Masons on a Mission 2001 Preliminary Report by Pat Manley

Masons on a Mission - 2001

Preliminary Report by Pat Manley, March 6, 2001

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El Rincon (meaning "corner") faces the distant Pacific Ocean, perched on the edge of the western highlands at an elevation of 4500 ft. Steep mountains tower around and above the village. The tallest, El Chickabal, is an extinct volcano that rises an additional 4500 ft from the very edge of the village.

The mountains wring a lot of water from the moist Pacific winds, and everywhere you look is lush and green. Tall trees support vines, and bromeliads are perched on their branches.

Everywhere, except in the many garden plots of the Mam Maya, the inhabitants of El Rincon. Being an ancient village, garden plots and pathways have been established for many centuries. Large garden plots dominate anywhere there is not already a dwelling, and they extend up the sides of the mountains.

Potatoes were being harvested extensively while we were there, as well as plots of beans, squash, carrots, and corn.

It is a very lush scene outdoors, but when we entered the dwellings in El Rincon, the realities of the three-stone fires quickly reminded us of why we were there. Shiny black creosote covers the undersides of the sheet metal roofs and wooden beams. Even when the fire is out, it smelled a lot like a dirty chimney.

We had a talented, diverse, and hard-working crew of 7 North American masons, 3 volunteers who quickly became masons, a photographer, a video photographer, and 2 doctors. The video of the Guatemala Stove Project / Masons on a Mission - 2001 will be out soon.

By the middle of March, 75 estufas will have been built in El Rincon by North American volunteers, local Maya masons we hired, and assisted by the estufa recipients. The remaining 25 stoves in El Rincon are being built with materials we have provided and by native Maya masons we have hired.

We have also funded the building of another 75 cookstoves in 3 very remote hamlets in the higher elevations, well away from Xela, which will begin next month.

Another dimension of this work became more apparent to me this year. It came to me while I watched dozens of Maya children laughing, singing, and dancing down the road behind our video man, Brian, who was dancing and singing up a storm. A dozen families stood in their yards and gardens, laughing and watching the scene.

It was priceless!

We are not just building cookstoves so that hundreds of the Mam Mayas' lives will be longer and healthier, although that is our basic goal. We are also building bridges between two very different worlds. We get to experience how much of the rest of the world lives and realize just how easy our lives are and how good we have it. Once you are really moved by this, it is not so easy to ignore anymore.

It would not have happened without the generous donations of money, time, sweat, and effort from so many of you!

Thank you all!!!

Plans are being made for a block party to celebrate this year’s successful mission and raise funds for the next mission in February 2002. TENTATIVE plans are for October 7th, 2001, at Café Miranda in Rockland, Maine, for food, live music, dancing, and...? Ideas, anyone?

Those of you who are due for a photograph, give me a month or so to select and process all the pictures that are available to me.

More later.

Su Amigo,
Pat Manley

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J Patrick Manley 
Brick Stove Works  
15 Nelson Ridge South  
Washington, Maine 04574  
207-845-2440