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Panajachel, Guatemala Trip - Rachel's Journal
Rachel Vagts - College Archivist, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa
Friday
14 hours...
Wow, we leave town in 14 hours! I spent the day finishing things up at work and then spending a few hours with my parents who were in town over night. We went to the Cow Palace for lunch and it was good to have a great Iowa cheeseburger. I'm looking forward to the food in Guatemala, but I bet it will be pretty different from the standard Cow Palace fare.
The bus leaves tomorrow at 6:45 am and our flight leaves Chicago at 3:15 pm. Hopefully all the traveling will go smoothly and tomorrow night will find us all safely tucked into our beds at the Crowne Plaza in Guatemala City. When they said we would be roughing it on this trip, they weren't kidding!
Sunday
Hola, Panajachel!
We“ve arrived and more importantly, a functioning ATM machine and an internet cafe have been located.
The whole journey has gone really smoothly from the bus ride from Decorah to check-in at O“Hare to the flights to getting to the hotel.
Today started with a great breakfast including some wild fruit that is naturally the same magenta color as the shirt I“m sporting today. After breakfast we had a short orientation with our local Habitat contact, Shannon. Then it was on to church. We went to a small mission church that David“s family attends. David is one of the other people who organized the trip and is originally from Guatemala. The service was great...a mix of Spanish and English and a wonderful message based on the parable of Mary and Martha. We all have to remember that acts are important, but so is listening and engaging with the Word.
After church we spent a little bit of time talking to the people in the congregation and then took off for Panajachel, our base of operations for the next four days. The trip was along a windy road through the mountains. As someone who has developed a more sensitive travel tummy I was very glad to share my front seat with Karen! And many thanks to Karla for her repeated reminders about bringing Dramamine. Our driver was amazing, moving this full-sized bus in and out of traffic and even backing into the courtyard of our hotel.
Pana is along Lake Atitlan and is a busy town with cars of every size, motorcycles, taxis, scooters, etc. Our first adventure was to find a bank machine to get some money. Pastor Steve led the charge, using his newly refined Spanish to ask directions and find the bank after only asking 3 times. He told us the standard was 4! Of course it was the ATM that we had walked right past, a half block from our hotel, but that“s really not important.
So, we“re safe, we“re good and we will meet with the families we are going to be working with in about a half hour.
Tuesday
I“m sure this parade is going to be over any minute now...
The first thing is that this place is absolutely amazing. It is more beautiful, the people are more friendly, the Habitat experience is better...it“s just beyond expectations.
My group, Los Cementos Dementos, is working with a family up in the mountains. Our trip every day takes us back up the mountain to Solala, then back down the mountain into a valley, over a river and back up the mountain (everything beyond Solola on a dirt road) and into a little village. Then we turn onto a road that is paved...we go a mile or so and then the paving ends and they are building the road by cutting into the mountain with hoes and shovels and moving rocks that must weigh hundreds of pounds. Our van stops and we get out and walk the last quarter mile. Then we go off the road and walk up a small path, up the mountain a bit and into the spot where we are building.
The new house is going in the middle of their plot of land. Our family“s mother lives in a small adobe one-room house. Her other son lives there are well, his family sleeping in a room made with tin walls and cooking in a separate adobe building. Our family will live in the new cement block Habitat house with the grandmother. The brother, who helps every day with building the new house, hopes to be able to clear the title to more land adjacent and build his own Habitat house for his family.
Because the last bit to the house is on a path we have been carrying supplies up to our building site. There is no fork lift or dump truck to drop off the supplies! Many of us in the group have spent the last two days carrying sand up in empty flour bags on our backs. We have also been mixing and pouring cement, making the rebar supports and knocking the holes out of cement block so they can go over the rebar.
There are children and dogs and chickens everywhere! We even have a pig and a cow on site, usually tied up to a nearby tree. The site looks down into the valley with a gorgeous view, the surrounding fields filled with beans and onions.
The one thing we have been told again and again is that we need to be flexible! This came in handy when we pulled into Solola today. Yesterday we had to detour a parade. Today we drove straight into it. We sat in the van about 5 minutes waiting to get around it, then decided that there was no reason not to watch it.
What an experience! The parade lasted for hours...but it was unlike anything I had ever seen. There were bands and drill teams and hip dancers and large groups in native dress. Most of us spent time in the local market as well, having a more local experience than the market in Pana.
Tonight we went out for dinner at a restaurant along Lake Atitlan. The mother in our family used to work there and recommended it to us. It was excellent. I had wonderful beef fajitas!
Tomorrow there is another parade, so we will leave a bit earlier to avoid it. In the afternoon we“re going to get out on the lake on a boat. And we might figure out how to use the card reader and try to share some photographs...
Wednesday
The first course
Before we left yesterday, we laid our first course of the cement block for our house. As we put the first corner block in, Pastor Steve gave a quick blessing to the block. I wonder what our mason and the family thought of our interesting American customs. They do know that Habitat and our group are Christian-based, but we haven“t had much time to learn more about the customs of the family we“re working with.
Today we worked on mortar on the first course and chopping "U"s into blocks so that we can run rebar around the second course of blocks. We don“t know where the door is yet, but the house is really starting to take shape.
We broke early today (we“re a little concerned about the standard we“re setting for the American work ethic...) so that we could take a boat ride out on Lake Atitlan. It“s a gorgeous, big lake in a crater created by a volcano. We visited two small towns on the shore of the lake. At the second village, we got out to the familiar sound of drums and xylophones...it was like being back at the parade! It was the local school practicing for Guatemala“s upcoming Independence Day. As the band played, we walked up the hill toward the local church. As usual we were met by many women and girls selling textiles, jewelry, scarves, etc. It“s hard to not bargain, but when I walk away feeling good or bad about how much I paid I realize what a little bit it matters to me and how much it matters to them.
Tomorrow is a full day on the site and our last night in Pana. Hopefully we“ll see more progress on the house, but it feels like in so many ways we“ve already accomplished a great deal of our mission.
Thursday
Every block you carry...
Today was a day of hard work, but incredible gifts.
It was our last full day on the site and the first full one since Monday because of the parade and our lake trip yesterday. We had a near-miss this morning on our way through Solola...as we drove into town we could hear the drums. It was ANOTHER parade! We had been told there would only be parades Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so we were shocked and frankly, a bit worried we would get stuck again.
Our driver quickly sensed our panic, got out, got other cars to back up and rerouted us along side streets until we pulled out about a half away from the start of the parade. We all shouted a cheer and clapped! Clapping has been an international signal for joy this week!
Kent, one of the people on our trip, is a videographer and photographer. He came with us this morning to get some footage of our site. It was fun to show him where we go every day and more importantly, to get his confirmation that we definitely has the most "out there" site.
It was also a great day because our mother showed up with three of the four kids. Marta is eight and was a bit shy at first, but warmed up to us pretty quickly. Antonio was an addition to the crew immediately! At eleven, he hopped right into the line carrying block up to the job site.
Kent set up to do some interviews with us. I went first and talked a bit about the relationship between Winneshiek County Habitat for Humanity and Guatemala. We have been partnered with Guatemala since our affiliate was started and tithe every year to build at least as many houses here as we build in the States.
After we had done a couple of interviews, we wondered if Florenda, our mother, might want to do an interview with Edie translating. She agreed and did an interview with her 8 year old and 3 year old daughters sitting with her. I asked Antonio if he wanted to be in the interview, but he was much to busy building HIS house.
I haven“t heard the whole interview, but I did hear the response to the question about what we could do to help the situation here in Guatemala.
Florenda said that every single block we moves helps.
So we moved 400 today.
Sunday
 Some other beginning“s end...
Friday was a half day at the site and then we had a final party and celebration with our families. The group from my site hopped in the van with our family and our mason and traveled over to the small village where the rest of the groups had been building. The trip was again so fascinating...the scenery in Guatemala is just unlike anything else...so lush and green with mountains and rivers.
When we got there a huge soccer game was in full swing. It appeared to be about 15 adults from our group and about 200 children from the local school. My roomie Krystal reports that our side did score at least twice! There was no report on how many times the kids scored.
We also had two pinątas that drew that last few kids who weren“t already there for the soccer. First we did Tigger for the boys and then a Clifford for the girls. It was mass chaos! Many people in our group had brought school supplies with that we donated to the local school. It was clear that our gift was very appreciated with thanks from the school administrator and a member of the local PTA.
There was a chance for speeches from the families, our teams, the masons, the local affiliate, etc. We had printed photos for our families and got to share those. It“s wonderful to have the ability to print photos so quickly so that we could leave a momento behind.
After many hugs and goodbyes we were off for one last shower in Pana and then back on the bus to Antigua.
Antigua
Antigua was the capitol during Colonial times and still has most of its architecture in the colonial style. We are staying at a small hotel with rooms all facing on to a small courtyard. My room is on the top (third) floor so at night when it rains we can hear the water...it“s very simple and very nice.
David had arranged a special dinner for us Friday night at Casa Santo Domingo, a five star hotel located at a former monastery. The meal was magnificient and it was great to have a chance as a group to celebrate the week. Most of finished off with dessert and then headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours of sleep because...
Tikal
We were leaving at 4:00 a.m. to go to Tikal. That“s right. 4:00 a.m.
Tikal is a national park in the north part of the country where there is a large Mayan ruin. We flew from Guatemala City to Flores and met our guides Pablo and Luis and were off to the park.
It has not been particularly hot in Solola or Antigua, but Tikal was a different story! It was about 90 degrees and 90% humidity. It was like Nordic Fest all over again! And we weren“t just going to be shopping and going in museums. Going to Tikal means hiking about 4 miles through the jungle.
But it was all worth it. The temples were amazing and our guides were so knowledgeable about the Mayan culture, the different archeaologists who had worked on excavating and restoring the temples.
Many of our group climbed to the top of several temples. With my fear of heights, I was pretty sure I wasn“t going to get back down, so I enjoyed them from the ground, sending my camera on up with someone else.
At the last temple there was a major racket coming out of the jungle...howler monkeys. As we hiked back into the jungle we found a big group of people watching the monkeys. They are very territorial and this was a battle between two groups. They scream at each other until one pack leaves the area. It was quite a battle!
After an amazing lunch and a cold beer we headed back. I don“t know if I“ve ever been so hot! That air conditioning on the bus was absolutely fantastic.
But the day wasn“t over...first we got to experience the new security rules at the airport and worked cooperatively to gather all of our sunscreen and other liquids and gels into one bag to check. It was awfully hard to be separated from our hand sanitizer. We“ve all become very attached!
When we landed in Guatemala City we headed to David“s parents“ house for dinner. His mother made us an amazing meal of paella and we had a great time just relaxing and all being together one last time. The first of our group left early this morning.
 Tuesday
Home
We're home...and I know that at least I am trying to make sense of the whole experience. We talked about how we would slip back into our lives and how it was important to think about what we wanted to change before we left Guatemala to make sure that we actually followed through with our plans.
But, first there's the story of our final journey.
Our last night in Antigua was an emotional one. We all had a pretty amazing, life-affecting/changing experience that we can tell our friends and family about, but only those in our group can really know what it all felt like.
Our last night's devotion was also charged with the news of the death of two friends from home in a car accident. There were lots of tears and stories shared that last night. Singing Jesus Remember Me at the end had such an intense meaning unlike any of the other evenings we had sung it.
Monday morning started early. The earliest start belonged to Brenda, who really wanted a hot shower. Our hotel only had hot water from 6:00-9:00 a.m. each morning and evening to conserve costs. The man who ran the hotel was accomodating to our early morning departure, though, and showed Brenda how to go down into the basement and turn the water heater on! Several of us enjoyed the fruits of her labor.
By 4:00 a.m. we were waiting the bus. But there was one last surprise for us! Instead of the large bus we had taken into Antigua, three of the mini buses showed up for our trip to the airport. It didn't seem possible that 27 people and all of their luggage would make it into those three vans, but fit we did.
The trip to the airport went smoothly and even with the new security regulations, we all got on our flight and headed to Houston. It didn't seem possible that we could make our flight to Chicago, but customs went pretty smoothly (only one lost suitcase) and thankfully our flight was about 45 minutes late allowing us all to get to the gate and even buy a magazine or two.
As we got on the bus, Dave called out "head straight to Decorah and don't spare the horses!"
By 10:00 p.m. we were back in town and being greated by many happy family members. It was a trip of a lifetime, but it's always good to get back home.
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