Playgrounds

Here are a couple photos of some of the playground equipment I build in local elementary schools. The kids love it!

Holidays

Happy New Year! Hope all passed the holidays very well. I spent Christmas here in Ixtahuacan and then spent a week in Chiapas, Mexico during the New Year. I have some images to share.

Assembling tamales in the kitchen of my host family of Christmas Eve.

Tomb of Pakal, Palenque, Chiapas

Central Plaza, Palenque, Chiapas

Carved Idol, Palenque, Chiapas

Agua Azul, Chiapas

Catholic Church, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas

Stove Project

It's been a while since I posted material. I have been busy! Besides moving forward on the infrastructure project we are building in my schools, I have been helping a fellow volunteer on an improved stove project in her village several hours from mine. I have learned how to build the stoves, and the best way to organize the people so that the project is sustainable. Now I am organizing poor families here in Ixtahuacan for our own stove project.

First, what is an improved stove? It is a large cookstove build out of cinder blocks and red bricks, with a metal top that can be used to cook and prepare tortillas. Here in rural Guatemala, people cook with firewood, and if they have no cookstove this means they are cooking on open fire indoors. This practice has several negative impacts. Women and children suffer eye and respiratory disorders caused by the smoke. The open fire is a hazard that can burn children (I have seen serious injuries from this here in Ixtahuacan). Additionally, a greater amount of firewood is consumed to prepare the same amount of food, contributing to deforestation. If you doubt how smoky it gets inside these folks' kitchens, just look at this picture of Lucia, who will benefit from my stove project, next to her cook fire.
Some people do have small adobe cook stoves, but frequently these do not effectively draw the smoke out of the home or conserve firewood. One can see from the dark soot stains on the ceiling and the smoke hanging in the air that the stove is worthless. Here is a photo of an adobe stove I would like to replace with an improved stove.

I was very impressed with the way that my friend Katie organized her project, and I plan to adopt a similar strategy with my people here in Ixtahuacan. She organized the beneficiaries into teams, and then helped them to build each others' stoves with technical supervision from Peace Corps volunteers. I found it a very successful model, because the people learned how to build the stove (so that they can maintain it years into the future), but also had a positive experience with community cooperation. Below Lisa and Katie work with Rene to build a stove base.

Katie even got the village women to work on the project, a difficult feat in a culture in which the division of labor is highly gendered. Sofia learned how to lay the bricks for the fire box and was quickly outdoing her husband (he did not appreciate this as much as I did).

The fire box is insulated with pumice stone that the villagers scavenge in the mountains. The porous rock insulates well, and contributes to the efficiency of the stove.

Finally the metal cooking surface (plancha) and the chimney are put in place, and the whole stove is stuccoed over.
Here is one of the finished stoves, decorated for the inauguration of the project. The people were so excited! They say it saves a ton of firewood--Katie is working on a study to determine exactly how much.

If you want to help bring a Guatemalan family a cookstove that improves the health, safety, and economy of their home, you can donate to my stove project. In December I will do a series of educational workshops with the participants, and we hope to start construction in the new year. Please email me at jengler7@yahoo.com to ask questions about the project and find out how to make your tax deductible donation that will change the lives of villagers here in Ixtahuacan. Thanks so much for your support!

Harvest Time

The rainy season will be ending soon and our school gardens are coming along nicely.

Some boys in Chuicutama ecstatic about cabbage.

Fresh radishes ready for snacktime inPacutamaII.

Professor Max and I decided to give a cooking lesson to the kids in Pacutama I because they weren't sure how to prepare the swiss chard we grew. Step by step:

1) Cut and wash it

2) Chop it. Watch those fingers!

3) Throw in the pot with some oil and salt. Not too hot! Stir Antonia!

4) Dish it up. No cutting in line!

5) Eat it while it's hot, with a stack of tortillas.

Lucas' First Birthday

We celebrated my host brother Lucas' first birthday on Sunday. It was a great party, and Lucas thoroughly enjoyed it. Angel and Martina bought a special cake for him in the city. He couldn't wait to have a piece!

After we sang a song in his honor he was allowed to go on the attack. Lucas dude, I think you've got something on your face...

Working in the Communities

On an outing with the kids of Nuevo Xolja, one of the schools where I work. The teacher, Miguel, attends to 35 students alone. And I can attest that some of them are downright mischievous!

Kicking it on the town water tank with the boys of Antiguo Xetinamit. They want to get funding to build a new one for a variety of reasons.

Tree Planting

Look how big Baby Lucas is getting! My littlest host brother seems to be on the verge of talking and walking. This is how I eat avocados too, by the way, though I get less on my shirt and more on my face...

I went out tree planting with the community of Antiguo Xetinamit on Saturday. Ironically, reforestation work is largely comprised of chopping down the forest with machetes, as you clear space in the underbrush for the trees you wish to plant. I love to work with this particular village because the guys are a lot of fun. Here are a few of them monkeying around...

After several hours of machete-hacking fun, we got down to planting the little trees, including three different species. Here I am taking the plastic bag off the root ball right before planting:
That's all for now. Take care!