Meet our families – Page 66 – Hábitat para la Humanidad Guatemala

The Jose Luis & Thelma Family

25 July, 2016/in Meet our families, News /by admin

“We were living in the center of town,” says Thelma. Her 5-year-old son Jaime clings to her leg as she tells her story. Thelma, her husband, and their three children were renting a place in the middle of Rabinal, a small city in the department of Baja Verapaz. Usually, in the center of towns, buildings are higher quality and therefore more expensive. Although Rabinal is far from a bustling metropolitan hub, the same still applied.

“It was hard for us to pay the rent there,” says Thelma, keeping an eye on Jaime as he hung from the kitchen counter.

And aside from that fact, “my kids were always getting into mischief. The lady who owned the house had plants, but my kids ruined them.” Jaime runs into another room and swings on the hammock.

“And there wasn’t much space, so my kids would sometimes fight,” Thelma adds. Between a series of problems in their old house, the family decided it would be best to have their own place, somewhere that they didn’t have so many worries. They partnered with Habitat Guatemala and before long, they were moving things into their new place. Their own place.

For Thelma and her family, having the volunteers help build her house was an unforgettable experience. “We appreciate the support they offered,” she says. “It was a pleasure to be able to work together with them, and it was really fun. We were never expecting to work with a group of North Americans to build our house.”

Looking back on how things were before, Thelma is relieved. She takes a deep breath. “I feel deeply content. My kids can still break things like glass, but at least now it’s our own.”

Thelma and Jose Luis are still moving in, but they are proud to have a place that they can claim as their own. Slowly they are moving everything, which has its benefits for playful little Jaime, who has an apparent knack for seeing everything for its jungle gym-like qualities.

The Pablo and Fernanda Family

25 July, 2016/in Meet our families, News /by admin

Family members: Pablo, Fernanda, 6-year-old Daniel, and 5-year-old Javier. For each of them, the house means something slightly different.

For Fernanda, it’s a source of privacy.

“We lived in the middle of the city [of Rabinal] with my parents,” says Fernanda. “But we didn’t fit.”

Indeed, they were sharing tight quarters in Fernanda’s mother’s home, and they wanted their own place, especially with two growing boys. However, getting their own place proved more difficult than they expected, and they were only able to do so after years of saving.

“More than anything now,” says Fernanda, “we have privacy.” Sharing a space with her parents was nothing easy. Now that she’s in her own house, she’s content.

“We wanted to make ourselves independent now that we are are family,” she says.

For Pablo, it’s a source of pride.

Pablo sits down to chat and his boys sit next to him attentively. As he is the family’s main source of income, Pablo knows how much his family depends on him. To be able to provide them with a comfortable home and a secure roof is priceless. Pablo doesn’t take it for granted; he knows just how hard he has worked for that home. “We are happy here,” he says. “It’s finally our own place. Nobody has control over us.”

For the boys, it’s just awesome.

Currently, one room of the home is any 5- or 6-year-old’s dream: play place. They have their bicycles, desks, and all their toys in the second room. It might not be a play room for long, but for now the boys are loving it. They especially love playing with tops, wrapping a string delicately around the top’s coned tip, and yanking the strings at the same time to see whose top lasts the longest.

“We appreciate the support,” says Pablo. “Thanks to everyone and the [Habitat] Foundation as well. We are in our new home and we are happy. If you want to come back, we are here with open arms. Come back soon!”

Smokeless Stoves: Regina Quiché Tay & Dina Rasela

21 July, 2016/in Meet our families /by admin

The Regina Quiché Tay Family

Regina is in her kitchen, cooking in a brand new environment. Her previous cooking environment was filled with disease-causing smoke, but that was what Regina had used her whole life, so she accepted it. When she learned that Habitat for Humanity Guatemala was helping people build stoves in her area, and when she learned about how dangerous her cooking environment was, she took advantage of the opportunity.

Now, Regina is the proud owner of a new smokeless cook stove built by volunteers. She no longer has to worry about hot edges that could burn fingers. She doesn’t breathe smoke anymore, thanks to the tube that carries the smoke outside her kitchen. Regina is very thankful and sends her greetings to all the volunteers who helped contribute in the effort to improve conditions.

Dina Rasela

17-year-old Dina is at home hanging out with her siblings in the adobe structure that is the kitchen. She explains the family’s cooking situation.

“There’s eight of us,” she says. “My favorite thing to eat is Pepian.”

Pepian is a traditional dish, and every señora has her own version of it. However, it takes an eternity to make. But recently, Dina’s family underwent a change that allowed them to cook that Pepian a lot easier. After partnering with Habitat Guatemala to get a smokeless stove, cooking has changed.

Now, there’s no smoke. And the stove is much easier to use than what they used before. But there’s also a much deeper difference:

The new stove has enabled the family to spend more time together. The family used to spend hours getting firewood, because cooking for 8 people on an open fire required a lot of it. Now, Dina says “we make less trips to gather wood.”

We ask her how they spend the time they saved. “Together,” she responds.

“It feels good, we’re really happy with it. And we are really thankful for the volunteers that came to help construct it. Before we didn’t even have a stove.”

The German Leonardo Yac Yac Family

21 July, 2016/in Meet our families /by admin

It’s Thursday afternoon and German Leonardo Yac Yac is busy working in the fields near his home. It’s a picturesque scene as he makes his way back home for a chat, a lone figure walking through the open fields, blue sky behind him. Chuchexic is a big agricultural area where field work is the livelihood of the majority of its residents.

Before his new home was built by Habitat workers and the volunteers, German lived in his older brother’s house along with his two younger brothers and their mom. That house, located nearby down a small dirt path, shows its age. It is made of adobe brick, made mostly from sand, dirt, and water. Better suited to dry climates, adobe doesn’t fair well during Guatemala’s rainy season. The roof of this house is made of old sheet metal that isn’t properly secured so it “lifts up in the wind allowing a lot of dust to enter the house,” says German. The dust enters their lungs as well, potentially leading to respiratory issues further down the road. Around 52% of Guatemalans have suffered from respiratory illnesses.

Although the structural integrity of his brother’s house was not ideal, the main reason German moved out was because his brother was getting married and starting a family. He wanted his own space. Understanding that new families need their independence, German and his mom decided, hey, why not take this opportunity to build our own house? They had received positive feedback from a friend about the construction, security, and costs of a Habitat home, and so decided to solicit their help in pursuing their dream.

The building process was very quick thanks to the help of the volunteer team, knocking a week off the construction time. The new home is built of block, concrete, and steel rebar using earthquake resistant construction techniques, making it strong and safer from disaster. The roof is of corrugated sheet metal and German says “it is well sealed and no dust comes into the house when there are strong winds.”

German remembers well the group that worked here, explaining how they helped out a lot. He wants to thank them and tell them they are welcome to visit anytime to see his new home and how happy he is in it. For now, it is only he and his mother who are working on the transition from the old house to the new, adding things here and there to make it their own. They have a smokeless stove in their kitchen and have added beautiful ceramic tile to the outside, a personal touch. German’s two younger brothers will also be living here eventually, but for the time being they work in another department a half day’s trip away. They are contributing financially to the house, but are only able to visit once a month and as such haven’t yet seen the new house. German is looking forward to their reactions when they do.

German’s old place. The new house is a big upgrade.

Smokeless Stoves: María Tzoy Tiu & Lucía Isabel Albacuy

12 July, 2016/in Meet our families, News /by admin

In the Pacorral Place, a tucked-away area in Santa Lucía, eight families are enjoying brand new stoves. We chatted with a couple of them who worked with volunteers from Habitat for Humanity Asheville.

María Tzoy Tiu

María opens the door of the new shed. It’s a shed that’s been constructed to protect their new stove from the elements, as well as to provide an little cooking area that’s free from the area’s spontaneous torrential downpours.

“Before this, I used my mother-in-law’s stove,” explains María. She explains how much smoke there was, and how she had to cover her face when she cooked. She wasn’t the only person who used it, and she tells how it caused problems when various people would try to use the stove at the same time.

The new stove is made from adobe, which makes it affordable, but it also includes all the necessary elements to successfully redirect the smoke outside. Smoke is no longer an issue for María and her family, and she’s proud to be the owner of her stove.

“We are really thankful that the Habitat Foundation came,” says María. “Now we have our stove. Thank you!”

Lucía Isabel Albacuy

25-year-old Lucía takes us inside the sheltered area to show her new stove. It’s been covered with ceramic tiles to keep it looking good and funcional in the long term.

“We used an old stove, but it didn’t work anymore. It made us sick,” she said. “The smoke would get in our eyes and it hurt. And it was hard because it didn’t heat up easily.” She explains how the new stove works much better.

“Now we use less firewood. My mom and dad get the firewood. Before they would do it every day. Now, only three times a week.”

In Guatemala, “getting firewood” can mean a lot of different things. In its most extreme case, that could mean walking for miles with a stack of firewood suspended by a strap around the gatherer’s forehead. Making that trip less often is a huge change in daily life.

“We are really thankful that people are helping so much. May God bless you all!”

The Teresa Maria Saquic Family

30 June, 2016/in Meet our families /by admin

It’s no easy thing having a landlord.

For Teresa, it was especially tough. “We would get woken up at 5 or 6 in the morning, somebody tapping at the door,” she says. The landlord didn’t respect the family’s privacy, and the neighbors didn’t either.

It didn’t make things any easier that the home was made of adobe, an inadequate building material made from dirt and calcium.

“I was always afraid the house would fall in an earthquake,” says Teresa. And back in the strong 2012 earthquake, the home was left with cracks up and down its crumbling walls.

With two children married and out of the house and two children still living under her roof, things needed to change. Teresa bought a plot of land not far away, and partnered with Habitat Guatemala to build her new house there.

“Thanks for having come,” she says to the volunteers who came to help build her house, “and having helped build my house. I’m thankful for the foundation [Habitat Guatemala] and for all the volunteers, that God has let my house be built!” She talks with a big smile. She’s a proud homeowner.

“I’m happy,” she says. “And I’m no longer worried about sleeping at night.” She also says that cooking in her new place is much more pleasant. “Here, we are on the edge of the road, we can see all the people go by. Before, we were removed, out in the country.”

Teresa is also thinking about the future. She says she’s happy that she’ll have something to give to her 14- and 17-year-old kids when they are older. Currently, her two married children are building a house on the same plot of land behind Teresa’s. Like her’s, it’s a cozy place with a nice view. Teresa is proud to be able to keep her family together.

The Herbert and Yolanda Family

30 June, 2016/in Meet our families, News /by admin

Jacinta opens the door. She’s in her son Herbert’s new house, hanging out with Herbert’s wife, Yolanda. Yolanda’s whipping up some atol, a traditional corn drink, and something else that smells so good the cats casually roam the kitchen area in hopes for a taste.

“Come on in!” says Jacinta merrily. She explains that Herbert is out giving music lessons as she picks up a music theory book to show off.

Jacinta is a proud mother. She talks about Herbert in a bold voice and wears a confident smile that doesn’t fade quickly. She explains how Herbert got his home.

“He got married, and he wanted his own place,” she says. Herbert had turned in his paperwork for a Habitat home and was approved, given his current housing situation. Herbert and Jacinta were living in a room in Jacinta’s home. They occupied one room, Jacinta and her daughter occupied another, and tienda, or store, occupied the last.

A short time later, a group of volunteers were passing blocks to get the first layers of the house built. Jacinta and Yolanda are really thankful for the help that the volunteers provided, and they hope to see the volunteers again. Their doors are always open.

Yolanda says the house is much more comfortable than when they shared a room in her mother-in-law’s home. The new place has a spacious living room, a nice arched window into the kitchen, and a Habitat Guatemala smokeless stove set up in the corner of the kitchen.

Yolanda and Herbert are more than happy with their new bed, as well. They say it’s very comfortable and it was a really thoughtful wedding gift! “It’s so good!” says Yolanda.

Herbert has set up a little area in the living room for an internet, or a computer to be used publicly for $0.60 per hour. It’s not much, but it’s a nice little way for the couple to make an added income when they’re not using the computer.

Currently in construction is a wall in front of the house for a bit of added privacy and blockage of road noise.

The house is really comfortable. Breeze flows from the front door through the house and out the back door. For the young couple, the house signifies a passage from young adulthood into independence.

The Migdalia and Jorge Family

29 June, 2016/in Meet our families, News /by admin

Migdalia’s story starts in her parents’ house, where she was “constantly depending on them.”

“They gave us a space,” says Migdalia, “and they helped out with paying the bills and sharing the responsibilities.” Migdalia’s husband, Jorge Luis Batz, was working as a driver, and their baby, Luna, was growing up.

“In the beginning it’s easy,” says Migdalia, as her 4-year-old daughter clings to her arm. “But later, not so much. My baby was growing!”

The young couple, even as a married independent unit, was still depending on mom and dad simply because of the circumstances of shared housing. Migdalia didn’t like it. She wasn’t free. And she had been wanting to build a house for five years, until finally she applied to Habitat for Humanity Guatemala.

Migdalia remembers the construction of the house, and how little Luna was already pointing to rooms and claiming her space. “She said, ‘that’s going to be my room!'”

“We are really happy,” says Migdalia, “not everybody has the blessing of having their own home. It was a dream we had for a long time. Thanks to all the volunteers who were really friendly, for working together with us and helping us realize the dreams we had. We hope they’re all good, may God bless their lives.”

“We’re still going to paint the house,” says Migdalia. “And put up formal doors and put in a wooden ceiling.”

Now, Migdalia and her family are living a quiet, content life independently. They are located at the end of a long driveway surrounded by fields. It’s quiet at their place. And the family is free to continue growing.