Ummm. may 12th?

Mayan girl from further up in the mountains

The current volunteer crew

Ok so here’s the end of Thursday the 12^th of may.  Being posted on Friday the 13th.  Internet was down, and I wrote this on my laptop...

I need to think about what has happened in the last couple of days… Work in the shop has been fun and productive, but it really is a constant struggle knowing what is available out there in there world with money, and seeing what we are doing here with the minimal amounts of supplies and materials.  For example, I went out and purchased a set of metal drill bits and a pund of welding electrode so that we could continue on the new washing machine design.

Jean grinding

Oh yeah!  I’m designing and building a bicycle powered washing machine!  This is pretty cool.  Apparently, they’ve tried this before but had problems with durability and leaks.  They’re newest idea was to build a vertical machine, which I started on temporarily, but really, this involves many problems.  For example, with a bicycle drive, the vertical machine would spin in one direction, essentially pushing all the clothes and water to the outer area.  In a horizontal version, paddles mount to the inside would constantly move clothes around as the machine spins… and the drive system is much, much easier.

A butchered together drive mechanism to change drive plane... this is what we have to work with.

Working water pump!

So, that’s my and Paul’s mission for tomorrow and early next week… finish the washing machine.  Oh, and I’m gonna write an instruction manual on using a drill press and how to change speeds and what they should be for what material and tool bit… Next on the list is a bicycle powered generator to charge 12V batteries.  It really is amazing how little the people have in these rural Guatemalan locations.  It makes you wonder about other parts of the world, and how lucky I really am to have what I have in life.  But these people are happy with what they have, and are always so ever grateful every time we help their kids fix a soccer ball or bicycle tire or replace a broken brake handle.  Oh, and today Carlos and Javier went out to a location where a family was a bike powered water pump and repaired it (just needed some rope for the pump mechanism, after 1 year of constant use to supply a small community).  Really amazing.

So up the road is a cemetery, and every day around noon since I have been here, a procession of people will go up to the cemetery, almost in a jovial mood.  Yes, someone has died (today it was a baby, I saw the smallest coffin ever) but the people rejoice in the life that they are able to continue having.  They have a much closer connection to life and death here, as opposed to how we mask things like death by covering the dead in make up and their best clothes… anyhow, I’m ranting!

View from our roof

Mothers day here was curious, it’s not really mothers day but more womans day.  Carlos, the guy that runs Maya Pedal, took all us boys aside and said we should all pitch in and get a cake for Sarah, a girl that volunteers here.  So we did, and broke it out at one of our massive community dinners.  She was stoked, cause it was cheesecake!  YES!  Well, it kinda tasted like cheesecake, but really… don’t ask, just enjoy the cake!

Oh, and have I mentioned that a lady comes by every morning at 6am to bring us fresh milk?  Yes!  From her cow, up the hill a bit.  Non-pasteurized, amazing, tasty… and no, non of us have gotten sick.  It really complements the fresh made coffee we make every morning. 

mmmm cheesecake

So tomorrow is Friday, and our plan after work is to hike up a volcano near us and camp at the peak. Apparently, you can sleep there and watch the smoldering lava explode all night… I’m stoked to go!