I have been in school for two weeks now and am geting ready for a break. I know you real student will think what a wimp but what can I say I am an old carpinter. The school I am at right now is associated with two groups of people from two different pantations that when the coffee prices drop out in the 1990 the owners of the plantation could not pay their workers so after two to three years they made a settlement and have started two new comunities. The two communities are actually two streets side by side but after 100 years of history of living on the same land with the same families it is a slow process to expand the horizon of thier identity. Sunday night when I went to dinner with my host family and set at a table for two in a dirt floor lean-to type kitchen I had my first experience of being able to have a convercation in spanish. Maria told me her comunities story of not reciving pay for thier work for two years. There was not enough food and they organized to fight for their pay and a place to work and live. Since the 1930 to 40 these families 5 in total and about 250 people had lived in a fueduel type of situation with a company store ,doctor and school. They had no reason to leave the plantation and remember it fondly but when coffee prices feel there was no pay for two years and no hope for the future so they organized for their back pay and even went to Guatemala city with their fight. They received thierpresent land in exchange for the backpay and moved thier with very little. The first years for thier family of 9 was spent in a 14 by 18 shed with a dirt floor and leaking roof. This was 9 years ago and 6 years ago a spanish organization funded the building of block houses for these families. The families built the houses but the organization provided all the materials at no cost. They don't have enough land for a garden but have a couple of pigs and 5 chickens. Maria is a great cook and Gorge the husband is employed at the school as a gardener. At first only 3 women would let students into their homes out of embarressment. Now the school is excepted as a valued nieghbor For me it is a good step into the normal life if a guatemalan family

Clean water is a basic necessity of human life. It doesn't have to come from your refrigerator door or the kitchen sink but it must be available. There are nine villages in the municipality (a municipality is like our counties and formed around a central city) of Chajul that need access to potable water. At the present time, the people obtain their water through the collection of rain water during the raining season( which last about three months) and also by carrying water up to four miles distance from springs and a river. I am hoping to gather enough solid information to raise support for a water system the municipality is hoping to develop. It would affect about 2175 people. What a gift that would be!

Another type of project I want to be involved in is the support of agricultural and vocational programs. This photo is of a completed chicken coop in one of the villiages. Operated primarily by local women, there are indigenous programs for developing sheep and chicken production. Providing 5 sheep and a shed, or 12 laying hens and shed, to a family that lives on less then a dollar a day per person can be a huge economical boost. With only one week to go until my flight leaves, the feeling that this opportunity is finally here looms large in my mind. In eight days I will be starting language school in Xela Gautemala. Very very cool!