Give Me Your Words

On The Road we walk on, we fear not The Book Thief. For to him we gladly give every word we have ever learned. If time permit, we’d drink Three Cups of Tea with him. We’d converse about What is the What?, Mans Search for Meaning, And the poison drawn from The Poison Wood Bible. He would ask me about the White Mans Burden and I would ask him if he has yet to visit The Digital Fortress. In an Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close way, I would learn more from him then he from me, although he would probably say the same. After the stories he would tell of his brother The Lightning Thief—I know his face could never leave me. Because in some way our conversation would better connect us then the monotonous conversations of “ Where are you from”?, and “How many people are in your family”. We have shared something greater. Knowledge!

In the short amount of time we have spent in Guatemala, we have the opportunity to pass around a few of our favorite books. Each book has thought us a little more about ourselves. Rather the insights the volunteers have taken from these books and applied them to our late night pillow talks, have has thought us a little more about each other. Each quote shared adds another block of knowledge to the memory of our time here together. May you learn a little more about your self in doing the same.

This past week we said bye to Amy. We miss you! The childrenat Cero Alto y Santa Isabel are ready for the Guate Idol, if Simon Cowell allows them to sing down by the banks. Semuc was amazing this weekend. We did a little bridge diving, tree jumping, rope swinging, and bat cave exploring. When you work hard you have to play hard.

The Guate Book List

The Book Thief

Three Cups of Tea

What is aWhat?

Mans Search for Meaning

The Poison Wood Bible

The Digital Fortress

The Whites mans Burden.

The Poisonwood Bible

The Lighting Thief

Lots of Stoves and Lots of Good-byes

We are struggling to get all the stoves done. Our chimney maker, Fransisco Silo, is a little behind and we have over 100 chimneys to give away this week. NOTE FOR NEXT YEAR: Only pay 1/2 the bill to motivate people to get chimneys built for you. Genevieve´s parents came to visit us and they lasted 1 night in the pink and green house before they had to go find a clean hotel room with a nice shower, but we had a ton of fun working with them.

Last week some of the team found San Maximilio, the sinner/saint worshipped in these parts. A lady will cleans your aura by spitting alcohol all over you, but we thought that wasn´t necessary.
We also hit up the hot springs that are just outside of Chimal, finally. If you go before the park opens the park ranger doesn´t charge you, SCORE! They were more like warm-springs but we had a blast all getting up a 4:45 together.

The team is dwindling down to just 5. Amy leaves on Thursday and Creighton left this morning at 4:00 am. We had a really fun cook out last night for Creighton and built a 3 foot lincoln log fire to send him off properly. After Amy leaves there will be just 5 of us in the house: Sam, Geno, Jimmy, Rilee and Natalie. But that doesn´t phase us. Enjoy the pics.

It´s already August!!!

This week we have been working hard on the stove projects. We did stove demonstrations in 5 new communities and plan to give away about 300 chimneys in the next few weeks.

We had two chimney give away parties this week. The chimney give away parties celebrate the stoves the women have built. Many women are so grateful for parties because we play games and have a good time. We have had women day that it is the only fun they have had in years.

The hand washing stations are a great success. The women are excited about washing their hands and teaching kids proper hand washing. We’ve even had requests for more.

We are working hard and getting nervous about having enough time and people to get everything done that we want to.

All is well in the pink and green house.