Corn (bad), Sand (hysterical and embarassing)

So this is my last week working on the water deposits. Today we finished deposit number 9 (as Franz put it, weve finished 9 holes haha) and we will start 10 tomorrow and finish on Thursday.

Monday when we went to the new location for our 9th water deposit, Franz noticed that the whole farms supply of growing corn had collapsed and fell to the ground. We asked about this and from the bad winds and rain we had Sunday night, this knocked the crop down, destroying the entire years supply of corn. This fact hit us all kind of hard. After being in Comitancillo for five weeks, we have picked up on the fact that we eat corn tortillas every single meal. How will they go a year without their biggest crop? This corn they grow wasn´t even to sell it was just a supply for their own consumption, a family of 11. They explained that they would have to buy their corn in the market for a whole year, and the market is down where I live. Daily it takes us an hour and a half (walking and bus) just to get to La Reforma for these water deposits, so this is a ton of travel time weekly that the family will have to go just to get their corn. Additionally, they told us that they didnt have the money to buy this corn. I was really devastated and its just awful how something like ONE storm can ruin the whole years supply of corn. Isnt there a way to prevent this?

We talked to our Peace Corps friend Barbara about this at dinner Monday night just to see if this was something she knew much about. Why are all these families losing their YEARs supply of corn and couldnt they try and regrow their crops or find a closer market? We really wanted to talk to Barbara because she volunteers for AMMID who the men who lost their crops asked us to talk to about this problem. Apparently AMMID doesnt believe that wind has ruined peoples crops so they are less likely to support these farmers (this is according to the men we work with who lost their crop). Its a really tough situation and Barbara explained that there is only so much that AMMID can do to support all these towns of Comitancillo. She also doesnt really know how much of an effect this will have on the families economically, and its a tough judgement to determine how much support to give. She said that ultimately, people find a way to eat, but its still a really sad concept.

I could talk about this longer but dont want to make this too long of a post.

Anyways, on a lighter note, all day Monday I was jokingly being called Weak Laura and Laurs Makes Bad Ganchos (essentially nails made of tree twigs). So, I wanted to redeem myself by helping to get a wheelbarrow full of sand. This sand came from the top of the hill, and you had to wobble the wheelbarrow down a curvy downslope as well as through much mud and pig poop and other droppings before reaching our work site. I wish I could upload the picture to show you how ridiculously muddy and poopy it is by our worksite. They have a pig pen that houses one big oinky pig and the pen has grating at the bottom so that all poop and food doesnt stay in the pen. Well, this pen is uphill of the path we walk to get to the worksite. TRANSLATION: All the pig droppings fall into our path. Okay, so Franz was encouragingly (is that a word?) coaching me down the slope into the mud. As I hear him say: "just keep moving, its better to not stop" I get half way through the mud and one side of the wheelbarrow instantly sinks into the mud, dumping all of my sand into the mud. I was embarassed especially because I wanted to redeem myself! But it was so funny because it might have happened to anyone!

Hope everyones having a great week! Today is our 5 week anniversary in Guatemala!

To smelly pig poop,
Lowra