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Published: March 8th 2010
Escuela Tecnico Maya
these are the first roooms of the planned schoolIt´s cold at night, here at 7,000 feet in the western highlands of Guatemala. I´m bundled up in all my clothes (at least those that are relatively clean) with my airline blanket wrapped around my neck (thanks Copa!), resting up after a long day. My hands are dry and cracked from handling stone and cement, my muscles sore, my skin filthy... but my spirits are high, like the hills that surround me as I take this moment to reflect in this place that has become the latest incarnation of home.
I´ve spent the last three weeks here in the mountains of Comalapa with an incredible group of people who are attempting to do something quite miraculous: bringing revolutionary green building technology to the people of Guatemala as a means to both provide vocational training and address the issue of waste management in this so-called ´third world.´ How they´re doing it is equally remarkable: by building a vocational school using discarded tires crammed with dirt and constructing walls using discarded plastic bottles stuffed full of other plastic refuse. Mud, cement, and rebar make up the rest of the structures. At the moment the school is in its early phases of construction,
yet once finished, the Tecnico Maya Vocational School will host workshops and trainings to educate local people in effective utilization of ´appropriate technology,´or in other words, using local and sustainable materials to improve and provide for life. A lofty ambition? Certainly. Doable? Absolutely.
I say it´s possible based on my experience with the people who work here, the people who live here, the people who are this place. I´ve never met people who are willing to work so hard for so little money (or none at all), to give up all the material comforts of home to spend their days in the eternal company of Comalapa dust, to dedicate their entire lives to a goal that is many years away from coming to fruition.... these are the people who´ve inspired me here at Long Way Home.
Check out the website at www.longwayhomeinc.org to get a better idea of what I´m talking about.
As for me, my sore back and cracked and cut hands are nothing more than a little taste of what the folks here in Comalapa experience daily. I´ve been learning the art of masonry here as Matt and I construct a driveway for the local
park. I´ve also gotten a chance to see the process behind building with mud, trash, and other assorted debris. I've known the feeling of being tired, filthy, and oddly enough, content, all at the same time. I've been awoken late at night by earthquakes, wondering if and where to run if the building started to fall. I've removed jenga pieces with my tongue. I've wandered the forest spotting little orange and red and black and purple birds. I've felt really tall making my way through town on market days, ducking underneath the canopies that are fitting for the locals, but not travelling gringos. I've learned how to speak spanish with a Kakchiquel accent, listened to way too much country music, woken up early and gone to bed late, and now, I've written a blog about it.
until next time,
ryan
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