My Trip to Guatemala December 2012

Teams sponsored by First Prebreyterian Church of Visalia (1^st Pres) have already installed 10 clean water systems in Guatemala and 2 in Haiti. In order to increase their effectiveness, 1^st Pres has reached out to other denominations in the area. With the support of First Congregational Church of Tulare (United Church of Christ), Visalia Assembly of God, Gateway church (formerly First Baptist) and Visalia Evangelical Free a non-profit corporation called Liver Water World Mission (LWWM) was formed in September 2012.  In October 2012 I was appointed to the 9 member board.

 

December 1-8, 2012 I participated in LWWM’s first installations in Guatemala.  17 people were on the team including all 9 members of the board; we held 2 board meetings while we were in Guatemala!  This was the first time 2 systems were installed on the same trip.

  We left Visalia on December 1, 2012 at 7:30 AM in a caravan of pickups & vans with all the equipment  packed into our luggage that we needed to build two clean water systems , except for the two 300 gallon storage tanks, hundreds of feet of PVC and a 4 x 8 piece of plywood.  We probably would have taken those items too, except the churches/schools we work with need to have an investment in the system and besides, it wouldn’t fit in the luggage.  We arrived at our hostel, Los Lagos in Guatemala City 18 hours later, 1:30 AM our time.

The next morning, after a nice breakfast of rice, beans, eggs and lots of fresh fruit we put all the equipment and luggage on the roof of our Toyota tour bus and were on the road by 9:00 AM.  We took off up the Pan-American Highway which really looks more like a Californian country road than a trans-national highway. Lots of farming, but small plots, it's obvious the work is done by hand with no tractors. Lots of corn and squash looking stuff. Orchards are few & far between with usually no more than 50 or 100 trees.

We ate lunch in Tecpan then made a quick stop at the Mayan ruins, Iximche.  In January LWWM will be doing an install in the highlands of Guatemala at the Eagle’s Nest orphanage in Solola, so we stopped there for a final survey. It is high above Lake Atitlan with a commanding view of the lake and 2 volcanoes. There is a split of opinion whether this place used to be the President's retreat or it was a resort. Either way, the orphanage is on an amazing piece of property with many fancy buildings, a pool a conference center etc. Not sure how it got turned into a church run orphanage, but there must be an interesting story behind that!

Sunday night, after 2 days of travel, our team finally made it to Las Buenas Nuevas (the Good News) compound in Panjachel, on Lake Atitlan, where we stayed for 5 nights.  Each morning we would all make our own breakfast of cereal and a hardboiled egg and yogurt and a brown bag lunch to take with us. Lake Atitlan, although it is a beautiful lake and the water looks fine, it is the sewer system AND the municipal water system for all the towns around the lake so an important job each morning was making sure we had enough clean water packed to take with us.

We would be on the dock by 7:30 AM each day for the 1 hour boat ride across the Lake to Santiago where the 2 installation sites were.  Once in Santiago we’d brake down into 3 teams, 2 installation teams, one for the Alpha-Omega Church and the other for the K-12 school run by the Alpha-Omega Church. The 3^rd team was the education team.  While the systems were being installed, the education team taught the students, teachers and church members how best to use clean water to stay healthy.  LWWM uses a “train the trainer” type system by teaching the members of the church how to build, maintain and use the systems we install.  By 4:00 PM each afternoon we’d be back on the dock for the trip back to Panjachel.  Each night we would all eat together and have devotions & prayer.

Despite attempts at perfect planning it seems like Murphy’s Law applies even in Guatemala.  So after a few adventures such as having to re-route 250 feet of new pipe, replumb a new sink because the drain hole was on the wrong side, or search all over town for replacement parts for a PVC cross that got ruined, both systems were up and running in time for our Celebration of Clean Water with the church on Thursday afternoon. The Celebration consisted of a church service in Spanish and Mayan followed by the team handing out glasses of clean water.  We were told that for some of the church members this was their first ever glass of clean water.

 Friday morning we packed up and spent the day traveling to Antigua where we had lunch and spent a few hours walking around, then ended up back at our Hostel in Guatemala City. It just so happened to be “Dia de Muerta El Diablo” (Kill the devil day) all over Guatemala.  There were fire- cracker- filled-piñata- looking effigies of the devil hanging all over the neighborhood.  They would set off the fire crackers, then burn the effigy.  There was a street party right outside our window, so of course we had to participate, at least for awhile.  We had to wake up at 4:00 AM the next morning to get through customs in time for the flight, so bed time came early.

It was a great trip and I learned a lot. LWWM is going back to install a systems January 5-12, and February 9-16. Hopefully I will participate in the February trip.