Luggage lost now found but still managing with what I had in my carry-on

No posts yesterday. We spent the day travelling…from Antigua to Cominocella; a long, bumpy, telling, interesting drive in a van that boldly proclaims “Touristo”. Liz, Jim, Paul, Jackie, Joanie, and I were met by Peace Corp volunteer Charlie Fulks, a 24 year old from Iowa who has been living and working with the community for 18 months. His mandate is nutrition and agriculture but it has grown to include so much more, including water and health.

We are here to represent GSP. Our group has helped with funding to the local AMID group. They are 10 local Mam’s. It is a friendly, welcoming community. We schluped our bags down a hill to an open air courtyard behind a big metal door. The courtyar isn’t as wonderfully flowery as the one at Posada la Merced in Antigua, but it is functional; a large green water tub at the entrance and stark cement floors. Our rooms have squishy plastic sheets on the beds, steel doors and a BATHROOM with a toilet with a seat! Once you become accustomed to putting

 the toilet paper in the wastepaper basket all is well.

I can’t recall if I mentioned that my bank card won’t work here.  The others are lending me money. I have 2 pairs of pants, 2 tops and 2 pairs of underwear until my bags arrive. It is amazing how little a person needs, although I would sure like to have some of the food I brought with me.

Breakfast  on Friday at Letty’s; up the hill from the hotel and right towards the centre of Comitancillo, past a colourful graveyard. In Guatemala -- I learn later in the day when Liz leads us on an uncerimonial tour the place -- grave stones are painted bright blue and green and pink and white. They are all shapes and sizes; some look oddly like telephone booths while others are simply rectangular mounds protruding from the ground. It shocks me at how unkept the place is. But the proliferation of garbage literally everywhere is a discussion for another day.

Comitancillo is in San Marcos (similar to the province of Ontario).  It is approximately 8,000 ft above sea level. Today, February 4 is the 35^th anniversary of a devastating earthquake (Agatha I believe) the killed 26,000 Guatemalans.

Charlie (the young American Peace Corp volunteer from Ohio, not Iowa, that the locals call Carlos) meets us at the municipal building where AMID has an office. Ruban, the director of AMID has a stove tour planned. Two young men – perhaps in their mid to late 20’s – hesitate and then step forward to speak to us. They are practicing their English. The don’t seem to know the difference between Canada and the US. One tells us that he worked in the states, in Cinncinati, Ohio, as a dishwasher. Some lucky Guatemalans go to the US to find work, I learn, and they come home and are considered wealthy by their town standards. These young men are wearing uniforms, they tell us because they are going to school. Their school is across the street and they tell us if we need anything we can go there for help.

We all cram into Ruban’s small pickup. There are obviously no seatbelt laws here. Liz wears hers in the front. Ruban does not. Jim, Joanie and I are far too squished in the back seat to worry about it, although Joanie makes a valiant attempt to during various legs of our journey. Charlie, Jackie and Paul hop into the open back of the truck and hold on for dear life. The ride to come is not for the faint hearted!

But the ride, I soon learn is nothing compared to what is to come.

Our mission this day is to photograph and document 22 stoves that have been builtby AMMID with funds from our stove project, since September 2010.