Chocantariy, a beautiful place to volunteer

When things start moving, they start moving quickly. We’ve found more projects than we have the time/resources to do. Our second GROW project was in association with CasaSito. We had the pleasure of working with a wonderful team building a water catchment tank for a family in the small pueblo of Chocantariy, home to an underserved indigenous Mayan population. This means that we got to crowd our brains with even more foreign words, this time in Qui’che (one of 24 different indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala). Chocantiary is just outside of Momostenango, the small city where we stayed. Maybe in the near future it’ll even be a tourist destination of new hot springs, for it seems right when we were there a new volcano had been forming beneath our feet; there’s a broad section of scorched earth and hot water flowing now.

No one in the community has running water, though it is hopefully in the near future for those families that are privileged enough to have made it on the list for the new system. Unfortunately, some of the families that need the water the most have been unable to make this list and therefore have to continue walking long distances to a nearby river for all of their water needs. This is the case for Estaban, his lovely wife and 7 children (though we’re not so sure of the exact number… seems like different faces were always popping up!) for whom we built the tank.

From a big hole in the ground to a completed tank with a capacity of over 6,000 liters, we worked beside these warm and loving people to help improve their lives. The children were especially adorable (though as they ran by we were often scared of them falling into our perfectly smoothed cement!) and the food quite delicious. We certainly are getting to eat like locals; they say you are what you eat, and if that’s so then we are corn tortillas! The family was very generous “y muy amable” and will hold a special place in our hearts.

It was such a rewarding week and we got to make new friendships with the likes of Rory from Ireland, Maria from Germany, and Kim and Matt from the US and Estaban from Chocantariy; everyone was a different kind of character and all together we made quite the group. Hopefully we’ll have the same kind of luck in the future with other projects as far as the people we work with. But maybe next time we won’t have to always be running away from the rain at the end of the day down the steepest part of our walk back “home.” As for our week working with CasaSito, it culminated in a very unique fiesta at one of the schools they support with games (like a dance contest- two big gringo volunteers dancing with two tiny Mayan women, the most awkward thing I’ve ever seen), “big-ups” and good food. It was incredible to see the appreciation of the community for all the work that has been done there to help them uplift themselves.

For more on the Chocantariy Water Tank Project or to contribute to future projects, check out The GROW Initiative.