New Stoves

Last saturday was a very long, full day that started with a boat ride on beautiful Lake Atitlan. It takes about twenty minutes to go down the very windy road from Eagle's Nest to get to Panajachal.  I have been on the lake a few times and am always amazed at the beauty.  Beyond description.

Tourists can be seem in Pana and the Lake area but this time of year it is pretty slow. Our group of twelve headed off to Terri's who is a missionary supported by Hope for the Hungry based out of Belton, Texas.  Small world.  She has been in Guatemala thirty years and helps with Medical mission trips, assists with stoves, and many other community outreach programs.  She has built a home on the lake so we picked her up on the way to the village of San Lucas. 

When we arrived Tuk Tuk's were lined up waiting to take us on to the homes that we would be builiding stoves for.  We split into two teams since the houses were located about a half a mile from each other.
The tuk tuks don't go on the dirt paths but they are very well traveled.

Siblings we passed on the dirt path

Many homes have stoves inside the home and the smoke can be overbearing.  The cost of a new stove is around $130.00. Eagle's Nest has teams that come assist families in the surrounding area with new Stoves.  The family that receives a stove usually gives one fourth towards the cost of the stove and helps prepare and build the stove as well.  This allows them to have a feeling of ownership and responsibility for the new stove

 The stove we were replacing was located right outside the front door of the home and consists of a few cinder blocks stacked on top of each other.  If you look close you can see the black soot on the corrugated tin ceiling as well as the wood boards used to protect the kitchen area.  The family my team worked with was a widowed mother with two children, Alex and Sylvia.

The materials for the stove had been taken to the Home so the men got to work and quickly made progress. 

A local worker that knew how to build the stove was assisted by a couple of men on the team.  The new stoves are built so that less wood is needed and it has a ventilation system so the smoke goes outside and not inside the home.  The concrete mortar was mixed inside the families home so that it could be spread around as used as flooring when we left.  They had three new baby chickens that were living in the home with them under a plastic basket.

Since we couldn't all fit in the small oven are to help Pedro, George and I were put to work harvesting coffee beans on the property next door.  Could turn into a very long story, but Terri has purchased some properties in this small community to help assist widows who lost everything in the mud slides a few years ago.  If you have coffee beans on your property you harvest them.  It is harvest time for coffee beans so lots of workers could be seen on the mountainsides.  We were able to get all the coffee beans off of the trees with the help of local to show us how to get the ones way up high.  

We were at the home for several hours and I had seen the children leave with a bag and I asked if they were going to the Mercado and they said no.  Guess I said the wrong thing for the store.  A short while later they showed up with snacks for us - a cold soda and some crackers.  So very, very sweet.

Pedro is ever so smart.  He had brought along a soccer ball that he aired up with small pump so he could give to the kids.  Alex was so happy and Sylvia was pretty good playing in her flip flops.  I have never played soccer but did the best I could and played with him a bit while the stove was being finished.  

The corrugated roof had to be taken off and a hole cut in it.  He used a machete and hammer to do most of it.  He also used the machete and a small knife to cut ridges in the tile that fit inside.  We did have a small saw to cut tile but no electricity so hooked it up up the dirt road and down the path where a house had electric. We were curious how the hole would be sealed in the corrugated tin and he simply put some chunks of rock around the smoke stack and put cement around it. 

 That of course was after a makeshift ladder was formed by turning over the trash can, putting two boards on top, and then the cinder blocks.  The kids helped with anything they could.  They fetched water in the water jug and a bit plastic coke bottle that holes in the lid if a sprinkle was needed.

The funniest part of the day was when Pedro combined all of our coffee beans, about 40 1bs, between three of us. He went to put them down and tripped and coffee beans went everywhere!!  I got really tickled laughing at him and that made the mom and kids start snickering as we all knelt to pick them up.  They really thought it was funny too.

The family was very excited when the finished stove was presented to them.  The concrete has to set so it will be two weeks before the Mamma can use the stove.  She also can't cook on the old one right by it because the heat might cause it not to set up right from what I understood.  She had already made plans to cook them the evening meal outside on the dirt somehow.  Her home didn't have a "Pila" for water. She had a makeshift tarp, a piece of week with a small bowl for dipping water out of another large plastic bowl.

Since she is a widow she has to collect the firewood so having a stove that uses so much less will be great for her and her children.  Her property has a papaya tree, some coffee trees, and a small batch of corn so she is pretty self sufficient.  It was so great to spend some time with her and the children.  I am thankful that the team that got this all organized let me join in last minute.  My battery went out on camera so didn't get a final photo but will get one from one of the guys and post.

We gathered as a team and Pedro prayed for the family and the workers who got the stove built for them.

More to share, but will do so later.

Blessings to you,

Denise

For where two or three gather together because they are mine, I am there among them.  
Matthew 19:20