Guatemala Mission Trip, Oct. 22

Everything fell in place for me to bounce back today. Got nine hours of sleep, then we were stalled at the hotel waiting for some equipment so after breakfast I got to go back to bed for another couple of hours. That seemed to do the trick, because I was about 85% when we finally left and able to contribute to another productive day. God truly works in mysterious ways.
This little guy made the mistake of falling in one of the pits of drilling fluid. I moved him to some fresh water and it looked like he was going to pull through.

Three of us had developed hacking coughs, and it occurred to me that breathing diesel fumes all day probably wasn't helping. So I grabbed one of the bandannas I brought and actually, you know, used it.

Our doctor, Hugo Gomez, knew EXACTLY how to spend our lunch break.

There are a ton of dogs, most of them pretty skittish because they're not treated all that well. But this little guy was too young to be timid.

The only thing that attracts children in larger groups than a camera is candy. Put the two together...

The Azatlan women made Gloria a traditional outfit in appreciation, and each of the rest of us bags. We were quick to point out that the true praise belonged to God -- we were just his vehicles for this project.

Several older villagers commented that they were delighted that their grandchildren would get to enjoy our efforts for years to come.

Florentine got the honor of cutting the ceremonial ribbon.

Then they brought us out some McDonald's for a celebration meal, that had to have come from at least an hour away. You can see from the expression on my face how excited I was for a McNífica after my adventures yesterday.

There was a lot of living in a lot of the faces, none more so than this gentleman.

The hardest work is done. Tomorrow we finish up the well in Gomera, then start getting ready to come home.

Other entries:

• Oct. 18
• Oct. 19
• Oct. 20
• Oct. 21
• Oct. 23
• Oct. 24

Guatemala Mission Trip, Oct. 21

Productive day for the team, bad day for me personally. The native Guatemalan microbes finally caught up with me, and after fighting some intestinal issues all day I'm now dealing with chills and possibly a fever. Hopefully a good night's sleep can take care of things.

Today found us in the village of Gomera, right next to Azatlan, named after...

The Gomera tree. Sort of like Aspen, but a little less snobby.

Even the local ladies pitched in to help dig the pits for the drilling fluid this time.

And this señorita, whose name I believe is Isabel, filled our water barrels when they got empty. She seemed much older than her years, which I imagine is pretty common.

We pulled up the pump from the original well which had become clogged with sand. Matt was chosen to see if he could connect it to the electrical wires from the solar panels, since he's the only one in the group without children. Just in case.

Kirk ran over a chicken on our way back to Azatlan to finish up some things there. After a brief negotiation, he made restitution to the family.

Since Azatlan's community center had tables, that was the location to prepare the PVC for Gomerra.

Boys and girls don't seem to get along too well in general, but these two were hitting it off just fine.

Kite-flying was definitely popular. Most of them were made from plastic grocery bags and straws or sticks, and almost all flew better than the one I made with Zak.

We think the folks in Azatlan bought these roses for Señora Gloria. And the kids, as usual, didn't turn down the opportunity to pose with them.

Prayers for a speedy recovery are appreciated -- there's more work to be done!

Other entries:

• Oct. 18
• Oct. 19
• Oct. 20
• Oct. 22
• Oct. 23
• Oct. 24

Guatemala Mission Trip, Oct. 20

Up bright and early and back to Azatlan again today. Getting up was a little harder this morning.
The village men built a sunscreen for us yesterday. It was a lifesaver. Doing all that work with the Central American sun beating down on us would have been a nightmare.

Gloria added a fetching bubble wrap skirt to her ensemble today to keep drilling fluid from splashing down inside her boots.

With the hole drilled and reamed, it was time to drop in 20-foot sections of PVC casing. That unfortunately meant adios to our sunscreen.

Gratuitous shot of me working. Really doesn't add anything to the narrative.

Two native Guatemalans -- Abel and Florentine -- worked with us and provide long-term support to the villagers. Florentine is 60 years old with five children, 22 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. So if I'm still doing this sort of thing in 20 years I'll be almost as impressive as him. I don't think any kids of Zak's will have kids of their own by then, though.

We pulled some "bad" water off the top with a pretty slick little pulley system that just involved dropping in a small section of pipe and pulling it back out. Water pressure somehow kept it full. Pretty good deltoid workout, too.

Then...water!

Word must have spread fast, because pretty soon just about the whole village was there. The pastor spoke while the kids pretended to listen...sort of like back home (sorry, Duane).

And what better way to celebrate than with a HUGE string of firecrackers hung from a tree...

...and Pepsi! Again, it's kind of amazing what they DO have considering they don't have clean water.

Six-year-old Fernando and I hit it off pretty well. Our first night there he was punching other kids who tried to get close to me and telling them in no uncertain terms, "Esteban es MI amigo!" I told him it was OK -- I could be everybody's amigo. :)

As the sun set and kids played, the mood was good. We had finished well ahead of schedule (get it? "Well" ahead of schedule?), and were going to set our sights on putting in another well in a different village starting tomorrow.

Other entries:

• Oct. 18
• Oct. 19
• Oct. 21
• Oct. 22
• Oct. 23
• Oct. 24

Guatemala Mission Trip, Oct. 19

There wasn't a lot of time for taking pictures today. Everyone was pretty busy, and when we weren't busy we were usually too dirty to touch a camera.
Kirk was kind enough to get some photographic evidence of me actually working. Here Gloria, Kent and I are mixing the drilling fluid. I'm told it's both a lubricant and has a specific gravity heavier than dirt, so it works to push the dirt up and out of the hole.

The village women had cooked some fish for lunch, but we politely told them gringos had weak stomachs and couldn't eat their food. Some bad past experiences on these trips has led to a "better safe than sorry" approach on such matters. So it was PB&J, Pringles and something like Gatorade called Jumex Sport.

I did still manage to spend time with some of my new friends, who all call me Esteban.

I have new appreciation for the movie Armageddon after this. Drilling down five feet at a time then adding a new section of pipe takes time. Fortunately we weren't doing it on a comet bearing down on Earth.

And once we hit the aquifer, we then had to pull all of those sections of pipe back up and take them off, again one five-foot section at a time.

For those of you counting at home, that's 22 sections of pipe when you drill 110 feet down. Then after drilling the hole, we went back down with something called a reamer to widen it. All in all, pretty tiring and muddy work as promised yesterday.

Right before we got back to La Colonia a huge thunderstorm hit. It's over an hour later, and STILL pouring. I guess the rainy season isn't quite over after all.

The dirt road we take into Azatlan that's already been quite an adventure may be a little more interesting tomorrow...

Other entries:

• Oct. 18
• Oct. 20
• Oct. 21
• Oct. 22
• Oct. 23
• Oct. 24

Guatemala Mission Trip, Oct. 18

I left the States on Saturday for Guatemala as part of a week-long mission trip through my church to help install a well in a coastal village. Our plane landed very late, so we spent the first night in Guatemala City at a Mennonite Seminary. For some reason I still got up at 5:45, and this was the view from the fourth floor.

You aren't supposed to flush toilet paper in Guatemala City, and here's the sign from the back of the bathroom door to prove it.

The seminary courtyard had some beautiful vines that were just starting to flower.

Guatemala has a number of active volcanoes, and here are two of them.

A four-hour van ride got us to Retalhuleu and the Hotel La Colonia, where we watched a soccer game while we waited for the drill rig to arrive. Thank you, TripAdvisor for tipping me off in advance that the place has wireless internet. :)

We headed to the village of Azatlan just to scout the location a bit and attend church service. When our leader, Kirk, asked someone to go up and see how much water was in their existing tower, after a couple of days of planes and vans I was more than happy to make the climb.

Since we were there, we figured we might as well at least start getting things set up for Monday.

The village ladies graciously cleared the area (aided by Gloria, our leader's wife) and burned the resulting pile of trash.

Since we were there and had things all set up, we figured we might as well start getting the holes dug for the hydraulic filtration system needed to do the actual drilling. The villagers eagerly pitched in.

Kids everywhere love to have their picture taken. And they all know to come look at the back of the digital camera afterward to see it. :)

Zak will be thrilled to learn that bunny ears are even considered funny in Guatemala.

Gloria found a "kid" of her own to cuddle. Kirk immediately had flea concerns.

Since we were there, had things all set up and had the holes dug, we figured we might as well fit the first bit. We ended up getting a head start of a couple of hours on Monday's work. I asked Gloria to take some pictures of me actually working tomorrow, so it doesn't seem like all I did was take photos and play with the kids.

A light shower didn't deter the local goats and sheep from grazing on their preferred pasture, the fútbol field.

After service in a good-sized cinder block chapel with a beautiful tile floor and two Casio keyboards, the setting sun signaled our time to head back to the hotel for a good night's rest.

A bit amazing to me that a place with TV and wireless internet doesn't have clean water. We were told the current water tower is empty by each May. But so it is, and it's already been a blessing to have the chance to help these wonderful people.

I'll try to update this as often as I can, but word is tomorrow is going to be a VERY tiring day. And a messy one.

Other entries:

• Oct. 19
• Oct. 20
• Oct. 21
• Oct. 22
• Oct. 23
• Oct. 24