Work continues

Casa Casira: Guatemala Ciudad

I am now the official driver to and from the Pinula work site. It is one hour from the Casa Casira. So we leave at 6 am to be able to begin work at about 7:30. The children are already there, the younger ones starting at 7am and the older ones at 8. The drive is frenetic but I am getting used to it.Today I had a smaller van which made it a little easier to turn and get in and out of of tight spots. I am getting used to the clutch and other than a minor detour today after missing a tunnel, we arrived on time. Thankfully I can speak Spanish and ask directions.
A solution has been found and the plexiglass is ready to be placed in the steel frames. The men have spent the last two days cutting the panels and  glueing them with silicone. Tomorrow we will begin replacing the windows and by the end of next week all three classrooms will be completed.

Gym class in school yard...ready for crunches

You can see the high building that we are working on at the back of the picture. This building has     been a Casira project for several years. All supplies are provided by the community. Casira provides volunteers from September until April. Progress is slow because of the lack of supplies and money.

 By 10 we are ready for a snack that we eat in the schoolyard surrounded by the children who are by then eating their lunch, as start classes at 7am and finish at 1pm. We then work until 12:30, eating a packed lunch before leaving. It takes another hour to drive back through traffic. By 2:30 we are back and exhausted. 

first week completed

Today was our fourth day at el Centro Educativo del Socorro Perpetua (education centre of perpetual succour). I have spent a lot of time with Clara Luz, a 60 year old nun who founded the school 15 years ago. She depends on donations from various organizations to make improvements to the school. It has been interesting driving around with her to pick up supplies.The first thing she asked me was how old I am. This seems to be a common question and people are not shy about sharing this information. This has allowed me to talk to her about what we are doing, about the children attending the school, and about her present life that began as a noviciate at age 14 in El Salvador. That would mean that she was witness to much of the war and disruption during the years of guerilla wars in both countries. Those years have taken a toll on the social and economic structures in Guatemala.
Although there is now a supposed democratically elected president, there remain huge inequalities in the country, with education and health at the bottom of the heap and the army much higher up when it comes to government subsidies.

Our resident magician

We have completed one classroom with windows installed.  There are two others left. Cutting and glueing the plexiglass is a slow process. Thankfully we have a volunteer here who knows how to do it and has taken the time to figure out how to use the means available to do the job. The last piece of the project that will stop at the end of April when CASIRA finishes the season for this year, is the washroom. Next week we will be going to purchase what is needed to do that. I may learn how to do some plumbing, given that next week we will be four women and one man to get the job started.

I am getting used to communal living. The kitchen is staffed by a Guatemalan cook supported by Casira volunteers who do the prep work, etc. We each have responsabilities, including dishes nightly, gardening, washing sheets and towels, caring for the garden and more. This week I am on nightly kitchen floor duty so by 8:30 everyone must leave the area while we wash up. Lots of laughs as we go about these chores together.
Today we visited Guatamala City. I remember so much of this from our time here in 1974. The old colonial area in the center of the city is similar to many cities that were originally part of Spain's empire. But the more modern government buildings are built along more modern lines, with beautiful Mayan influenced art on most of them. As always, I love seeing and hearing the noises and colourful sights of these places.

Clara Luz and our group at Pinula

  

First day

We arrived at 16h yesterday (Monday) after a long wait in Miami while they changed planes due to a broken door. Of course there were no complaints knowing that we would be hopefully on a safer and fully functioning plane.
The Casa in Guatamala City is on the outskirts of town in Mizco. We are about 25 here at this point but it can accommodate up to 60. All volunteers  come here for varying lengths of time to work on the projects that CASIRA has started in the area and further away. This is communal living, helping prepare and serve meals, wash up ( I am on dish duty tonight) keep the place clean, and participate in the workings of the CASA. I am in a room with four women, on the edge of a pretty courtyard. I sleep on a top bunk which is a new experience. We all wake and leave at various times depending on the projects we are assigned to. So today I had to be up at about 5 and leave by 6 with four others in order to cross the city and get to the school where CASIRA is building a third story for new classrooms. 350 students from ages 4-17 attend the school. It costs $25 per month. There are government schools but they are quite rudimentary and only are for primary level. Considering that only 1.6% of the GNP goes to education, it is not surprising that many families make the sacrifice of sending their children to private schools run by nuns. I will be at this work site all this week and then move onto another project next Monday.
Today we painted the 2 foot high skirting boards around the new classrooms, using oil paint that had the consistency of chocolate fondu. I was glad to have my knee pads. Meanwhile the three men with us were plastering and painting new walls,  and trying to put plexiglass squares into metal windows. The children were in the classrooms around us squished into tiny classes, with the noise from our work site in their ears the whole time. It was a pleasure eating our lunch in the school yard  and having them race around us, playing hide and seek, screaming and laughing like children everywhere.
All materials are donated so quality is sometimes an issue. Today the plexiglass kept breaking as they tried to cut it. The tools used are pretty basic so the men are now trying out new ways of cutting the plexiglass. We will see tomorrow!

before

after

Today was my first experience of driving in Guatamala City. The CASA has several Toyota/Hyundai vans with manual stick shift. This is a very busy city but after Asia and India, I was pleasantly surprised. I had to take the elderly sister from the school (Santa Clara) to the local hardware ( a real hole in  a wall) to buy silicone for the windows. It was lots of fun, chatting in Spanish and trying to following her vague directions to the store. We made it safely perhaps with some divine intervention given the special passenger I had with me.

Ready,set, go!

Ok. 2 more days. I am ready...suitcase full of things that will be used in La Casa in Ciudad Guatemala...brown sugar (cassonade), old screw drivers, masks and gloves, old clothes, and of course the things I will need while there. The usual last minute anxiety sets in. Will my bag be too heavy? Can I bring extra carry-on? etc, etc. Tonight we had dinner at a new Indian restaurant in Saint-Lambert to celebrate Pierre's 67th birthday. It brought back memories of our trip to India in 2011. Such fun!
I decided not to buy mattress covers for bedbugs, but rather to trust that there will be none and to use lavender essence if there are. Am I nuts?!

preparations

Two more weeks and I will be in Guatamala, starting my five week volunteer work there, hopefully with lots of occasions to practice my fledgling Spanish.  I am really hoping to write regularly so those of you that are interested can follow my blog. This time it is not our travel adventures as a couple, but my new experiences alone in Guatamala, a country we visited together in 1974 before the civil war that tore this country apart. I look forward to seeing it again after all these years. It should include a visit to Tikal, the famous Maya temple that we saw as it emerged from the jungle and first received visitors. Cannot wait!

Last Days in Venice

On Sunday we took the Vaporetto to the lagoon islands of Burano and Murano, using our handy pass that allows us to hop on and hop off the boat. It was a lovely sunny day and many other tourists and Venetians alike had the same idea. The lagoon was dotted with boats of all types, filled with families or friends enjoying the sunny weather.
Burano is a small island known for the exquisite lace that the wives of the fishermen made during the long days of their husbands' absences. You do not have to like lace to appreciate the work that it takes to make these delicate lace pieces. It is hard to imagine straining your eyes for hours on end in order to make the tiny stitches required for the lace work. Tablecloths, serviettes, doilies, hankies, dresses, and other lace products are sold at every shop in town. But who uses doilies or lace tablecloths these days anyway? This is a dying industry, supported for tourists by the Venetian government. The younger generation of women is not interested in the painstaking work required to make lace. This island is also remarkable for the colourful little houses built by the fishermen. They are painted in bright shades of the rainbow, with flowers spilling from the window boxes above the streets.

We wandered the back streets and came across a whole section decorated with white ribbons, bows and flowers on every door step, in celebration of a wedding that day. This is a small village and it appeared that everyone was involved in the wedding in some way. Back on the main drag that was filled with tourists, we passed a big restaurant decorated again with celebratory ribbons and pictures of the married couple. Inside a typical Italian wedding feast was being served to a large crowd of people, probably most of the island residents, gathered to take part in this noisy, happy event. If we had been there an hour earlier I bet we could have seen them all parading through the streets of this car-less town. It would have been a special sight.

On our walk today we were stopped along one canal because a funeral had just finished in the little church on the canal street. The flower-bedecked casket was being lowered into a funeral barge while the family waited. Everything here is done in the open, and on the canal. Instead of a flower car and hearse, there are funeral boats. Being able to witness everyday life is another reason for slow travel. So, one wedding and a funeral...not bad!

We are now at the end of this trip. We have seen the sights, visited more museums, churches and galleries than we can count, and even seen how St. George had his arm and lance reattached on top of the church of St Giorgio. It had fallen off during a bad storm 10 years ago and waited a long time before finding a benefactor (Swarovski foundation) to pay for the reattachment. This is a delicate process for a statue that has been perched atop this church for over 500 years.

Pierre's map-reading has got us out of many dead-ends. We took one last long walk today, ate seafood in a cone, a Venetian specialty, snacked on tramezzini (Venetian equivalent of party sandwiches eaten standing up while sipping wine) and got lost one last time! We look forward to being home, reliving these many great moments. 

Ciao!

Campari spritz and other Venetian pleasures

Venice is a city made for exploration. Small narrow streets, beautiful little back lagoons that take you by surprise as you turn a corner, and morning drinks on a sun-warmed terrace. What a life.

I had been hesitant about coming to Venice after reading some travel reviews. But we are thoroughly charmed so far. I am reminded of old films and stories. With the sun shining it is a beautiful city.

Our tiny loft apartment is nestled behind the green dome of San Simon Piccolo Church, across from the train station. This building is actually part of the church, probably used for church functions in the past but now converted into apartments. You can see our little terrace in this picture. We awaken to the sound of pigeons cooing outside our window. Too bad I hate pigeons.

It is a pleasant experience to be in a city where there are no cars, no bicycles or motorcycles and where everyone walks. After dodging traffic in Italy's other major cities, this is very relaxing. Other than using the Vaporetto, the large boats that are the main mode of transportation here, riding up and down the Grand Canal, we are using our feet and trying to find places to visit away from the many tourists that crowd the most important sites. That is not hard to do as most people gather at Piazza San Marco and in the area around the train station, where there are many restaurants, shops and services catering to tourists. Even the large hotels have river taxis that bring the suitcases to the dock outside their premises. Most people just walk from the station to the hotel, dragging their bags over cobbled streets and up and over the many little bridges that pass over the canals. It is quite a sight.

Taking the Vaporetto along the Grand Canal is a great way to see the palaces and churches that are on this main thoroughfare. Merchants owned these old homes, using the bottom floor as warehouses where goods arrived and left by boat, coming from all the corners of Europe and Asia. They lived on the second floor, away from the water. Kitchens and servants quarters were on the top floor. Many of these old buildings are now government buildings, apartments or hotels. The bottom floor at water level is flooded and useless in many of them. We have learned that strict city rules prevent home owners from make many structural changes to the historic buildings so they live with them the way they are. 

The Vaporetto works on a ticket system whereby you purchase your ticket and validate it before boarding. There is really no one to check on board unless a ticket taker gets on at one of the stops. A ticket costs 7 Euros and is good for 1 hour, one way. Quite an expensive ride. It is a lot less for Venetians. We bought a pass that is paying for itself as we can hop on and hop off as we like. But yesterday we were witness to what can occur if you try to beat the system. An English speaking couple and their son were asked to show their tickets to the ticket taker that had boarded along with 3 of her colleagues. The family appeared to have overrun their hour and only had a printed bill rather than the requisite pass with a bar code. With the woman in tears as her husband berated the meter-maid, threatening to go to the police, we all watched. He finally calmed down and agreed to pay the fine......52 Euros per person. I guess this was a painful lesson to all of us on the boat. Be sure to buy a ticket and have it validated each time you board.