Guatemala, Day 2 (part 1)

by Cyndi on January 15th, 2007

Day 2: Wednesday, 01/03/07

When we woke up in the morning, we realized that our stone cabin had a gorgeous tile floor, made from those pink sand tiles that we learned about yesterday, a beautiful stonework headboard for the beds, a large stone fireplace, a great big shower with plenty of hot water (yay!), and a special tap for pure filtered water. Oh, and great big ugly hairy spiders. But let’s not go there. Dani reminded me several times throughout the week, “Mom, spiders eat the nasty things that really go after you…” Not particularly reassuring, Dani, but thanks!

The outside of the cabin was even nicer than the inside. It was set up on a little hill, so it was very private. Each cabin had its own little yard, distinctive plantings, and a name. Ours was named “Cafetal”. Look at those gorgeous arched windows and door…and that cute guy standing out front!

These beautiful orchid-like flowers hung all over the front of our cabin. Maybe they are orchids…I don’t know. While I was busy looking at them, a hummingbird almost took me out! The hummers there are big, at least two to three times the size of our little ruby-throated variety. And they are fearless. You hear them buzz right by you often when you stand outside long enough. There are all kinds of noisy birds that remind me a bit of birds back home…but not quite. Something like grackles, with tails that fold up vertically. Large crow-like things that don’t caw. Hawks, vultures. Something blue. And Mike saw something that turned bright scarlet in the sun. Also, the squirrels there sound like a small dog’s squeaky toy!

Mike and Dani had to try out the hammock in our “front yard”!

I took lots of pictures of flowers, mostly to share them with my mother. You’ll see them sprinkled throughout my journal as we go :-)

Tom came and picked us up at 8am, and we spent the whole day out at the house. When we arrived, Susan was finishing up cooking the 90 or so pancakes needed to feed everyone. After we all eat, Tom reads to the kids, both from the Bible and also a chapter from a children’s adventure book that they’ve just started. He reads after almost every meal, and the kids really love it.

We’ve started to meet the kids during the meal, and that continues afterwards as they scatter to do their morning chores and we are given a tour of the house. The house is now almost twice as big as when it started. So many basic repairs had to be done last year before expansion could be started because of vandalism. Every single door, window, and nice piece of wood was stripped from the house when it stood vacant. The group moved out here from San Cristobel last year, and at first they had to rent a nearby vacant house while renovations went forward. Nothing could really be done long-distance because of the ever-present problem of theft. If it’s not guarded 24/7, it will be robbed. Building supplies have a habit of just walking away here, as we were to find out later in the afternoon. Even today, the house can never be left without a guard, including on Sundays when they all go into Santiago Atitlan for a church service in the central park. Either a guard must be hired from the village, or someone must stay behind.

After chores, Deborah Stukenberg was easy to convince that a hike up to the ridge behind the house would be a good idea. As we climbed, the volcano across the lake came into better view. From the first ridge that we reached, we could finally begin to see the lake clearly.

Coffee grows all over the mountains, and Yelsi showed me how you can suck out the juice from the seed pods, which is really quite sweet. Two coffee beans are in each fruit, and they’re white! We learned later that people would suck on the beans as well while they worked in order to get a bit of a caffeine buzz…probably how the ancients discovered the usefulness of coffee in the first place. Yelsi is a great kid. She is one of the few who will be staying with the Stukenbergs rather than being adopted since her status doesn’t make her available for adoption.

Around the next bend, we looked eastward towards the remains of the mudslides from Hurricane Stan in the fall of 2005. The village of Panabaj, sitting between Santiago Atitlan and the village of Tzanchaj (where the house is), was almost completely swallowed up in those mudslides. Regrowth has already started.

In the picture below, you can see a field, right in the middle. The field can be seen on the far right in the picture above too. In the top left corner of the field is a tiny speck, which is a farmer who is cultivating it.

From the top, we could see Santiago Atitlan jutting out into the lake. It’s a fair size town with a busy marketplace that we plan to visit tomorrow. Our hotel is just to this side of the town, just a little to the west of the most inward finger of water.

In the foreground is a development called “Little Samaria”. It was built by Franklin Graham’s organization, Samaritan’s Purse, as temporary housing for the survivors while they go about rebuilding their lives and homes in Panabaj. What we could see from the top are concrete bunkers. Apparently, the US Army also helped with the construction.

Below you can see all three landmarks together: Santiago Atitlan, Little Samaria, and the field. It’s just impossible to get all three in the same shot unobstructed! It’s about 4 miles or so from the western edge of Santiago Atitlan out to where we are at the house.

We started to get to know the kids a bit during the hike. Like kids everywhere, they are full of energy, sweet, and eager to meet new people. Especially Nate’s family! Anyway, they love attention, but are certainly not attention-starved. At the top, we paused and drank a bit. Mike pointed out the bromeliads growing right out of all the trees.