Guatemala - Living Water International May 2013: Water wells and hygiene classes and Love in action

In May, I was back in Guatemala for a week of vacation with Living Water International to drill a water well, give hygiene classes, and share a love that I’ve learned through understanding and knowing Jesus and His love for mankind.  I was back in the same area of Guatemala, called La Máquina, with the same drill leader (Manolo) as last time.  This trip was the same routine as last year – driving from the main city of Antigua on Sunday after church for 5 hours until we reached La Máquina where we would wake up Monday morning at 4:45 am to start drilling and teaching in the community.  This trip was also, though, very distinct on numerous levels.

WHO IS LIVING WATER INTERNATIONAL?

I’ll start with briefly describing the purpose of Living Water International, a Christian non-profit organization based out of Houston (www.water.cc).  Living Water International (LWI) exists to, first and foremost, spread the Good News – the Gospel – of Jesus Christ to those in need.  They do that by helping empower North Americans to travel abroad and meet a physical need (of water) while also not forgetting the spiritual need that is so much needed throughout the world – to know God and understand what he really did through Jesus Christ, and let Him cleanse and transform you for His greater purposes.  LWI focuses on Jesus Christ being the living water for us, a water that never runs dry and that quenches all thirst.

REMEMBER YOU CAN CLICK ON PICTURES AND THEY ENLARGE.

Living Water also empowers locals in their native countries to be a part of this movement.  LWI is located in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia.  Guatemalans are employed to lead the Gringos (another term for Americanos) on these trips, helping us to help their people.  This year, the hygiene leader was Blanca, a spunky and very motivated Guatemalan woman who was born in Antigua, Guatemala.  The drilling assistant was Manuel, also from the city of Antigua, who just started with Living Water a few months ago and speaks almost no English (but he’s quickly learning!).  Then there’s Manolo, the drill leader who was born and raised in the countryside of Guatemala – right in La Máquina! 

Some of the PVC tubes used in the final stages of drilling the well.  These go deep into the ground.

MEET THE GRINGOS!

Last year I went on my first LWI trip without knowing anyone, but this year I had the privilege of traveling with 2 of my closest girl friends.  One is Kim, my girl from Dallas, who I met when I lived there for Milwaukee Tool in 2010.  Also, Melissa, my friend from the beautiful island of Bermuda, was part of this trip.  You may remember Melissa from a 2012 blog post when I ran in the Bermuda Day Half Marathon, blazing the island with Milwaukee red (jerseys) while running with a bunch of Bermudians from one end of the island to the other.  Kim and Melissa both met me in Miami, and we were able to fly together down to Guatemala and serve side-by-side on this trip! 

From left to right: Melissa, me, Kim!

Also on the trip were a mother and her son from San Francisco, a father and his son from Wyoming, and then 3 business owners/fathers - 2 from Wyoming and 1 from Minnesota.  Ryan Kotula, the owner and CEO of Northern Tool, is from Minnesota and decided to go on this trip when he ran into his friend, Ryan Igo of Igo Construction, on a vacation in Grand Cayman Island last year.  I’m not sure exactly how the father and son from Wyoming or the other Ryan (also from Wyoming) decided to go on the trip, but they all knew each other and were connected in some way.  They are involved in the oil drilling up in Wyoming, so the water well drilling sparked an extra interest in them.  So do you think, with the owner of Northern Tool on the LWI trip to Guatemala, that I was able to not talk about tools for a week?  Haha, no.  It’s ok though, luckily Ryan Kotula and Northern Tool are big believers in Milwaukee tools…it was all positive conversation.  Also on the trip was Sarah, a lady about my age who works at the LWI Headquarters in Houston, who was on my trip last year, so that was great to be with her again!  Needless to say the group was diverse – 4 young women (3 single…Sarah’s married), 2 pairs of parent/child, and 3 other grown men.

Some of the guys drilling.

IN THE COMMUNITY

We drilled in Community C-2.  Last year I was in C-6.  The communities are all in a line along the 2 major rivers in this area of the country, so they are just simply named C-1, C-2, etc.  We drilled the well at the future site of a clinic.  C-2, four years ago, had a well drilled at their primary school, and they had now requested that one be drilled about 1 mile down the road (remember the communities are literally in a line – one road – along a river) at the future site of the clinic.  We arrived, introduced everyone, prayed together (in Spanish and English) and the drill team got to work.  I, not by choice, was on the hygiene squad for this trip.  I will be honest when I say how reluctant I was, but 1 of the 3 of us (Kim, Melissa, myself) had to be on Hygiene, and Kim and Melissa wanted to drill since it was their first trip.  I had drilled last year, and so I agreed to hygiene.  The water well is the highlight and the ‘cool’ part of the trip, so I prayed for humility and a positive attitude and for God to really use me on Hygiene.  Honestly, from here moving forward I will always do Hygiene.  I LOVED IT!  I was honestly in my element, and of course hygiene is where I should be.  With my corazón latino (Latin heart) and passion for the culture and speaking Spanish…and the fact that I think I will someday be a teacher…of course I should be on the hygiene side…duh!  That is where my passion and talent is best-served.  It was awesome…spending time with the children and explaining simple hygiene concepts and facts that we take for granted, having snack and recess with them, talking to them about their families, praying with them, walking them home at the end…it was all such a blessing.  Like Debbie (the San Francisco mom), Sarah, and Blanca said – we felt like we got more out of it than the children!  Two examples of what we taught are the following:



Flies are dirty.  When we do not use bathrooms or latrines or the ‘pits’ in the ground to go potty and poop, flies eat the poop and then can enter our houses (or outdoor kitchens) and land on our food, contaminating our food.  That’s why it’s important to 1. Cover your food and 2. Defecate in the proper places.

Here is the hygiene team, modeling how to properly use the water well (me).

Many things can turn the clean water from the new well being drilled into contaminated water.  1. Animals roaming around the well. 2. A dirty bucket. 3. Not covering the bucket of clean water. 4. Animals drinking out of the clean water in the bucket.  We guarantee that the water in the well is clean when it comes out, but we need to take care of the well and keep the area clean and use caution when pumping out  water.  

Chicas bailando!  Girls dancing!  We were on a little break, stretching and dancing around.

In the morning we had 150 students from grade 1 to grade 5, and in the afternoon we had 20 middle schoolers and a few women from the village.  We used lots of visuals to make the teaching more real and to keep their attention. 

We used a fake rubber fly, Play-Doh, and glitter to show how easy it is for germs to spread.  The fly landed in the Play-Doh (poop) that had glitter (germs) on it, then the fly went and landed on people’s hands and people’s food, spreading the glitter (germs) everywhere it went.

We also taught on how to treat diarrhea.  We used an empty Gatorade bottle with a face painted on it to represent a child.  There was a hole in the bottom, and we showed clean, clear water leaking out (represents healthy pee), then added a little dirt and shook it up in the bottle (representing a sickness internally) with the dirty water leaking out (diarrhea).  Then we showed what happens when you take diarrhea medicine (it clogs up the hole and the contaminated stuff in your body does not flush out) versus what happens when you just let the diarrhea run its course while still hydrating with a simple ORS (Oral Rehydration Solution) of salt/sugar/water (essentially Gatorade…which keeps you hydrated and eventually cleans you out).  Dehydration is one of the most common ways that children die in underdeveloped countries.  We ended by giving them all a double-sided plastic spoon that shows the correct sugar:salt ratio to put in one glass of water. 

These are just some of the lessons.  We also ended every lesson with a story or parable from the Bible.  We did a little bit of dancing and singing, too (thanks to Milwaukee Tool for allowing me to bring my battery-powered radio that plays an iPod!), as well as lots of time in the hot, sweltering sun teaching children how to throw Frisbees and blow bubbles for the first time in their lives.  And of course, lots of fútbol (soccer).  The children humbled us all: their appreciation for us playing with them, their respect for our belongings and the crate of balls and toys we brought (they would gather together and peer in the crate and get excited, but not take anything), their need for love and attention (sometimes lacking at home due to typically large families…among other reasons), and their willingness to be in school and to learn and to want to participate in what they’re being taught.  Needless to say, the children captured my heart.  And, I hope, gained knowledge from the hygiene lessons and felt the love of Jesus through the Bible verses and stories and time we shared together.

ONE REASON LIVING WATER INTERNATIONAL STOOD OUT TO ME

I’ll share one brief reason why LWI stood out to me when I started doing my research on organizations last year.  It’s one thing to go and do a good deed, whether in the U.S. or traveling to an underdeveloped country, and leave feeling fulfilled because you met a need and made an impact and were also most likely humbled and changed.  But sometimes you don’t know if the work you did will stay long-term.  Now, there’s an element of faith that plays a role, where you don’t question everything and take steps in faith when making a decision.  But, it is also necessary to use your wisdom, common sense, and due diligence.  I had heard about many well-drilling organizations that do not follow up after drilling a well somewhere in the world, and the wells dry up, break down, sometimes within months, and the physical need you went to meet was terminated.  LWI has maintenance teams in every country who go around to already-drilled wells and maintain them.  Sometimes they break down, and sometimes the aquifer that was drilled into did not have as much water as anticipated (usually aquifers will hold enough water to last for over 50 years).  One project the LWI Guatemala Maintenance Team is doing right now is going around and changing older wells from galvanized pipe to PVC pipe.  They recently found that the iron content in the water was a bit too high, so they’re changing all of the piping.  Now, it’s sometimes a really good thing in these underdeveloped areas of the world to have water with high iron content in it as iron is hard to come by in some of their common foods, but it’s more important to understand how the people will react.  The high-iron water tastes funny, therefore the people will assume it’s not pure and clean anymore, and they tend to go back to their old, shallow wells that taste better but that are contaminated.  The maintenance team in Guatemala is currently fixing this issue, while a Guatemalan woman working on the LWI hygiene team spends that week in the same village, teaching more hygiene to the women and children while their well is being maintenanced.  Instead of just forcefully telling these people to drink the water whether it tastes funny or not (which they could do because it’s not contaminated, but we know they won’t because it simply tastes ‘not right’ to them), LWI meets them where they’re at, changing galvanized pipe to PVC pipe, knowing that this will ensure more people using the well with the pure water.

This is one of my favorite pictures of taken with me in it - ever.  We were walking the 1.5 miles straight down the dirt road from the drill site at one end of the town to the elementary school on the other.

MANOLO’S STORY

I’d like to share a bit about Manolo’s testimony.  Manolo is 29 years old and was born and raised in La Máquina.  He grew up getting sick and witnessing friends and family getting sick because of drinking the contaminated water.  About 4 years ago, Living Water came to his community – C-2 – to drill a water well at the elementary school. This would be the first Living Water well and first guaranteed, deep well that would be drilled in C-2.  He was one of the local guys helping out the Gringo team and Guatemalan drillers employed with LWI.  He inquired with the drill leader, Jaime, about getting a job with LWI.  Jaime, who was and still is currently the director of Living Water International of Guatemala, told him that they were not hiring anyone right then, but he gave Manolo his number and told him to call in a year because they may be expanding and need drilling assistants.  Well, about a year went by and Manolo was even debating moving to the United States, to find work and better support his Guatemalan parents and siblings from afar in the ‘land of opportunity.’  But, this didn’t happen and one day he decided to randomly call Jaime.  Eventually, Manolo was hired as an assistant drill leader to Jaime!  Manolo knew no English, but that changed quickly.  Four years later, in June of 2012, Manolo became a drill leader, leading a team of Americanos, using the English he slowly but successfully learned through those 4 years and also using the knowledge of drilling and the drill rig and the earth that Jaime had diligently trained him in.  Without going into too much detail as I do not know the complete story, Manolo will tell you that working for Living Water was the best thing that ever happened to him.  His relationship with his parents, notably his father, improved immensely, and he got out of a job he was doing in Guatemala for outlaws who used violence and people at their expense.  He has said that he went from sometimes having a gun in his hands and witnessing terrible evil to leading groups of North Americans to selflessly serve and meet a need among his people.  God truly plucked him out of darkness and placed him on a solid rock, through Living Water.  Last year, on my first trip, I was a part of Manolo’s second-ever group where he was the lead driller.  It was neat to see him as a leader with his Guatemalan people, especially to see him this year in his own community where he grew up, C-2.  The way he spoke from the heart on our last day in C-2 during the well dedication ceremony – speaking about how grateful we, the North Americans, were for the hospitality of the community all week, how grateful he was to his people for showing love and patience to him through all of his years living there (on his off-weeks, he still goes home and lives in C-2 and will now use the water from this new well as it is about 50 meters from his parents’ farm), and finally how grateful he was to God for providing this opportunity to work for Living Water and more specifically to be able to drill in his community surrounded by his family.  God is using Manolo to touch the lives of both his Guatemalan people and countless groups of Gringos that come and go throughout the years.  Needless to say, if Manolo ever decides to get a visa from the Guatemalan government and travel for the first time to the United States, he will have people welcoming him into their homes from all over the country. 

That's Manolo, in the  blue t-shirt.

GOD IN THE DETAILS, PIECING EVERYTHING TOGETHER

Now that you know about the North American group I was with, know about the community, and about Manolo, I want to share how the details all fit together beautifully.

So, I really feel that many things worked together for the good of Manolo’s community in a way that is more profound than your typical LWI trip.  First of all, Manolo being able to drill in his own community was an encouragement for the entire community being united on a deeper level than before.  It touched our hearts in a deeper way to witness this.  Ryan Kotula, the owner of Northern Tool, and Ryan Igo, the owner of Igo Construction, saw a need they could meet with their resources  – Mr. Kotula in relation to Manolo’s family and Mr. Igo in relation to the children of the village.  They found out that I would be returning to Guatemala in July for work, so they asked if I could be a deliverer of some stuff for C-2.  The fact that almost no child has a soccer ball in the community will be changed, because Ryan Igo shipped 40 soccer balls to my Miami apartment that I deflated and brought to Guatemala in July.  Then, Ryan Kotula saw the need Manolo’s father had for a set of hand tools on their farm, so he had me pick up a big tool chest from the Northern Tool in Miami and take it down to Guatemala.  These 2 Ryans also discussed helping to fund the clinic that C-2 is currently raising funds to construct.  I’m not sure of the progress on that, but knowing that those who have resources and desiring to use them for those who do not have is serving like we are called to – like we are expected to.  Ryan Igo talked about raising funds for C-2 in a few short months to fund the entire clinic – funds that would take the C-2 community over 3 years to raise (typically in these situations, the people will save some money, do some building of the clinic, save some money, do some more building…and it takes years to complete a project).  It is not often that CEOs and owners of U.S. businesses go on these trips.  But the fact that a much greater physical need than a well was needed on this trip is no coincidence and men with these resources were placed on this trip.

“ … From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”  -Jesus (via Luke 12:48 in the Bible).

Manolo has dedicated the last 4 years of his life to Living Water, traveling back and forth with Americans week after week, being away from his family most of the time, coordinating and preparing communities to receive the well-drilling and hygiene-teaching teams.  It has gone full circle because not only does Manolo’s community of C-2 now have 2 wells, but they have received some physical necessities (tools, water, potential financial assistance with the clinic) due to people on the team who have the resources to meet those needs and felt compelled to give out of their abundance.  And what a blessing it is to have my job where all I do is fly, so I could check 4 huge suitcases full of soccer balls and tools and other necessities - free of charge.  And just the fact that I went back to Guatemala for work 6 weeks after this LWI trip was pretty awesome timing.  Lastly, while I just mentioned so many physical needs met, the interaction of Guatemalans and North Americans hugging and playing soccer together and listening to each other and praying for each other has so much purpose – it brings joy where there is sometimes sadness, it brings light where there is sometimes darkness.  We are truly humbled to remember everything we have in the U.S., physically, and so many times we are also humbled to see the faith that some of these people live on because they don’t have all of the physical stuff and all of the distraction we have that turns our eyes off what is important – love, a selfless serving love that is perfectly displayed in the life and death of Jesus Christ:

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” –Jesus, via John 15:13.

 In conclusion, I write all of this not to say “go drill a well and go do some good deeds and you’ll get to heaven.”  God is not keeping a tally of our good deeds that will be weighed on our deathbed to determine what we deserve after we pass.  Jesus came as a sacrifice for mankind – to take the place for all of the imperfection we have.  We don’t work on perfecting ourselves – we simply surrender to this truth that brings freedom to our lives.  We don’t do good expecting something in return (whether you think it’s karma or blessings or self-gratitude or your ticket to heaven) – we do good because we simply want to and feel compelled to.  Whether it’s listening to a lonely person open up, or walking a 5k while raising funds for breast cancer research, or helping your next door neighbor, or crossing the U.S. border to serve in another country – let’s serve out of pure love, without expectations, understanding that a perfect Love was displayed in Jesus.  Then, if details like free soccer balls or tools fall into place, we celebrate even more.

C-2 Living Water Guatemala Drilling Team, May 2013

Thanks for reading, everyone!  Love you all!
-Anna Banana

Yah mon! Jamaica mon!

Yah mon!  No kidding – that is what they say, males and females, to each other in Jamaica…all the time…in every conversation.  Earlier this year I was promoted into a new role with my traveling sales job, and I acquired a few more countries under my sales territory: Aruba, Curacao, Suriname (NOT an island!), and Jamaica.  I’ve been to Kingston, Jamaica, a few times now, and it has really grown on me!  It’s a tough market for business and you have to be careful in the city of Kingston, but I have been pleasantly surprised in many ways.   Geographical note: ‘toursity Jamaica’ is a 4 hour drive on the other side of the island – Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.  Kingston is the capital and the heart of the business there.  Here are some experiences I’ve had thus far:

WATA, not WATER.  I don’t think there’s a soul in Jamaica who pronounces ‘water’ like we would in the States.  It sounds like ‘wa – ta.’  And to top it off, the biggest water & juice bottling company is called Wata!  It’s very common in Jamaica to drink ‘Cran Wata’ instead of bottled water or juice.  I enjoy not-so-sweet beverages, so I really like it because it’s like watered-down cranberry juice or Gatorade.  Here is a picture of some Cran Wata (pronounced “crahn wah-tah”):

My first trip = Bob Marley’s birthday.  As much as I love culture, the fact that Bob Marley’s birthday fell on my first day in Jamaica back on a trip in January did NOT, unfortunately, mean I was able to experience any of the parades or festivities that were going on there.  He’s an icon on the island, and there were a few events and tributes to celebrate him, but I played it safe in my hotel that night.  I had my share of Marley’s music, though, during the day in the taxi.  All they played on the radio was Bob Marley – sounds like the Jamaica we might think of, huh?!  Well, I’m sure my Jamaican customers and taxi guys would want you to know that Bob Marley is NOT all they listen to.  Here is a song I heard on my most recent trip, last week, and I really like it.  It’s by a Reggae artist called Sizzla.  It has a unique sound to it, using some sort of African maracas (according to my taxi driver) in the background.  Just click the link to listen:

Jamaica Jerk Chicken is NOT always spicy.  That’s right – ‘jerk’ is a way of cooking the chicken, not just the spicy sauce they put on the top.  I went to the well-known Scotchies Restaurant in Kingston with my customer on my January visit, and they explained that jerk chicken is cooked on real pimento logs from the pimento trees, and it takes on that ‘smoky’ flavor while they add seasonings during the cooking process.  If you add the spicy sauce to the top of your chicken at the table, it is still called jerk, but there’s another name for the sauce itself.  Maybe double jerk chicken...I can't remember.  Here are some photos of the chicken being cooked on the logs and also the meal with a myriad of sides (plantain, fried dough, etc) (Note that you can always click this pictures to see the images closer-up):

Socacise Exercise Class – too advanced for my own good:  On my trip to Kingston in March, I stayed at a Wyndham hotel.  It is not my favorite, but one perk is that it has a huge gym connected to it where locals pay to use it, and there’s an exercise room to hold classes.  Well, I got off the treadmill and decided to go up by the weights and the exercise room to stretch.  I peeked in the room because the music was BOOMING.  It was full of Jamaican women dancing to Soca music with an instructor.  If you’ve ever heard Soca music, you’ll know what I mean by BUMPING.  It’s this really, really fast-paced Caribbean music that is similar to the Latin ‘merengue’ style of music, but faster and more spontaneous.  It’s all over the islands and I, therefore, have heard many, many, many Soca songs over the past 2.5 years.  Some of it is a bit vulgar, but some is really funny and good and has actually grown on me!  It’s different than your Caribbean calypso music that’s laid-back with steel drums that you hear on a cruise or at the beach bar in the sand.  It’s very fast-paced and you jump around…if your joints are in working order and you’re nimble enough, you can do actual moves, like they were doing in the class.  But LET ME TELL YOU – that was OUT OF MY LEAGUE!  Please know that I am NOT a two left-footed girl with no rhythm.  I’ve taken lessons and am an OK salsa/bachata/merengue dancer…but Soca?  Forget about it.  I was one of the youngest in the room, and whether it mattered or not I was the lightest-toned skin in the room, and I looked horrible.  These older Jamaican women were busting it up in there!  Haha, and the annual Carnival celebration (that goes on throughout every island of the Caribbean one week / year) was coming up, so everyone was getting ready to dance in the streets for that.  Sometimes I just stood there and watched because the instructor was moving her hips or shaking her boo-tay so fast that I couldn’t even tell what the move was.  Everyone else followed her fine, but WHEW not this Americana!  It was cultural, to say the least, and I’m glad I tried it!!  They told me to come back next time, but I didn’t feel comfortable making any promises on that. 

Here's a picture of my FAVORITE Jamaican customer, Clover Thompson, who is the general manager at SCL Ltd.  She and I meet and sell power tools during the day, and she helps my loneliness at night by taking me to really neat restaurants around Kingston.  This is us after a Milwaukee/SCL Breakfast Workshop with contractors:

Well, before I go on and on, I’ll stop writing.  I’ll write about the language and accent in Jamaica (they speak English and Patois) next time..  Everyone have a wonderful day – and as they say in Jamaica – RESPECT!  (pronounced ‘res-peck’).

Bless up,

Anna Banana

Milwaukee Tool Latin American Summit - fishing with the Argentines, translating for the Venezuelans, and breaking language barriers!

Hi Everybody!

Whew, it's been ages since I've written, but here I am.  2013 has been off to a great start.  Three weeks into January, the Latin American Team (my team) for Milwaukee Tool had our FIRST ANNUAL LATIN AMERICAN SUMMIT!!!  Summit = cumbre in Spanish.  There's your word for the day.  We had customers in Miami from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.  Since my territory is a bunch of fairly small islands (and also the small country of Belize), I didn't actually have customers there, so my job for the week was to mingle with everyone and be there to educate on the product during information sessions, discuss our overall Latin American goals, and just share the Milwaukee love.  This was me in my element - conversing with people, getting to know them and their background, and putting that in a Milwaukee setting where I could be a bridge between Milwaukee and the customer on a very cultural level.  Milwaukee has only been heavily investing in the Latin American region for a couple of years, so it is important that the customers know where we're going, their significance to us, etc.  The highlighted task of my week was being able to break that language barrier!  You guessed it, I spoke Spanish most of the week.  There were a few customers there who did not speak any English, so I was able to both translate and interpret (which are different things).  There were alot of Milwaukee corporate people there, from the President to many of the Product Marketing experts, and most of them are Americans who live in Milwaukee and do not speak Spanish. 


The final night we had a dinner with about 70 of us in one big room, when I had already sat down and noticed that Cesar, a customer from Venezuela who didn't speak English, sat down at another table near the President, a couple of VPs, and a couple of 'Gringo'  product marketing guys.  I was thinking to myself, "Oh no, there is a language barrier to break!"  So I went to sit by Cesar the that table.  Sounds cheesy - I know - but that is what went through my head!  As I started to eat my salad, I told Cesar that I could interpret for him during dinner, and that bite of salad was practically the last thing I ate, because I was breaking language barriers for the next 2 hours!  It was intense, and I left the dinner both a little hungry and exhausted from thinking/speaking so much in both languages, but I loved it.  We did everything from talk to the VP of the Test & Measurement Tools about how the tools aren't selling well because Milwaukee T&M Tools don't come with cases (apparently Venezuelans want cases for their voltage detectors and fork meters) to discussing with the CFO - yes the CFO - about the Venezuelan exchange rate and how the U.S. Dollar was so devalued because of restrictions that Chavez was putting on importing.  It was intense, to say the least, but I really enjoyed it, and I think alot of issues/questions were cleared up during that dinner.

One of our 5 days at the cumbre (remember that's the Spanish word for 'summit') was a leisure day, and all of us Milwaukee team members were assigned a team to go with on a 50-foot fishing yacht for a deep-sea fishing trip.  They put me with the Argentines.  Let me tell you, the Spanish they speak in Argentina is a very different accent, one of which I really haven't been exposed to, so my brain was being challenged to understand their accent and colloquialisms, even though I would say I'm pretty fluent in Spanish.  And, I learned that I will never go deep-sea fishing again.  I tossed my breakfast up over the side of the boat 3 separate times.  I've never felt so nauseous in my life.  It was kite fishing and it was a windy day, and I guess that type of fishing tends to entail lots of boat-rocking.  I caught a couple of the Argentines 'tossing their cookies' too, so I wasn't alone :). The worst part was probably that we didn't catch a THING!  Oh well, they had fun and got to see Miami Beach from the ocean. 

Here is Team Milwaukee Argentina - we caught no fish :(

Here is the Milwaukee Latin American Fishing Team!  A few of the countries represented here: Puerto Rico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama.

PICTURE THIS: I'm sitting at a table eating lunch on the last day of the summit with 2 Argentines, a Mexican, 2 Ecuadorians, 1 Colombian, and Salvadorian, and a Guatemalan.  All speak Spanish (including me with my knowledge-base learned during my year in Spain), but all have different accents and different ways of saying things.  My adrenaline seriously was rushing, I remember clearly, when we were sitting there just chatting about the cultural differences from country-to-country.  We discussed how to say words like 'straw' in Spanish and phrases like 'Teacher's Pet' in Spanish, and it was seriously different in almost every country!  Usually the Ecuadorian understood the Guatemalan, but it was sort of humorous because that wasn't the word that he was use back in Ecuador.  I guess a small example would be an American hearing the word 'loo' for bathroom.  We may know what it means, but we'd never use it because it's an England English word. That's the kind of stuff I love, and it is what brings me so much joy through this demanding but amazing job. 

Overall, the week was really, really productive and beneficial for Milwaukee as far as training, explaining our long-term goals, and strengthening those relationships.  For me culturally - It. Was. Awesome.  I can't explain where this passion for the Latin culture and Spanish Language comes from.  I'm from a small, predominantly-white farm town in the rural Midwest, but I love and embrace the Latin Spanish culture and language.  It is truly a gift God has given me, to be able to speak the language well and then embrace the culture and take such an interest in its people.  And what a blessing to be able to use it in my job like I do.

Thanks for reading!  Hasta la proxima (See you next time)!!!

-Anna Banana

Guatemala - a cup of water in Jesus' name - and no power tools involved

I’ve finally made time to write about my trip to Guatemala with Living Water International. 

With an overload of traveling the Caribbean islands to sell power tools, my hands glued to my Blackberry, and vacation days in the bank waiting to be redeemed, I decided to go on my first service trip the last week of June, 2012.

My journey to Guatemala actually started 4 days before the service trip.  Back in May when I told my manager I was taking vacation days to go on this trip, he told me to talk to my co-worker, Roberto, who travels to Guatemala from his native Mexico and sells Milwaukee tools just like I do on the islands, and I was to ask Roberto if he needed any support in Guatemala the week prior to my trip.  If so, I should plan my trip to Guatemala to include the work and just expense my flight under my job, not having to incur that expense myself.  What a blessing!  It turned out Roberto was in need of some support from a co-worker (we are a team of 14 who cover the Caribbean, Central America and South America, and we sometimes travel to each other’s territories to help with events, merchandising, etc.).  I am extremely grateful to my manager for thinking of me in this way.

All packed and ready to go - soccer balls, frisbees, granola bars, bugspray, and a willing heart!

Why drill a water well?

I wanted to do something tangible and sustainable, involving manual labor (yes, Dad, you taught me hard work through all of the vacuuming and dusting and weeding the garden in my childhood). This came in the form of a water well.  Why did I choose Living Water International to go with?  Through a friend in Dallas I heard about Living Water International, read about his experience, and immediately started looking into it.  There were a few hiccups in the road throughout the process of doing research and praying that God would open a door where I would truly be making an impact and also be using my Spanish.  I came across some heartbreaking articles about organizations that would go in to countries to drill a well, but the preparatory research on the ground wasn’t done correctly beforehand, so communities were left with half-finished wells.   Or maybe the well was completed, but it wasn’t drilled into a deep enough aquifer that had plenty of water, so it dried up.  That’s what I wanted to avoid—that  short-term trip where you seem to ‘do something good’ and then leave the community to go back to life in the States while the work that you attempted to do actually failed.  I’m not saying these are worthless trips, because I’m sure both the group serving and the group being served are impacted, but not as long-term as should be.  I inquired with Living Water to see what they do to deal with this – when wells break down or dry up.  I received awesome feedback about Living Water’s Drill Maintenance teams who repair wells, whether drilled by Living Water or another organization.  Living Water local staff—Guatemalans, for example—who work for Living Water within their country of Guatemala, taking these groups of Americans on the trips, receive phone calls from all over the highlands and countryside of Guatemala from communities who have a well dried-up or broken, and they cannot get ahold of the party who initially drilled it.  So, Living Water goes in and repairs with their equipment and resources.  This is one way Living Water lives out their mission—to show the Lord’s love to all by serving all.  Living Water also sends groups of Americans in if there is a huge drill maintenance project in need of a big group for a full week.  Once I knew this, I decided to sign up and take a week disconnected from my job routine and serve with Living Water!

According to UN Water (http://www.unwater.org/), 1 child dies every 20 seconds because of inadequate sanitation.  1.8 million children die from diarrhea every year (more than armed conflict and terrorism combined).  884 million people lack access to safe water.  The issue is more than just the water itself.  Lack of access to clean water is an educational issue—children with waterborne parasites (e.g., roundworm, whipworm, and hookworm) cannot regularly attend school and fulfill their educations.  We all know what lack of education can mean in regards to future opportunities with careers, making a living, and achieving goals.    Lack of access to clean water is also a women’s issue because women in developing countries can spend up to 20 hours/week walking to collect water!  This time spent simply collecting water could be used for women to finish their education or spend more time with the children.  This time spent—for women, men, and children alike—on collecting water, is what contributes to a concept known as ‘time poverty,’ which also makes this an economic issue.  Those billions of hours annually spent on walking for water sacrifice precious time for families to make a better living, spend more time together, etc.  Solving the water crises means so much more than clean water on the table for dinner.  It opens doors to foster healthier and happier and more prosperous families around the world.

It’s important to note that we served not only through the drilling of this well, but also in giving hygiene courses in the community.  During the drilling process as part of our group is drilling, the other part is with our female Guatemalan hygiene teacher in classes where we gather the women and children to learn proper hygiene, teach Bible stories, do crafts, and foster a closeness that should happen between a mother and her child.  There are hygienic concepts we learn from little onwards that we take for granted.  When you’re not taught from a young age to wash your hands after using the bathroom, for example, you probably won’t do it much less teach your children the habit unless you’re taught how and why.  I think it’s important to note that while the community I was in had proper walls, roofs, and some electricity in most houses, there aren’t many houses with more than dirt floors.  Windows and doors (or doorways) are constantly kept open for air.  This means there’s even more of a need to develop good hygiene habits with all of the air, dirt, and bugs potentially inside the house.  A good example of a teaching is to give the example of a fly: flies are dirty because the ground is dirty and they are constantly landing on the ground.  So, when a fly lands on your food while cooking in pans or while eating from your plate, this is dirty and can cause sickness, so we must cover our food. While these concepts seem as common sense to us, they simply are not to everyone in this world.  I love this component of the water well drilling trip because it is not just the water well, it’s the Biblical principle of ‘teaching a man to fish.’  Not only will this community have clean water now, but women will feel more empowered to change their habits and those of their children in regards to cleanliness.   

  

A group of women and children who took part in the hygiene classes.

Why Living Water International and why Guatemala?

I had a few options of Central American countries to go to on this trip, and I randomly picked Guatemala.  There were options outside of Central America, but I wanted to go where I could use the Spanish language I speak fluently and love so dearly.  

Like in other countries in Central America, Africa, and also in India, there are local, indigenous staff who make their living working for Living Water in their countries.  What a powerful job, week after week taking different groups of ‘gringos’ (what Latin Americans call people from the U.S. – it’s nothing negative) to the highlands or the desert or the jungle of their native countries to work side-by-side serving those in need, watching privileged Americans be rocked and humbled by the need they see and the need they’re there to meet.  This decentralization of authority from Living Water staff back in the States empowers the field staff in their native countries to be more than just well drillers or tour guides; they become very self-sustaining, and they are able to bridge any cultural barriers between the local people and the visiting Americans along with take ownership in what they're doing for their countries, all in the name of the Lord.

Some of you may not know what is meant by 'living' water.  This is best described in the book of John in the Bible, where Jesus is at the well with a Samaritan woman.  Jesus asks the woman to draw him a cup of water.  Not only is the Samaritan woman surprised because a Jew is talking her (which rarely happened in this time), but also because Jesus has no cup with which to draw the water with, and he offers her 'living' water.

10 Jesus answered her, '"If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would not have asked him, and he would have given you living water."  
 11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.  Where do you get that living water?  12 Are you greater than our father Jacob?  He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock."
13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again.  14 The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
 -John 4:10-14 

This is one of many experiences that Jesus Christ had on this earth that pertain to all of mankind then and now - to teach us.  Jesus was not just thirsty for water, he was intentional in approaching that woman to start by discussing a physical need for water, a physical need that water will only sustain temporarily.  He shares about asking for living water, which is Him - who died on a cross to atone for the sins of the world - and that when you ask for living water (Jesus Christ in your life), you will never thirst.  For in Him, you find eternal life (life after earthly death).  These are some of the Bible verses that Living Water International uses to show why they exist, and this is me summing it up in my own words.  You can read more about Living Water International at http://www.water.cc/ or talk to me.  And you can read more about the life of the Jesus Christ - the Savior for all - in the most-read book in the world, the Bible!  

On Day 1 we were picked up at the Guatemala City airport by Jaime, the Guatemalan field director.  I was already in Guatemala City from work the week prior, so I shuttled away from the five-star Intercontinental Hotel filled with excitement to spend a week serving, being taught, sharing the love of Jesus Christ that I have within me, and receiving His love from others.  Jaime has been with Asociación Pozos Agua Viva de Guatemala (which is the Spanish name for Living Water Association of Guatemala) since 2002.  He brought us back to Antigua, the small city we stayed in for our first and last nights of the trip.  Do some research on Antigua when you get a chance – it’s a gorgeous city in the valley surrounded by 3 volcanoes, very cute cobblestone streets with Spanish-Baroque style architecture, a famous handicraft market, and a lot of character.  I didn't take alot of pictures, but here are some photos in and around Antigua (thank you to my group member, Veronica, for contributing some of these photos): 

One of the volcanoes from the central square of Antigua

Another one of the volcanoes, viewed from the rooftop of the house we stayed in on our first and last nights of the trip.

View from the rooftop of the house.

Typical cobblestone street in Antigua.

Church in Antigua.

My group of 10 gringos was from many different states (whereas oftentimes groups come together from one single church or school), so we all met each other for the first time and also met the rest of the Guatemalan team who would be with us  for the drilling and hygiene classes.  Manolo and Rudy were our drill team leaders, and Vivian (Vivi) was our hygiene class leader.  Jaime, the guy who picked us up at the airport, is the director over everything there and travels on a separate drill team to a different area of Guatemala than where we went.  They are all based out of Antigua.

That's Guatemalan Manolo and Rudy in the red cap.  Our drill experts...gracias, chicos!

Vivi and me, after our final dinner the night before flying home.  She does an amazing job giving the hygiene classes!

We woke up the next day, went to church and breakfast in Antigua, and started the 4 hour drive to La

Máquina, one of the regions of Guatemala where Living Water is currently focused on drilling water wells.  During the 4-hour drive is where I had an eye opener I’d like to share with you: 

The corrupt government in a third-world nation like Guatemala does not care about fixing the roads like we see in the U.S.  It was all-too-common to not only have to slow down and avoid pothole after pothole on these narrow, line-free roads, but you would see the impoverished who lived in the area patching up the potholes and begging for money.  Little kids would be standing in the middle of the roads with cars passing on either side, filling potholes with shovels in one hand and asking for money in the other.  This is how they make their living, their living to eat the next day, not to save for retirement or go shopping with.  It breaks your heart to see these things, and while you might stick your hand out the window to give them a dollar, you probably in your heart wish you could do more…but what?  Personally, seeing this humbled me and made me give thanks for growing up in a place where the government fixes potholes!  It also, for me being a Christian, moves me to pray, asking God to protect these families, alleviate their need for proper nutrition and care, and then truly remain humble through this and continue praying in FAITH that needs will be met – both physical and spiritual. 

"Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.  He made the storms be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed."  -Psalm 107:28,29

"Prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan." - John Bunyan 

Out of our van window on the way to La

Máquina.

The community we served in is called C-6.  In order to know where exactly these small communities are located (communities of about 200 families each), they are divided and named in lines, or ‘líneas’ in Spanish.  So there is Line A, Line B, Line C, etc., and within those lines are Line A-1, A-2, B-1, C-1, C-6, etc.  We stayed in a ‘hotel’ about 30 minutes from C-6.  I write ‘hotel’ in quotation marks because you cannot picture a Marriott, a Holiday Inn, or even a Super 8 Motel.  It was, I believe, where we should be staying when traveling like this, there to serve others: no air conditioning (and it was 90+ degrees), no drinkable water (we had ample bottled water), basic beds, no hot water and definitely no wifi.  But, with that said, we still were staying in a place that had nicer amenities than many houses there.  It crossed my mind while we were there “boy this is different, but why don’t we sleep in tents in the countryside or just on the floors of houses in the community (C-6) where we were serving?  The answer to that is probably safety.  The hotel was closed off to only us and it was surrounded by walls and barbed wire, so please know due diligence is done to keep us safe. But, though, I didn’t dare ask to get up and go out for a morning jog, because while I believe God is the Protector over us, we are given wisdom and common sense for a reason.  And to be honest that is a silly example because rest-assured there was no time or energy to consider going out for a 3-mile run!  There was a well to be drilled, hygiene classes to be taught, and love to be shown, all beginning at 5am. 

View of Hotel 6, our home for 4 nights, from the rooftop.

Women who worked at Hotel 6, making homemade tortillas for our dinners.  In Guatemala you eat tortillas at every meal!

I won’t get into too many details about the well drilling, but it was really interesting.  There was a drill rig, an LS300, owned by Living Water that we used to drill.  It took 5-foot long drill bits and used hydraulics to slowly drill a 6-inch diameter hole into the ground.  We took soil samples every 10 feet, and it was very interesting to see how the water tables change in each aquifer, and how they really do hold cleaner, purer water when you go deep down.  The deeper you go, you find less and less dirt and sand and muck and more and more limestone rock.  This means that the aquifer holds purer water.  Before Living Water entered these communities to drill, they just had hand-dug wells that went down about 50 feet, which does NOT contain clean water.  You must drill anywhere from 100-200 feet to find clean, pure, drinkable water.

Me in the assistant driller position, working the hydraulics, with Manolo teaching me.

Natalie, one of my group members, in the lead driller role, taking a soil sample.

Adding another 5-foot drill bit to push into the hole...a muddy mess that requires multiple people!

  
It was a process that took both Rudy and Manolo as well as at least 6 of us gringos.  One person is the drill assistant, standing on the rig controlling the levers (with Manolo’s help), one person is the drill leader, standing over the hole monitoring the drill bit going slowly into the ground, adding another 5-foot drill bit after the previous one makes it all the way in the ground and also taking a strainer to gather soil sample from the tip of the hole.  Now, it is not just drilling down into the hole.  Due to the soft Guatemalan soil, we had a moat system with two 4-foot deep square pits dug, so that we could pump water and a Bentonite clay in and out of the hole to keep the sides from caving in.  

The moat system we developed so that water/mud/Bentonite could flow up from the hole and circle around to keep constant pressure on the walls of the hole so it would not cave in.

The end of Day 2, after putting the PVC in the hole.  Almost finished!

After 2 days of complete drilling, we found the depth (110 feet) that was ideal for us to draw water from.  We put in PVC pipe with slits cut in it on the bottom, which served as a filter for the water.  We also slowly dropped tiny pebbles allllllll the way down to serve as a brace for the small gap between the PVC pipe and the walls of the hole.  For the latter half of Day 3, we didn't have the pump on yet, but we just ran the water (using compressors) out of the hole for hours to make sure it flowed well and to pump out all beginning impurities from the aquifer.

The girls had the job of doing 'water well dishes,' which was washing off the crusty mud and bentonite from all the tubes...yuck!  But it was fun :).  From left to right is me, Veronica (Dallas), Sarah (Houston), and Natalie (Dallas).

At the end of day 4 of 4, we lowered the final galvinized pipe into the hole.  That's where the purified water from flowing through the tiny pebbles, through the slits in the PVC pipe, and finally up through the galvinized pipe would come from.  We sealed off the well with the cover and the hand pump, and then I had the honor of using the pump for the first time to pump for about 10 minutes until water started to flow out!!! It was a BEAUTIFUL moment to see the water - clean, drinkable water - flow out of the well for the first time, and to see children and adults gather around to cup their hands underneath and drink pure water that would not make anyone sick - not even us gringos!  I took home to Miami with me a couple bottles of water from the well.  It was really powerful to be able to drink the same water as the local community without getting sick, because we had just spend the past 4 days drinking bottled water, brushing teeth with bottled water, and showering with our mouths closed.

Lisa and Sarah (both from Texas - Sarah works at Living Water International's headquarters in Houston), lowering the galvinized pipe into the hole.  That was HEAVY and required INTENSE communication.  Dropping it can cause bad injury and a very difficult process to retrieve it.

Attached the well cap before adding the hand pump. From left to right is Jason (Houston), Brady (Arkansas), Manolo, Rudy, and Sarah (LWI team leader).

The first water flowing from the pump!  ALL GLORY TO GOD!  What a POWERFUL moment this was.

It has been months, and the picture in my mind of the water coming from that well with the adults and children of the community gathering around is still so vivid.  For YEARS this community prayed for help with getting access to clean water.  For YEARS the adults have drank this water so often that their bodies have grown used to it while the children of the village have no option but to drink it to satisfy a thirst and then inevitably get sick because it was contaminated.

Some of the gringa volunteers with 2 girls from C-6.

Playing frisbee with the children - notice the orange frisbee toward the center of the photo.  Teaching them to throw and catch a frisbee was a blast!

We closed Day 4 with a dedication ceremony of the well, reminding them the water was for all and that they should no longer drink the water from wells in their homes.  We gathered together to pray for each other, give thanks (them to us and us to them), take photos, and say our goodbyes.  All of the sleepless nights in that little hotel and getting up at 4:30am, the 90+ degree weather with manual labor, the downtime we had to play with the kids (including teaching them to throw a frisbee for the first time), the ability for me personally to have conversations with the women of the village and also pray over some of the adults in Spanish.....all of it was a complete blessing.  As overly-grateful as the people of the C-6 community were, I think that we gringos received just as much blessing from this trip as they did.

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me.  And do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

It's inevitable - frisbee on the roof!  Everyone got a kick out of Shannon, the extremely tall white gringo, being able to step on a small chair and reach the frisbee.

Silly time with the beautiful little girls.  Beautiful princesses, inside and out.

I can't write words in this blog post to describe how blessed I feel to have been able to go on this trip. 
While we were there to meet a physical need of water and hygiene education, the focus was to love on others intentionally with the love of Jesus, loving not only with our words but with our actions.  While drinkable water is necessary to survive on this earth, the Living water of Jesus Christ is what sustains into eternity, cleansing mankind of his iniquities and filling him up with a joy that never goes dry.

WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE!

An unforgettable picture in my mind!

Teaching the children to blow and pop bubbles :')

This is Bryan, a little boy from C-6 who won all of our hearts.  His first time blowing bubbles!

 

The truck.

Americans and Guatemalans gather around the well, to celebrate a cup of water in Jesus' name.  Un vasito de agua en el nombre de Jesucristo.

The completed well!

View of Antigua from Cerro de la Cruz (when we spent our final day/night in Antigua before leaving Guatemala).

 THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!  MAY GOD TOUCH ALL OF OUR LIVES, WHETHER IN OUR HOMES, OUR JOBS, OUR CITIES, OR IN A REMOTE VILLAGE OF GUATEMALA.  TO HIM BE THE GLORY.

-Anna (Anita)