Would you like to make a tax deductible donation to my future projects?

Hello Fellow Blog Readers:

To those of you who are interested, I will be setting up an account that will allow you to make tax deductible donations to the projects I will be working on my second year. I will be spending my first year working on education. Then in my second year, I will determine families that are in need of a project in order for them to better their health. Projects could include, an improved cook stove, latrine, cement floor, water storage system, or drainage system. Criteria for recipients of projects will also be based on families dedication to the educational health talks that I will be giving and how great their desire is to better their health. More details to come concerning cost break down as it becomes available.

I am giving you a heads up so that you can start putting money away for this now if you so desire, maybe you have something you can give up and instead of spending the money you can send it towards a good cause. I will be setting up a fund when the time gets closer to begin my projects.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

5 gallon bucket


So today I decided to hang out at my house and get some cleaning done and just relax. I slept in and started my day with leasuire and so far it has been pretty relaxing. As I was working on my cleaning, I noticed how useful my 5 gallon bucket is so I decided to share that with you.

1.      1.  One of the most frequent uses for my 5 gallon bucket is to collect and wash my clothes. I use it as a dirty clothes basket and then when the amount of dirty clothes builds up, I either wash them myself or bring them to the lady that washes my. If I decide to wash them myself, which happens every once in a while, I add some powdered laundry soap and then water. I let my cloths soak for about a half an hour. After the half an hour, I take the bucket down to the pila and pull out pieces one by one and scrub them by hand with a bar of laundry soap. After they have been thoroughly, I rinse them out and then wring them out. After I all of my clothes are washed, I throw them back in the bucket and take them back up to my balcony and hang them up on my line. I have been told by my old host sister that I can’t wash clothes very well. I think I am doing pretty well for only having a year of experience compared to her 10.  

Most of my clothes however are not washed by me but I take a load weekly to a lady that lives down the street. She washes them for me in exchange for a small fee. There are women in the community that wash clothes for others to earn money. It is a very traditional society here in terms of gender roles. The women’s place is in the house and the man leaves to work and earn money for the family. The woman that washes my clothes has an alcoholic husband. He doesn’t work very much and when he does the money goes to buying alcohol, leaving little to nothing for the family of 7. She works odd jobs like washing clothes or dishes to earn money for to support her and her children. I don’t really want to wash my clothes all the time and if I can help this woman earn some money to support her family, all the better. 

2.      2.  The second use I have for the 5 gallon bucket is mopping the floor. I try to mop my floor weekly because I teach the importance of having a clean house and feel that I must practice what I preach. Things here just seem to get dirty a lot faster than when I was in the States. 

3.      3.  The third and final use for my bucket is for bathing. No, I don’t hop in the thing and wash myself but use it to hold the water that I pull out with a smaller dish to bathe. They don’t have big water heaters here but have a small device the more fortunate use to shower. I had one at my old place but am not as fortunate at my new place. The device is a larger shower head that heats the water that flows through it. I think I may have mentioned it before. Where I am now there are just shower heads but just the simple ones that you would find in an American home. I guess the landlord thinks that I like taking cold showers? So now instead of taking a cold shower, I heat up a big pot of water on the stove, pour it into my bucket and then add cold water to make it a comfortable temperature.  I take my soap and bucket to where the shower area is and use a small dish to pour the water over myself to bathe.

So yeah, my bucket comes in pretty handy for life here in Guatemala and for how useful it is, maybe I should have more than one. Happy Saturday everyone! God’s blessings!
Kelsey  

Friday, June 17, 2011

Link to pictures of my new place

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100105362834055.2528725.22423429&l=a635537032

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Finally!

So for those you who haven't heard, I moved! I was more than ready for it and am happy that it finally happened. I had given my number to the landlord and he said he would call when it was ready for me. Well, that never happened so I decided to call him and he told me that it was ready. That was the middle of May. I stopped over and talked to him and also to get a good look at the place to make sure that it was truly finished. I visited the place on Thursday and was hoping to move in that weekend but I opted to finish up the month with my host family as I had already payed for the month.

I moved my stuff on the 27th with the help of some co-workers from the health center. That's one thing I really like about everyone I work with, they are willing to lend a hand. I have accumulated lots of stuff in my year here. I remember coming into country with my two suitcases, now I think I have 3 times more stuff.

I went out Saturday and bought a new bed. The one I had before was a wood frame and a mattress pretty similar to a futon mattress. I was getting used to it but I am happy I made the purchase of my new bed, a whole lot roomier and much more comfortable.

So I was going to rent the three rooms on the back part of the house on the second level. He originally told me it would be 600Q a month but then upped it to 900Q a month so I opted for two rooms. One is the kitchen area and the other my bedroom. I pay 550Q a month. It is a much nicer price than I was paying before. Another good thing is that I don't have to pay electricity but it's included in the rent. They installed a water tank so that I will have water all the time even when there isn't any in the town. I am supposed to have my own bathroom but it doesn't have a door yet so I don't use it too often. There is another bathroom on the roof that I use more often. They installed a shower but it isn't the one that heats the water so I haven't used that (and don't really plan to). I am hoping to get a shower head that heats water installed but until then I will either be showering at the health center or heating up my water and taking bucket baths.

All in all it's been a great experience living on my own. The family is around during the day so I have some company and then go home at night so it's nice an quiet. I am slowly getting used to being on my own, but I think I am really going to like it and I think I can get used to it.

Pictures to come soon!