Mid-week progress

Have you ever seen a human cement mixer? Take bags of sand, rock, and concrete mix and dump them out. Use six shovels wielded by six volunteers to turn over the pile. When well mixed, use one large hoe to scoop out a depression in the middle of the pile. Add buckets of water. Put volunteers back to work turning pile and mixing water into the dry ingredients. Voila! (What's the Spanish equivalent?) Concrete ready to bind together the square planchets which the volunteers and Common Hope staff had laid out to form the floor of the house we are building. Nan, Claire, Charlotte and Sarah spent the morning at the construction site. Every day we've had help from Carolina, another Common Hope volunteer from St. Paul who is here on her own.

Alex, Deb and Morgan spent the morning in the occupational therapy department helping some Common Hope students make jewelry which they sell. These students have various kinds of disabilities, but the occupational therapy department gives them an opportunity to learn some skills. In addition to the beading, they are learning math as they measure, cut, count and sort for their projects. At noon there was a small sale of items-beaded earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Each item for sale included a tag with a picture of the student artisan.

Joanie and Katie rocked babies and played with children in the child care center. Common Hope provides day care for the children of employees--there are three rooms: infants up to 2 years old, 2-4 year olds, and 4-6 year olds. Joanie encountered the Guatemalan insistence that babies be bundled--ask her how many layers of clothing she had to get through just to change a diaper!

Stacey and Bridget were off with social workers making home visits. One of Common Hope's protocols is that social work home visits be made by two people, so when volunteers can accompany social workers, it frees the staff to get more visits done. The visits also give volunteers a more intimate glimpse of life in the families served here. During the visits, social workers identify additional family needs and asses how they can be met.

We met back up at lunch in the diningroom where volunteers (long term and short term) eat, along with staff, teachers, social workers, etc. Our plates overflowed with white beans in a tomato based sauce, rice with various seasonings, and tortillas.

Charlotte went back to the construction site in the afternooon--along with Stacey, Sarah, Bridget and Deb. We delivered to the site the panels that will be the walls for the house. They were both heavy and unwieldy and had to be carried by hand a distance equal to about two city blocks. When that job was done, the construction crew returned to Common Hope to stack lumber that had been cut for use in building more panels later. And we built two panels before we left--none of us are skilled at hammering nails in straight, and we pulled out some mighty interestingly shaped nails before we were done!

Meanwhile, Claire and Morgan led a youth group that gathered at Common Hope for the afternoon. Nan, Alex and Joanie were part of that activity as well--and at the evening report session, this particular volunteer assignment earned stars for being the most fun! All the kids made lanyard bracelets and fortune telling cups and then there were card games, puzzles, and music.

Katie was off to help in one of the public schools.

Each afternoon at 5:00 we{ve had some sort of presentation--today{s was the video A Precarious Peace which reviews some of the history of the civil war in Guatemala and efforts toward the peace accords. Guatemala{s history of violence and mistrust is so enormous--it{s hard for us to imagine how that legacy continues to impact life here. It is also interesting large a role the church has played--both in fostering the conditions that led to the civil war and then working to bring some kind of peace and reconciliation. But that{s probably a subject for an adult education event at Pilgrim and not the blog!

Take care, those of you who are at home reading this. All is well.