About one month ago I arrived in San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala. Comalapa is a Mayan community with a population of 41,000, which includes 19 surrounding villages. Here in Comalapa I am working with an organization called Long Way Home, a non profit that is building a school using sustainable resources while employing local Guatemalans. Because there is such a huge problem with the disposal of garbage in Comalapa, the walls of the school are lined with plastic bottles stuffed with trash, and the foundation of the school and construction site are built with old tires. This week, Long Way Home will be using their 10,000th tire! The organization has a volunteer house where some of the volunteers stay, but I chose to live in a homestay so I can have another opportunity to improve my spanish. A normal day goes something like this, I wake up at 545 and get to the site at 7, where we work until 10. Then we have a half hour break. Next, we work until 12, and everyone takes an hour for lunch. After lunch, work continues for another three hours, and everyone goes home at 4. In terms of daily tasks, each work day is different. One day you might be crushing pummus with sledge hammers, and the next day you could be riding in the back of a pickup truck, looking for tires to bring back to the site. All in all, I am quite happy here. The work is satisfying and I have ample time to practice my spanish. The next two months are sure to fly by! If you are interested in seeing more pictures of the work Long Way Home does, check them out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/LONG-WAY-HOME/297639413189
Thank you!
Peter Thometz