In the wee hours of the morning on Thursday we packed up the Dewester (and the Chata) and headed high into the Guatemalan Highlands to the land of Tejutla, San Marcos, 5 hours away, where ADU inaugurated their 21st purified water system in Guatemala!
For a couple of months now, Ben has been making occasional trips to go check on the progress of the construction and the big day had finally come. Yipee! The date fortunately coincided with my break after my last team of the year and I too was able to road trip!
With Dani as my co-pilot (and Ben & Otto in the Chata) we slipped out of Antigua before the sun had come up. A couple of hours later, we arrived in Xela where we breakfasted at Mac (or McDonald's as you may call it), per Juan & Alejandro's request. After that we hopped back in the cars for 2 more hours of road tripping fun, through small towns on winding roads.
At long last, around noon we arrived at our destination, the quaint town of Tejutla. The ADU crew got to work quickly putting the final touches on the system while Alejandro and I took a stroll around town.
While we were out they piped a bunch of water into the cistern.
And Alejandro and I did a little of our own poking around and made a couple of fun discoveries. Auto Pan, a bakery on wheels. It's awesome to me that we live in a country where having bread (or tortillas) everyday is so important that there is actually a van that travels from town to town, selling the goods. I should have told the guy he can park outside my door any day!
And Chyna-Pizza, a combination that could never be good - no matter how you slice it up.
When we got back, Dani needed help filling the botellitas (little bottles) for the inauguration. It doesn't seem like hard work, but it certainly wasn't easy.....I've got a thumb blister to prove it.
The system will be operated by a church partner that also runs a Christian school. It's a pretty neat place. Tejutla is a rather small town, and growing up in a small town I know best that often times there isn't much to do, but this church has solved that problem. Every afternoon they charge Q1 to anyone who wants to come in and use their basket/futbal facilities. They pump up the musica and the people come....in swarms. Check it out.
So naturally they have the perfect captive audience for the water system too. I just know this one is going to be a great success. Before we were able to head to our lodging (such a cool place, just you wait and see) there was still more work to be done. I took charge of unwrapping the tricycles that will be used to deliver bottles of water all over town. I got quite a bit of help from some curious locals too.
Ben would give his right arm to own one of these things. We'd have so much fun, cruising to the market together (me perched on a pillow in the big front basket!).
After all the work was completed late in the afternoon, we packed back into the cars to go "check-in" at our "hotel," 2 adorable little cabins set high on the hillside outside of town in a huge conference/sports complex. Unfortunately it was dark so I didn't get any photos of the cabins, but they were cute and the surroundings were great.
We barely had time to put our feet up before heading back into town for the inauguration. The church was great. It was such a special day for them and they decorated the facility accordingly. The greeter ladies even wore matching outfits. I wonder if they had them special made in that ADU-blue shaded fabric?
These 2 make up the ADU technical team. Dumb & Dumber!
Tejutla Inauguration from Krista on Vimeo.
The following day was Free Water Day at the system. Each family from the church received 1 shiny new garafon for free. Everyone else could purchase them for Q30.
Adelí, the encargada, got her workout that day for sure!
Judging from the crowd outside the window, this system is going to be quite popular.
3 cheers to clean water! Hip, Hip, Hooray!
1 comment:
Dios los Bendiga por tan valiosa empresa
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