We've moved!

We were finally close enough to being able to move to our land that I decided I would like to move before Christmas!  So we made a list of the necessary things that had to be done by the construction workers before we could move (like drainage issues and room dividers), and an even longer list of things we could finish soon after moving in (like pathways and laundry lines).  The men got to work on the details and I (Heather/Erica) got to work packing.

And four days before Christmas, we moved!  Praise the Lord!

Celebrating Christmas in our new building.
We missed Carolyn being with us!

Now we have new sights and sounds and neighbors and community members to learn to adjust to.  For example, we discovered that the day begins here by 6:30 a.m. with random neighbors and nearby churches playing music at high volume, local corn mills grinding on and off (which sounds like a jackhammer), our puppy crying to get up and join the fun, and occasionally a grackle (a big, black bird) cawing right outside our window!

We want to say thank you to our friends and supporters who have helped us reach this milestone.  We appreciate your support and many prayers on our behalf, since we feel God's blessing on this project.  We know that He will help us through all the difficulties we face as we put our trust in Him.

Temporary building

We will be living in the lower part of our property for a few years while they build our house on the upper part, but we have no sewage connections in our community.  We needed to build a "temporary water building" up the hill from the ministry building and classroom so that our gray water can drain into the seepage pit we dug at the lower corner of the property.  The gray water from our "temporary kitchen sink" and our "temporary shower" will pass through a sand filter (see future post), then into the pit.  The water from our washing machine will run over to and down our driveway.  Our toilet is actually a dry toilet (see future post), so it uses no water.

The "temporary building" is just uphill from
the classroom, our temporary kitchen.

There are 4 terraces: the lowest for our
washing machine, then the kitchen sink,
then the bathroom, then the shower.

First the walls and ceiling were covered
by styrofoam.  This is the upper level, the
shower.  Yes, the doors are purple!

The siding and roof are made of steel
roofing pieces.

Water problems

Everywhere we turn we seem to have problems caused by water, non-absorbent ground, and a high water table.

This is our "dry" septic well, where we intended to dump our gray water.  It turns out the water table is very high, causing the bottom of the pit to collapse and fill with water.  As a result, we will have to filter our gray water before dumping it here.  All our neighbors, however, just dump their gray and black water right into the water table in the holes they have dug.

Water was pooling behind our retaining
wall, so they installed a gutter on the edge
of the shed roof.  That helped, but water
still runs down from higher up the hill.

Water runoff was causing the dirt wall behind
our house site, where we will one day install
a retaining wall, to begin collapsing.  Our
workers piled large rocks along the wall
to stop the damage.

Water from heavy rains is pooling
along the classroom building again,
working its way behind the mud barrier
they installed previously.

Water also runs down our driveway, pooling
into mud at the bottom.  Here, they have
re-covered the right half with gravel,
but you can see the left is still muddy,
awaiting its coat of gravel.

Sheetrock

Our buildings are finally finished inside.

Sheetrock has only been used in
Chichicastenango for about 5 or 6
years, on interior walls added to divide
rooms.  This means our workers are new
to the task, still learning about installation
techniques from Youtube videos.

The finished product turned out pretty well
with only a couple of redo's.

Roofs

We've added more roofs to keep us out of the rain.

There is now a roof over the door in the fence.

This is the view from inside.

And here you can see a small additional roof
we added to keep us dry as we come and go
from our temporary kitchen.

Small town

You know you live in a small town when you're driving and there's nobody on the road, so you speed up and feel like you're really flying on the short drive into town... then you look at the speedometer and it says "29."   Ha ha ha ha ha.

Community leaders

When we got to the community meeting on the evening of the induction of the new leaders, we were surprised to find a very religious setting.  There were candles burning and an "altar" set up.  The meeting went on as usual, with no mention of religious topics.  This type of religious setting is very common here and is shared by both Catholicism and the Mayan religion.

The leaders sit up front at the long table.
The audience is generally divided into
men on the left and women on the right.

My (Heather/Erica's) mom, Karen, was visiting
us then, so we took her along to the meeting.
There is a community meeting once a month.