Today we finally traveled to the village of Saqib to start the stove project. We drove about 45 minutes outside of Coban up a windy road to this secluded village of about 370 people. When we arrived, the people of Saqib were standing outside to greet us. We all gathered into their community center, a cozy concrete building in the center of the village, for a welcoming ceremony. After the children sang the Guatemalan national anthem for us, one of the community leaders stood up and said, “We are thankful for our visitors. We do not know where they come from, how far they traveled or how they got here, but we are thankful they got here safe. We do not speak the same language but we have the same God and can pray together."
Hearing these words calmed the anxiety that I was carrying with me: being the Americans who came in to a village who did not need or want our “help.” But the excitement and gratitude was overflowing. One of the eldest women in the community spoke and thanked us for bringing this project to their village and so that their children could be healthy.
Our group split into three teams of four, making sure each had a Spanish speaker and a Q'eqchi speaker who could help translate. The Q'eqchi speakers were men who work for Lola, the Guatemalan company who designed the stoves we were building. Over the course of the day (which we really only worked a little over half of due to the welcoming ceremony), we were able to install 10 new stoves in the village of Saqib. That means 10 families were able to cook dinner in a smoke-free home tonight; 10 families will go to sleep breathing in cleaner air; dozens of kids have less risk of developing respiratory illnesses.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a father more excited to welcome someone into his home as Miguel…
Or a mother more anxious to pour oil on a stovetop and start flipping tortillas as Rosario…
Or a mother more humbly appreciative for a gift from strangers than Aralia…
Or a father more willing to help build a healthier home environment for his family than Carlos…
And you just can’t help falling in love with such beautiful people…
as Sandra and Danny.