Another Guatemalan Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving.  When that word is spoken, many memories run through my mind, such as being with my family, making Indian costumes out of brown paper bags, the feel of the cool, crisp fall air, leaves that have changed and now cover the dying grass.  And oh the aromas of various foods: sweet potatoes, turkeys, honey-baked hams, homemade macaroni and cheese and pecan pie. 

This Thanksgiving Day DeeDee and I were once again in Guatemala.  Being in a country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving Day like we do in the States made it a bit of challenge to schedule when we would have our celebration, but it all turned out for the best.  Last Thursday was an ordinary workday for us here in Guatemala, but we had made plans to celebrate our “Día de Gracias” on Saturday.  As we began to make these plans, our list invites kept growing.  Just beginning with our two U.S. families (one of two and another of seven) our number was off to a rather large start, but we then decided that we wanted to invite all of our CAFNIMA team members and their families to celebrate this day with us.  And a couple of days later, we realized that we would be rude to not include the construction manager for our most recent water project, as well as the presenter for our training of community leaders (who just so happened to bring along his two daughters, as well).  In the end we had 22 adults and 11 children surrounding our tables. 

What was so neat for us, just like last year, was that our U.S. tradition of this day began with two very different cultures sitting (I think they actually stood) around a table together.  For us, Saturday was the closest we have ever been to that old tradition, where around our table people from different backgrounds and speaking various languages sat and fellowshipped.  It was a day to truly to be thankful for.

But now for some of the dirty details of preparing a meal for 33 people…

Last year the Colvetts and we went out on a limb and pit-cooked a turkey.  This called for digging a 3 foot by 3 foot by 3 foot hole in the ground, building a huge fire in said hole, letting it burn to ashes, dropping the turkey in the ground, and covering it all back up with dirt, all in order to dig it back out after 12 or 15 hours of cooking.  Well, last year the turkey was one of the best any of us had ever had, and we had talked it up quite a bit with everyone who was coming to share in our special dinner… but this year… in the end it turned out quite good as well, but it did not happen as planned…

Early Friday morning DeeDee and I began digging the hole.  We then spent about an hour chopping up all our firewood with machetes.  Around 2pm we started our fire, then we dropped the bird (all 26 pounds of it) into the hole at about 8pm, covered it with dirt and said “good night.”  The next morning around 10am we began the excavation process.  As I was digging the hole again, things did not seem quite the same as the year before.  The delicious turkey juice smell was not present, and the ground did not seem to be as warm.  We finally got the turkey out of the ground and unwrapped it (2 layers of tinfoil, about 6 very large banana leaves and some chicken wire) to find that the bird was not done… not done at all, in fact… butter not even really melted.

Watch out... I'm pretty scary with a machete in hand!

Thanks to our Guatemalan friend Ricardo for helping us get this fire started... not without the assistance of a little kerosene, mind you.

Our secret ingredients... rosemary and honey.

The turkey prepped and ready to go into the ground!

By this time it was 10:30am and we had planned to eat around noon.  Now remember, we live in a place that has no electricity and no stove.  How would we finishing cooking this turkey in time for lunch or at all?!  Our saving grace came from Nina’s idea to create a makeshift oven out of our gas stove.  After moving the turkey over to the griddle on the stove, tenting over the turkey with a few more layers of tinfoil, and about 2 hours of cooking, the bird was finally ready to be served (minus one little section that did not get done that we had to pan sear).  We had save the turkey after all!

All in all, the turkey, the cream style corn, the stovetop sweet potatoes, the green beans, the stuffing, the gravy, the cranberry sauce and the sweet tea (not to mention the company we enjoyed it with) made for a fabulous Thanksgiving Day feast. 

Julio's wife Elsa with Julito licking his fork clean!

Kris with Roberto and sweet little Wilson Cristobal.

Cesar and family.

The youngest McKinney very obviously enjoying her oreo dessert.

Julio and family.

Roberto and family.

Sweet Aura before she said goodbye.

Self-Esteem, Literacy, Training Locals, and a Chicken Coop

I (DeeDee) have been staying busy lately helping with health fairs that we have been hosting in almost all 16 of the communities that we work in.  The health fair is made up of four stations: Kitchen and Deworming, Water and Latrines, Organic Gardening, and Self-Esteem and Literacy.  The stations consist of interactive lectures and demonstrations, encouraging the people to adopt healthy practices in all areas of their lives.  We have also been utilizing the secondary students of the Valley to help us teach in each of the stations.  I have been working with Roberto in the station of Self-Esteem and Literacy, and I have focused specifically on self-esteem.  Since the majority of our participants have been women, I have adapted my part of the lecture to specifically speak to a woman’s importance in her work in the home and her right/responsibility to become a leader in her community.  At the end of my lecture, I have all of the women stand up together and say, “I am important because I’m made by God.”  I’m hoping that these few words said aloud will begin to sink in so that these beautiful women began to walk around with their chins held high and with the belief that they really have a purpose and a voice, if for no other reason than that they are made in His image.

Secondary students helping to demonstrate planting seeds in the organic gardening station.

More than anything, I have enjoyed sharing some good laughs with the women of the Valley.

Last week, I also devoted the majority of my time to working with Julio as he attempted to complete his final exams for his literacy classes.  As many of you know, Julio is our water technician that works with us day-in and day-out in the Valley.  He is very bright, but as is the case with many children in the Valley who drop out of school to help work with their families, he only completed his schooling up through the third grade.  Through the literacy courses that an organization called CONALFA offers in the Valley, Julio can study 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grade material in just one year in order to earn his sixth grade diploma.  We finally got his final exams sent in on Monday, and we eagerly await the results!

Over the past few weeks, maybe close to 2 months now, I (Kris) have been focusing with Julio and Mark on training local water committees.  We have been working with three communities, two of which have older water systems and one we will begin construction in this coming Friday.  Our team sat down a few weeks ago and developed a three-session training curriculum where we are teaching about the administration, operation and maintenance of water systems.  It has been an up-and-down experience for me personally.  We are trying to set up systems that are not dependent upon us in the future; therefore, much time is needed in education and practice.  Also, there is so much difficulty in working three languages away and still having very little cultural understanding.  Nevertheless, moment-by-moment I can see progress being made. After a long, frustrating meeting last week with one community, I selfishly told Mark that I hope there is some type of reward along this road because going through the trenches is really starting to wear on me.  I said this to him in English, and then Julio riding in the back seat began to tell me (in Spanish) a little more details about the meeting.  He proceeded to inform me that one of the water committee representatives said towards the end of our meeting that he finally realized why the spigot near his house did not have water.  For almost a year now, his perception was that he did not have water because there was no water in the system, but at the meeting it was almost like a light bulb went off, and he said, “The reason I don’t have water is because we are not maintaining the system!”  And then another committee member, who is also a teacher in the local primary school, said that if the committee could not find a way to work together with the community, how could she effectively teach her students about team work(?).  It was as if Julio understood exactly what I was just venting to Mark and decided to lift my sprits by telling me these stories.  These realizations represent a huge step forward, especially the recognition of the connection between no water and bad maintenance of a system.  Slowly, day-by-day, week-by-week, I hope we can equip each community’s water committee with the tools and training needed to maintain their respective systems well into the future. 

Below you can see a picture of our new chicken coop.  We have been working on building this for the past several weeks since our team here in the Valley (Guatemalans and Americans) decided to all chip in and buy about a dozen chickens to supply us with our eggs.  Now that construction is done, all we need are the chicks!  The McKinneys actually had chickens at their home in the States, so the kids are especially excited to start caring for these friendly pets.    

This time I wanna end our post by sharing a joke that could probably make the show, “Kids Say the Darndest Things.”  This week, since schools are now out of session, Cesar brought his wife and two children to stay with him in the Valley.  Several nights ago, as we sat down to eat dinner, the oldest daughter of the McKinneys looked down at the other end of the table, and with surprise in her voice said, “Both of Cesar’s kids are drinking coffee!”  To which we responded, “It’s really normal for kids in Guatemala to start drinking coffee at a very young age.”  She then followed up with the statement, “So maybe that’s why they’re that color!”  Makes perfect sense in a kid’s mind…

And here are a few more of our favorite Valley pics:

One of the benefits of the rainy season in the Valley...

One of the anti-benefits of buying a chicken in a supermarket in Coban...

The sweet girls that daily continue to steal our hearts...