Tuesday, December 11:
Latrine Rebuilding:
Two men from the community stopped by, presumably at the bequest of the Directiva, to help build a new latrine. Our old one, built into the side of a hill about 100 feet down from the house, was about ready to fall over. They had a pick and machetes in hand, nothing else. I explained that the hole was good and deep with a concrete footing (constructed by our good friends and volunteers Ezra and Josyah Jay) and all it needed was a new floor and framework for the walls. They wanted to make walls with boards but I explained that we preferred to use blue tarp because it allowed air to pass through and allowed light to enter, thus reducing the number of bugs – mostly cock-roaches – that would take up residence.
The existing structure collapsed with a slight push as it was mostly eaten away by termites.
They began their work and I mostly let them do their job, asking them to fabricate a door at a particular location but allowing them to do what they felt was right. What they did was mostly right, except that roof sloped towards the uphill side of the latrine, emptying rain water into a spot that would not only drench anyone entering the structure through the door but also would puddle on the uphill side of the hole, eventually, I fear, filling the hole with water during the rainy season. They also used a rotten, termite infested piece of wood for part of the door frame. I gave them two metal hinges and a set of screws, but the used nails on the hinges instead, bending them in half to secure the hinges, as the head of the nails would otherwise have gone through the screw holes. Instead of building the new framework on the cement footing, protecting it from termites, they dug holes outside the concrete and sank the corner posts into it. I hate to cast aspersions upon men that came to help, but, the workmanship can only be described as, shall we say, rustic. At one point, one of the guys came up to the house and asked if we had some rope to tie the roof on with, which I did not understand. He found some short lengths of barbed wire and was heading downhill when I decided it was probably time for me to intervene. They had put the old corrugated roofing over the frame they had constructed and put a couple of 2x4’s on top of it to hold it down. They were going to use the barbed wire to secure the 2x4’s on top to the 2x4’s underneath, a technique commonly used, I guess, on their own sheds out in the fields. I suggested that we use nails instead, and they agreed that it might work but said that they didn’t have a ladder in order to get up there to hammer them in. I ran up the hill and got one out of the house and brought it down. I held it up while one of the guys climbed with a clutch of nails and hammer. Before I could figure out what he was doing, he had nailed through the 2x4 on top of the roof, through the roof and into the 2x4 beneath the roof!
Jennifer reminds me that these two particular Mayan hicks, as I would have called them, also survived 15 years of civil war, evading the Guatemalan army in the jungles with their families – those that were not killed. Instead of going to school and learning all of the things we take for granted, they were surviving, mostly, by their wits, doing what they had to do moment by moment, day by day. Not planning very far in advance and rarely ever using tools more sophisticated than machetes and shovels. I need to keep these things in perspective.
Audio Bible in Mam – Proclaimer:
Before they finished, I found out that one of them, Mr. Andres, was in charge of the local Evangelical CAM church. CAM is Central America Mission and is very popular here in Guatemala. His church is near the end of the runway and had existed for a very long time without a roof. I noticed that he spoke Mam and asked if he would be interested in an audio Bible that would speak the New Testament in Mam for his congregation. This is a “Proclaimer” Device donated by “Faith Comes by Hearing”. It is about the size of a carton of cigarettes and can run on a build-in solar panel or charged by an internal crank generator. I ran up to the house and grabbed the one with the label “Northern Mam” and brought it down for him to hear. He agreed that it was fine Mam and said that they would like to borrow it for their Bible study on Sunday morning at 8:00 am.
Wednesday, December 12:
WX: 8:00 am, partly cloudy, 70 degrees, no wind.
Breakfast: Eggs, plantains, toasted buns with butter.
Solar Panels:
The peak of the house is situated almost due North and South. I have already placed three solar panels on the East facing slope of the roof to take advantage of the morning sun, which is often quite strong. The afternoons are frequently cloudy, so putting many panels on the West side does not make sense, however, I took one of the 50 watt panels that I had not yet placed on the roof and mounted it on the west facing side, hoping to increase the charge on the batteries in afternoon – something the east facing panels do not do well at all.
Latrine:
Reinforced the ties for the tarp that covers the walls of the latrine with nylon string. Since the door was attached in such a way so that it swings wide open when not latched, I created a type of hook for securing it from the inside.
Reinforced the nylon string fasteners on the latrine tarp to hold it firmly in strong winds.
Visitors: Freddy Viatoro, the Guatemalan who owns the ranch several miles to the West – Rancho Palmera, stopped by just at dinner time (I common practice for him). He brought his son, who is celebrating his 14th birthday and his 15 year-old cousin, Juan Carlos.
Thursday, December 13, 2007:
Breakfast: Eggs, biscuits with Jam, coffee
Spent the morning determining that the PicPac packet radio decoder was defective.
Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly biscuits
Spent good part of PM recovering from gastro. distress.
Examined problem with Cessna Regulator issues:
When #1 Regulator selected and field on Front alternator is on, over-voltage is indicated on amp-meter
Measured voltages:
When #1 Regulator is selected, 24 volts is present on the #2 regulator input (0 volts on #1)
When #2 Regulator is selected, 24 volts is present on the #1 regulator input (0 volts on #2)
Apparently the wires on the switch are reversed.
Front alternator field winding voltages:
When #1 regulator selected, 24 volts is present on field on the front alternator.
When #2 regulator selected, 19 volts is present on the field of the front alternator.
Rear alternator field winding voltages:
When either regulator (#1 or #2) is selected, 20 volts or 19.5 volts respectively is present on the field winding.
There should be a shunt resistor for each alternator (and the battery) in series with the amp-meter.
Unexpected Visitors:
So say visitors are un-expected is the norm. All visitors are un-expected because nobody calls ahead, few have phones and few plan that far in advance anyway. Freddy Viatoro, a big Guatemalan rancher that we knew from several years ago, stopped by just after dark, as is common for him. He brought his 15-year-old cousin Juan Carlos, and his son, who was celebrating his 12th birthday. Freddy owns the ranch several miles to the west, Rancho Palmera, where he raises beef cattle. They have about 150 head. He spends much of his time in the city of Huehuetenango (pronounced wheywheytenango) where much of his family lives. Of course, we insisted that they stay for dinner, even though all we had was a pot of boiled cabbage with carrots and three pieces of fried chicken. We were about to go out and buy some more bread when one of our neighbors arrived, unexpectedly, with a load of food:
Angelina lives in the big house/tienda owned by Don Andres (Don – a title of respect). She lives there with the other daughters-in-law of the Don Andres. Angelina’s husband, like most of Don Andres sons, works in the US. It was her daughter Olga’s 12th birthday and so they had a LOT of extra tamales. She brought over about 8 or so, still hot and very tasty. These are not like the tamales in the US. The Mayans use real banana leaves and real corn dough (masa). Each one contains about 1 cup of masa and into each one is placedpiece of roasted chicken and mole, just about the size of a grape. These are steamed and kept hot in a container until eaten. Good food.
Latrine Rebuilding:
Two men from the community stopped by, presumably at the bequest of the Directiva, to help build a new latrine. Our old one, built into the side of a hill about 100 feet down from the house, was about ready to fall over. They had a pick and machetes in hand, nothing else. I explained that the hole was good and deep with a concrete footing (constructed by our good friends and volunteers Ezra and Josyah Jay) and all it needed was a new floor and framework for the walls. They wanted to make walls with boards but I explained that we preferred to use blue tarp because it allowed air to pass through and allowed light to enter, thus reducing the number of bugs – mostly cock-roaches – that would take up residence.
The existing structure collapsed with a slight push as it was mostly eaten away by termites.
They began their work and I mostly let them do their job, asking them to fabricate a door at a particular location but allowing them to do what they felt was right. What they did was mostly right, except that roof sloped towards the uphill side of the latrine, emptying rain water into a spot that would not only drench anyone entering the structure through the door but also would puddle on the uphill side of the hole, eventually, I fear, filling the hole with water during the rainy season. They also used a rotten, termite infested piece of wood for part of the door frame. I gave them two metal hinges and a set of screws, but the used nails on the hinges instead, bending them in half to secure the hinges, as the head of the nails would otherwise have gone through the screw holes. Instead of building the new framework on the cement footing, protecting it from termites, they dug holes outside the concrete and sank the corner posts into it. I hate to cast aspersions upon men that came to help, but, the workmanship can only be described as, shall we say, rustic. At one point, one of the guys came up to the house and asked if we had some rope to tie the roof on with, which I did not understand. He found some short lengths of barbed wire and was heading downhill when I decided it was probably time for me to intervene. They had put the old corrugated roofing over the frame they had constructed and put a couple of 2x4’s on top of it to hold it down. They were going to use the barbed wire to secure the 2x4’s on top to the 2x4’s underneath, a technique commonly used, I guess, on their own sheds out in the fields. I suggested that we use nails instead, and they agreed that it might work but said that they didn’t have a ladder in order to get up there to hammer them in. I ran up the hill and got one out of the house and brought it down. I held it up while one of the guys climbed with a clutch of nails and hammer. Before I could figure out what he was doing, he had nailed through the 2x4 on top of the roof, through the roof and into the 2x4 beneath the roof!
Jennifer reminds me that these two particular Mayan hicks, as I would have called them, also survived 15 years of civil war, evading the Guatemalan army in the jungles with their families – those that were not killed. Instead of going to school and learning all of the things we take for granted, they were surviving, mostly, by their wits, doing what they had to do moment by moment, day by day. Not planning very far in advance and rarely ever using tools more sophisticated than machetes and shovels. I need to keep these things in perspective.
Audio Bible in Mam – Proclaimer:
Before they finished, I found out that one of them, Mr. Andres, was in charge of the local Evangelical CAM church. CAM is Central America Mission and is very popular here in Guatemala. His church is near the end of the runway and had existed for a very long time without a roof. I noticed that he spoke Mam and asked if he would be interested in an audio Bible that would speak the New Testament in Mam for his congregation. This is a “Proclaimer” Device donated by “Faith Comes by Hearing”. It is about the size of a carton of cigarettes and can run on a build-in solar panel or charged by an internal crank generator. I ran up to the house and grabbed the one with the label “Northern Mam” and brought it down for him to hear. He agreed that it was fine Mam and said that they would like to borrow it for their Bible study on Sunday morning at 8:00 am.
Wednesday, December 12:
WX: 8:00 am, partly cloudy, 70 degrees, no wind.
Breakfast: Eggs, plantains, toasted buns with butter.
Solar Panels:
The peak of the house is situated almost due North and South. I have already placed three solar panels on the East facing slope of the roof to take advantage of the morning sun, which is often quite strong. The afternoons are frequently cloudy, so putting many panels on the West side does not make sense, however, I took one of the 50 watt panels that I had not yet placed on the roof and mounted it on the west facing side, hoping to increase the charge on the batteries in afternoon – something the east facing panels do not do well at all.
Latrine:
Reinforced the ties for the tarp that covers the walls of the latrine with nylon string. Since the door was attached in such a way so that it swings wide open when not latched, I created a type of hook for securing it from the inside.
Reinforced the nylon string fasteners on the latrine tarp to hold it firmly in strong winds.
Visitors: Freddy Viatoro, the Guatemalan who owns the ranch several miles to the West – Rancho Palmera, stopped by just at dinner time (I common practice for him). He brought his son, who is celebrating his 14th birthday and his 15 year-old cousin, Juan Carlos.
Thursday, December 13, 2007:
Breakfast: Eggs, biscuits with Jam, coffee
Spent the morning determining that the PicPac packet radio decoder was defective.
Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly biscuits
Spent good part of PM recovering from gastro. distress.
Examined problem with Cessna Regulator issues:
When #1 Regulator selected and field on Front alternator is on, over-voltage is indicated on amp-meter
Measured voltages:
When #1 Regulator is selected, 24 volts is present on the #2 regulator input (0 volts on #1)
When #2 Regulator is selected, 24 volts is present on the #1 regulator input (0 volts on #2)
Apparently the wires on the switch are reversed.
Front alternator field winding voltages:
When #1 regulator selected, 24 volts is present on field on the front alternator.
When #2 regulator selected, 19 volts is present on the field of the front alternator.
Rear alternator field winding voltages:
When either regulator (#1 or #2) is selected, 20 volts or 19.5 volts respectively is present on the field winding.
There should be a shunt resistor for each alternator (and the battery) in series with the amp-meter.
Unexpected Visitors:
So say visitors are un-expected is the norm. All visitors are un-expected because nobody calls ahead, few have phones and few plan that far in advance anyway. Freddy Viatoro, a big Guatemalan rancher that we knew from several years ago, stopped by just after dark, as is common for him. He brought his 15-year-old cousin Juan Carlos, and his son, who was celebrating his 12th birthday. Freddy owns the ranch several miles to the west, Rancho Palmera, where he raises beef cattle. They have about 150 head. He spends much of his time in the city of Huehuetenango (pronounced wheywheytenango) where much of his family lives. Of course, we insisted that they stay for dinner, even though all we had was a pot of boiled cabbage with carrots and three pieces of fried chicken. We were about to go out and buy some more bread when one of our neighbors arrived, unexpectedly, with a load of food:
Angelina lives in the big house/tienda owned by Don Andres (Don – a title of respect). She lives there with the other daughters-in-law of the Don Andres. Angelina’s husband, like most of Don Andres sons, works in the US. It was her daughter Olga’s 12th birthday and so they had a LOT of extra tamales. She brought over about 8 or so, still hot and very tasty. These are not like the tamales in the US. The Mayans use real banana leaves and real corn dough (masa). Each one contains about 1 cup of masa and into each one is placedpiece of roasted chicken and mole, just about the size of a grape. These are steamed and kept hot in a container until eaten. Good food.
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