It's here! Our final blog post you have all been waiting to see!
In the final days of the project, our team was truly put to the test. There was tons of work to do: painting, digging trenches, filling trenches, mixing concrete, building shelves and installing counter tops, installing windows, making the door frame, cleaning. And on top of that, our entire team rotated in and out of getting the inevitable travel-induced sickness. We had rain delays, delivery delays, and of course the normal project hiccups to be expected. We didn't have the option to work late as the coffee farm closed at 5 pm daily. The pressure was on to make this kitchen a reality, but it was very important for us to remember to do the job safely and to make it the highest quality possible.
Team Guatemala rose to the challenge!! There were a few finishing touches that was left to the contractors to finish the following week after we left, but we got to see everything come together! All the shelving and counter tops complete, the appliances installed, the windows and coverings installed, the water tank structure complete with running water, gray water system functioning. It was the best feeling. We were all so emotionally attached to our building that we had been working on since last August, we were ready to move in.
The client community was happy and we were informed that our kitchen would soon be used to aid in the relief efforts to feed the victims affected by the eruption of Volcan de Feugo. To make a direct impact on a tragedy we had experienced with the community was incredibly fulfilling. And on top of that, some of our team members who stayed an additional week in Guatemala for personal travel were able to go to the community day with the garden!
Now Garden of Hope has teaching kitchen they can use for years to come to expand their efforts in their trauma programming with EFTC and bring comprehensive nutrition education to their community.
Thank you all SO MUCH for your support throughout this project. I think I can speak for the team to say it was so much more than I could ever dream it to be! And none of it would be possible without all of you.
To close out, we all wanted to share some of our favorite memories from the trip.
"My favorite memory was happening every single day. Every time we made jokes, everyone I got to have long conversations with, and everybody on site who I saw working so hard to get this project done... It was the best group of people I have ever worked with and they are my favorite memory from this trip"
- Andrea
" For the entire 10 month duration of the PUC program, our team made a weekly effort to share our "highs" and "lows" during each group meeting. Essentially, each team member took a minute to share with the group the positive and not-so-positive moments we experienced that week. During the school year, we were only able to share once per week and typically discussed our worries for upcoming exams...However in Guatemala, we shared highs and lows at the dinner table every single evening. Instead of discussing academics, we were able to debrief the events of the work day, share funny moments from the site, show appreciation for a teammate's hard work, and even openly discuss conflicts as they came up. 20 minute dinners stretched into hours of stories, jokes, laughs, tears... These nightly talks were the best part of the PUC experience, and I know that I walked away from every meal with a better understanding and love for the people around me."
-Nico
" Our project was located on a large coffee farm. This property is huge and houses many various programs - such as the Garden of Hope (our client community), two schools, an equestrian facility, and a coffee museum. This created a unique framework of relationships between these parties that our team truly did not fully understand before arriving in country. My favorite memories are from the tours we took of the farm and the schools that helped us understand the impact of our project and what our project meant for these communities. Further, being able to interact with the students directly during community days made us so excited for the potential our kitchen would bring in the coming years. Everyone in this community is so kind and helpful. Those are definitely some of the best memories I have of the project. "
-Sabrina
"I was fortunate enough to be present for Garden of Hope's Community Day a week after we finished the kitchen, and seeing the kitchen be used for the first time by elementary school students from the School of Hope was my favorite part of the trip. Seeing the happiness on the students' faces as they cut vegetables and made a snack brought purpose to a year of design, construction and thousands of dollars. It was fulfilling to know that we had built something that the community needed and would use for years to come. Nothing good comes easy, but on that day I saw that our hard work was worth it."
-Ethan
"My favorite memory was during meal times and working at the project site. Work had its highs and lows, and we had a rough start to the project in the first few days, but I remember one time in the later weeks. I was coming back from a break to the project site. When I arrived, everyone had broken up into sub-groups, functioning like a well-oiled machine. They were talking to each other, jamming out to music, and it felt like a family project in a way. At dinner time, this feeling of camaraderie was strengthened. People shared stories, opinions/viewpoints, jokes, insights, and we got to know so much more about each other than any other student group could. It was also super fun getting to know our tech advisor, Ken, our cultural guide, Bindy, and the albaniles and ayudantes (Isias, Luis, Guillermo, and Tomas) at lunch time. "
-Oriana
" It’s hard to choose a favorite day, but one that stands out is the day the roof went up. During our second week on-site, “the roof” was an aspirational but elusive goal; we thought we’d have it up by Monday, Tuesday at latest. As the week wore on, progress was buffeted by seemingly everything, from material shortages to Mother Nature and her rainy ways. Nonetheless, with ingenuity and flexibility, we persevered. On Friday, walking back from our community engagement activity at Antigua Green School, I saw the glimmer of lamina sheets from the top of our kitchen. The roof was up! And as soon as it was, the progress on the rest of the building suddenly became clear to me. I’d been so caught up in one part of the project I almost forgot to appreciate the big picture. I left the site that Friday with a feeling I won’t forget soon :D"
-Parth
"I think my favorite memory would have to be running through the rain when it started hailing and thunder storming with the kids of EFTC and bonding with them though that frightened and exciting moment and then doing our best through Spanish to keep their attention and explain the activities. Then they all wanted to eat the marshmallows after building, but then they got so engaged in the cornstarch goop project. The kids were walking around explaining it back to us. I am so grateful they got to take a bit of fun home!"
-Liz
"My favorite memory from the trip was our first morning in Guatemala. We woke up after traveling the whole day to a beautiful breakfast in the middle of the homestay. The sun was shining through the open roof. We were all SO excited to get to the job site and meet our partners. We ate breakfast at 6:30am, but we all had so much energy. Then Ethan walks into the room saying that he woke up and was feeling so good that he was carried by birds like in the movies. Everything was so new and exciting. Looking back, it was definitely the calm before the storm. But it was also the moment that I realized that we made it. After all of the hard work we had put in, I was in Guatemala with the best team I have ever had the privilege to be part of."
-Megan
"One of my favorite memories for out trip was when out community engagement team got caught in the rain with the kids right before we were about to start out engineering lesson. We had to crawl under a fence because it was pouring so hard we did have time to get a key, then we even had to leave the covered outdoor gym because the noise of the rain hitting the roof was too loud to talk over. While we were relocating (again!) to inside a class room, there was so much rain outside that the gutters were buckling! When we were finally inside, everybody was laughing and so full of energy that only getting caught in the rain can give you, creating the prefect start to our "goop" making lesson!"
-Sarah
"Favorite memory of the trip... that's a hard one! One of my favorite things we did was push the limits of caffeine addiction with the coffee squad. Some might (falsely) say there were too many trips to get a fresh cup (or whole thermos) of coffee at La Azotea or La Parada. But I look back on those moments as the foundations of solid friendships and long lasting coffee dependencies!"
-Aparna
THANK YOU!!!!
PUC Guatemala 2018