Category : Guatemala 2011

Guatemala 2011: Who knew that washing could be so fun!

We focused on health and hygeine — with lots of learning about hand washing and how to prevent the transmission of disease. Here are some pictures:

A row of tippy taps -- Devices made from 2 liter bottles, string, and soap. They are so cool -- we all want to make them at home

Decorating it just the right way

Guatemala 2011: Partners for the future

Here is a picture of our mission team and the leadership team for the Health and Water Cooperative in Aceituno, Guatemala at the inauguration of the water system.  A Salud y Agua Purificada!

Guatemala 2011: The End of the Beginning

On July 1, 2011, we joined with the Iglesia de Príncipe de Paz in inaugurating the Water Tech 2 water system in Aceituno, Guatemala. The inauguration was the culmination of our mission trip to Guatemala and months of preparation, and was an event MUY GRANDE.

We rose early on Friday morning to drive to Aceituno from our home base in Antigua. As we drove, we talked about all the many things we would need to do when we arrived to get ready for the inauguration – filling up 16 oz. bottles of purified water to hand out, printing slips for the raffling off oflarge bottles of purified water, blowing up the blue and white “Healing Waters” balloons, setting up soap crafts, installing the new printer, placing out chairs. We were buzzing with anticipation as we brainstormed and planned.

We turned the corner off the highway into Aceituno. We were almost there. As we drove through the cinder and dirt road to get to the church, we turned another corner, and there we saw it…. Hundreds of blue and white balloons already blown up and strung in rows across the street in front of the church and others decorating the sanctuary. We also saw hundreds of 16 oz. bottles of water, already filled, organized in rows, and ready for distribution. Our Guatemalan friends had been busy preparing for the inauguration – just as they had taken the first steps to put together the water system before we even arrived the first day.

The inauguration was quite an event –the sanctuary was packed with more than 150 people. There were celebratory speeches from Pastor Edwin of the Iglesia de Príncipe de Paz of Aceituno, Rev. Louise Westfall of Central Presbyterian Church o f Denver, Dennis Jonsrud of CPC, and Ruth Villagran of Aguas de Unidad, (Healing Waters International in the U.S.), Pastor Walter from a nearby church, who helped connect Pastor Edwin with Aguas de Unidad, the doctor from the local health clinic, and other members of our team. Then came the raffle. Juan, the Director of Pastor Relations for Aguas de Unidad, was quite the comedian and got many smiles from the women in the crowd as he raffled off the 50 5-gallon bottles of water. After the speeches, the crowd was given the chance to sign up to join the Health and Water Cooperative, and the children were entertained making decoupage soaps to be used for safe hand washing, and important part of our health education curriculum. (To our friends at Faegre & Benson and Littler Mendelson in Denver, hanks for all those soap donations!)

Pastor Edwin speaks at the Inauguration

During the week, we helped on the microbusiness team, where we worked together with the church leaders to plan the steps necessary for the water project to become self-sustaining economically. We estimated the costs for maintenance and operations, supplies, and parts, and then figured out a target price for coop membership, a break even point, and strategies for outreach to new members. To break even and be sustainable, the coop needed at least 20-30 members. Based on Pastor Edwin’s projections, goals were set for 50 members by the end of July, 75 members by the end of 2011, and 150 members by June 2012. These goals seemed ambitious—would Aceituno really be able to recruit more than the 20 families needed to the project started? The answer was a resounding “YES!” We were surprised and thrilled when 100 families decided to join the coop on Inauguration Day! The Aceituno water project was and is off to a great start.

Inauguration Ceremony

Cooking the chicken for our celebration luncheon

Following the inauguration ceremony, Pastor Edwin and his wife hosted a lunch for us. We dined on fresh hot tortillas, chicken soup with vegetables, and fresh roasted chicken (from 6 hens killed just for the occasion), limes, fresh picante sauce, rice and Coca-cola Lite. What a wonderful meal made and shared with love. We finished our time hanging out with our Guatemalan friends – Matt Westfall and Maddie played soccer with the young people, two young men sang and played the guitar for us (and we sang along), and we spent time just getting to know each other better. And as we departed, we presented Pastor Edwin with a photo printer/copier to allow the church to make photocopies of the health curriculum and print family photos of the families who join the coop or complete health and hygiene classes. We talked about how this was not the end but the beginning of a partnership between churches in Denver and a church in Aceituno, Guatemala. We boarded our bus back to Antigua and the next day back to Denver.  We left behind a water system, health and hygiene curriculum materials, a printer, extra soap and craft supplies, and a lot of hopes and prayers.

A wonderful luncheon

reduction.Will they change these behaviors to improve the health of the community? Now that they have an large coop membership, are they prepared to produce and distribute 1,500 bottles of pure water per month? Are they ready to teach and continue teaching health and hygiene classes to several hundred coop members on an ongoing basis? Will they be good stewards of the proceeds and provide clean water to the local school as outlined in the business plan? Will they fulfill their promise to provide water to others in the community, whether or not they belong to Príncipe de Paz? Will the number of members of the coop continue to grow as more and more people learn of the project? Our work here is not over – this is just the end of the beginning. There are many other ways we can help our Guatemalan friends, and many ways they can help us in the days to come. And so we trust, and we pray, and we look forward to returning to Aceituno to continue our partnership with our brothers and sisters in Guatemala.

Matt helps deliver the water from the raffle

Dennis giving last minute instructions on the water system

Guatemala 2011: Leading and Learning

by Liz Reberry

Gathering for health and hygiene classes

This week I had the great honor of helping to lead this dedicated group of people in Aceituno. Thank you for welcoming me into your lives for one short, but very impactful week! For those of you who are reading this blog, I’d like to paint a picture for you about what our week was like in Aceituno. I was part of the team who was teaching the kids health and hygiene classes.

Here’s what we experienced:

Day 1 – Monday.

• The topic: Water, Water Everywhere! We talked to the kids about where water exists in their world and in their community.

• Number of Participants: 25

Day 2 – Tuesday

• The topic: Diseases and Dehydration & Safe/Unsafe Water. The kids learned about sources of safe water and unsafe water in Aceituno. Needless to say, there is an abundance of unsafe water and not a lot of safe water. They also learned about viruses, bacteria and parasites that make them sick.

• Number of Participants: 42

Day 3 – Wednesday

• The topic: How and when to WASH your hands! We taught the kids 6 steps of handwashing and had each of them use glow-germ and a UV light to see how effective their handwashing was.

• Number of participants: 67

Learning about the diarrhea highway

What is most remarkable about our training this week was not what we were teaching, but the number of kids who came to participate. Each day the number of kids multiplied. The first day there were 25, the second day there were 42 and the third day there were 67 kids!

Tomorrow is the inauguration of the water system in Aceituno. The church will be signing families up to be members of the water co-op. My prayer is that the water co-op membership numbers will multiply in the same way as we saw with the children’s health and hygiene lessons this week. I hope you will join me in praying for this and for the families of Aceituno who will soon have access to safe, affordable water!

– Liz

Guatemala 2011: Down by the River

Guatemala 2011: Passed by

The rooster wanted to crow in on the microbusiness meeting

Wash Day at the River

Helping a neighbor slay a tree

By Steven Ehrhart

Guatemala…In a land that is saturated with Non-Government Organizations, there still remains a great need and we have found a place that has captured our hearts.  Traveling south on a freeway headed to the coast lies a small village by the name of Aceituno.  Even though it is located only a 100 yards from the freeway, you would never see it if you weren’t looking for it.   Sadly, when it comes to basic aide, the Guatemalan government also passes them by  

Slaying a tree .... with a machete

Guatemala 2011:Clean Hands, Clean Water and a Smile to Go Along

Maddie demonstrates the tippy tap

By Maddie Leh and Cathy Nagy

Working together and hearing children laugh.  The pure joys of the health and hygiene children’s class.  Today, we gathered in the Bible study room to plan for the children’s lesson of the day, Safe and Unsafe Water.  As we were thinking about our plan for the class, ideas kept popping up.  I (Maddie) volunteered to read the story of Estoban, the starfish and Matt volunteered to do the diarrhea highway diagrams and explanations.  David decided to show the giant plush microbes and we finally decided to show the kids the new water system.  Kirk volunteered to explain the system and give every child a glass of the purified water.  We wanted Kari to take pictures to tell our story.  Then, we took a tour of the community.

Fernando and Jorge, two 16 year-olds in the community, took us around the community to find all the safe and unsafe water sources.  Our first stop was the river.  The women were busy watching the family’s clothes and dogs were busy running around.  We got a sample of that water to show to the kids through the microscope.  Our second stop was the only school in town and they had a water faucet.  We filled up a bottle of water, which a teacher told us came from the river, and it looked even dirtier then the river.  It is the only source of water for the kids in the school and they aren’t suppose to drink it because it is for cleaning, but they do anyway because it is so hot.  Our last stop was the well, with a hand pump.  We grabbed sample and Fernando told us that many people don’t like to use the water because it is often dirty and smells bad. 

Our lesson 2pm and about 45 kids showed up dressed up, punctual, and eager to learn.  We showed them the water samples that we grabbed earlier in the day.  Through the microscope , they could see the microbes and many of them were grossed out.  They could really see what we meant by unsafe water.  We did a demonstration to show how germs get into the body.  One little boy stepped up and was able to explain every bit of information that we talked about and got a standing ovation from the rest of the kids.  We made a tippy-tap (picture included) and the kids loved washing their hands, especially with the soap.  They were amazed and excited about the clean smell and feel of their hands.  Then, with clean hands, they got to get another glass of purified water with their snack.

As our mission group started to pack up, two girls grabbed onto me (Maddie) and one wanted to hold on to me and wouldn’t let go.  The kids were so inspired and glad that we had come to help and didn’t want us to leave.  As we got in the van, they held onto the back until the last second when we closed the trunk.  We started driving and the kids started sprinting after us and didn’t let go until we got to the highway and they waved good-bye and they said, “Hasta Manaña!”

Guatemala 2011: Quenching the thirst for learning (and clean water)

by Louise Westfall

Imagine an elementary school of six hundred students in a cement block building with no water.  The principal showed us a spigot and turned it on to reveal brown water flowing….straight from the same river used for bathing and laundry.  We tell the children not to drink it but sometimes they get so thirsty they just do anyway, the principal told us.     As we moved from room to room we saw the students in seriously overcrowded classes yet with eyes wide with curiosity,  wonder,  enthusiasm,  and more.  And no water!  The government promises a free education through sixth grade,  so expects the schools to educate them yet with few resources.    Later we spoke with pastor Edwin and he shared his vision of using the purification system to supply water to the school.  So our efforts are multiplied.   We will sleep well tonight,  while our dreams will be peopled by the young precious students of Asceituno.

Guatemala 2011: More from the First Day of Water

The holding tank of water from the well to be purified

Let the water flow---- the first water from the water system!

Guatemala 2011: Let the Water Flow

So says the sign in the room where we installed the water system

By Steven Ehrhart

Amazing day! Filled our first 5 gallon bottle of water and conducted our health an hygiene classes! Emotional to see all this all come together as our team and the community work side by side!!

Viewing the parasites in the local water supply under the microscope... ick!