Day 3 of stove building

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Feb 8 – Day 3 of stove building and it started with a bang as usual, firecrackers going off just before sun rise to celebrate anyone whose birthday it is today. Not me, but I am still woken up. I really could have done with staying in bed for that extra hour. We had breakfast at our hotel this morning and it was really easy going, a good relaxing way to begin. Janet, Liz and Matt arrived and we all boarded the transport to the village. Three vehicles on route today as we now have the full complement of volunteers.



Once at the village our groups went their separate ways to each home they were to build in. Matt joined one group and Janet and George joined another. Different today, Dr. Del Grande along with his daughter Laura and Liz went on a medical excursion, to see some children with health issues and to see what could be done for them.



Jim, Dana and I built for a family where the father was in the US and the mother remained in Guatemala with the children. Don Juan was the mason we worked with and again he was very effective and fast at building the stove. He had his own way of building and mixing the cement, but it all works and the stove came together quickly. We had a lot of help first thing in the morning before the children in the family left for school. They pitched right in with the soaking of the blocks and the fire bricks. A son in-law who also lived in the home mixed up the mortar, using his bare hands to put the lime into the mixture. All I could think of was how painful that was going to be for him later on. The stove was built on a dirt floor and Don Juan painstakingly scraped the floor and levelled each block so that the stove would be level once it was finished, it was very obvious that the preparation was what makes the work move along so fast once you are started.



The family hung about all morning watching us work, at one point they wanted to put a bulb in a light socket, and were fascinated when Dana was able to reach the socket in the ceiling without a chair. They all looked on in amazement and giggled to each other about the young girl who was a giant. Just before we broke for lunch and the children in the family went off to school, Dana broke out the loot and was mobbed by all not only the children who were anxious for any gifts that they were given. She had bracelets and small jewellery for the older girls and toys and stickers for the children. The son in-law was very excited to receive the hard hat which Dana gave to him and immediately put it on and proudly walked about the house showing anyone who would look at him.



The other groups were further up the hill building in homes very similar to the one we were in. One of the families had a cat in a basket with two very tiny kittens, and we were told they were only 20 days old. The animals are all very thin like the people who look after them and it is difficult to not want to feed them all. Dogs are mostly afraid of people, but do like any scraps from the lunch table, which we are happy to throw their way.



We mostly all finished up by 3 and headed back to Xela and the hotel. Another long and tiring day of stove building comes to an end, this marks the half way point as we build for one more day this week and two next. Looking forward to visiting the school at Panamaquim on Friday.

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