A typical day.....
Volunteers live with a Guatemalan host family, sharing meals etc and getting a real insight into the culture and society of the country as well as of course total immersion in Spanish! My host family lived in a place called Jocotenango.
A typical day would begin with breakfast with the family consisting of fruit, sometimes cereal or bread, coffee and (important) plenty of water, this would also be the best and sometimes only opportunity to use the proper loo for the entire day.
From here I walked to the bus station to meet up with other volunteers on the project for the short bus ride into Antigua a beautiful colonial city, the 20 minute walk across town to the project office was our chance to buy cookies or other goodies for the project team who we would work alongside the duration of our stay.
When we were ready to leave, we would all pile into the back of a pickup truck and head out for a days work in the poorest of communities, my time was spent in a place called Alotenango about half an hour from Antigua.
The families in the community was certainly the poorest people I have ever met, and without doubt, also the kindest and the most generous in every sense, I hope the photographs here give you a sense of this.
The work was very hard, there are no machines, cement mixers or anything like that; everything is done by hand, from the digging of the foundations and the mixing of the cement, a daily task, right through to painting inside and out.
It was very hot and humid while I was there which coincided with the end of the wet season and the start of the dry, I think we all drank about five litres of water every day; personally I didn't need to use the loo at all until I got back to the house each night.
During the first week I seriously doubted if I was going to be able to cope either physically mentally or emotionally and every night I lay in bed trying to think of the reason (excuse) that I could use that would bring me home and allow me to explain my early return without difficulty.
The only reason I didn't do this was that the only person I wouldn't be able to deceive would have been me.
Day by day progress would be made, in the middle part of the construction of the house we always knew that we had to build three courses of bricks every day in order to finish the house on time, the permanent members of the project were all really skilful builders and the hardest working people I have met; they welcomed us the volunteers completely; making allowances for our shortfalls in terms of skill and fitness in the early days.
We would share our lunch in the middle of the day; the atmosphere friendly and relaxed; whenever we could we would take time in the lunch breaks to spend time with the families especially the children who are as all children are; an absolute delight.
Each house is completed in about a week, the family get to choose the colour we paint it for them and on the final day as we complete the finishing touches to the house you can feel the atmosphere changing as if something transforming is about to happen.
The final event is for Oscar, the project leader to present the keys of the house to the family, Oscar explains carefully that the house belongs to them and that nobody can take it from them and that there are no money or other debts.
He asks that they take care of the house and hands the keys over, I was lucky enough to see two houses completed during my time in Guatemala and these moments will stay with me for ever because we all knew at that moment this family at least were not going to be sleeping on a dirt floor in a hut made of sugarcane and cardboard.
Leaving Guatemala was a very difficult time for me; I knew that I had formed friendships with other volunteers that would last a lifetime and I also knew that my experiences with the project, the team and especially the poor of Guatemala has given me so much more than the small things that I have done there.
This was a very important lesson to me which I think I was in a way prepared for before I left the UK.
Guatemala is potentially a very dangerous place and as part of my preparations I returned to martial arts and had a few lessons just in case.
My wonderful teacher discussed the trip with me very carefully and told me that as part of my training he wanted me to think about the trip in terms of me being the person who was getting the benefits and I was the one that should be grateful and humble for the experience not the other way round.
I took this advice very much to heart and I am absolutely sure that firstly it kept me safe and secondly helped me to get the very best from my journey.
My final act on the last day was (along with all other volunteers I knew) was to give up all of my clothes, medicines and spare cash and hand them over to the communities that have been so kind, generously embracing us and bringing us into their world, helping us understand the things that are truly culture free and bind us together.
Bill