Housing

When someone decides to build a next house, he asks around the village and many men come together to help as the women make the food. I was invited to help in this process for the first time and was super excited to see exactly what went on. I missed the first day of work which consisted of building the skeletal structure and collecting bay leafs. The next morning I was planning on going after my walk before school to help the women bake the tortillas for about an hour. When I walked past the house around 6 am they had not started yet because it was still a little dark. Then, on my way back they were already half-way done. I guess it doesn't take long to thatch a roof when there are so many men helping. What a neat experience! I was happy to help the women prepare for breakfast and they were surprised with my baking skills although I still had trouble putting the tortillas on the comal.

Speaking of houses, I can't help but mention my visit to one little girl in the village. She's one that has been writing me the sweetest letters but I didn't know where she lived so asked another girl to take me there. When we got close enough to look back and see this girl's house (unlike most people in the village, it was back a little more in the bush), I was told, "It's the one without the boards." Now I have seen a kitchen with no walls and only a roof, but never an entire house. My heart cried out for this family as I couldn't imagine sleeping so much in the open. I asked what happened during the crazy rainfall and they told me water took away whatever was on the floor, so the next day they found slippers in the bush. And how did they tell me this? With laughter. During my conversation with the mother I found out the youngest of the three children was adopted from the next village because noone wanted her. It was nice because I got to help make tortillas with her. Usually when I go to visit families I play games with the kids then eat and maybe talk during dinner. And after dinner I had a fun K'ekchi lesson and then the little girl walked me home because it was dark and she was worried I would get lost by myself, what a sweetheart. I learned a few lessons that night, one changing my mental image of "at least having a roof above your head."