| Ways of Life |
Symphonies of Hope– Choirs of Faith
| Symphonies of Hope Chris & Coleen Anderson P.O. Box 1061, Pharr, TX 78577 In the U.S. : 608 - 313 - HOPE Message phone in U.S. : 956-781-5133 Email: chriscoleen@symphoniesofhope.org Email: chriscoleen@choirsoffaith.org |
| SymphoniesOfHope.Org ChoirsOfFaith.Org SinfoniasDeEsperanza.Org CorosDeFe.Org |
| Orchestras & Choirs Serving in God's Love |
| Preparing the Fields to Plant Corn |
Field work in Guatemala is largely done by hand. If there is no money to hire a team of oxen to plow the fields with a single blade wooden plow, a large hoe is the tool that is used most. Families work together; parents and children alike, hoeing until the ground is loosened up over the fields. This work is done at the end of the harvest and then again a few months later before the fields are planted again. Here at Domingo´s farm he was able to work out a day that he could rent a team of oxen for one morning to work one field that was especially hard to hoe. |
| After the Corn Harvest |
| Corn is everything in Guatemala! Without corn no one would survive. Corn is used at EVERY meal. Tamales with or without meat, tortillas, corn pudding, corn bread, roasted corn on the cob; it is used for everything. After the corn is mature and dry on the stalks it is picked by hand and put in large bags. When it is brought home it is laid out to dry in the yards on plastic or on the iron roofs. After the cobs are dry and hard it is shelled by hand into baskets and sorted according to quality. The chaff is shaken and blown off on a windy day as they pour it from basket to basket.. Then it is stored in large cloth bags or small metal silos until use. The corn is later soaked and boiled with a powdered rock they call “cal” , (I think maybe it is lime), to get the skins of the kernels off. After it is washed well they put it through a Molina to grind it into a thick paste. This paste is used to make the tamales or tortillas. This is a daily task for nearly all families here in Guatemala. |
| Just Carry It! |
| Carrying things in Guatemala is a certainty for most families… People carrying corn stalks for cow food, or people with loads of wood or water are very common sights. A head band is often used to make the load easier to carry. Some women carry a large basket on top of their heads. Wood is used for cooking in most homes. It is a constant chore to find enough wood to keep the fires burning. Many homes are deep in the mountains and a trip to town for supplies may mean a 3 to 4 hour trek to town and back, carrying all the purchases on their backs or heads. Women tend to carry loads on their heads, and men tend to carry loads on their backs. |
| A Typical Christmas Dinner of Tamales |
| Christmas preparations... Tamales are the typical food for every Chrismas dinner. It is quite an involved process. They boil rice until it is a smooth pudding. Then they make a sauce called mole' which has ingredients such as peanuts, peppers, onions,tomatillos, and various spices which they put in the tamales along with chicken or beef. They also put a strip of red bell pepper and a large raisin in each tamale. They form the tamales and wrap them in corn leaves and another large leaf. They boil the finished tamales until midnight and after fireworks they have a tamale supper. The house is usually quite cold since no one has heat so the hot tamales are especially good! |
| Travel, Roads, & Vehicles |
| Interesting Roads Roads and ways of travel in Mexico and Guatemala can be very interesting and sometimes dangerous. In Guatemala a “taxi” can be a Little pickup with a railing on the back where 30 people will pack themselves in for a ride to town. |
| Work, Work, Work… Many “Home—Businesses” |
| Portable Restaurants Little carts with mini restaurants... a lady carrying a table on her head... these are common tools used by people which they set up along the roads and town streets to sell every type of food imaginable. While sometimes it can be risky to eat at a roadside stand if the condiments are not refrigerated in hot weather, the food is usually very tasty. Tacos and roasted ears of corn are very common and popular. Usually it is cooked right there while you watch. |
| Ice Slushy Making This family earns its way in Mexico by making what we would call lemon slushies… The lemons are fresh- squeezed in the early morning. The dad of the family goes to the Little ice factory in town on his bicycle cart and buys a 2 by 2 foot block of ice at about 6 am. He brings it home and chops it up for his hand— cranked ice cream maker. The lemon juice, sugar, and water goes into the barrel and then for the next two hours the barrel need to be kept moving. The family takes turns cranking until the slushies are frozen. He sells each little plastic cup for about 60 cents from his little bicycle cart. |
| Gravel—Making This little family lives in the hot coastal area of Guatemala. They live in small wood and stick temporary shacks along the riverside. To earn their daily living they use a hammer to break river rocks into small pieces to be used for road or building gravel. Hours and hours of steady pounding by each member of the family, including little boys yields several small piles of gravel… then the gravel is screened with wire which is nailed to wood frames into piles of different sized rocks… ready to be bought by passing trucks. |
| Shoe Shine Boys In every town in Mexico and Guatemala there are little boys with small black boxes walking on the streets looking for someone who needs their shoes shined. They usually begin working between 7 and 10 years old. This boy was 10 years old… We were waiting on the street for Chris to return when this boy came and asked if he could shine Joseph´s shoes. He told us it was his first day shining shoes. They usually make 50 cents to a dollar for a shoe shine. Most shoe shiners make your shoes look like they are brand new by the time they are done. |
| Spinning thread for home spun fabric This is an art that takes a lot of work , knowledge, and time. We haven´t seen as much in recent years but people are still weaving on a loom in Guatemala. I hope to include more photos of this at a later time. |
| Challenges In cold places usually there is no heat. Most people sleep under a pile of wool blankets and freeze in the day time. Here in Matamoros, Mexico this lady brought live coals in from an outside fire, and put them in an old sink to warm up the room just a little bit for her children. |
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