Hot dogs

This week, I have mostly been building stoves.

Explaining this process without pictures is going to be difficult. I have pictures of course, but apparently the concept of a card reader is an alien one here in Antigua. You´ll just have to imagine a very large table, about waist height, with three hobs and a chimney. There is a hollow section underneath where wood is burned, and a small table on the side for making tortillas. That´s pretty much the essence of it.

I have built two stoves this week, as each one only takes a couple of days to build, which I was quite impressed with. By the end of day one, the actual stove part is essentially complete. Day two sees myself and Alberto - the mason - cover the whole thing with cement and building the mini table next to it. During the process both families - who were already helping - bring you food and drink, which is just awful and entirely unnecessary. These people really do have very little.

To make it worse they both also gave me a gift at the end! I´ve forgotten the name for this, but both gave me a traditional cloth of the indigenous people in Guatemala. I actually saw the mother in the second family making one - which on reflection was probably mine - and it´s quite a lot of work. Apparently some volunteers manage to be here and not get anything, which personally I would have preferred as it really is a little embarrassing. I am touched nonetheless.

The first family had a little dog that often thought it fun to run underneath the stove. I should have seen the signs. On Wednesday night I was walking towards the kitchen and found Lucky, the house dog, on the floor, looking very contented. I bent down, stroked her head ...*CHOMP*. Yes that´s right, the dog bit me! But you all can turn off the alarm bells, it´s actually not a bad injury at all. There was no blood loss, my hand is still attached. Nonetheless, I have something on my wrist that looks distinctly like a bite from something bigger than a house cat. I was beginning to like Lucky, too. We were bonding. Now though I feel like testing out those stoves by making a famously sausage-and-roll type dish, only with a little more truth to the name. I would also like to send a message to Kira at this point: I miss you, you´re a good dog. Woof.

Sadly today is my last day with GVI. At around 4.00am tomorrow morning I shall begin my journey to Mexico. GVI are great people, so if any of you have the urge to do some volunteer work then I suggest you check out the extremely varied selection of programs on their website. Today being Friday I shall probably go to the BBQ, go out with everyone for the evening and forgo sleep for the night. I am very sorry to be leaving and am already thinking about coming back for longer, possibly to teach - two weeks here just isn´t enough. On the plus side however, I will actually be coming back through Antigua on the next leg of my trip in a couple of weeks, so I am hoping to catch up with everyone then. For now, that is all.