El Paraíso Service Project

This weekend we were part of a group of teachers who went into the Zone 18 "El Paraíso" neighborhood to help work on a mission project that our friend Kelly works with, Global Soccer Ministries. It was a wonderful day full of hard manual labor, experiencing a bit of how the majority of Guatemala City residents live, and doing some great work in the name of Jesus!

The soccer field with part of El Paraíso on the hill in the background

Safety

The "El Paraíso" (ironically means paradise) neighborhood is in one of the more dangerous and gritty areas of an already gritty and dangerous city. Zone 18 is known for its gang activity, corrugated iron sided "houses," and extremely impoverished conditions. While there, we were instructed to stay together as a group, take no belongings with us we weren't prepared to have "walk off," and we were not allowed to walk down the streets, even in a group, without a man known by the community.

We knew it was going to be a worthwhile experience and we would be doing helpful work, but we had some reservations about entering such an unsafe part of the city. However, we decided our personal safety would not be too terribly jeopardized (in comparison to other service projects) because many mission groups have been down from the U.S. that our friend Kelly works with, and the man in charge of this ongoing (since 2005) project is a close family friend of Kelly's as well. Not that any one's safety can ever be guaranteed, but we were with people who were knowledgeable of the area and people, and they were known by the locals, also, who knew we were there to help, not hurt, and it is fairly usual for the community to see a group of gringos working away on the soccer field.

The Service Project

Many of the teachers at CAG have expressed a desire to get involved and do something truly helpful, yet have been hindered by 1) not knowing who to contact to volunteer 2) not wanting to go by themselves into a potentially unsafe and unknown area, and 3) not getting ourselves into gear due to laziness in general, as happens often no matter where you live. Good intentions, right? So when Kelly offered a service project to work on building a soccer stadium in a very needy area where there was already a built-in infrastructure of volunteer workers and an ongoing project, this seemed like a great chance to do something useful!

Our task for the day was two-fold: First, we were helping to complete some soccer stadium seating, and second, we were starting the process of building a house for a 9-person family that is currently living in a one bedroom tin shack.

The soccer field was a GREAT service project! We loved working on it because it seems like for a community that has nothing to claim as its own, let alone a nice, open area to join together, this was something that would serve many, many people - the entire community! Also, Guatemalans are fanatical about soccer. It is one of the few things everyone takes an interest and joy in, so to give them something they are passionate about seems like a great idea!

Working on the field seating was very laborious; everyone got very good at using shovels, hoes, and pick axes. While we did not pour any cement, most of our job was to move dirt to create the space to build more seating, fill dirt in the partially completed seats, and tearing down a hill to create a road for trucks to move sand and cement (currently being done by people with wheelbarrows, a tedious and slow-going way to move land!). There is not much to talk about, except that we worked hard for roughly 5-6 hours. On the positive side, we could definitely see the progress we made by the end of the day!

Part of the fun of the day were the kids that hung around us. They were full of energy and excited we were there. They tested the few English words they had learned on us ("Yes" and "Thank you"), and they really seemed to enjoy using the wheelbarrows and pick axes the most. Bringing them joy and giving them a stimulating and productive day was worth it above all else.

On the other end of the spectrum, working on a house that will directly benefit a family bursting at the seams was also very rewarding for everyone involved. We met the family members whose house was going to be built, and they even joined in on the project. Actually, the family members who were around we extremely helpful, and the little boys were some of the hardest workers of the day! Talk about witnessing a real need. This is a family that has nothing to its name but piles of trash, corrugated iron sides and roofing for the one room "house," and 2 small beds.

Outhouse for the 9-person, single-room housed family

It was very sad to see the living conditions these kids were in. Due to malnutrition (we're assuming), the boys we saw that were 8 and 12 years old looked like they were 4 and 8 years old, respectively. We were told they walk to a nearby school, but who knows. The girl we met looked about 14 and she was still in the elementary grades. It's doubtful she'll be in school much longer. An example of malnutrition: one boy told a teacher that it is easy to stay full. You just drink 2 glasses of water in the morning, 2 at lunch, and 2 glasses of water and dinner. How sad! We were told they get some food, but it is never a certainty. The dad (of the family's house we were working on) was passed out from drinking on 1 of the 2 beds in the 1-room shack, and at one point woke up long enough to come out and directly leer at a blonde female teacher. The mom dropped by briefly and she seemed very kind. According to the man in charge of this project, these are some of the worst living conditions the mission has seen.

The goal of the house-building mission project is to give families a small home with which to start out with -- 2 bedrooms and a bathroom (roughly 1/4 of a typical floor plan of a States house). Families like this with absolutely nothing do not even know how to get started, and they are so overwhelmed with what it takes to build/improve a house, the church mission group comes in, builds a very small house, and the goal is for that to be a jump start for the family to build on -- maybe a few more bedrooms, a kitchen, a 2nd floor, or something. According to the missionary, the plan usually works! Part of how they decide what families to build houses for is whether or not they will continue to improve what they have been given. Obviously the waiting list is long. This family has been waiting for their house for over 5 years.

9 people live in this "house"

One of the funnest parts of the work we did was knocking down a poorly constructed concrete wall to make way for the new, sturdier wall that the mission project will build in the future. We all took a turn with the sledgehammer, and then moved the rubble via assembly-line to create a retaining wall at the edge of the small property.

While knocking the wall down, we had time to look around the area from the confined quarters. The family outhouse looked like it was from a creepy horror movie (so did the dad...), the "streets" were mere iron-sided alleyways (that we figured had to be very hot inside - you would bake alive in there!), and the family's land was also home to a rag-tag mama dog and her 4 puppies, 2 ducks, and plenty of spiders and rat-sized cockroaches. But there was safety and fun in numbers, and we all had a great time doing the work.

The "neighborhood."
These are all houses, and the alleys are the only streets

It is almost impossible to imagine what daily life looks like for this family (and countless others in the same situation). Where do they sleep? How do they sleep? Who gets the bed? The cockroach-encrusted ground? What happens during the rainy season? How do they cook? what do they do for water? How does the outhouse get cleaned--or does it? Where do they do laundry?

When we left (earlier than planned due to sheer physical exhaustion), we all knew that we had done just a little bit to help a lot of people, and hopefully shed some light on their lives. We know the experience also brought us all closer to the realities and poverty that we seem to glide over so easily on a daily basis, living in our Zone 15 and Zone 10 bubbles, which really do not represent the vast majority of the City or country. We will all remember our work at Paraíso the next time we are asked to donate our time or money to such worth causes as helping the impoverished or those many, many souls that are in need.

Taking on Tikal Temples

This post will conclude the Kenny 2008 visit! We could not have ended it any better or more exciting than a trip into the Peten region of Guatemala (a low, flat state that is mainly jungle) to visit the ancient Mayan civilization ruins of Tikal.

This was also Easter Sunday, and what better way to celebrate and connect with God's kingdom? In the quiet time we waited for the sun to peek over the horizon, we had time to thank God for sending his son to die on the cross, and be resurrected from the dead. The symbolism of the rising sun was not lost on us! Creation is too beautiful for words sometimes.

Tikal is the largest excavated site in the entire American continent, and yet 80% of the ruins are STILL not excavated! wow! Tikal Park is 222 square miles, and less than 10 miles have been mapped. Over 3,000 separate buildings have been revealed: temples, shrines, ceremonial platforms, residences, ball courts, terraces, causeways and plazas.

Not to forget, we were thinking of Mom the entire time we were there. She didn't come with us due to her spell in Pana the day before, but she was sorely missed both for her fun presence and her knowledge about Tikal and the Maya civilization! She's a high school (and German) Spanish teacher in Neosho, and she's very passionate about studying the Mayans. We kept her in our prayers and thoughts the entire time we were there.

History (from this website):

Archaeologists tell us Tikal was the largest capitol of Maya Cities and at its height during its Classic period from 500AD and had a population of 50,000 to 100,000 persons. For reasons not yet clear Archaeologist believe that around 870AD, construction slowed and the city began to decline. It was completely deserted by the end of 900AD. Tikal has an estimated 3000 structures. The partially restored area consists of nine groups of courts and plazas. There are 5 large temples. One of the most impressive and tallest structures, Temple IV, is 229 ft. Tikal’s was a governing and religious center of the ruins and covers about 222 square miles. The Maya civilization is considered one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known.

....a bit more from this website...

While Europe still languished in the Dark Ages, the Maya Astronomers evolved a Solar calendar more accurate than that of today, also had a Ceremonial Calendar of 260 days, (They used at least 18 different calendars, based in movements of the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and several more celestial movements) its chronology was divided in Baktúns (20 years) they fully comprehended the theory of mathematics and developed the concept of zero, that allowed them to make difficult calculations, but its system was vigesimal (Based on 20), not decimal as ours. Maya astronomers accurately traced the path of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and other planets, and also predicted solar and lunar eclipses.

The Mayan-built temple stairs were extremely tall and uncomfortable to climb, even more difficult to get down. At least 2 people have died falling down temple stairs in recent years. Proceed with caution!

Lodging:

We stayed at the Hotel Tikal Inn, located inside of the national park, just a few minutes' walk to the park entrance. My only requirement for the hotel room in the jungle was that it be bug-free. I can handle heat, crappy beds, and a little bit of noice, but I have found that I have a touch of arachnophobia, and any spider larger than my fist incites a major dose of fear! The rooms were excellent: quiet, spacious, and comfortable. Our hotel also had a pool and some smaller, thatch-roof bungalows, but they were more expensive, so we opted out. We also never had time to swim, but the pool looked definitely looked inviting!

One of the great things about Tikal Park is that the entire park only has electricity from 6:00-10:00 pm. Therefore, we brought our handy dandy headlamps for getting up at night, getting ready early in the morning for the sunrise tour, and on the tour itself. The basic lodgings and lack of power really added to your experience that we were in the jungle!

We ate our meals at a less expensive but nice place next door, the Hotel Jaguar Inn. Because we flew in late, we didn't need to eat dinner, but we had guacamole, tortillas, and beer to pass the evening while we played cards. This may be a good time to share that I LOVE to play cards, and thank goodness my Dad and James both do as well! We got some great rounds of Hearts and Spades in while we were there.

Weather

Much to our delightful surprise and my total shock, it was neither hot nor humid at Tikal! When I visited Tikal back in June of 2003, it was a sweltering, humid mess of a trip. I warned James and Dad to only bring the lighest weight clothing and plenty of mosquito repellent. But, this was one of the 3 months a year it doesn't rain there, so we definitely lucked out! It was a temperate 70 the entire time, and nothing to make you wish you were in A/C.

Tikal Sunrise Tour

The tour started well before sunrise, and we walked (with a group of about 50 other people) for roughly 20 minutes to Temple IV, climbed up its rickety wood makeshift steps, and sat to watch the sun rise, and to watch and listen to the jungle itself wake up. It was REALLY great!For the tour, I think it's important to separate it into buildings and nature, because both were equally impressive!

We started the tour at 4:45 a.m. and went through Little Ceasar's Tours and Caesar himself gave the tour. It was great for Dad because Caesar was actually raised in NYC, so his English was excellent, and the tour was in English, so there was no need to try to translate the whole time. Overall, he did a decent job of explaining the monuments and wildlife, and giving us enough time to explore, but based on our own knowledge of the Maya, I'd say he missed some really interesting facts about the Maya that could/should have been shared. (He was long on conspiracy theories for their decline, though!)

Temples

(factual information from this website)

Rather than explain too much about each temple, I'll just speak generally to the experience of seeing and climbing them. The pictures do not do justice to how incredibly steep and HUGE the temples were, extending above the jungle itself! One temple we climbed was clearly a verticle ladder climb, and really pretty scary if you are scared of heights! Dad opted out of that one....It is hard to imagine climbing these if they are in any way wet, therefore slippery. Most of the temples were hidden throughout the jungle, reached only by path, and often you were upon a half-covered or completely jungle-covered temple before you even realized it. They just don't have the funding or support in the country to uncover the other buildings. The University of Pennsylvania was the main funding and archaeological team that uncovered the ones you can see and climb today.

The more grandeur set of temples were in the Grand Plaza, the Temple of the Grand Jaguar and Temple II. These two are facing each other, as many other temples the Maya built do as well. Even though the Temple of the Grand Jaguar looks gigantic (143 feet) it's not the tallest temple at Tikal. Temple III, which is still unexcavated, is 179 feet, Temple V is 189 feet and Temple IV is 208 feet (the one we climbed to watch the sunrise).

Interesting Facts:

The temples at Tikal were used in the Star Wars movies as the rebel base!

As in Egypt, these temples were all built to commemorate a king buried underneath them....without the use of the wheel!

The temples were also built to line up with astronomical events...some within less than a fraction of a percent!

On the Northern Acropolis (lots of stairs and living spaces) there was a 10 foot high giant mask of their rain god.

Nature

The wildlife and plant life we got to see at Tikal was awesome. We saw tarantulas scurrying about, toucans hanging out in the trees, giant pheasant-like birds, a pack of coatimundis, and plenty of other creatures flying or running about. One of the major highlights was to hear the howler monkeys really howling and growling in the dark on the way to watch the sunrise. They sounded like hungry and agitated jaguars, not like monkeys at all! It was kind of frightening, and definitely added to the mystique of the jungle before dawn!

The Long Wait Home

Because we did the Early Bird tour, we were wiped out by 10:00 a.m., and had to check out of our hotel room by 11:00 a.m. anyway. Unfortunately, because we didn't know how long we would need at Tikal, we had booked the last possible flight home which wasn't until 6:00 p.m. This left of 7 hours to kill. We spent a few unhurried hours eating an early lunch and playing more cards, and it took roughly an hour to return to the city of Flores where our flight was. We asked our airline, TACA (which we refer to as "Take A Chance Airlines" due to their propensity to lose luggage, cancel, and delay flights regularly), if we could take an earlier flight out. We were told it was booked, and we'd have to be on standby. Well, knowing airlines and the ability to squeeze 3 people in via standby, we decided to go find a place that would show the NCAA basketball games instead (which we never found). It turned out that there were, in fact, 3 open seats on the earlier flight, and we should have hung around after all. Then, after waiting for what seemed like an eternity (the entire weight of the week's worth of traveling was catching up to us all by now), we got to the airport only to find out our flight was delayed by another three hours. It was a death sentence! So, we returned to the air conditioned hotel lounge we had taken over all day and watched another movie and had another round of beers to drown our sleepy sorrows.

However, the trip was definitely, definitely worth it! What a great adventure. Tikal is one of our favorite places in Guatemala, and certainly worth the time and money it takes to experience it.

The Lake Conquers the Kennys

Mom on a boat ride over the Panajachel

WOW! After a week and a half of KU Jayhawk fever, and my own bout of fever, I finally have the time, focus, and energy to finish the blog about Mom and Dad Kenny's visit.

After Antigua, we drove to Santiago, a small indigenous town on the edge of Lago Atitlan. Our first day was great; the drive was easy and our suite-style bungalow, Casa Aguatal, was beautiful! We spent the afternoon walking around town looking at more alfombras, and visiting the town's revered "evil saint," Maximon. He's the perfect manifestation of the mixing of Mayan and Catholic religion, as he is a "saint," but he smokes, drinks, and people bring him offerings of money, scarves, clothing, booze, and consumer products so he will help them with whatever the offering was for. After watching a beautiful sunset on the lake, we spent the evening playing cards, watching some NCAA basketball, and having a relaxed dinner while listening to some local, traditional, live music. It was great!

The evil saint Maximon, who stays in his own house right across the street from the Catholic Church

Dusk at Posada de Santiago

A view of the lake from the shores of Panajachel

We were at Lago Atitlan (Good Friday) when Mom fell ill. She had felt 'off' all morning, but came along with us on a boat from where we were staying (Santiago) over to Panajachel (the main shopping town on the lake). We tried not to make too big a deal of it, but then at lunch she said she was very nauseous. She tried to stand up but immediately sat back down.

So, I ran over to the kitchen to try to get a bag for her to use in case she got sick. But by the time I came back over, Mom had passed out. Then while James and Dad tried to bring her around, I ran around the place yelling for an ambulance. Luckily there were a few people there who had phones and the right numbers, so they called the ambulance. By the time I got back over to the table, Mom had regained consciousness, but still felt like she could fall asleep and wasn't really in her right mind because she said she felt much better and didn't need an ambulance (yeah right!). But the police, who also called the ambulance and were keeping an eye on everything, told us that we were going to have to take a little tuk-tuk (a glorified motor trike with a seat) to get to the ambulance. Mom could not even sit up, let alone walk.

A tuk tuk

We eventually got them to bring the ambulance to us. Dad and I got in the ambulance with her (umm...let's face it. It was the back of a van.) and James took a tuk tuk to the hospital. They did not take us to the hospital in town, they took us to a hospital in the next town, Solala, which was a steep, curvy climb of about 10 minutes. We kept talking to her and trying to stabilize her around the hairpin fast turns the driver was taking.

Finally, we were at a hospital, but this was a Guatemalan public hospital. So, if you can imagine the set up of a hospital bed sheets and dark brown curtains for some privacy, that was it. The hospital did not even have a pillow to put under Mom's head. Luckily I had just bought something like a poncho, so we used that as a pillow instead. By the time she got settled in, she said she was starting to feel better. Luckily James, Mom, and I could speak Spanish enough to explain what had happened! But the good doctor seemed competent, and worked hard to figure out what happened with Mom (which, according to her U.S. doctor, was simply a reaction to nausea and heat).

By now it was about 2:00 pm, and in Guate, you do not want to travel when it gets dark, which happens around 6:00 pm. So we decided it would be best for James and I got take the boat ride back over the Santiago while they figured Mom's health out. We got back to Santiago, packed our belongings, paid our tab, drove around the lake (no easy feat; this took 3.5 hours!), and stayed the night in Panajachel.

We ended up finding a nice, quiet suite at Posada Los Encuentros for the night. This was a miracle, given that it was Good Friday, and the next day was one of the biggest party days at the Lake all year! The doctor had given Mom some medicine, and she was feeling much better by late afternoon. We basically spent the evening being very grateful that Mom was feeling better. And watching NCAA basketball, of course! :)

This was by far one of the scariest moments in my life. I have never felt for helpless, vulnerable, or full of fear. On the other hand, we all decided it was a blessing in disguise because, obviously, Mom did not go with us the next day to the Tikal ruins in the jungle. If the same thing had happened in the jungle far away from any sort of civiliation (we only had electricity for 4 hours the whole time we were at Tikal), I don't know what would have happened. God works in mysterious ways. Mom ended up relaxing in our apartment and watching the NCAA tournament which wasn't such a bad fate in the end for her. :)

teco/teca is going to Europe!

It's official as of this morning, Beth and I are spending all of July in Europe--specifically Germany, with visits to Belgium, Czech Republic, and Holland (and any others we have money and time for).

Backing up to explain why we're not traveling Central America like originally planned... Our really good friends, Rob and Linden (Beth and Linden have been friends since grade school), packed up and left Springfield, Mo., for Giessen, Germany, last September so Linden could teach at a university (Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen). Rob's from Berlin, Linden loves learning all things German, and she could earn her PhD while working at this school, so it was an easy choice for them to move.

The four of us always have a ton fun when we're together, and we've always talked about taking a trip to Europe together. Now makes the most sense for a number of reasons: 1) I'm in a unique spot job-wise where my company's flexible enough to let me have off the summer and still have a job this fall (normally I could only take 1 week of vacation at a time--not nearly enough time for a European vacation) 2) Beth has a school-free, wide open summer 3) Rob and Linden will not be in Germany for more than a couple years before coming back to the U.S. 4) We're most likely moving home next summer 5) Europe is awesome

Rob and Linden will still be working throughout the summer, but they have already set aside some days to travel to Berlin and Prague with us. So, Beth and I will likely be taking a lot of day trips via buses and trains on our own.

We are ecstatic about the trip and have already starting to make a list of places we want to visit.
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Go KU!

FUEGO!

Yesterday afternoon I came into the kitchen and looked out the window and saw this...


I was pretty shocked to see a fairly large--and at that moment fire crew-free--fire taking place along Vista Hermosa Blvd. I immediately grabbed our camcorder and started filming it. I then headed down to Luis', our neighbor on the third floor, as he has a view looking directly on Vista Hermosa (whereas we only have the view from the kitchen). From his balcony, I could see the fire stretched even farther and was easily 100' in length, right up next to the road and working its way down the hill. It's been really dry here since the rainy season ended late last October, so everything was going up pretty fast and there was a ton of smoke and debris flying around.


Luis told me when I arrived he had called the bomberos (firemen) almost 10 minutes ago and they still hadn't arrived. It was almost another 10 minutes from when I was there until they did show up. The camera crews, however, were immediately on the scene, filming even when I first noticed it. Unlike U.S. towns and cities, Guatemala City does not have fire hydrants on every corner, so they have big tankers drive in and hook up their hoses to. The firemen worked on containing the fire for at least three hours. And after they left, it was still smoking! And it was still smoking this morning when we got up! Guess they thought it was good enough. By now, it's finally stopped and the air smells normal again. But all yesterday afternoon and evening we had to keep all our windows shut to keep the strong stench and debris out.

Thankfully no residencies were affected and not too many trees were burned up. In fact, I suspect everything will look normal again soon once the rainy season returns next month.