Stove Project San Pedro: How did I end up in Guatemala wanting to build stoves??

Sunday, November 11, 2007

How did I end up in Guatemala wanting to build stoves??

Last winter, once my daughter Brittany entered college, and after much thoughts and much planning I quit my job and spent the winter traveling around Central America and Southern Mexico. I was both exploring and working on different projects along they way.

This is Brittany!

and my home in Onset MA.
By the way, Brittany is coming during her college break to help out!

Back to the project...

During my travels, I spent 6 and a half months working on various different projects. Everything from a well drill in El Salvador, for a community without water, to a homeless shelter. Volunteering in communities here and there. One project that particularly interested me the more I read about it was "the stove projects" in various communities... Then when I met and spent time with Jutta and Heinz and learned all about there Bella Vista school project> Nothing made me happier when Heinz expressed interest in bringing the stove project into the village. I was so happy to work with Heinz and Jutta getting the first stove installed last year and decided I would commit to raising funds and coming back and building stoves for the month of January.

Jutta in the Bella Vista schoolhouse

5 comments:

Lauri said...: Fascinating! Thanks for sharing your adventures.; November 12, 2007 at 10:17 AM
Unknown said...: Guatemala will never be the same... literally & figuratively speaking.
~ Sheryl ~; November 18, 2007 at 7:25 AM
Martyhiespubb said...: Just what the doctor ordered! Will be by this week with a contribution for 5 stoves. Discussed coming to Guatemala to help install the stoves with Donna, we decided it would be a good idea for me to come. She won't be able to join us this trip - but who knows what the future holds? Can't wait to explore a part of the world I have never been to - and the bonus of being able to help my fellow man in such a positive manner is in itself priceless. Thank you for the opportunity!
Marty; November 28, 2007 at 5:13 PM
Heidi said...: Like I said, " I should have traveled with you when I had the chance"- so pencil me in for 18 years from now. Love the site- have a safe trip & see you in Feb. ~Heidi~; December 3, 2007 at 6:04 PM
Bubbles Revere said...: How are you doing? How is mother dear. I hope that you are well and taking care of yourself. I know that you are having a time of your life out there. I know mummy is cooking up a storm and loving up all those babies. She is wonderful and I know the children are getting really chubby from her food. I have not forgotten you and I will difinitely make a contribution to your work no matter how small. I did a project in Haiti where I distributed food and medicines a few years ago and it was something that a friend and I created and fullfilled. So, I know the immense joy that you are receiving from giving. I would love to be kept posted. Keep up your energy and joy.

Noreen Sumpter; December 7, 2007 at 10:30 AM

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A bit about the village,lake,people,culture and the area

At the southern edge of the broad highland belt that runs through Guatemala, captured in a mountain basin commanded by three towering volcanoes, lies Lake Atitlán. A score of Indian settlements, dwarfed by the mountain backdrop, lie scattered around the twisting shores of the 1ake which measures twelve miles long and half as wide. Like the million and a half Indians that make up half of Guatemala's present population, the residents of the Lake Atitlán basin speak dialects of the Maya-Quiche linguistic stock, akin to the language once spoken by the builders of the fabled Maya Empire of lowland Guatemala and Yucatan. The women weave on backstrap looms, the men cultivate corn on mountain slopes and valley plots, and the people of different villages exchange goods in open markets.
The villages surrounding the lake differ from one another in size, specialized crops, and level of wealth. Each has its characteristic costume, its peculiar dialect, and its distinctive customs, despite centuries of cross contact. Each community has repatterned its twin heritage of original Indian and introduced Spanish traditions into a way of life as distinctive from the others as are the personalities of different individuals. Every village may be said to have its own culture. Reliant on spoken rather than written tradition, yet increasingly subject to city ways, these peasant communities combine primitive and civilized features.
San Pedro la Laguna, has a cluster of some five hundred adobe houses compactly grouped in blocks around a central square. With a population of 2400, the village is third largest of the lake settlements and occupies a terrace more than a hundred feet above the water at the base of an inactive volcano whose steep sides form part of the agricultural hinterland. Situated about 5,000 feet above sea level, the village enjoys a temperate climate, the annual cycle consisting of a wet and dry season of about equal duration.
No roads connect San Pedro with other villages. The people travel on foot and occasionally on horseback along narrow paths winding around precipitous hillsides.