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IT’S SPRING 2005 IN GUATEMALA
The flowering trees are coming into full bloom. Imagine huge
trees, solid yellow of purple, lavender and pink blooms In the
spring it is also time for the coffee trees to bloom. The woods
and hillsides are white and the smell is wonderful, like
honeysuckle. Easter week was great. In our small villages there
were roadside decorations, processions and the exchanging of
bread, NOT candy, goes on all around you the entire week.
We have had a very good start to 2005. Our normal clinics are
doing well and they are still our joy and primary focus. In
January we started construction on our second clinic building in
the village of Chuisamayac, (see pictures). In February we had a
great building/VBS team from Georgia for a week to work on the
clinic. The floors and walls are done. Most likely in May/June
time frame we will get a roof on. The VBS people had about 60-70
kids on the first day and over 250 on the last with a new idea
that we hadn’t seen, family picture day.
The building of the second clinic has led us into another
project. We were trying to get water to our building and we
found out that no new water faucets have been allowed for years.
They have a very large holding tank for water in Chuisamayac but
in the dry season, November-April, there isn’t enough water to
keep the tank filled and on occasion the tank runs dry. This
causes many problems. Water is rationed in the dry season, about
20 homes (and 1 clinic) cannot get water. They also do not have
enough to bathe, wash cloths in or drink. This effects about
1000 people. So, as you might have guessed, we have another
water project. The spring has enough water but there are not
enough collection points and the existing pipe could not carry
the needed volume. We also have about 50 homes that either have
no water or repairs are badly needed. So, the plan is to add
more collection points at the spring and a duel water line about
1 mile to the holding tank and to take care of those 50 homes.
We priced the project out at about $6600, so we can use any help
you can float our way.
Another project we have just started getting into is stoves.
This does not sound very glamorous but in the area of health it
is right up there with pure water and medicine. Just about all
of the women use open wood fires to cook. Many of these fires
are in the houses. The houses are always filled with smoke,
totally black inside and the people and their cloths always
smell pretty much like smoke. The health problems caused by the
smoke are huge. Eye problems, upper respiratory problems, back
and neck problems from carrying the wood, not to mention a large
numbers of trees being cut. There is an organization, Helps
International, www.fni.com/~dononeal, that, as part of what they
do, is provide a model stove for stove projects. This stove is
about 70% more efficient and the smoke is vented. Saves the
health, saves the forest, win win. The cost is about $100 per
stove. A great project for teams, adult and youth. There is
contact with the people in their homes and when they leave they
can see a finished product. We are approaching this slowly since
it would mean a big change in the culture of the people. We are
going to start by trying to introduce 1 stove to three different
villages in homes of people we know and we feel will use the
stove. We will ask God take it from there and see what happens.
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