The Ripple Effect

2011-12-20T20:22:00.000-08:00

Here in the Northwest we are bedding down all our gardening but not so in Guatemala. The villages where we work are located between 3,500 and 5,000 feet in elevation in the mountains. The climate is temperate not tropical and the seasonal change is more affected by the rainy and dry seasons than our winter- summers temperature fluctuation. December is the start of the dry season and a good time to begin planting. This month we are helping 54 families enter the new growing season by establishing personal garden.

DIEGO"S GARDEN IN NUEVE PUNTOS
34 of the families are from the women’s collective and the other 20 live in Nueve Puntos. This is the third time we have help in Nueve Puntos and when I ask if they wanted to participate again the replied “Por cierto! Cuando nos ayuda comemos rico!” –“For sure when you help us we eat rich!

YOUNG GIRL WITH A BREAKFAST OF BEANS
I know they feed me the best that they have when I visit and often we have festivals but truthfully the diet is very bland. Not only is it low in variety but it is lacking in many important nutrients.

MICHAELS GARDEN IN WASHINGON STATE
I garden a small space next to my house and a family of five could eat their fill from it all through the season. In Guatemala we want to develop a continuous harvest for 9 months out of the year and revolutionize their diet.

So we are organizing a three year program that we hope to offer up to 150 families. It would have classes for instruction in soil fertility, planting time, and harvest procedures. It would also offer seeds and supplies like this women and her son are carrying here.

Last Spring we grew and gave out over 1,000 vegetable starts from a small nursery in Las Flores. This year the village of Nueve Puntos and the women’s committee in Chel both are starting nurseries.

Our Christmas present this year for these women is seeds, starts and more chicken wire so they can increase their garden sizes from 25x15 feet to 25x30 feet. This size of a garden spot is about half the size of the test plot I am farming intensively in Washington State. When soil fertility has been improved and sound gardening practices established we hope to have set such a great example that personal vegetable gardens will become a way of life in this region.

This is a work in progress as step by step we work toward sustainable horticulture that will fill the nutritional gap in their diets. We invite you to join us and sponsor a family’s journey toward better health. $35 supports a family garden for one year with seeds, starts, and fencing.

You can support us buy donating online at http://therippleeffectinc.org/ or mail your check to The Ripple Effect @ 9712 kopachuck Dr NW Gig Harbor Wa 98335. Remember 100% of your tax deductable donation is used in the project. TRE is a direct link to fight poverty family to family.

Enjoy these past photos of our garden poject.

Turning the rocky soil.

Filling bags with dirt for growing starts.

I am always amazed that small gifts can become significant. One small bag and one small seed will become vegtables for more than one meal.

A happy gardener heads home with the tools to help feed her family.

The nursery in Chel.

handing out seed wraped in newspaper.

Jala a Las FLores Part two

2011-11-12T19:29:00.001-08:00

This blog is the second half of our entry made in July 2010. This November we have celebrated the completion of two village water systems. This one chronicled here and another in the village of Nueve Puntos. It is a great accomplishment that will better the lives of around 1,000 people for many years to come. Enjoy the photos of the work accomplished and lives changed. The photo above is of the collection tank built at the mountain spring 8,000 feet behind and 400 feet higher than the village.

Our blog chronicles part of the work done to bring this source of clean water down and across the mountain to villagers like this girl. The work, distances and cost have been great but what a reward to see clean water at in front of each home.

Remember over 1,500 100 pound sacks of sand cement and gravel were carried up the hill to build the two tanks

And that over 30,000 feet of piping and ditch were hand dug and laid.

In October Michael visited the two water projects to help bring them to completion and one of the first jobs in Las Flores was to suspend metal piping to cross the small stream of Xesalli. Picture here is our go to assistant Andres at the foot bridge.

Two concrete towers were constructed to suspend cable and 3” galvanized pipe above the water way. Here they are pictured before the forms were removed

A villager is placing the cable on top of one of the towers.

While the work group was stringing the cable and piping Michael lead a group back up to the spring to make some final connections and open the gate valves to clean and test the piping between the spring and crossing. The system has 5 concrete lids like this one which in hind sight could be have been made a little lighter.

After the enormous amount of work done this was the first time the water would travel down the hill. It was exciting for everyone to see the force of the clean water running out of the piping.

We had rain most days during this month. This man makes use of one of the natural umbrellas that are in the jungle around us.

Here we are passing the piping across the stream.

Michael is basically cheap. This quality has good points but at times presents it own challenges. He did not want to spend $120 for two pipe clamps big enough to tighten 3 inch pipe and felt they could make due lashing poles to the pipe. This did not work at all. A large “C” clamp helped but still did not finish the job.

Our solution turned out to be a human pipe clamp! Centered in this photo is Manuel Ramirez our program director.

A project like this is impossible without many hands. Here we are lifting the connected pipes.

And placing them through each tower.

Pictured above is Domingo our mason. He spent 50 days managing the concrete work often from 6 in the morning to 6 at night. The total cost for his labor was a little over $500. Here one of his community volunteer days he is connecting the cable and pipe with rebar hangers.

Manuel Lopez surveys the water flow on the other side of the crossing. He has donated over 70 days on this project and without his help it would not have happen. It takes strong dedicated leaders to be partners with us. In total this crossing is 120 feet long.

Our July blog described the beginning of the building of this storage tank positioned half way between the village and spring. It is the biggest tank we have seen in this region. Both the village and TRE are extremely proud of the craftsmanship and design of this system. It will serve the community well for many years.

Michael the mayor and mason inside the tank before our final cleaning. When the water entered the tank it sounded like a jet taking off. We tried to measure the flow and it filled a five gallon bucket in about one and a half seconds!

After the tank was filled we resumed the work of digging trenches and laying pipe.

This time however was different because we were entering the village. The mood often was festive and the goal near.

After travelling 6,000 feet this father digs the final few feet to connect his home to the spring.

This man was forced to patrol for the army during the war when his arm was shattered by a bullet. Now with 13 dependents in his home how will he ever escape poverty?
Michael connecting a faucet, which was one of the very fulfilling parts of his time there. He was touched as he visited the homes, was offered gifts of bananas and free lunches. The effort to see these projects happen seems small in comparison to the level of poverty he saw as he travelled the muddy hillsides.

We purchased and installed 154 new faucets and repaired 30 existing ones.

Water faucets for families not for just numbers in a program.

Michael describes this photo”Here I am passing a letter of completion to the water committee. TRE has spent over $15,000 on this project and the local government has provided the same amount in piping and I ask the question what have we done? The amount of money, the distance of piping and sheer weight of all the loads carried seems impossible. But here we are after many small steps we have made a long jouney. When the water entered the village’s main line and I walk through to the far side of the community everywhere I saw faucets spewing for clean water with great pressure. Fathers, mothers and children all signaling that they had water, smiling, waving and shouting I released we did it, we did it! Las Flores has clean drinking water! Water to families like the one below. We have embraced the poor, shared of our wealth, loved our neighbor. It felt like winning, it felt right.

After one year of work the goal is here. Water to 200 homes like this one.

A journey to Nueve Puntos

2011-11-05T07:39:00.000-07:00

One of the young girls in Nueve Puntos who received a new poncho.
I traveled back to Guatemala during the month of October. I am often asked what do I take down with me. Some people even think that the plants we raise for our spring plant sale are transported to Guatemala. The journey is long and costly so I must choose carefully what I bring. All project supplies are brought in Guatemala but I want to collect good shoes to take down each trip. The airlines limit us to two check-in bags and one carry on. This trip I left Gig Harbor with 40 pairs of shoes and 24 pairs of boy jeans, two items that are hard and expensive to buy in Guatemala.

So how did two check-in bags become all of this? Miracles in Actions a nonprofit with a home in Antigua Guatemala blessed us with blankets, sweaters, hats, backpacks, crocs, food water filters and books.

After flying for one full day I spent the night in Antigua. My time was limited and the work before me great so early the next morning I repacked the donated items with help from a local family. Another organization “People for Guatemala” who offered me 100 bottles of children’s vitamins and a pick-up ride to the main highway came by around noon and away we went. Once on the main highway we flagged down a “chicken bus” like the one picture above. In total I had 30 pieces of luggage! I was defiantly not travelling light but this transportation is the most economical around. I had a little excitement at the next bus terminal when my gear was loaded on three different buses! A little shouting and it was reloaded correctly and I was on my way again.

Travel day three- Manuel Ramirez rode out with a hired driver from Chel to met me in Nebaj. We did some banking and purchased some metal water pipes and a gunny sack of connections in the morning.

I must admit I felt a little proud to have successfully moved all this gear to Chajul. Yet I realize that I am only the delivery boy and without help all along the way both in Guatemala and in the states I would not be able to do this.

After mounting two new tires and tying down our load we were ready to head to Chel.

Although the local government receives $5000 a month to maintain this road there is little evidence they use any of it. Buses and large trucks have stopped using it and now only 4x4 trucks make the trip. Our top speed is only second gear and it was well after dark when we arrived in Chel. The week after we arrived the road washed out and was not passable again until three days before I left.
Although the local goverment receives $5000 a month to mainten this road there is little evidence they use any of it. The week after we arrived in Chel the road washed out and was not passable again until three days before I left.

Travel Day 4- I still had a another day of travel to arrive in Nueve Puntos. I separated my cargo leaving piping in Las Flores and other supplies for the women in Chel and traveled to Nueve Puntos with many gifts. Here we are switching forms of transportation again as we prepared to make the final leg of this long journey.

I would not want to be a mule in Nueve Puntos. At times they are loaded down with up to 200 pound of cargo.

I also would have a hard time carrying my share of the load if I lived here. Chico who weights around 100 pound is carrying 100 pounds.

Everyone in the family helps in moving supplies.

After a few thousand miles and various forms of transportation we are nearing our destination.

What did we bring? 75 bottles of children vitamins that will be distributed into 10 communities. Each bottle contains a three month supply for one child.

Shoes and pants.

Knitted hats, gloves and blankets.

The following photos are some of the happy recipients. These gifts would be small to many of us but here they are huge and greatly appreciated.

I am asked and sometimes ask myself why I do this. It is not easy or convient. The answer is at least twofold. The first reason is that the needs here are real and they exist everyday of the year.

The second reason is the gratetude that I see makes these some of the best days of my life. I have beed told that I am viewed as a kind of village father who when he returns from a trip always brings small gifts home to his children and creates a mini fiesta. That is not a bad job discription.

From all of us Thank you for being a part of this ripple that brings hope and change to the forgotten poor in this region.

Jala a Las FLores

2011-07-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

Our biggest project at present is the work being done in Las Flores to provide water for the village. I first visited the spring and village leaders in the spring 2009. After we struck and agreement for the village to provide all manual labor gravel and sand, we then sought and received funding from Rotary International and the Olson Foundation. Finally in February 2011 we sign papers with the mayor of Chajul to share in around 50% of the material cost. The very next day we purchase cement and rebar to start work on a holding tank above the village and the work began.
This community has around 900 inhabitants and is located just across the river from Chel. The community grew out of villagers from Chel locating across the river in a patch of Jasmine flowers but after a time they saw the need to incorporate to seek help with schools, water and other community needs. Actually the full name of the village is Jala a La Las Flores. It is a sing song sound – Jala a Las Flores which is a mixture of Spanish and Ixil that simply means “The other side at those flowers”. As I review my photos and remember my time there I feel that if the village name were a song it would be a mixture of hardship and hope. Poverty and the past have written a long story of struggle. One photo that was taken of me alone at the end of a day work, a day in which I was so exhausted I was virtually useless struck me. I was there. I shared that song, the struggle and the hope and I so am thankful to be a part of it.

Here we are in front of the home and store of the Mayor or alcalde of Las Flores. He obviously was not elected due to having a rich and elaborate lifestyle.

We met inside his home, which sleeps five, to discuss the first day’s work. After two years of planning and a week after we delivered materials we were finally ready to start work on the large holding tank half an hour walk above the village.

Ah, at last the first day of work on the site of the holding tank.
Digging and packing seem to always be the first step of a water project!

Our ordered wheelbarrows did not show up until the third day so we do what we always do in Guatemala- improvise. The man in the white shirt is Manuel Lopez the village “cocodes” a nonpaid representative of the regional government. He has given so much time to make this project happen it is incredible.

Progress comes little by little

Every house hold has to participate even the mayor. I don’t know if that concept would catch on with our leaders here in the states but it has merit.

I found the alcalde to be quite a character. Here he is digging for treasure in a small cave we uncovered. This hope was not unfounded because as we dug down around three feet we continuously would find small pieces of pottery.

here is a part of our collection.

I was excited to find the nicest piece of obsidian. It is very common that wherever you dig in this region you find pottery pieces testifying to the long existence of the Ixil people here.

A representative of the ministry of health (man in the vest) stopped by during lunch the third day of our digging. He was performing a purity test on our spring and very impressed with the chlorine filter that we will install at this tank. It will be only the 4th village in the 60 of Chajul to have a filtered system. The two other men in the photo are the Alcalde and Manuel Lopez, village cordinator

Well, the hole is dug and a rebar grid laid out in preparation for the concrete floor.

Our next need was for sand, cement and rock to be carried to the site. Every household was responsible to carry an equal part. A few had mules but most of the men had to carry the loads on their backs.

The climb to the site took me ½ hour with a light load. It goes up and
up and up

1,500 100# sacks would be carried to the site before we finished the tank.

I am amazed at the determination of these people to better their community.

We also needed water so with 100 20’ pieces of PVC we set up a temporary water source. I forgot a handsaw that day but an Ixil can do almost anything with a machete

Success!

On mixing day it took me three trips up the hill to get everything ready. Around 10:00 we were ready but I wondered if it was too late in the day to begin but everyone wanted to go ahead so the mixing began. I appreciate the lessons of days like that when I become frustrated becuase life is not going according to my organized plan and I just let it go. Many time lo and behold a good day comes inspite of myself.

We would build three of four mountains of concrete mixture, dry mix them

then add water and stir.

Placing the rebar grid.

this is a quarter of the way through the day.

By days end I was exhausted. Here we are mixing te last pile

The day after the pour we started forming the walls. Two sectors of villagers were assigned to transport lumber that was cut from a donated tree further up the mountain. This lumber was rough cut with a chainsaw on a hillside grade of 45 degrees.

In total we moved 336 boards three boards at a time.

It was a nice break from the backbreaking work of hauling, digging and mixing to start forming the walls of the tank. This tank is quite large measuring 20’ x 23’ and 7’tall.

The alcalde or mayor is helping nail boards here. He is the shortest man I know from the village and probably around 4’6”. I don’t know how much he weights but he can still pack 100# sacks of cement and sand around pretty well.

Even though I spent two months in the region with all of my different responsibilities I only had two weeks to actually work with the village on the tank. A few days after this photo I turned the work over to one of the masons in the village and started my journey back home. I was tired and looking forward to showers and a more varied diet but very grateful for the progress we had seen with in these projects.
It has been three and a half months since my visit and a lot has been accomplished since then. The holding tank is finished and the municipal has delivered all the piping they promised. The first part of July we purchase more cement and rebar to start work on a collection tank at the spring. The village is mobilized working digging ditches and laying pipe. In October I will return and it is anticipated we will install the water filter and have a completed water system for almost 1,000 people. I personally feel very thankful. Thankful to the village for the willingness to work so hard for a better future, to the people at The Rotary and Olson foundations for having such caring hearts and enough faith to provide the seed money to make this project possible. I also am grateful to the municipality of Chajul who step up to the plate and served their people. Lastly and always I am thankful to our donors who help us cover the loose ends to see this project to the end. When I am back again in Jala a Las Flores and turn on a facet in front of a house and know every family has clean safe drinking water at their doorstep I will be thinking of all the help along the way and offer a pray of blessing to each of you. Thank-you all Michael

January visit 2011

2011-04-23T03:32:00.000-07:00

What were you doing when you were six? Playing jacks?

When you were ten, were you weaving your own clothes?

Was there medical care for you as a child? We meet this girl while buying pigs in Illom. After her mother sold me a pig I looked in her house and noticed this girl. She has laid on the floor with little appetite for twenty days and her mother was selling the pig so they could afford medicine. We purchased the medicine for her as well as the piglet. Many of these people live life making choices I am thankful I have not had to make.

But with the help we’ve been able to provide, they have a better chance earning a living like those in our pig program.

January 22nd my wife, Carol, and I boarded an AA jet and began her first trip to visit the Chajul region in Guatemala. By reporting some of our experiences, we hope to share a clearer picture of the work The Ripple Effect is doing in the lives of our Guatemalan friends.

We spent our first week of the trip at a Spanish language school on the shores of Lake Atitlan in the small town of San Pedro la Laguna. It was a good transition week for us, living with a middle class family, having access to the resources of a town and honing our Spanish. While there, we visited Panajechel and some representatives of Miracles in Action, an organization we’re starting to work with more closely.

The folks at Miracles in Action pitched in with a gift of 6 gunny sacks of supplies to take back up into the villages. It was exciting to inventory the trove of gifts, knowing they meet the critical needs of the wonderful people we would be seeing in the upcoming weeks. We had blankets, backpacks, hygiene kits, shoes and knitted hats. Those gifts swelled our pieces of luggage to 13 - a lucky number. If a traveler has 2 or 3 pieces he will try to carry them himself, but when there are 13 it’s clear he will need help. To make the ripple effect happen, I have to remind myself to count on others for help.
This was my first visit to the lake. Carol visited this area in 1980 and was amazed at the changes in the villages. Then there was only a handful of gringos and the men dressed in traditional clothing. Now whole blocks of the town were set-up to cater to foreign travelers
We stayed with Pedro and his wife Deborah. He is both a teacher and an excellent painter. Because of his personal history both of these achievements are amazing. His father was alcoholic and at age 13 Pedro left home, ending up on the coast to work in the sugar cane fields. There he cut sugar cane in the blazing heat for 50 cents a day. He often slept in the streets and began to drink to stay warm. He quit drinking and managed to get certified as a teacher. He told us in 2012 he will not have to work full time and has volunteered to go to the Chajul region to help teach the children painting and horticulture two weeks a month. His motive—help others in poverty the way he was helped.
Well how did we move our luggage? We started by boat across the Lake, and then hired a shuttle bus to take us to a highway junction. The shuttle was for tourists on their way to Antigua, and it made me laugh to see their reaction when we were dropped off alongside the highway to wait with our mountain of gear for a public bus. In about 5 minutes, a bus came, the helpers loaded us up and we were off to our next transfer in Santa Cruz Quiche.
Santa Cruz is the “department capital of Quiche,” the department that Chajul is part of. Our transfer there was in a terminal and for a couple of dollars, two men with carts hauled our supplies to the proper "bus" and we sat down at a street vendor’s booth for breakfast before leaving in a micro-van. We started the day at 6am and would arrive in Nebaj to spend the night and purchase some more supplies at around 3:30.

The next morning in Nebaj Andres, one of my friends from Chel arrived with a local driver to transport us to the village. With some help from friends in Nebaj we finished buying enough stuff to reach a load of 2500#, which is considered a full pick-up load. Adding six more bodies on the truck, we started the final 3.5 hour trip to Chel. Direct travel time from the states to Chel takes two and a half days.

The ride on into the village is a slow crawl through the mountains, but even this road was not here 15 years ago. Back then, to walk in you needed to start at 3am and would arrive in Chel around 8pm. I have heard elders say the people have it easy these days. I guess it is all a matter of perspective. There is a tiny top of a mountain peeking out of the cloud in the left hand side. That is where the town of Chajul is. Chel is in the valley below and Nueve Puntos is one hour travel more behind where this photo was taken.

It feels like an accomplishment and a big homecoming whenever I summit the last ridge and see Chel and Las Flores in the valley below. These communities of 3,000 and 1,000 respectively are the center of our work. It was where we first started working with a cattle project mirrored after The Heifer Foundation model. This visit we are helping 120 women develop ways to support their families and we’re starting a water project in Las Flores.
Homes are simple, made of poles or boards with cracks that the wind blows through. Floors are normally uneven dirt with an open fire. We will be staying with the family of the president of the women’s collective. 80% of all animals run free which contributes to polluting the water supply.

These two communities are clustered along both sides the Chel River. The river is a real blessing to everyone, but there needs to be cultural education to protect it. Pollution from both the lack of a sanitation system and trash are visible everywhere. Present day marvels such as plastic and Styrofoam have arrived, but the education on how to dispose of them lags behind. After using an item, the wrapping or bottle is thrown to the ground without a second thought. When trash is collected it is burned in the streets.
Coffee is the best cash crop in the area. After picking the cherries, they must be de-husked and washed. Then the beans are laid out in the sun to dry. Each night the beans are collected and stored to be protected from condensation or a surprise rain storm. After five days of drying the beans are bagged and trucked to market
Weaving is the prided tradition of the women. Young girls will learn to weave by the age of 8. In fact by the age of 8 or 9 the girls are able to cook, clean, wash clothes and care for younger siblings.

Many of my poorer friends only have two sets of clothes. One to wear and while the other one is being washed. This woman has a deluxe “laundry room” in comparison to women with just a board in the mud to bend over and wash on.

The starting point of helping people is getting to know them. Juana Bop the collective’s president and diferent committee members took Carol and me to various homes of the women in our programs. Each morning for three days we visited these families, and in the afternoon, Carol helped in the clinic, assessing needs and dispensing medicines. Pictured here is Rosa Pecheco who has participated in our pig program. She has raised and sold her first animal and purchased a replacement animal with the proceeds of the sale. Now she is starting to grow 500 coffee plants we offered. She told us durning the war she fled to the mountains with her baby and lived there for five years with only some plastic for a house.
Maria and Manuela are sisters. Their father’s hand was shot off in the war. In total there are 13 people in this 15x20 house. They eat twice a day, each meal consist of beans, some leafy greens and tortillas. The plastic on the walls is to keep the wind and night cold from blowing in. Each bed has only one blanket and sleeps at least two people. They are raising two sheep provided by TRE and will entered our vegetable gardening program during this visit

Each afternoon for three days the Local clinic was opened for the women. Carol with a local assitant provided ceck-ups and free medicine.

Maria
Maria is almost 80 years old and sits here with her granddaughter, Katarine. Maria lost sight in one eye when she was young. During the war when the village was burned, she was led by one of her grandchildren into the mountains to hide. A few years later, her second eye closed, leaving her blind. She can’t work and has trouble walking. She’s in a monthly food program and on this visit we bought her padding for her bed to ease her aches and pains.

Juana and Rosa
Carol offered medical help during the home visits. Juana had problems breathing and had very little strength.
Rosa might have been suffering from tuberculoses

Anna’s husband died a year and a half ago. She has 5 children to care for. None are attending school. Anna has been sick for 15 days with diarrhea, a bad cough and general aches and pains. We gave her cough syrup, vitamins, food and three new blankets

Magdalena and grandson
Magdalena told us about fleeing the burning of the village with five children. For four years she hid from the military. Crossing a fast moving river with the children she then traveled to the plantation La Perla to seek asylum. She has raised and bred a pig donated by TRE

The woman below is also named Magdalena and she told us that she has bred the sheep she received and is waiting for the lamb. We are wanting to buy a ram for these women to use.

Hacinta
Hacinta proudly showed us her new lamb and the sheep we gave her in May 2010. They use the word semilla to describe animals they will breed. It literally means seed and represents their hope to grow a small heard. One young man was reported to have cried for three days when his sheep died, because with it his hope to create a small business died also. The gifts you help provide are small but extremely important.

What did we do with all our luggage? One afternoon we carried it to one of the local churches
The seven women on the committee and Andres, Juana’s husband, are indispensable to the management of our work.
The Church pictured below is pastured by Martin a mason we used to build the water tank in Xesally. e fought for six years with the rebels and has quite a story. You can read more about him in the blog entry "Personal Side of War"

We called all the women in our programs together to discuss the upcoming work and gave out clothing, blankets, and backpacks. During this visit we would be distributing more pigs, starting coffee nurseries and a vegetable garden program.

You might have notice that Carol was dressed in Ixil clothing. A Huipil, or blouse, takes almost two months to weave. Yet she was given five huipiles from different women.

This are one of the school
backpacks provided by Miracles in Action.

Between here and Nueve Puntos, we gave away around 800 clothing items, 40 backpacks and 50 blankets.

Toward the end of our first week, we bought and distributed pigs to part of the 65 women that we chose for that program. After buying pigs in the morning, the women arrived and formed a line.
We used our chicken coop for a corral, and the first order of entertainment was catching the pigs.

If for your birthday or Christmas you ever receive a pig, there are a few different ways you can bring it home.

wrapp'em or rope'em

or just put them in a bag

As we ended our first week in Chel, we send a heatfelt thank-you for the help,gifts and donations that have made this work possible.

Update on Nueve Puntos

2011-01-01T19:54:00.000-08:00

Michael is getting excited about the upcoming trip to Guatemala. He and his wife Carol will fly down Jan 22. This is a major trip and Michael will being working in the villages until the second week of March. In reviewing some notes and photos from last May and November trip he felt it would be good to give an update on Nueve Puntos, which is one of the villages they will be visiting.
He states “I really love this village and know we are working our way to a grand fiesta. We will be completing three projects there this spring as well as performing a medical clinic. The size and location of this village has kept it from ever receiving help like this before and the gratitude of these friends is precious. I would like to let everyone 'walk' through some of my experiences there as they view these photos.”

Last May, Michael attended the Mother’s Day celebration at their new school. This is the first time ever that this village has had a school. The village provided all the labor and TRE bought $1200 worth of building materials

In October, TRE started funding the building of a clinic. When completed, it will have three rooms, a cement floor, and be about the same size as the school. This building qualifies the village to receive monthly medical supplies from the Ministry of Health. One of the villagers has recently completed his exams after two years of studying for a certificate of medical service. This combination will be of great service to the community.

Here is the cleared site in November. It now has the foundation walls and roof up. In February, we will paint the exterior and pour the floor. Michael's wife, Carol, is a registered nurse and will assist with physical exams, immunizations and care for all the village in addition to providing dental floss and teaching dental hygiene. We also hope to provide Multivitamins and Vitamin C tablets, especially to the children.

We also plan to bring more clothing into the village. Only $2-$2.50 will buy a nice fleece pullover for the kids.

In May, we started work on a gravity fed water system. Pictured here is the finished holding tank above the village. The task of forming the concrete holding tank was a new skill for the men in this village and so the finished product is even more impressive.

They have dug, laid and buried 1500’ of piping and completed digging another 1500’ of ditch.

Here is one of the surface wells in the village. By the end of next spring there should be five new community faucets bringing clean safe water to these people. This will be the first time in the history of this village that they have running water. Thanks to your support this project is fully funded.

In May, five of the village elders told Michael the history of Nueve Puntos. One common phrase he heard from the Ixil translator was “Este es un parte de la historia largo y se llena con tristeza" — "This is a part of our history, It is long and full of sadness." The following is a condensed version...
"In the 1920’s the Guatemalan government passed a law that all indigenous people would have to work on building the national road system without receiving any pay. These elder’s fathers were forced to work for 15 days at a time and were whipped if they didn’t work fast enough. At the same time the plantation owners could force anyone to work for them for up to three months. Legally they were supposed to pay for this work but even when they did the wages were very low. To escape this system of economic slavery the founders of five villages in this area fled into the mountains from Nebaj. For two weeks these families traveled further into the mountains making their own way as there was no road. In this remote area they began to build their communities. The childhood memory of these men was one of hunger, being cold and having bleeding feet as there were no shoes. For 60 years the people work acquiring animals and clearing fields but in the 1980’s the army entered Nueve Puntos burning the village and scattering the population. For 20 years these people were displaced only officially rebuilding in 2003."
A few of the elders.

Pedro Remundo, 74 years old, with his wife.

Nicolas Jacinto, 77 years old, with his granddaughter
Remundo, 55 years old. At age two he became sick probably with polio and became crippled in one leg. He told me how grateful he was for the care his mother gave him carrying him into the mountains when they were fleeing the soldiers.

Michael has visited caves, hidden springs and hidden plateaus in the mountains where the villagers took refuge. They were joined by other villagers as the whole countryside was in a state of exile, fleeing the oppression. In November, Michael was invited to visit one of these special sites and witnessed the exhumation of a clandestine cemetery where 30 bodies had been buried during the war.

Manuel, the man in the orange shirt is looking for his brother and father’s bodies. Nicolas Hacinto is looking for his mother. They uncovered 5 bodies, some only children, that morning. A forensic team worked on identification of the buried and recorded the personal stories of the survivors for three days. The people were buried by the community while in exile and represented inhabitants from five different villages. Those who died in the first few years were buried in coffins lashed together because they did not have any nails. Those who died later were buried only in their clothes. Because of a national law that forbade taking photos without prior written permission, Michael was unable to take any more photographs.But those things he witnessed and those images still remain in his mind.
On Michael’s first visit he found garden plots ready but not planted due to lack of seed.
In May, he ate from vegetable plants grown from starts that TRE provided for each family. In December, we provided the village with 8 different kinds of vegetable seeds for the next spring.

Two villagers have shown a real knack for gardening and this next visit we will offer them an interest-free loan to build a green house. We want to offer a couple of the women of Chel the same opportunity and TRE can contract with them to buy vegetable starts for our garden project. A win-win situation.

This sewing machine that Pedro owns, was bought with help from TRE. Sadly, Pedro (pictured here) has had some rough times and lost two mules this last year. One died from a snake bite.

Preparing for lunch.

This squash is really delicious.

Cleaning up after lunch.

Here are some needs for Nueve Puntos.
$150 to buy a Solar Panel for the school and clinic
$125 to buy clothing
$250 for loan for the green house
Well that is all the news for now. We wish everyone a Happy New Year

2010-11-21T09:09:00.000-08:00

Michael made a quick trip in October to Guatemala to prepare for our February/March trip. We needed to meet with the municipal government to plan for the completion of the water Project in Nueve Puntos and the beginning of our water project in Las Flores. In response to a request he received in May he visited the village of Soltzil and expanded our work with widows and single mothers. Soltzil is one of the villages we travel through when we buy pigs in Illom. It is located 45 minute by road from Chel on the side of a mountain. With most of the surrounding land owned by the neighboring plantation and the absence of any flat ground the plight of these villagers is especially difficult. The following is a brief story of his experience there.
Although the road connects Chel to Soltzil there is no public transportation between the two villages. Both are located after a fork in the main road to Chajul. One branch travels up the mountain to Soltzil and the other over a small ridge towards Chel. This made it necessary for a delegation from Chel to walk there and meet with the women that represent this community. Five of us left one morning passing through the community of Jua and in front of the national dam project that brought the roads to this area.

This project is almost completed and has opened this area, for better or worse, to the world outside. Before the road was established it took all day to walk to Chajul. It is interesting to hear people in their 40’s or older tell about their first experience hiking to Chajul to visit or carrying hundred pound loads of coffee all that distance to be sold for six or seven dollars. That price had to cover the work to grow, harvest and dry it as well as transportation. I listen to elders tell me how easy it is now but let’s continue on our journey we still have a pretty big hill to climb.

After the dam we chose to travel up the right side of this ravine to make a more direct route. With all the little paths that take the farmers to their fields the hill are a criss cross of trails. We just keep choosing what was heading in our general direction.

It doesn’t take long for the dam project to fall far below

The creek in the ravine drops away sharply too.

Juana and Hacinta, two women from Chel went with us to share their experience working with the widows. I ask Hacinta why she wanted to come and she answered me in a way that made me feel that the answer should have been obvious. "Because they are just like me, without a husband and in need. We want to help them too." She also told me the next week that she could hardly walk the day after our hike!

Andres and Manuel were my male escorts and the trail wasn’t any easier for them.

After climbing a ridge we begin to descend into the village and a soon as we ducked under a fence we met Maria. Times like this affirm why I travel thousands of miles, why we hike through these mountains. To alleviate suffering! Maria has been suffering from a mental condition for two years, her husband has left her and she lives next to her elderly father. She was seating in the dirt chewing on some old cane stock as dry as hay stubble. She had no skirt no shoes no belt.

Her father Mateo is 75 years old and showed us her house

This is the view inside her home. The dark spot is her bed. She has no blanket, no grass mat, only a huipile (shirt) to keep her warm. This is one of those times my heart cries NO MORE! There is a danger in entering into the world of poverty. Without the separation of distance you have no more excusses and are left only with the responsibility to care. But that is actually a good thing. How many times do we really get to cloth the naked? We will visit Maria latter.

I don’t know whose children these were but the boy was showing me his kite while we visited with Mateo, Maria's father

The women’s committees of Soltzil meet us at Maria and then took us on a brief tour of some of the special needs in the village. This widow is caring for three orphans that are not related to her. This one has serious handicaps. Other children had club feet , another with a a cleft pallet that prevented him from talking.

Passing through the draw we visited with the women washing clothes.

With pigs running free in all the villages we are teaching the women in our program the importance of acting responsible by corralling their animals.

After a lunch, our first meal of the day, the committee of Soltzil gathered the women. We have offered to bring our pig program here to start helping this community.

Pictured here are around 70 women. In total this village had 67 widows and 30 single mothers. We had funding to buy pigs for the widows but have to wait to help the single moms.

Gaspar explained the importance of protecting the environment by penning their pigs.

With a show of hands and latter a thumb print on our registry book all women agreed to the rules of the program. For those of you not familiar with the program we give one wiener pig free to widows or single women but teach them that after raising their animal they must either breed it or save part of the profit to reinvest. Our goal is to develop ways for these women to earn an income.

After the meeting we headed back to Chel and planned to return the following Friday to buy the pigs in the neighboring village of Illom.
For our returned trip we rented a pick-up truck and driver for the day Seven representatives from Chel gathered at 4a.m. to begin our days work. It is exciting to see the committee of Chel volunteering their time to help in Soltzil. We dropped off part of the group in Soltzil to fill out all the paper work and five of us continued on to Illom. For half a day we slipped and slide up and down the dirt paths there looking for pigs. We were not having much look and by noon we started back with only 20 pigs. As we came into Soltzil we watched as women dropped their work and almost run to the gathering spot. There is so much excitement for these women to get an opportunity as simple as this.

We explained that we had to keep looking for pigs and distributed what we had to the first twenty women in the our registry

They also give me a new hat and shoulder bag. Note the look of satisfaction Maria has to be giving something back in thanks.
After a nice lunch we gathered four more helpers and 11 of us traveled to a neighboring plantation to look for more pigs. We had much more success there finding some really nice looking animals (that is good looking for pigs). I stayed close to truck this time so I could pay for the pigs and the group spread out into the village.

I admit it is a little exciting buying the pigs but it is also hard and dirty work. Yet here we had 11 Guatemalans helping without any pay. We were tired and thirsty but full of laughter and contentment. It seems clear part of what TRE can offer is the ability for people with a good heart to have the opportunity to serve others. At six it was time to head back to Soltzil. We still needed to gather the widows again and distribute our cargo.

We had enough pigs for all but 10 and which we bought two weeks later.

It was becoming a long day as we unloded the last of the pigs but there was one more important job to do. Return to visit Maria Pecheco

With a smaller group following we went to visit Maria

Entering into her home we brought a new blanket, skirt, belt and huipile. I did not know how she would respond since she had remained silent on our first visit. Her face took on a childlike smile as the women dressed her and in Ixil she thanked me saying “thank-you, you have cared for me like a Father.” I knew we had done well and there were a lot of happy ladies in the village that night.
Please keep these people in mind during the holiday season. We have made some nice gift certificates. You can donate a pig for $25, start a garden plot for $32, or a coffee nursery for $35. All these projects are for widows or single mothers. Another choice is to donate to our water projects in Nueve Puntos or Las Flores. We will send a nice gift certificate and a blank card with a photo of our work with these people. Each of these gifts changes the world just a little and is tax deductable.

Small animals for the Widow's Collective in Chel

2010-07-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

A small project we started in Chel was building a chicken coup for the eight members of the collective’s committee to start working as a egg and meat business. We will be working to grow into this endeavor over the next year.

These ladies have a willing heart even if I was lacking some extra hammers.

This was a lot like a Habitat for Humanity project. It was built by the women of the commitee with help from Michael and one other man Andres. At times Michael had to chase away helpful men because he wanted the women to build and manage this program themselves.

This woman traveled an hour and a half one way to help in this project and receive her personal 10 chickens. She made that journey three times.

Another use for the chicken coup is to raise chicks to give to the members of the collective. We bought over 650 chickens and distributed 10 each to 65 women. In the future we could buy day old chicks and raise them for three week before distributing to others in the collective. This would give us better control of their health as well as provide some income for these women.

Here is a photo of the committee members who will manage this work.

The Arrival of Our Chickens!

The rest of the women were divided fairly equally into two groups 67 received wiener pigs and 65 received 10 chicks and 27’ of chicken wire. Here is the group signing up to receive their chicks.

A truck arrived with 12 crates of chickens. We had ordered these from Nebaj

As each woman comes forward to receive their animal they place a thumb print on our record book.

We placed all the chickens in the shade and then brought two crates at a time into the coup. As the women entered threw one door the committee members filled each basket, with 10 chicks and the recipient carried them out the other side door.

Throughout this process widows would come up to me with gifts of thanks. Normally these would be bananas or cans of juice and at the end of the day we had quite a pile.

Another good day for all involved
SHEEP

To see the joy and excitement that helping these people brings makes this work feel like it is the best job in the world. .
In an effort to diversify the widow’s animal husbandry we bought 13 sheep. These will be raised and breed for meat. We would like to teach the art of felting so they could felt blankets and clothing if they have the interest.

By tying a number to each sheep and letting the women pick a number out of a hat we avoided favoritism.

Raising sheep is a family a fair. Often a child’s job is to take and tether the animal in a pasture on the way to school and then bring it back home when they return. We are starting with a small group of women and will expand based on their success rate. Here are a few more new owners.

Another day Andres and Michael traveled to Illom and, after spending the night, bought 67 wiener pigs. This is the same village we bought from last year so Michael is getting to be known there as "the pig man." Because the villagers there are surrounded by a plantation, they have resorted to raising pigs in the small spaces that are available to them.

We try everthing to find pigs for sale but door to door inquires are the most productive.

This mother pig had 11 piglets which we bought for $16 each. It was a great buy for us because the genetic stock is very good, and it provided a great income for this family. The finca only pays a little over $3 a day for labor.

Once again we pull into Chel with a truck full of wiener pigs.

Before the distribution of pigs, the women wanted to offer an official thank-you from the group. Some of the women are learning to use Michael’s camera. To keep from towering above the widows, Michael lowered his “tall" 5’8” frame to his knees for this photo-op.

Michael receiving a sombreo and mural. The Ixil people are such a generous culture they can not stop themselves from giving gifts.

This widow is trying to get a peek at the pig being caught for her.

Although we try to buy around the same size of piglets, we end up with a large variety of sizes and colors

Sometimes a little help is needed to get everything ready for the trip home.

Michael said ”One widow that has always touched my heart because of the extreme poverty that she lives in is Maria. She was in our monthly food program but gave up her place to a neighbor who she felt needed it more. I saved the biggest pig for her and announced why it was reserved for her. She had one of the biggest grins I have ever seen on her face when she received her prize”.

We added a new feature to our small animal programs by providing vacines and medicines for each animal. Gaspar Lynez, who has vetinary training, administered the treatment to help ensure a heathy start to all the animals.

While this boy is waiting in the drizzling rain, Gaspar treated each animal for worms with a cream in the mouth, a vaccine in the rump, and a belly spray for parasites.

Friends of The Ripple Effect we would like to share with you that this small animal program is extremely helpful in the lives of these women. On our next trip we want to start the same program with 65 widows in the community of Soltzil. We would also like to provide metal roofing for animal shelters, seed, and gardening instructions for this collective in Chel. We need your support. $25 opens the door to help another widow or single mother receive one of these gifts. Her labor turns that gift into an small business opportunity that truly makes a difference. Please consider supporting us in this work. All donations are tax deductible and our mailing address is The Ripple Effect 9712 Kopachick Dr Gig Harbor WA. 98335 e-mail therippleeffectinc@gmail.com

Water is coming to Nueve Puntos!

2010-06-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

Upon my return to Nueve Puntos I felt a deep connection to these people. Watching their patient struggle with the basics of life and seeing their gratitude for someone to come alongside their struggle. By supporting the work of Ripple Effect you have brought hope and given a voice to these people. They have showered me with gratitude in response to our work and having a heart to listen to their needs. The need for water here has the whole community ready to work. Let us reintroduce you to Nueve Puntos, our water projects and our friends.

Lets begin our Project- Water for Nueve Puntos. On the first trip in to the village we needed to come to an official agreement for the work so we gathered the men from the village and started planning. I explained that we had funding for about half the project and that I personally only had around two weeks tops to work side by side with them. It is a four hour walk to Chel and during the month the month I had I needed to walk out three times to assist in other projects there. We divided up responsibilities with the community providing the labor to for the tanks, carring in all the piping and rebar, digging over a mile of trench for the pipe and cutting all our lumber.
T.R.E. would provide cement, rebar, gas and oil for the saws, buy the sand and pay for the men to carry the sand and cement from Los Encuentros. One surprising development was that the villagers wanted to make the gravel out of the rocks that surround the village. I have crushed gravel before but was skeptical that they could produce 120 100lbs sacks of gravel in a timely fashion. I was paying the going rate of $2.10 per sack! The next day I went to some meetings in Chel and then into Chajul to get cash. Before I left I stressed that we needed to work in force when I got back and the village elders needed to arrange a meeting with Los Encuentros to work out preliminary details on an agreement to share the spring water with them.

A photo can be worth a thousand words but this one only tells part of the story of what it means to walk from Nueve Puntos to Chel. Pedro here is pointing to the hill on the horizon that lies between Chel and Nueve Puntos. It is another two hours from there to the village. Three times I choice this route. The only sure time to chatch a ride on the shorter route to the road at Los encuentros is at 1:30 a.m.
Getting money from the bank took three days. I personally not only learned some banking rules but received a lesson in patience. Two days late I walked out of the bank with a bag of cash with which I would pay for our projects over the next 3 weeks.
Back in the village we started work on digging the hole for the tank. The tank was to be 12x12xx7 and needed to be ½ way under ground for more support.

It is through community effort that these projects can be accomplished.

By lunchtime it was becoming evident that we would be finding a few rocks. I wonder how many of my readers would be smiling knowing as Pedro does that these rocks aren’t going to move themselves. I was told over and over how happy the village was to have this work to do. Lacking materials many times they have to wait and watch their needs go unmet but given the opportunity they will do what seems impossible.
After lunch we needed to hike ½ a hour out to Los Encuentros to meet the truck from the hardware store. In total there was over 200 100# sacks of sand, 175 20’ P.V.C. pipes65 bags of cement to unload and carry up to the village

To save money on deliveries we loaded 72 post,72 2x4 and 1x12 boards to be delivered back in Chel along with roofing and chicken wire for another project.

How do you move 175 pieces 20’ P.V.C. pipe? With ingenuity!

My job was to herd four horses and take photos. At times it wasn’t so easy as there were two stallions to herd.

But my job was a lot easier than theirs.

Chico seating on the delivered pipe.

The village had moved 18000lbs of sand while I was getting money and was proving beyond a doubt that they wanted this project and are willing to work for it. Well that was enough for one day. It is time for a dinner of Boxbul.

A morning cup of coffee before work

The rocks hadn’t gone anywhere overnight

After two and a half days the hole was dug, 3000 lbs of gravel crushed and delivered, and the rebar grid tied. We were ready to pour but would wait till tomorrow because that afternoon the school put on a Mother’s Day celebration. We will save those photos for another blog.

The village leaders distributed the paid work of carrying sand, cement and making gravel equally among the families and everyone was excited to have a little income. Andres one of the families that is appears to be doing better than others told me he makes around $300 annually. When T.R.E. paid everyone we paid an additional 25% and each family earned around $44.

Mixing the concrete floor. Even the water had to be carried to site.

After mixing the floor in the morning we cut lumber in the afternoon for tomorrow forming

I had to try my hand at making 1x’s. I am teaching some of my friend to use the camera. They love it and I get to be in some of the pictures.

On this project I acted as mason and taught the men how to do the work. The school foundation and floor we built is the only concrete work in the village. Although they have not had the experience they learned quickly and we had a lot of fun.

Interior forms and rebar completed.

Want a break to play marbles?

Placing the exterior wall.

My time had run out and I needed to hike out to Chel and the widow. They finished forming and poured the walls the end of May and will wait for 5 days to let the concrete cure some before beginning the tank lid.
One night they wanted to have a meeting in the church to say thanks. They had me seat if front and one by one came up and share their thanks. Many brought gifts, some that had taken months to make. Others told me "I only carrying my words of thanks to give you." Some cried as they said never before has someone come, cared and helped. When I loaded my backpack it felt that I was carrying away rich treasures and their faces showed that they were happy to be able to share.

As I left I turned to say a final farewell. I wanted to share how much they had touched my heart, how strong their effort had been, how much they mean to me but the words would not come. So with tears on my face I turned away. Until next time my friends "Adios".

Plant Sale 2010

2010-04-28T04:35:00.000-07:00

Here in Gig Harbor, Washington, we have just finished our spring plant sale and the experience has really stirred up some excitement! Since returning from February’s 2009 trip, Michael has been dreaming about and planning an annual plant sale. Last Saturday we got our first real taste of how fun and profitable it could be. We hope each year to be able to have large spring sale and another smaller summer bloom sale. For next year’s spring sale we have a lot of interested gardeners and welcome even more. By looking around your yard and collecting baby plants or dividing those favorite clumps of flowers we can host quite a fund raiser!
This idea has also allowed us to network in the local community better and we are meeting some great folks. We even were written up in an article in one of the local papers!
It was encouraging to see the group effort demonstrated by the caravan style transport process of four pick-ups, a trailer and two cars. Over the last year Michael has repotted store bought plants, transplanted trees and started seedlings with varying degrees of success. This spring we have already received many more plants from other local gardens and a lot of seedlings for next year’s sale. More than a dozen gardeners have expressed an interest in growing and we have a large collection of pots to fill. This idea allows us to share garden to garden as all of the proceeds go to agricultural projects in Guatemala. This is a special opportunity to share our abundance with their needs.

It has been a cool spring for Washington gardeners but thanks to a lot of cold frames from recycled materials the plants have been slowly growing.

The oregano and cilantros looked good.(so did the parsley roots to a gopher.)

Michael shared with one of the local garden clubs and the ladies gave T.R.E. a lot of home grown seeds and starts. They have shown a great interest in this project and have starting growing for next year.

Our Friday crew had a great time loading plants and visiting.

A local church gave permission to use their parking lot and when we were all set up we looked like we belonged at the local farmers market.

Spring squalls kept passing through our area and we had six different downpours during the sale. During the brief and welcome sun breaks a greater number of customers appeared while during the downpours only the hardiest persevered.

We displayed a couple of photo boards of our projects and some weavings under the checkout tent.

At the end of the day we had sold about 70% of our plants and raised $1,700! This will really go a long way in helping our garden project in Chel.

In May, Michael will travel to Chel and meet with the village leaders who have offered to let us use a parcel of land for a permaculture farm for the Widows Collective. Hopefully, the land and agreement will work well and we can start building a Farm! We are still working with Miracles in Action to try and get a representative from their organization to come view what we are doing. They have expressed interest in helping us fund parts of this project. We are hoping for relatively fertile land, a good agreement made with the village leaders, and M.I.A. to provide some extra financial help. If this all comes to fruition, it will be full steam ahead.

(photo of women in Nueve Puntos in front of their main well durning the begining of the dry season)
This May we will also begin work on the water project in Nueve Puntos and Los Encuentros. Our goals are to secure the water source at the springs, build the storage tank in Nueve Puntos and get a commitment from the local municipal to help with some of the piping. We still need funds to buy more pipe and build the storage tank in Los Encuentros. Please contact us if you are interested.
In addition to these bigger projects, there are always a lot of smaller forms of assistance ongoing. So, this will be a busy month for planning, organizing, buying and moving materials. Michael is looking forward to seeing his friends and sitting by the fire with a bowl of bux’bol (the Ixil specialty dish) back in the land of the Ixil.
Final note we have raise over $11,000! for this springs work!!! Thanks to everyone for the help and donations that you have given.

Mailing address
The RIPPLE Effect Inc.
9712 kopachuck Dr N.W.
Gig Harbor Wa. 98335

Email- therippleeffectinc@gmail.com

Review of Novembers Trip

2009-12-02T19:06:00.001-08:00

. Well it was time once again to visit my friends in Guatemala. We have been looking for some property to start a collective Garden on and I needed to see three parcels that were for sell. I also wanted to review the books to see how we were doing tracking our finances. This year we have not really stopped working but every month there is something happening. I often worry how are things going? Were my goals for a program clear enough for people to follow? Are they keeping track of how the money is being spent well enough? As we turn a corner and start reaching out to supporters in the U.S. I need to be surer that all my ducks are in a row. So here is my visit in review.

Our first program back in 08 was the purchase of 22 cows (see entry "Operacion Benidicion" from May '08}families between July and November. Here is a couple of photos of that first delivery. This sign thanks Higinio and me for this work under the name Operation Blessing

This bull was sold in July for a little over twice what we paid for it in ’07. In total we have sold 8 cows now and are going to wait another two months for the others to finish growing.

Eight new families have received the same opportunity. I have paid $200 for the transportation of this group of cows but all other cost has been covered by the original owner. I want to continue to bring cows in from another area to build up the number of cattle available to the community. Some of the original 8 owners who have sold their cattle have choicen to buy a new cow but others are using the proceeds in other ways.

The other animal program we have going is with the 45 widows who are raising pigs. I was really pleased with the progress of this project. Almost all the pigs have reached maturity. Some widows have bred their sow and already have buyers for the piglets when they are weaned. Others have bought a new piglet with part of the profits. Only one widow has fallen out of the program.

This woman sold her pig a few days later for $75. I paid $15 to $17 for it as a wiener. She wanted to give me $5 of the money as a thank-you.

Juana and Rosa handed out the monthly food. They have keep excellent records. Each time a widow receives food, thread , a pig or grain they mark the ledger with a thumb print. All the purchases are detailed really well listing how many cabbages or tomatoes were bought and for how much. Each month we have distributed food to 23 widows and in July we gave #4,400 of corn to help feed the first cycle of pigs and in August we gave #180 of thread to the widows in the weaving program.

We are continuing our search for land. I visited four pieces of property. This is one parcel that would work well for us but we are working on getting the price lowered. The soil is fertile, there is water and the size would work for 34 -36 widows. I have high hopes for this idea ( see the blog farm dreaming from August '09) and will be excited when we find a home for it.

I also visited Xeselli. When I left in March the ditch and final piping were not finished. It felt good walking into the village and seeing hose bibs with clean water where there was none. It took two weeks for the community to dig the trenches and lay the pipes. The can from USAID is part of a nutrition program that has been in this region for two years. It is helping children under two years of age.
( see Xesalli Water Project in march '09 for more info)

Beautiful gift for beautiful people. We past out some vitamins to 10 families and 60 portraits taken from previous visits.

All in all families are being help

As I visit these communities I am beginning to see the footprints of our work. Water, cows, more pigs in one village, a school in another. coffee nurseries, micro loan that has grown into a store, clothes that I recognize buying for the children. I am grateful to be a part of this work. Will you please consider joining me healing, changing loving these people? We are raising money for 50 more pigs for $20 each, and will buy #180 of thread and bring a deligation of widow out to Chichicastenago,which is the largest open air market in Guatemala, to try and find a better market for there weavings. $275 will provide a widow a plot of land in the garden project we are working on. It wil cost around $300 per family for the water project in Nueve Puntos and Los Encuentros. Al donations are tax deductable. Thank you and adios for now

2009-11-22T12:56:00.000-08:00

Tuesday November 16th I finally got to head up to Nueve Puntos and see how our projects were progressing there. The road had not miraculously improved in my absence but after three hours we arrived in Los Encuentros and switched from a 4x4 pick-up to 4x4 horses

I had lightened my load in Chel the week before but still carried 150lbs of gear of mostly books and was grateful for the help.

November is a rainy month here and mud was my constant companion but I was excited to arrive here again. I feel a special closeness to this village.

Seeing these friends who have generously feed me and shared their homes,and seeing the basic needs here reminds me why I do this.

People in need, that are waiting for the opportunity to help their families achieve a more stable existence.

Nicolas(with his wife Magdelane and youngest child) has keep me informed of the needs and progress in this community. I was amassed that with under $1400 invested I could see real change in this village.

We passed by 3 of the 7 café nurseries. I had provided seed plastic bags and twine for thirteen families grow coffee plants

This group has built shelters to shade the plants with poles and leaves from the forest and now has almost 20,000 plants.

After a year and a half they will transplant them into fields that they are beginning to prepare.
In two and a half to three years this is what we will have. About 12 new acres of coffee that will give each family approximately Q 3,000 annually (Q6,000 is an average yearly income). I want to plant another 20,000 next year and we are establishing a direct stateside buyer who will pay even more then fair-trade buyers offer

The other investment was for a school building. Last march the kids did not have a teacher, desk or a school. They had previously met in a barrowed house with different sized logs for desk. Nicolas and the community built this new school. All the lumber is chain sawed from the surrounding forest.

Imagine great Things in Gig Harbor donated a Bell

Which the village leader hung and rang bringing the some of the 30 students in.

I also brought donate maps and books as well as some encyclopedias and children novels that I bought in Guatemala city.

The new teacher and our library. This library has more books than any school I have seen in this region.

Report cards were handed out and this boy advances another grade

By the beginning of the new school year we will pour a concrete floor and buy two twelve volt lights and four fiberglass panels for the roof to provide light for the students. In front of the school we have a foundation for a room for the teacher. We are asking the local government to help with the floor and should have an answer by the end of the month. Even without help the cost is around $700

This community takes the little I offer and multiplies it with their labor. A couple of good example is that I left a soccer ball in March and now they have a soccer field cleared with two goals. Not one inch of the field is level and there is 8 inches of mud in one corner but the laughter and shouts that come from that small gift warms the soul. This photo is of Pedro with his new saw and sewing machine. He asked for help to repair the carberator of his old saw in March. With the profits of his work he bought this new saw ans a sewing machine. A little can do a lot.

With the return of the rains the surface wells are full. But we still look forward to the day clean potable water comes to this village.

We will transport materials for the first tank in March. I am talking with Rotory Club about this project but definitely need help. All donations go directly to where you designate (100%) and are taxed deductable. We would also like to build a clinic that would be opened three evenings each week. This would cost under $2000.

FARM DREAMING

2009-08-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

For my next trip to Guatemala I have two main goals. One is to try and get a small start on the water system for Nueve Puntos and Los Encuentros. That project could cost up to $25,000 so it will probably be done in a few phases. The other project is to start a collective farm for the Widows of Chel.
Purchasing land for a garden is like the long standing proverb ,”give a man a fish and tomorrow he will be hungry teach him how to fish and he can feed hmself”. Each month we have been giving $320 worth of food to 23 widows. It is easy to see their need and know the free food will help but it is so much better to give them the ability to provide for themselves. With access to land they can do just that and more.
HOW THE GARDEN WOULD WORK

Gaspar Santiago is an excellent organic gardener in the village of Chel. . During the summer of 2009 , he and a committee of three other people are looking for a small parcel of good farming land for “The Widows of Chel.” An acre of land would cost between $5000 to $7500 dollars. This is an impossible sum for widows living on $150 annually but it is an opportunity for us.

By providing land and organic gardening instructions we can share a gift that will give daily for years to come. This will benefit the eldest widows, the struggling moms and a new generation of children.

While targeting widows with young children, 25 to 30 widows will be selected. Each will recieve a 30’x30’garden plot to cultivate. With intensive gardening practices and a year round season, they can enjoy three main harvests. This will introduce a variety of nutritious vegetables into their diet that at present are unaffordable.

In combination with the vegetable garden, we would select 2 widows to raise 40 laying hens which would provide a source of fertilizer for the garden and eggs for sale. Another widow would raise a hive of honey bees increasing pollination and producing honey for sell.

In upcoming meetings, we will be working out the details of this project and are hoping to purchase land and get started the after the first of the New Year

The women who will participate in this program will “adopt” an older widow that is in the food subsistence program. Their “land payment will be to share part of each harvest with these older women. Theresa,(photo on right) the widow with the eggs is over 80 years old and weighs under 80lbs. Maria (phot below) is sitting in her kicthen/bedroom/living room. She has no bed and is surrounded by her only possessions. Theresa is too feable to work but Maria could still assist a younger widow gardening. Both women are now in the feeding program and would be assigned to a family with a garden plot.

The sample garden shown above is my personal garden and measures 30’x40’. It produces more then we can use as well as a good amount to give away. Here we are using raised beds, but in Chel we would use a no-path method to maximize space.
Our goal is to offer each of the selected widows a 30'x30' area.

Shown above is our surplus of fresh vegtables and berries beyond what our family can use. This amount is given away twice a week.

Cabbage and brocolli are good cash crops in Guatemala. A cabbage can sell for between .62 and $1.75 each depending on the weight.In comparison these women earn only three dollars for a full day's labor pruning or picking coffee.

This shown above of a 4'x4' bed of bush beans has produced eight gallons of beans so far and is flowering for another round

This "Farm Dream" is a vision on how we can make a sustainable change for these families and help to reduce the worries of the younger mothers who are trying to provide for their children. When basic needs are met, there is then time for education and growth in other areas.

Four of the older women shown above are part of the feeding program. The others are relatives or friends who are helping to carry the food allotment home. The power of community involvement is already evident. Our goal is to provide the vehicle, in this case land, to let them build up their own lives.

Shown above is a typical monthly food allotment for 23 of the most needy widows. By concentrating their garden on vegetables, the participating widows could sell their surplus to buy food and other necessities. A typical garden plot would produce this amount weekly!

(see photo on the right) Imagine these women with baskets full of their own produce instead of a monthly welfare allotment. This is the vision of The Ripple Effect. The land could produce enough for the gardening widow's family,the elder widow and $2 to $5 of income a week. This is a huge opportunity!

By being efficient with a small amount of space and a moderate amount of money we hope to create a huge change. The following is our basic projected budget. If you are interested in helping out with this project please e-mail me so I can keep you informed.This month we have recieved offical recognition as a Washington State Non- Profit. Hurray! President and founder Michael Ewens

Cost of land and fencing $7500
1 bee hive $70
40 hens shed,feed and equipment $500
Total $8o70
Beneficiaries’ 125 people
mewens000@centurytel.net

A NEW NAME

2009-07-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

23 years ago I used to listen to my wife teaching our four boys about the power of a small stone upon still waters. "Drop a pebble in the water watch its ripples grow. That’s the way when we love each other ever one will know.”
The power of our actions and what happens to us in life are beyond calculation. Sow a bad seed and you have a weed. Plant good seeds and you have a garden. In your hand you have a pebble, your next action. It is a small thing. Be loving or be self-centered, very basic choices. It is a little thing, but like a pebble it effects your moment, your day, and your life. Long after the pebble is released and has disappeared into the water the ripple expands until it touches the shore. So too, are the actions of our life.
I have been thinking of names for this organization for the last six months. Alternate names in case “Seed of Hope” was used elsewhere or if there might be a better description for this work. Legacy, Footprints, Seed of Change have all be considered. There are all good names with good ideas. Since “Seeds of Hope” is being used already and I have decided on “The Ripple Effect,” and feel it conveys both the hope of this organization and my life.
In June 2006, during the memorial in Gig Harbor for my son Forrest, some of you who were there will remember I told the story of my wife’s “Ripple Lesson”. The pain was still raw with our son’s life cut short. There had been a huge splash in the pond and we were caught in the waves. Looking over the crowd of friends, I asked them to take the effect of my son on their life and continue to let it live through them. Latter that fall, when I open a check that Megan, Forest’s wife, gave me from his life insurance policy I knew I wanted to continue the ripple. I was given $10,000 dollars ,10,000 ripples and began looking for a way to help the poor in Guatemala. Since that time the ripple has grown.
Today with under $28,000 invested we have;
1.) A well in Afghanistan for a village of 500
2.) A cattle program in Chel Guatemala that this summer will reach 40 cows
3.) A water system for 105 people in the village of Xesalli
4.) A co-op of 104 widows receiving thread for weaving or raising a piglet for sell.
5.) A food program for 23 of the most needy of the widows.
6.) Six micro-loans to help families gain a decent living
7.) Two plant nurseries and a garden program for 67 families
It is time to become an official non-profit!!
I am also excited to announce that we have a board of directors. Shirley Anderson of Tacoma, who has been very active in Habitat for Humanity and Karen Elam of Gig Harbor who has a background with humanities work in Latin America. Most importantly, both have a big heart. I am the third member. We have hired a company to file for international non-profit status and are incorporated in the state of Washington. We have a team of six dependable leaders in Guatemala to manage field work. In all we have an opportunity to make a change!
This month we presented our work at Imagine Great Things a fair trade store in Gig Harbor that is selling weavings from the widows. I will sponsor a dinner at my home in the middle of October and would like to have series of sponsored dinners in the fall. If you are interested in hosting one please let me know. I am seeking opportunities in Churches, Clubs, and small organizations to share the plight of these people and ways to help. Please by all means help me make these connections. We have already applied to two international organizations and have started contact with a third. I believe this work is a gift. So many things have gone well and I am walking in places that I am amazed at. I did not set out to start a non –profit organization but when I saw the need of the Ixil people and the successes we have attained I cannot stop. This ripple has grown. I ask for your support. We will stretch, twist and elongate every dollar through the sweat equity of the Guatemaltecans and creative programs, but I need your help.
My desire is to bring water to two more villages, build a school, start a collective farm for the widows, fund three more coffee nurseries, and begin a sheep program . Every visit sparks more ideas and open doors. And these programs are working. For example the first year I spent around $7,000 to buy 22 cows. This year I will only spend around $600 to help continue it and they will buy 40 cows. Sylvester who has a micro loan of $300 for a freezer has earned enough money last year to buy a mattress , add a bedroom to his house and start a second business and his loan payments have bought books for the school children in Chel Please join in, help sprend the word and watch this ripple grow,

The Personal Side of War

2009-07-04T13:56:00.001-07:00

Martin Santiago lives in the pueblo Chel and has two jobs there. He is one of 9 masons in this community and one of eight pastors. He is pastor of the church Verbal which is probably the largest evangelical church in Guatemala. For the past two years he has helped me during meetings in Chel. This year he was paid twelve dollars a day to help construct the water tanks in Xesalli. The following is a brief history of his life.
As of March 20 2009 Pa Tin (his name in Ixil) was 38 years old. When he was ten his Father, two sisters and two brothers lived in a small village called Poi. This village was located one hour away from Chel and an hour and a half behind Chajul high on the side of the mountain overlooking the river. They lived with eleven other families totally about 55 to 60 people. His father owned one hundred cuerdas the equivalent of 12acres and raised beans and corn, had a horse, cow and chickens. In April 1982 the Army entered this village and burned all the houses and crops to the ground. They also killed all the livestock and captured and killed nine of the eleven heads of households. His father and one man fled with the nine new widows and children into the mountains. During this time all the villages around Chel were burned to the ground. All refuges spotted in the forest were simply shot without any question. All crops were destroyed and for three years Martin and his family hid in the mountains behind what remained of Poi .
Eating what food the forest could provide and living with little clothes, blankets, food or shelter life was hard. Martin’s father buried his two daughters there. One from a sickness that crept into her weakened body and the other simply refused to eat after a bombing raid on their hide out. At the end of three years Martin’s father was captured and taken to Chajul. Martin found a man who fed him for six months after which at the age of fourteen he entered a rebel group called “10th of January.” This group consisted of 180 soldiers who had left the army in an attempted coup on that date. For six months he trained in the mountains with 85 other new recruits’ men, women, and teenagers. They practiced maneuvers, throwing rocks to mimic grenades and shooting wooden rifles. In total this group expanded and combined with other rebels into three companies. One represents Cortzal, one Chajul and the last being the original soldiers. During his first time in combat they spotted the army, and moved the three companies in front of and on two sides of the route the army was taking. He was placed with thirty other new solders on a ridge to wait for the engagement to begin. They had small arms and grenade launchers but had not fired a live round to this date. The army had mortars and helicopter support.In this attack the rebels were repelled and lost two comrades.
For five years Martin lived and fought with this group. He received six different battle scars from bullets and shrapnel. They ate grass, herbs, a root called Malaga, bananas and wild animals that they shot. Martin did not have shoes and slept with one small blanket. During the 1980's the Guatemalan army stationed 6,000 soldiers in Chajul to control a population of 37,000. That is one soldier for every six local inhabitants. This was a war with full scale battles. The atrocities committed by the army included rape, murder, torture, child abduction and forced conscription. Many of the villages I have visited encountered massacres. In Chel over 154 died in one day. People were forced into the Catholic Church and many women were raped. Later a group was led to the bridge at the entrance to the town and 97 people were butchered with machete and thrown into the river naked. The Army hoped disrobing and throwing them into the river would make it harder to find and identify the bodies. Babies were burned on the pile of cloths that had been gathered. In Estrellar Polar 97 people were locked into the Church and the army then threw hand grenades in the widows killing everyone. In Solztil and Illom over 160 citizens died in a single day. All of these atrocities happened within 10 miles of Martin’s village Poi

While trying to enter Chajul ,Martin was captured and forced to fight for the army. For eighteen months he fought against his former comrades. During this time the general population was forced to participate in civil patrols and if someone was found without papers it could resulted in immediate arrest. It was a very dangerous time
After leaving the army in 1991 or 92 he was working with a portable saw mill in Chajul when the rebels surrounded the work crew. They were looking for Manuel Asicona the brother of Higinio my main contact in Chajul. They wanted to kill him because he was in contact with the army but that day he had stayed home sick. The rebels were offered food but suspecting poison they would not eat it. In 1995 a peace accord was signed by all parties. According to Martins account it was in 1997 that the army left Chajul. A little before that the rebels turned in their old arms and hide their good one in the mountains and things started to come down.
This was a full scale war. All the villages in the area I am working were burned to the ground. Everyone has a different story but all the people suffered immensely. Around 1000 men and women were killed in combat here and an estimated 3000 died due to malnutrition in the mountains. Martin can name how many died in each of the surrounding villages and where there are tombs in the mountains and where this widow or that widow relocated to. It is a very personal story and a very common closing remark heard in these interviews is “Gracias a Dios ya hay paz”. Thank God there is peace now.
As I have said this story although unique in specifics is representative in depicting the general suffering. At the end of this article there are a series of photos and brief description of what has happen to many of my friends there. The war was fought for three main reasons.#1- Over land, Guatemala has the most unequal land distributions in central America. #2 cheap labor, the united food company and large plantations have enslaved the population. Today in the villages of Illom, Solzitl, Estrellar Polar and others the surrounding land is controlled by large plantations and the people can only find seasonal work at $2.50 a day. #3Human right abuses. Today in Guatemala 17 people die daily due to violent death, one of the highest per capita rates worldwide. This last month 30,000 youth signed a manifesto demanding political integrity. High level assassinations have been the headline news during my last two visits.
But my work is with the small picture. I love entering a village of 20 to 30 families because with $5 to $15 thousand dollars and two to three years we can bring real change. Mother Theresa said “live simply so other can simply live”. Christ said” to love you neighbor as yourself”. The book of James state faith is shown in our work. If we believe we care, but don’t act’ we only have an emotion. If we believe in a moral way of living’ but don’t walk it, we only have a doctrine. We are this season people. What we do effects our world now and our future.
. I obviously did not ask for the effect or ripple caused by my son’s death and still scream against it at time. Tragic death is tragic. Our world is full of tragedy. It is not as simple as my wife’s nursery line. But we have a choice on how we live and respond. Let us each drop our own pebble and watch the ripples change the world.

Andres was my guide to the village of Illom to by pigs. He know this region becuase at age 7 he sought refuge there with a group from Chel after hiding in the mountains for two years.

Gaspar Santiago is teaching gardening techniques for me in Nueve Puntos and told me how he fled the army into the mountains around Nueve Puntos. By fleeing through and hiding in thorn bushes he escaped with his life.

Elane watched her husband get chopped down by three machete blows in her homes doorway. She fled to the woods and rejoined her daughters Margret and Juana who also lost their husbands that day

Julia and an orphan Marie who lives with her. Her husband went to the fields one day and was never seen again

Marie and her daughter Marie lost both there husbands and there son/brother in one day

Los Encuentros And Nueve Puntos

2009-04-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

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Los Encuentros And Nueve Puntos
On February 18 through 22 I visited these two communities to look at a proposal to bring in drinking water from a spring behind Nueve Puntos. Last year I had briefly visited Los Encuentros but this would be my first time in Nueve Puntos. This area is part of the micro region VII of Chajul and consists of six villages of Ixil from the Nebaj area. The langue is a little different as well as the style and colors of weaving. Of these six villages I believe only one, Amajchel, has potable water which is piped in from eight kilometers. At the end of this article is a brief history of the region beginning in 1927 when the people migrated to this region. It is interesting currant history especially when you met the people who have gone through it.
To reach Los Encuentros from Chel we hitched a ride in a pick-up with the alcalde of Los Encuentros. I was traveling with my friend Manuel Riviera to help with interpretation. Both communities had sent out a delegation to Chajul to meet with promoters of a national program called Mis Familias and we would catch a ride when they returned. Three hours late the group from Los Encuentros arrived very dusty and we hopoed in and headed up the mountain. Roads deteriate rapidly after they leave Chel and the little pick-up strained with its human cargo.

Both of these communities of lack water and depend on catch basins to collect rain water. Los Encuentros lies along a 4x4 road and trucks water from Amachel a nieghboring community during the dry season. There are 47 families here without legal right to barrow water and when Amechel is low on water they have to drive back to Chel. Cost for one water trip to Chel equals the cost of one and a half months supply of corn for a family of five. Nueve Puntos has 22 families and is a 45 minute walk from Los Encuentros. My first priority is to investigate a spring behind Nueve Puntos that might service both communities.

The group from Nueve Puntos arrived around 7: oo which meant they had to leave Chel around 4:30 and after breakfast we followed them up the trail.

If you want to get community involvement in a project offer a community without water to study how to bring in drinking water. It is so important that everyone is actively interested and after a brief meeting we left with a good sized company and headed out to see the spring. It is an hour and half to the spring and the trail almost immediately disappeared. I wondered how they ever found this spring but after passing a cave which had been used as a camp I remembered these mountains was their refuge for years during the war and today is their backyard. I was worried about the elevation also as we were going up and down a lot and really needed a good ascent to guarantee a gravity feed system. Dropping down a valley we crossed a small stream where the women have to come to wash clothes and collect drinking water during the dry season. This water is not the cleanest and is a long way on a slippery trail from their homes. The last half hour answered the request for an ascent as it was a grasp the roots and branches climb in the mud. This was going to be work to haul sand and cement back here and then dig a ditch all the way back to the village.

Up and Down it is pretty simple until you grap a bag of cement.

The delegation that went to the spring

The spring was disappointing for two reasons. It was not very large and the elevation did not look high enough to clear one hill between the village and us. We measured the flow at 5 gallons in 70 seconds. This is not much but over a twenty four hour period would yield 6,000 gallons, enough for about 85 gallons a family. We discussed building a small dam to trap all the water and coming back with an altimeter. I wanted to help but had doubts with the situation.

Above- Ringing the school "bell" And below school children without desk or a teacher. This photo is being carried to a meeting with the president of Guatemala to demonstrate the lack of goverment provision in these communities. We anxiously wait for change.

One thing that has amazed me this trip is the lack of separation of church and state in Guatemala. It many meetings like this one in the local school,they will pray at the end of it and it is not just a formal prayer but a chorus of cries for help and blessings with almost universal participation. This meeting was my official introduction to the community and information about how we would proceed with the study. Latter around 9:00 we had another meeting to discuss providing grass seed to sow their fields. In talking with the alcalde about providing a little help this year I learn they lacked the money to pay $10 to collect grass seed from neighboring fields and plant their fields. When I learn of opportunities like this that can make a real positive change for very little money I am ready to jump on it. The community was divided on this idea because pasture needs animals and animals need water. Back to square one!

After a week of negociating I decided to fund the cafe nursery. It will have 13 families participating in it and produce 15,000 to 20,000 plants a year. After three years each family will have planted 5 or 6 cuerdas and begin their first harvest. When all 6 cuerdas are producing they will yield $750 a year. In many cases this equals a year’s income. This program will cost under $300 a year- a great investment!Here is what a typical nursery looks like. These families will gather poles and leaves so they can shade the plants. The plants are grown in small bags and after 9 months to one year transplanted in the mountain fields. This nursery is one quarter the size they are building.

In a week I returned to Nueve Puntos with Gaspar Santiago (pictured above) a great gardener from Chel. I wanted to present a plan to provide seeds and instructions to grow garden vegetables. Both communities like this idea and all 67 families will participate. So for under $500 we will start personal gardens with 10 days of instructions in organic Gardening. I really hope this takes off. It would add good nutrition to the diet.

A family plot ready for planting

On one of my trips out to Chajul there was a festaval going on with lots of cheap clothing. I bought enough for every family to have two pieces for under $70

In los Encuentros there are 10 families (pictured here) who I provided seed potatoes to grow and then divide the harvest so that next year each family can grow potatoes to sell. Again a little money, their work and a new opportunity. Each family should be able to harvest around 3,000 pounds of potatoes in two years and sell them for $1,000. This only cost the price of 700 pounds of seed potatoes and transportation to Los Encuentros --$250. There are 28 families who have requested help in raising sheep and when I have $1600 I will start a sheep program like the one with cows in Chel

Back to the water issue. In total I made three trips to these villages. On the second we visited two other springs. One was too small to bother with but one was perfect. We could connect the two springs and use a different route back to Nueve Puntos and have a gravity feed system with 20 gallons a minute or 80 gallons a day for every person in both villages. We measured the distances with a 100 foot long section of string. Total distance -8,500 feet. We are going to complete the study and a preliminary budget and then I am going to start looking for funds. This is a big project but would yield great benefits for these families.

My third trip in we constructed a dam in front of the first spring so that in a month during the driest part of the year we can measure the flow accurately. The hill slide was so steep we made a platform to mix the concrete on. Sand and cement were hiked in. We made gravel on sight and fell a tree for form wood. Sad for a carpenter to us 1x18 clear hardwood for concrete forms.

At this point in my trip I was pretty worn out. The trail wasn’t getting any easier and I had lost #15 and was ready to feast on my way home. I often think about my privilege. After two months I can retreat to hot showers, a bed, and plenty of food. My friends here will continue the struggle to find the basics of life. Like these women in front of this dry well. Two weeks ago they washed cloths and watered animals here. Now it is a hours walk away. This water system will bring four community house bibs of clean water to these people. I hope to be a bridge between our abundance and their need. Will you help the dreams become reality.

Recent History.
In 1927 during the presidency of Lazaro Chacon who was elected by big business and ignored the needs of the poor a law was pass making it mandatory for the farmers to work on the plantations for free. There already was a law that allowed the plantation owners to send trucks into the mountains to conscript workers but now they did not have to pay for this labor. This was done in the name of national interest to protect cheap labor for the united food corporation to export fruit.
With forced labor and lack of sufficient food twenty families travelled two weeks threw the mountains looking for a place free from such dominations. They called this area “pura Montana” for there were no roads or villages. It took one week to find a trail to Chel which is only a 3 hour walk today.
The people increased for the next 26 years but then a sickness came that killed many. They carried their dead in chairs to Chel because they didn’t have boards to make coffins with. In 1956 they pationed the municipal oc Chajul to be recognized as a village and began petioning for schools, clinics and other projects. In 1960 both aldeas of Los Encuentros and Nueve Puntos were established. Los encuentros was named because there was a church there and that was where they had their meetings (encuentros) and Nueve Puntos was named after a tree with nine main branches in a sacred mayan site.
In 1980 during the presidency of General Lucas Garcia a large offensive against the gorilla movement came to this region. All six villages in this micro group were burned including the schools clinics legal documents animals and crops. Once again the people fled into the mountains. They hid under boulders and in caves during bombing raids and eat what the forest could supply. In 1988 the village of Almechel returned but received repeated attacks from the gorilla movement because it was part of the civil patrol system of mandatory service. Los Encuentros returned in 1995 the same year that a peace accord was signed between the army and gorillas. The gorillas turned in their old arms but hide the better weaponry in the mountains until 1998 or 99 when the army left Chajul. It wasn’t until 2001 that Nueve Puntos return home and started to rebuild. This is recent history with the participates in the preceding photos.

WATER FOR XESALLI

2009-03-04T10:25:00.000-08:00

Xesalli does not have a real center but consist of twenty two families spread out along a dead end 4x4 road. These families migrated here from Chel in 1997 and the road was built two years ago. Here is the village center with the original school house on the left and the only store in the top right.Last year while I was in Chel three men from a neighboring community approached me with an invitation to visit and help their village with a program similar to the cattle program. When I visited them and we talked about their various needs it was universally decided the potable water was the number one need. There is a lot if water in the mountains above Xesalli what they lacked was materials to build a water system. It has been a pleasure to get to know this village and see this system become a reality. Today March third we are only three days away from completing the concrete work. We have 500 feet of 3 inch pvc pipe on site and today’s meeting with the municipality who we have asked to provide the rest of the piping went very well.
This community migrated from Chel in 1995. Xesalli is not really a town but a row of houses along the road. Two years ago they put in this “road” when three communities received funds to build a hydro-electric system. Big changes in three years, a 4x4 road, electricity, and now water. It may sound great but I have witness a hard life here and they come from a much harsher history. Chel the community they came from was burned to the ground in 1983 and for 2 to 10 years these people lived in the mountains. The stories about what they endured are incredible. What you see in these pictures has been built by people who returned without shoes, tools, blankets, or money. Today I rode out from Chel to Chajul and was glad to arrive after 3 hours of bumps. Yesterday the roads were blocked by landslides and the people walked 4 hours in the rain starting at three in the morning. People my age remember carrying bags of coffee on their backs the whole distance. It is a good place to lend a hand. The following are some photos of Xesalli.

All housing is simple. There are no concrete floors but half the houses have electric lights

Here is the village supermarket. Chel where the shopping really happens is only a twenty minute walk away.

Children start talking on adult responsibilities early. I have seen girls as young as 4 weaving although 8 is more common.

Margarita has been ill this is why her hair is short.

This girl is sitting in front of a Thuj, a traditional stream/sauna bath house.

Weaving is an art for all Ixil women.

Favorite colors and designs are personal signitures. A woman normally only completes 4 to 6 weavings a year. Her shirt which took two months to weave and $12 of thread only sells for $30

For cash coffee is king here selling for $1 a pound. Gaspar recieved a bumper crop this year.

Juan also is real happy with his harvest as he prepars to husk the beans

After the beans are husked they are washeed then sun dried. For 5 day they will be turned three times a day and gathered up every night.

Corn and beans are the main food crop. The forest is constantly giving way to new fields

Here is the home I stayed in during the project. When I left Juancita was hanging cow eyeball to smoke above the fire. I missed that meal.

Kitchen cabnets and counter complete with a grinding stone for the corn.

Higinio (on the right) and Pedro in conversation at the proposed tank site.

The crew that took me to the site upstream to show where we could collect good water.

This is the spot. I have drank from this spot and for added protection we are putting a sand filter on the second tank.

Work begins with digging a hole four feet down.

Nim Siban -one of my first ixil words - big rock

A record was keep of how many loads a family carried and how many days of work were completed.

Martin my mason for the project ask for the final touches on the hole.

The community turned out in force to gather sand and gravel from the river bed.

Young boys as well as young girls share the workload.

The loads were tough.

The trail was steep to clear the river bed. It was only about a 15 minute walk to the worksite.

Juancito the town "mayor" loading a mule.

When all the sand was collected it was time to move cement.

On one of the pour days we carried 44 bags of cement before breakfast. I had to scolded two men who wear carrying two bags at a time.

Hand mixing, hand sawing, hand digging, it is a slow phisical process

Pouring the floor

While we were busy preparing the floor for the first tank I contracted with the ”local mill” to cut 6 dozen 1x12’s and 6 dozen 2x4’s. Salvador does all the cutting without a guide and had a 1 and 15 minute one way commute to this site from his house. It was 45 minute from the water tank and a steep climb. The young men in these photos carried three loads this afternoon.

I learned a new use of the Spanish word cuesta today. These two young men kept describing the trail as cuesta mucho.It is usually used in buying and pricing things but can also be used in describing the cost of effort to accomplish something. The leader of Xesayi was viewing these same photos and said this project "cuesta the gente mucho" but it will benefit them more

A short pause to rest Fransico's neck. The people of this community did not pay for these boards or this water system but I think they earned it with thier labor. They will value it not only for the gift of water but becuase of the price of thier labor.

It is a good thing we didn't order wider boards.

On load delivered, two more to haul today and then back to thier regular daily work.

forming the walls of the tank.

and wraping the forms with rebar to strenghten the concrete.

Another group effort for the pour. We decided to pour walls and cieling in one day to make for a stonger bond.

I think there are around 50 buckets of concrete in one yard and 6 yards in this pour.

With the first tank done we were warmed up for some real hiking. We preassembled the forms and the pack everything up the mountain.

It is a 45 minute walk up the mountain with cement, rebar, tools and

preformed pannels. I thought it would b easier to prebuild the tank and only haul what was really necessary.

Horses are our friends

Those preformed pannels sounded like a good idea but imagine packing this up the trail on you next hiking trip.

Forming the filter tank below the collection site.

We formed and poured this the fists day

The sand filter is simply clean rock with a filter cloth and then sand. The water flows threw the sand and the sand removes 85% of the harmful bacterias.

Laying 3" pvc pipe between the filter tange and the collection tank.

Finally we have completed the last tank. We latter made a small dam of boulders and concrete to form a pool around the upper half of the tank.

All three tanks are completed as well as the piping between the firt two tanks. On our third visit to the local municipal we showed them a computer video of the project and they finally agreed to provide the rest of the piping! This is a big step and as the elections come closer I hope they will be more motivated next year to help in Nuevo Puntos and Los Encuentros. Over the next month the community will complete the trench and piping between the two tanks and connect the smaller pipes to each house. For years to come these families will be able to turn on a simple hose bib and recieve clean water inside thier homes. What a blessing.
I have visited these two other communities where I want to do another water project next year. I am going to wait on a blog entre until I get home but the work there makes Xesalli look easy. It is a 45 minute hike to the village and almost another hour to the spring. The terrain is steeper and sand harder to find. Their need is a lot greater and when we discuss the amount of work they are ready to do it and responded without water the village will die. I am truly humbled by this experience.

PIGS PIGS PIGS

2009-03-04T09:26:00.000-08:00

Andres Laynez was my guide to the community Illom. For three years I have heard stories and been ask to go start a project in this community. Everyone has told me that this community is very poor because it is surrounded by a plantation and the people only receive $2-$3 for a day for labor. Andres know this community because when he was five years old the army burned Chel and after 2 years in the mountains the families he was living with sought refuge with the village of Illom. It too had been burn to the ground but the people of Illom found refuge on the plantation. For four years he lived with and was cared for by the family of Pedro Anay who we visited the first day. Alcohol is a problem here and when we arrived the road was blocked by a crowd looking at a man who had died due to drinking too much. The second day I saw three drunken men start to fight with machetes until the women disarmed them. The community has limited water no electricity and very poor housing. The road in is rough and there is no level ground as they cling to a red clay hill slide.
Despite all this It was one of the most entertaining trips I have had this year. During dinner with Pedro he informed me in his stucco Ixil that a gringo solder had come to the village 42 years ago and he had tried to talk to him but neither could understand each other. I am sure there has been another gringo since then but I was a novelity. Food and housing was free here and in the morning we would start looking for pigs to buy.

When I woke up I had a feeling with my good tracking skills we would be able to find some pigs
After breakfast we started going house to house with the alcade ( the mayor) looking for piglets. It was fun to crisscross the community and the sights we great but not a good time to carry a camera. I took these photos on a return trip when we set up a meeting time and place. When we found someone with the right size piglets we negotiated a price and recorded their name and how many pigs for how much. I was looking for 40 and we would deal with the transportation details latter. Around one thirty it we had contracts for 22 and had talked with a pickup owner who could only deliver that day and not the next as I had hope. We were running out of the perfect sized piglets and decided with our organized list to call it a day and head for Chel. That is when things began to change.
It was hard to find the housing where we had contracted to buy our piglets. The street signs and house numbers were not clearly marked here. Slipping and sliding up and down the hills we set up three meeting places where we would drive through at 3:00 sharp

At pick up spot one we were collecting 5 pigs. But wait here comes someone with two more. Oh there is a woman carrying another one by the ears. A crowd of twenty quickly formed and we talked about what I was doing and why. They share with me their needs and I shared with them some of my dreams in between races up and down the neighborhood looking at more pigs. I have a bag stuffed in my shirt with 10,000 questzales and am buying piglets like crazy in a community that the daily wages is 25-30 quetzales. We are trying to make it to stop two and find two missing owners and it is raining piglets.
No this one is too small that one too expensive but I’ll take those two for 250. I was writing down each purchase but had no idea how many pigs I had or how many contracted pig were waiting at stop three. I called a halt to the auction and we hit the gas for stop three finished buying the contracted piglets, said goodbyes and headed out of town with a pick-up full of piglets. The sun was shining the mountains beautiful, the people happy, life is good.

As when come into Chel the widows are converging on the field in front of Las Flores and I know it is for moments like this I am here. It is a special day. I tell the women that these are not piglets but seeds. Raise these piglets and when you sell them save part of the money to buy another. Allow this gift to be a seed of change for your lives. We then started handing out pigs and the squealing began anew

THEY DO NOT REAllY LIKE THIS.

If you every wondered how to hog tie something heres a good example.

Only one got away but that only added to the amusement

A PROUD OWNER

A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL

Project Water Xesalli

2009-02-16T13:23:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Chel and Xesalli on the thirty first of January and it is now the 14th of February. Boy a lot has happened in two weeks. I really enjoyed the welcome here this time and have been amazed at how well things have gone during the year. Higinio met me in Chel and we started meeting with the leaders in Xesayi to develop and develop an agreement and plan for the water system. The source for water changed again because the owners of the spring’s children and the kids of Xesayi got into a row and he won’t sell for mercy or money. The community had purchased a spring from one of its members but it is over twice the distance and in rocking terrain. We settled on using a biofilter system and taking water about two thousand meters above the community. It is a pretty pristine spot without livestock or people problems above it. Higinio and the delegation that accompanied us from Chel made some real good agreements and I am amazed at how much work this community is putting into this project. The community is providing sand gravel and labor. Three of us from Chel have also petitioned the municipal government in Chajul to provide the piping and while I am sending this report out I will be meeting with them again. I really hope they come on board. This would not only stretch our budget but establish a good form of cooperation. We ordered materials and while I waited for their arrival I started meeting with the widows. More on that later but first some photos. We started actual construction Tuesday the 11th and my body feels old.

Higinio and Pegro discussing plans at the sight of the storage tank.

Here is the place we will take the water from. It is bout 1500 meters up the trail. The community will hand dig and bury the piping the whole distance.

Providing sand is not done by phoning your local sand and gravel company

Each family has to carry 12 of these bags of sand 10 minutes to the site.

Pablo is 63 and out packs me. Today the community said I couldn’t pack lumber and I am glad for the break.

The lucky members have horses

We dug down four feet to gain support from the ground. A record is kept of each family´s work.

Pablo was still working

This is Martin, who I have hired to oversee the construction, as we are starting to pour the floor. Oh by the way mixing cement by hand is a lot harder when you have to pack the bags up the hill as well

We ordered 12 dozen boards from one of the local mills. Delivery was not included. Each family made three trips. 45 minutes up and 1/2 hour back.

I learned a new use of the Spanish word cuesta today. These two young men kept describing the trail as cuesta mucho.It is usually used in buying and pricing things but can also be used in describing the cost of effort to accomplish something. The leader of Xesayi was viewing these same photos and said this project "cuesta the gente mucho" but it will benefit them more

Once we started down there was no stopping. I fell four time filming this.

After five minutes they headed back up for two more trips

Maybe next time we can hire delivery

THE WIDOW COLLECTIVE

2009-02-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

First I want to apologize . The photos have copied too dark but my computer is in Xesalli. I will have to rework them later. They are real compelling when you can look into these womens eyes.
I don’t know how to describe the week. I have spent visiting and meeting with the committee leaders on this project. I hope these photos share the needs these women have. We will have between 65 and 100 widow from four communities in this program. Some will receive a monthly supply of dry goods but most will either receive thread for weaving or a piglet. It will be fun loading and delivering 30 pigs. There are around forty that have requested help with food but we have to steer them toward work even though there need is extreme. If a widow is too old to work but has a daughter or son that can they will receive the thread or piglet but if there is no one to help we will supply food. After the second day of visiting I was emotionally exhausted

Julia and Maria her adopted daughter. Julia’s husband disappeared in the civil war and Marias parents were killed. This is their bed with all the blankets behind them

Juana Caba and my porter for the day Juan Laynez
Maria Rimerez Lives with her daughter whose husband has abandon her. There are three grandchildren living here as well.

Many of these women are between 60 and 80 years old but have daughters or orphaned children who will weave to support them.

Manuela Rivera 45 lives alone in a 10x16 house with one blanket. Weaves and cuts coffee durning the harvest for $3 a day

Maria Mendoza her son cannot walk or talk. They share a home with Miguel one of only two men who have survived to the age of 80 in the village.
Miguel in front of his house where I first meet him.

Anna Caba Mendoza weaves to support her two parents who are sick.

Maria and Maria mother and daughter. Both lost their husband and son/brother. There is no other immediate family

Juanita Hu has been sick for six months

Anna Caba Mendoza weaves to support her two parents who are sick.

Maria Mendoza is 75 years old and blind. Her daughter in law will weave for her.

Savanna Cruz 80 and her daughter Abrilla 60 lost their husbands in the war. They sell tamales once a week and weave

Rosa Pechecho 70 lives with her son and 10 others in this house. Magdalena will weave for her.

Rosa Bop 70 years old and still weaving. Juana the committee head is in the background

Rosa Ijom Almost 70 and still weaving

I have been pleased with how the food was distributed last year and who was selected to be in the program. Before I arrived they had formed a committee of 7 , 5 widows and two women leaders who can write and they collected a list of all the widows. I met around forty of these widows in their homes. I asked to see those whom we had been feeding and those with the most need. It wasn’t until the fourth day that I started to see women with the ability to start to support themselves. I don’t want to create a welfare state but there needs to be some help here. So many lost their husbands during the war and their homes were burned. They have raised orphaned children who weave to support them. $25 worth of thread will last for 2 and a half weavings or almost six months of work. It will then be worth around $225. A great increase. The piglets cost around the same and will be sold in 4 months for around $65-75 dollars. Less work and less profit but more food on the table in these communities.

One of the cows from last year’s delivery was butchered and sold for over double the purchase price. We are opening a bank account and plan to buy more cows around July. I was also pleasantly surprised that my micro loans are current in their payments and the school has some new books. I don’t expect success everywhere or a huge difference but I am seeing some of both and that is fantastic. Five local people have been donating a lot their time to form this group to help the neediest. Juana the head of the women's collective has been working on bringing support for women here for years. She even has a photo of her beside the president of Guatemala. Rosa, the other leader, was in the department capital seeking support last week. Higinio is well connected in the communities and government and is of great help. We are organizing account books and records of what is done each month and they are going to apply for legal status here in Chajul.

While you are reading this I will probably be in Los Encuentros or Nuevo Puntos. Last Wednesday they sent a delegation here and we sent up visits to their communities after the 18^th. I want to collect information on their water needs for next year. Ojalla! ---Let’s hope! Hasta luego Michael’

CHAJUL PAST AND PRESENT

2009-01-25T18:14:00.000-08:00

I am compiling a history and cultural section on Chajul. The name Chajul is made up of two ixil words. Jul which means to be encased in by mountains and Tzaj which means lighting. According to the tradition of their for fathers this site was sacred and in the surrounding mountains were religous ceremonial centers for the Ixil people. It was in the second century that the Ixil people were pushed out of their lands to the south by the Kiche tribe and came to this area.

Chajul is a pre-colonial town but was concord without a fight by the Spanish in 1530 after they defeated neighboring Nebaj. It was then Chajul reached its population height of 20,000-25,000 inhabitants. In 1750 the population began to recover from Spanish rule and began returning to the establishment of leaders from the indigenous inhabitants.
In 1890 ladinos (people of mix Spanish and Indian decent) came to the region and began contracting with the Ixil to work in the plantations along the coast. This started a season of labor exploitation that continued into the present generation. In the book “I Rigoberta Mnechu” chapter four she describes a griping tale of this life. Forty Indians would be crowded into a large truck with their animals and began the trip to the coast. The trucks were tarped and they were charged a loading and unloading fee so they stayed inside with the feces and vomit for a day and a half. Once on the plantation with company ran stores, clinics and cantinas so it was difficult to save any money during the one to three month stay. This work force was made up not only of men but consisted of the whole family. Today along the coast by you can find a Ixil community still wearing traditional dress that has relocated there permanently.
Today the name Chajul can refer both to the town of 11,000 people or the municipal (a municipal is similar to a county) that consist of 60 villages and 37,000 people. Chajul is part of what is referred to the Ixil triangle, three municipals Nebaj, Chajul and Cortzal that are home to the Ixil a Mayan people group. The road to Chajul was paved in ’98 increasing access but transportation slows as you make you way on to other villages. I get excited as I approach Chajul from Sacapulas. One reason is you start to climb out of the dry lands into the greenery of the mountains and another is the colorful clothing of the women and the stylish hats of the men tell you that you are entering a specific tribal homeland. Life slows down a bit and you are in the lands of the Ixil. It is beautifully different.

When I first came to Chajul Higinio’s brother was the alcade or mayor of Chajul. It was under his direction that the fountain, benches and facelift of the porch were done. During the civil conflict that ravage Guatemala Chajul was particularly hard hit. The account in the book I Roberta Manchu where her brother was killed along with six other Guatemalans happened here. His body was burned in front of the Church. I have read that at night the army that garrisoned six to seven thousand solders here would hang the bodies of insurgents from this balcony and in the morning the local firemen would take them down. I am so thankful for peace.
When I come to Chajul from the outlaying villages we arrive here before dawn. I usually buy a glass of hot rice milk from a lady who sell it under the brick arch and then take a nap on one of the benches until daybreak. When the morning light starts to fill the sky the venders for the open air market begin arriving in the plaza below here and life begins again.

The photo above is of the construction of the central park with the goal of bringing in tourism. These construction workers are probable making $10 a day on this government job but I have seen entry level wages at $3 a day.

Today Chajuls population is 96% indigenous Mayan.

A farmer like this boy’s father will average $600 a year.

Literacy rates are said to be up to 80%.

Child mortality rates reach 40% by the age of 5 in some of the outlining villages.

Electricity and running water are available in some but not most of the villages.

Corn is central to their diet and coffee is an export item.

Traditional weaving and agriculture are the main commerce.

Many parts of the local architect are reflective of its colonial past.

Public education is avalible to the six grade level

CHECK BACK FOR MORE INFOMATION LATER ADIOS

CLEAN WATER

2009-01-21T08:22:00.000-08:00

In today’s world where we have a never ending supply of tap water, cold and hot water in our sinks and showers, ice water from our refrigerator, timed water in our sprinkler systems, and bottled water in our stores it is incredible that 1.1 billon people lack access to clean drinking water. 1.1 billon! That is everyone in the United States times 5! What an outcry we would make if our state of Washington lost its clean water. What a tragedy to see our children die due to diseases caused by a lack of clean water. The nation, yes the world would take notice. Help would be on its way. The headlines would read, “Nine Million Washingtonians without Clean Water.” Why then do we stay silent at 110 Washingtons without clean water? If it is because the problem is too big and difficult lets break it down and make it doable and personal. If the statistic that 30,000 people mostly children die each week because of disease caused by lack of clean water is too abstract to act on let look at helping in a village of 22 families hat has an infant mortality rate of pushing forty percent. A kitchen sink in a home with access to potable water. This is one of the better situations. In February ’08 I took a quick trip back to visit five of 9 villages without water behind Chel. These these following photos are from Los Encuentros a village of seventy families. The situation here is typical of most of these villages. The villages are set on a ridge with some but not a lot of land above them so it is not a naturally good situation to find water. There is no electricity and many needs in these communities who rely on subsistence farming to survive. Open ponds and cistrens provide water for utilitarian needs.

The man in this photo is an active leader in the community. During a breakfast of Malaga, a starching root that grows wild and tortillas I listened to how his village was bombed during the civil war and all their crops destroyed. The only food source the army could not eradicate was the wild root Malaga so for two years this was their survival food. We talked about the water situation here where their only water source is collecting rain water.

He informed me that about 30% of the houses have one black poly tank to collect water. These tanks hold 1000 liters and cost about $250 dollars. They do not have a filter system nor do they seal the caps to these tanks. Both of these problems could be easily remedied but a family needs two to three tanks to supply themselves throughout the three month dry season. Even providing 50 families with one tank and a filter would cost $15,000. This would be a big help but is also a big expense for a Band-Aid fix. He also told me that they have found a spring 2 hours away by foot. This spring is only large enough for half of the community and would cost around $18,000 to develop and pipe to the village for a community water source. Wells can be a risky venture because this area is remote making the cost of transporting a well drilling rig is prohibitive ,the depth of the water table unknown and there is no electricity for pumping. All of this information show there is not always an easy solution and careful study is needed to proceed in the best manner. It also demonstrates that the need of the people is great as they live on the edge of survival. With limited food and water their need cries out to our compassion. This year I am going to meet and study a way to assist this community hopefully in ’10.

Children of Xesayi with there school house in the background.

There are two communities with similar needs but easier solutions that I want to help first. One is Xesayi, home to twenty two families, one hundred and ten people. All the homes here have dirt floors including the school. This community is one of the three that received electricity in ’07 by building a small hydro electric facility. This project was funded by a green carbon exchange grant and is the first such project in Guatemala. This community has access to two springs and either one could be developed into a gravity system that would supply the village both now and for the projected future. The distance is not great, the water is clean, the system would be easy to construct and maintain. When I see a situation like this I tell myself let’s just do it. It is so simple and will give a gift of life this year, next year, ten, twenty, and thirty years from now. What could be a better investment? This year we have secured the rights of usage and passage for one of these springs and had an architect look at tank size and design. I hope to finish plans and budget in my first few meetings in Guatemala and proceed with installation. We are hoping to be able to keep this project under $10,000 with the village supplying labor and Seeds of Hope supplying material.
The other community that I have been invited to visit is Nuevo Puntos. It is another community of 22 families. This community is further back in the hills with the final leg of the journey being a half hour walk in. This community is a C.P.R. community that had organized against the oppression during the civil conflict. It’s only source of water is from collecting rain water. There is a spring three kilometers away that would serve the community with a gravity feed clean water source. I hope to develop a working plan and budget for this community for the next trip in’10.

When I read statistics about clean water I can see the problem is huge. When I visit a family without a good water source I see it is personal. I want to share a little of both of these stories with you in hope of raising your awarenessand with that awareness action..

INTRODUTION TO TRIP '09

2009-01-09T01:50:00.000-08:00

I have let my blog go silent for quite awhile but have not stop dreaming, planning, and working on how to continue helping in the Chajul region. Last May, I made a list of goals for the next six months. I have done well on three of the six, made some progress on two of the others, but haven’t yet touched the sixth. All this shows me that this is a big process, and it is accomplished by a lot of little steps. The biggest goal, and the most important one to achieve over this next year, is to come under a sister non-profit organization or to start one. Many of the steps for both options are the same so I can, “fish in both ponds” so to speak. It is a humbling process both in the daunting task of learning new skills and that of building a network of interested people. I love both the dream of assisting these people to better their life and the potential for people in the states to directly help these families, but standing in the middle of both worlds is very stretching for me. All said, I am at a crossroad of saying this is bigger than me, and I am starting to reach out for help. I am looking at this year as a year to solidify the form and direction of this organization and to prove the value and validity of these ideas. I invite you all to follow along. Enjoy the beauty and trials of life in this region. Along our journey in life, there are many ways that each of us can step in and make life better. If the opportunities presented here are of interest to you, please contact me @ mewens000centurytel.net Here is a photo of twenty widows to whom we have been providing a monthly allotment of food. Pictured below is an example of what is provided, with about #25 of corn being the largest commodity. Sixty widows around Chel have asked for help in establishing a weaving co-op. We are going to choose seven to ten of the widows presently in the food program who are too old to work, to stay in the food program and provide $25 worth of thread to each of the 50 others.I would like to provide thread twice a year. When the women sell their weavings, a portion of what each sells would go into the co-op to help the food program. A local fair trade store in Gig Harbor, Washington is going to sell some of their wares as well as display a photo journal of the program. I want the women to elect officers to record and manage the program. We will see how this goes. The man in the red and white shirt is Higinio Asicona. He is working for the regional government in developmental aid and has been a real asset in introducing me to communities and program development. The man in the green shirt is Manuel Riviera and is a very respected leader in Chel

( see entre "las viudas de chel '08" for more)

PROJECT TWO--- Water for Xesayi. This is a community of 22 families for whom we have been studying how to provide drinking water. In June, Higinio brought an architect to this village to look at the springs and work on a design. He provided this service for only the cost of transportation as payment. It was good to bring another perspective into the picture. The estimantes for this project have been varied a lot, with my projection landing in between Higinio’s and the architect’s. I have a friend who is researching using Ultra-Violet light to purify water from a nearby stream. This would eliminate a lot of piping. Rites of passages for the water have been cleared, but we are not yet solid on a budget. After some meetings and research, I hope to plow ahead with this project. The local community will supply labor and set up a maintenance committee, and I will provide materials and hire a mason to oversee the tank construction. Each of the choices for the water supply are higher in elevation, so this system will be gravity fed into a storage tank and then distributed to each house. One hose bib with clean water can make a huge difference to ta home. Below are some of the children of Xesayi in the “town center”. This village is just a fifteen-minute walk from Chel and sets on the side of a hill with a precious view. The building behind the kids is their school. Below and to the right are some of the men from this village after a meeting in Chel.

(view "clean water '09"post for more)

Project Three--- Giving people the ability to provide for themselves is one of the greatest gifts we can offer. It puts their future in their hands. It lets them dream and work to reach those dreams. In Guatemala the patience level required for bettering you life or the life of your family is totally different. Parents are willing to work hard, taking small steps with the hope that their children will have a better future. For this reason, I believe offering income generating programs is a great investment. We are trying to provide programs that require an investment by the recipient and multiply the original gift. We will develop and offer a small animal project this year. I do not have a lot of money for this right now so we will offer one of the small communities a program of sheep or chickens. The cow program that we started last year was very well received, and the regional government has used the same model to provide 200 cows in the Chajul region. Small gifts in this direction can really change the future for a family. I will post the details after some meetings with the local leaders. ( for more on the cows see "Operacion Bendicion '08")

Here is the start of a chicken project on which Higinio was working. Fifty meat chickens with feed and feeders cost around $100. Materials for a pen will run around $80. Sheep cost around $35 each and $15 to transport to the villages.
. In Guatemala I will be working to form a committee that will oversee the direction of future projects and the management of existing ones. I am also desiring to hire someone four or five days a month for research and reporting. The projects of pots and pans for Amechel and water for the community of Nuevo Puntos are still on the “to do” list but will have to wait for funding. I am looking forward to deepening relationships and clarifying how we can turn this effort into a real, working organization. I worry about the “bumps in the road” that always come, but, if life is nothing else, it is a journey. I would really enjoy feedback so if you have any ideas or suggestions please e-mail me. If you are interested in helping, let’s get connected. I know this year our economy is very slow, but imagine spinning a world globe, then randomly put your finger on a spot to stop it. Chances are the things that we might have to cut back on are things that the people that live where you are pointing will never even have the chance to experience. Good shoes, a good job, enough food, education, clean tap water or a shower are luxury items in many places.We still have the opportunity to share and make a difference in this world. I encourage you to find a way to do just that. Plant a seed and watch it grow. We can’t change the world or can we?

When Forrest died in Afghanistan he left me $10,000. Last year we used this money to buy 22 cows, one freezer, a table saw and some carpentry tools, materials for a concrete floor, 50 fence post and some other building materials for the people of Chajul. A little more was added, and we have been feeding twenty widows for the last ten months, bought a gas stove for a family, some blankets, shoes, and clothes. My family and some of Forrest’s friends pooled together and funded a well for 500 people in Afghanistan. I realize that my son gave me the seed money to pursue a dream of helping in regions of extreme poverty and need. With a high cost, he has planted a precious seed. With careful cultivation I want to watch it grow. By investing in a cow here, or a chicken there, clean water for a community, or just standing by someone in their struggle, I would like to see a garden grow. I would like to form an organization or sub chapter with one and name it “Seeds of Hope.” Doing this will form a bridge that we could use to reach directly into these lives and lend a helping hand. I don’t know what the future holds and even though this last year might have been hard, it was a good one. I look forward to planting some more seeds this years and seeing what grows

En camino sacrado Michael Departure date January 27th 2009 Return March 27th

For more about Forrest see the post "Thank-you Forrest '09"

Random Acts of Kindness (part one)

2008-05-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

The following photographs are of different needs I came across that I wanted to be a part of. It is a privilege to have the resources... i.e. such as money with which to step into someone’s life and make a difference. I believe that is the benefit of unequal wages between industrial nations and the developing world. Since I can’t fix the inequality of national economies it is nice to share the material blessing I have received.

Here is Gaspar, a part time teacher and carpenter planing a table top. In the last year his village has received electricity which has opened up new possibilities. Carpentry tools are about 30% higher in Guatemala and, with the local low wages, it is very difficult to buy enough tools. I bought about $1200 worth of tools and set-up an interest free loan for $800 dollars and gifted the rest. For three weeks his family fed and housed me and I tried to teach them a little carpentry. The next three loans that I made in this community have the added feature so that the loan payments will go to the school to help buy books for a reading library.

The most expensive tool I bought was this tablesaw. In this picture Gaspar is routering a table leg.

Here he is cutting some decorative diamonds into the table top.

The finished product: Total value $50 .Materials $15. Time to build, 3 days. A good profit in a economy that generally pays $3 -$10 a day.

Another entrepreneur I met had an ice-cream business. He would travel three hours to buy ice and then store it in a gunnysack of wood shavings to insulate it. It was a race in order to sell shaved-iced cones before his ice melted and then he would have to travel back for more. Now he has a freezer and can sell ice, bags of frozen fruit water and shaved-ice cones. Here he is with his new freezer and ice cream cart.

Enlisting the relatives to bag colored water

With the busness going great, Silvistre can rest in his office!

Once again, here is my friend Manuel. His son needed help with tuition. His son Maximino is in school to become a teacher and needed assistance with tuition, room and board. With a $300 scholarship and a $300 loan Maximino will be able to continue attending school and graduate this year.

Random Acts of Kindness (part two)

2008-05-18T12:24:00.000-07:00

I met these two men while walking outside of Chajul. The were repairing the fence around their corn field. Each post cost 26 cents and was made from one log split three times by a chain saw. The post holes were being dug with a machete and each fence post would only last a couple of years. I left them with enough money to buy 50 more posts and thanked them for the their conversation.

Once again, here is Andres. I gathered rocks and packed them out on mules so he could rebuild his house. I visited with him several different times over a six week period. I could not find a real good way to help him so on my last day in Chajul I decided to give him 1000 quetzales... which is equal to two months wages for his house project.

When I arrived at Andre's home, I found his house gone and his wife cooking in a three sided kitchen. He is starting the foundation for a new house and is a real hard worker. I really enjoyed him and his family and it will be interesting to see at what stage I find his home next year.

Dominigo and his family gave me a place to stay in Chajul and I provided them with a concrete floor for their house.

I have a stack of “ solicitudes”- requests - for help on my desk. Many of these papers are stamped with the village seal and thumb prints of the community members. I have seen so many needs and had so many ideas of ways to help it will be an evolving process to choose which projects and when. There is a need for a trade school, a weaver’s co-op, chicken, sheep and beef production, a fish farm, a shop for school supplies, a bakery and on and on it goes. Here are a few photos that correspond with some of these requests.

This man told me of life during the civil war and their present need for drinking water. We had fried tortillas and a root for breakfast. I visited their community to look at the water situation and found it would be very difficult to solve. He asked for water tanks to help collect rain water until a solution could be found.

Here is some of the open pit storage that they presently use.

This system is better designed for mosquitos then people.

This school at Fatima needs desks. 40 desks cost about $600.

These two men came to me one night and asked if the could summit a request for help with metal roofing for their village. They had to walk two hours to make the request, then came back three days later with two copies of a proposal. One copy had twelve signatures and 8 thumbprints for me to keep and the other that I signed so they could show they village they had summited the proposal.

Mateo, a school teacher, was showing me his house one night and I asked him if there was only three in his family. The house was so small I didn't think there could be very many more living there. He told me yes, there were only three presently, but clarified that they had already lost two children, one at 6 months and another at 3 years. I think they could qualify for a Habitat House if we are successful in bringing Habitat for Humanity into the area. Very few people could qualify because of their low income.

This village has requested a kitchen where the mothers would be able to prepare snacks or a meal for their students. All the schools have needs for school supplies and books.

This is our sponser child through Christian Children's Fund , Anna Maria. She has the privilege of studying with personal work books, a rarity in Guatemala. In the municipio of Chajul there are 37,ooo people without a bookstore.

Here is part of the community of Xesalli. There are 22 families without drinking water yet there is a nearby spring that could be bought and developed for under $10,000. Another $3500 would also provide 2 sheep for each family. The posibilities are endless. Is our vision to help others equal to the opportunities?

The chidren of Xesalli. The next generation's future is in the hands of today's people. I want to make a difference with "planned" acts of kindness in this community and others. Adios y Dios te bendiga!

OPERACION BENDICION

2008-05-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well I had another excellent day today! I recovered 117 photos that had been corrupted and so now I get to share this story in technicolor. The most expensive project I was involved with was a project I called "the cow project". I heard the leaders in Chel talking about Operacion Bendicion and asked my friend Miguel what they were talking about. He said that the leaders had named my "cow project" the "Operacion Benicion" Well I have to admit it sounds better then “the cow project” so “Operation Blessing” it is.
Here is a brief outline of what we offered.:
I would buy 22 cows that would be about a year old. The leaders would select 22 families with enough pasture to raise them for 18 months. The families would give 1 vaccine every 6 months and provide vitamins and feed their cow. After 18 months they would sell the cow and buy two more. One of these new animals they could keep and the other they would give to another family selected by the community leaders. There were eight to ten leaders in this committee and the families submitted applications to help determine whether they had the capacity to raise a cow and also that we were reaching across the community and not just within a select group. This is a seed project that could grow to help 66 families in 3 years. One cow equals a little over 1/3 of a year’s income. The committee then sent two teams of two looking for cows. It is easy to buy one or two cows but to buy 22 meant that we would have to travel to one or two communities that raised lots of livestock. The team that went to Uspantan had success and a round up was planned. Higinio contacted a business for transportation, I transferred funds, and 6 of us from Chel would head to Uspantan in 10 days. The night before we left, I was in a village called Santa Clara and it had one pickup that carried people out each day. That was the good news. The bad news was that it left at 12:30 a.m. and I had only just gotten to bed at 11:00pm. There was only enough room in the pickup for one of my legs to touch the pickup bed and I couldn’t have fallen over if I tried. Three hours later we switched to a bus in Chel, and then at 7:00 we changed again in Nebaj, and at 3:00 in the afternoon we arrived in Uspantan. Transportation is a real issue and expense in this region .

Here is the Saturday livestock market in Uspantan. Uspantan is a drier and more open region then Chel. This market was described as very big with all kinds of animals but it was not at all like a stockyard in the U.S.. The team had made arrangements with a rancher to bring about 35 cows to a field about two blocks away.

We had inspected the cattle the night before and after agreeing on a price, called for two trucks to meet us at 6:00am and started the round up. It was obvious we had some new cowboys in the group.

The first truck loaded easy but the second took three times as long. This is the easy one.

Meet Juancito and Higinio. Higinio has been my main contact in Guatemala and we have been e-mailing ideas back and forth for a year. On this day it dawned on me that this was not simply an idea anymore but a flesh and bones reality. The animals were good, the people grateful, excited, and I was getting to live out a precious dream. I couldn’t have done this without his help.

The cows looked heathy and ready for some good pasture.

The ride back was more direct but the last 2.5 or 3 hours was a low geared crawl. Here is one of the corners that trucks and buses must back up on because it is too sharp. The second truck broke down on this road and we had to hire another truck to replace it but it did not arrive until 9:00 at night. The owner of both of the trucks we hired had worked in the U.S. and started a trucking business with the money he earned. His son was driving the truck I rode back in and told me that the people in Chajul were saying that when I died that I would go straight to heaven. I didn’t understand the Spanish very well and when I asked him what he meant he said that anyone that did so many good works would go to heaven. This statement made me aware of what impact we have the opportunity to make. A small amount of help and most of it hours away from Chajul was the subject of talk ,hope and prayers of blessings. For me this whole trip has been humbling to be embraced with such appreciation.

We arrived to people waiting and fireworks and started unloading the first truck.

A sign of thanks and a day for fiesta.

Finally a long awaited drink

Who benefits from programs like this? Whole families and whole communities. Later that night the second truck arrived and there was more fireworks with scared cows running up and down the road. When things settled down Higinio read the rules of the program and then Manuel read the list of selected families(see above). This was my last picture of the night because the memory card in my camera was full. We tied cards with numbers around each cow's neck and then men and a few of their sons picked a number from a hat. They were smiling like little kids and the whole family was excited when they found out which cow was theirs. That night they gave me a hat that is typical for the Ixil men to wear and I felt that life is good .

A few days later I shot these pictures of the new cowboys. Juancitos corn field is some distance away from here and he arrived covered with sweat but proud and happy to be carrying feed for his cow.

WITH FEED IN ABUNDANCE THESE COWS WILL GROW!

EATING AND CONTENT

GRACIAS Y ADIOS

cost per cow including transportation --$350 the experience -- priceless!