900 Hot Dogs

Life Update #5:

Again, our lives have primarily been made up of meetings, luckily a couple have involved traveling…breaking up our routine of the mid-morning decision whether we’ll leave our apartment or not based on if we have internet and how much we (I) want espresso.

We did have the opportunity to have dinner with about 40-50 people, including Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland…sounds a lot more glamorous than it was. It did force me to the mall for real clothes and shoes though, which Mario keeps reminding me I need, as I basically brought a wardrobe of Target clothes thinking I wouldn’t need to look nice much this summer. Little did I know.

We then went to Antigua for several meetings and seeing a few friends. First we met with Constru Casa – another organization I kind of love that works in places like Las Conchas and does its own in-house microfinance to build 2 and 3 BR homes with bathrooms. It costs the family up to $20/mo/4years. Stefan, the guy currently in charge, was incredibly open with information about his organization and his ideas on exploring ways to move the organization away from total donor-dependency. Hopefully we, especially Mario, can not only use some of their ideas in our own work, but help him improve their business practices.

We met with Steve and Allison, from Shalom in the US. Despite only 2 staff in Guatemala, they are dedicated to maintaining the new surgery center, a secondary school, a new nutrition program, 10-15 mission trips throughout the year, and expanding the housing program. Admirable as this may be, it concerns me and I hope more staff will be hired. The money Shalom puts into this work is significant and I am simply afraid that their money and good intentions will be lost or inefficiently used. But Steve was very open to our ideas so I’m optimistic that we'll be able to create positive change.

After meeting up with Omar and my friend Laura – British friend from Spanish school – for dinner and drinks…and a tour of Antigua in the rain…we made plans to see water filter construction in action the next day. After a little bit of a late start we made our way to the chickenbuses and on to Parramos. The 20min trip took a bit longer than planned but what a great town Omar had brought us to! A beautiful square as the center of town, lots of local comedors and none of the tourism you find in Antigua. A mile later we reached the worksite but didn’t participate much, as a group was being trained on filter construction… and really there’s not a lot of rocket science to making a cement filter. The hard part is figuring out the physics of it before you even start building. We pitched in when we could, asked some questions, pondered its applicability to Las Conchas, and got a free lunch (you know I love free food).

We also went to Xela, which I’ve already talked about in the last bit on Compartamos, but the MFI aside I loved that city and hope I’ll get to spend more time there in the future. It’s the 2^nd biggest in Guatemala but feels more like a small town that just keeps on going. What a nice change to be in a big city without everyone telling me to “please be careful” every time I walk around. 

While Mario left me to fend for myself last weekend I went to Las Conchas twice. Friday was the infamous 900 hotdog cookout with the Shalom group. We cooked, dressed - mayo on hotdogs??? - and wrapped 900 hotdogs. Then we drove to LC and had all the people that were waiting for us sit in the dirt in the heat in circles so that the foreigners, who can’t speak Spanish, could hand out free food and trinkets…not even healthy food…for an hour. As much as I appreciate the sentiment, not my favorite life moment. Helllooooo dependency and entitlement. Great lessons. And I didn’t even get to have one! But after my obligatory help giving stuff out and translating was over I hung out with a crew of boys on a truckbed and let them use the camera for an hour while all the little girls thought it was great fun to tickle me to the ground. That was a good time at least! The Shalom crew that was there, and the new one in town this week, had some great people who return to Guatemala year after year – their hearts and intentions are in the right place and their openness to change is encouraging for what Mario and I hope to accomplish.

The weekend was highlighted by going running on Sunday by myself and getting caught in the rain. That and making salad finally, fresh food hallelujah. Oh, and I finally watched Inception…now I understand last year’s hype.

Then Monday I headed back to Las Conchas to help Tyler with a health survey and to gather some basic data for our own tracking sheet. After Rudy joined us, kind of an unofficial town leader, we managed to talk to 26 families. However, it’s hard to talk to people about their health when they often don’t even know they’re sick because no doctors are seen until it becomes an emergency. But it was interesting and good to see how surveying goes to preempt any issues we might have on ours.

It’s a fascinating and heart-wrenching place – to see 14 kids living in one tin shack that keeps adding tin walls out the back; to see a kid with a mouth infection that’s been untreated for a year and is probably eating at his jawbone; to hear Rudy talk about trying to teach kids English so they can get jobs but he can’t keep it up when he doesn’t have a stable job; to know the school is considered a treasure when there are 450 kids for 12 teachers. Here’s hoping our time here has a positive impact and that next time I’m here things will be just a little bit better.

 

1- Rick & co. at Shalom site. 2- Denis and the street cat (his family is getting the new home). 3- Home nearby. 4- At least their stove is outside...the source of so much sickness. 5- Hotdog giveaway... 6- My two new friends. 7- New friends and Giovanni returns with more kissing.


More LC Pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/102104549777635189839/LasConchasJunAug2011?authuser=0&feat=directlink