with half the team working at the Habitat site and half the team continuing our work at the public school. We will be taking a break for lunch on Tuesday and share in a meal prepared for us by a local family that is a beneficiary of the Healing Waters system in Chimaltenango. Stay tuned for a post about our work day and lunch with the local family. Thanks for reading and LET THE CLEAN WATERS FLOW!