Inside the home of Don Angel and Doña Lydia

Travel to Guatemala to visit our Justa stove project with StoveTeam's Executive Director, Shelby Kardas.

We’re entering into our fourth day and it's 5 a.m. I’ve been awake since 3:30 when the roosters start crowing outside Don Angel’s house. It is a true cacophony, only to rival the sound of the roving pack of dogs that roam the street and fight before bed each night.

Sleep is elusive here, but it is replaced by the excitement of our mission.

Don Angel is our host this week as we travel through the community of San Martín Jilotepeque with videographer Stephen Johnson, Board member of the Christadelphian Meal a Day Foundation who graciously funded this expedition to document StoveTeam’s Justa project in Guatemala. Don Angel’s family are salt of the earth people and so kind. Doña Lydia and her various children watch over us, cook and bring us tea, and play Jenga and chess with us at night. Don Angel worked in the U.S. for 5 years to make enough money to return to Guatemala where he bought land, built a family home, and started his family of six kids.

Don Angel at Mixco Viejo archaeological site in Chimaltenango, Guatemala

StoveTeam’s Guatemala Country Director, Alex Eaton, met Don Angel in a parking lot one day when a hired driver failed to show up. He transports the team through this community of bumpy, potholed roads in the back of his two pickup trucks. It is also in his home where our team of four stove builders stay when they are in the field. We love Don Angel’s happy disposition, pointy cowboy boots, and his family pet, Cariño, the bunny that hops into our rooms at night. Cariño loves to be petted and is a carnivore who apparently prefers chicken to vegetables. Maybe the chickens wake him up early in the morning too.

I am so happy to finally be back in the field. First of all, I had the pleasure to finally meet Alex in person after 16 months of Zoom calls.

StoveTeam’s Alex Eaton and Shelby Kardas finally meet for the first time after working together for 16 months

But I am most excited to meet Bety, Eva, Chato, and Ricardo, our team in Guatemala and to see the impact of this amazing project first hand. We have visited the homes of “Super Justa” women. These are women who received a Justa stove and have stopped using their open fire entirely. We hope these women will help promote fuel-efficient stoves in their communities. We interviewed them to hear their stories and to learn about how the Justa stove has improved their lives.

It’s sometimes hard to hear these stories and to witness the desperate poverty in which some of these families live.

We visited the family of Doña Francisca who lives in a three room cane house with a dirt floor. She has three children and one on the way. We had arranged to visit another household, but when we arrived at that place, the woman was not at home, so we just popped in on Doña Francisca who lived close by. When we arrived at Doña Francisca’s house she had just been feeding a lunch of beans and tortillas to her three children. As the visit was unannounced, her house was a bit in disarray. The children had beans on their faces and there were clothes and objects strewn around, but all we cared about was that the pot of beans was cooked on her Justa stove, and there was not an open fire burning next to it. This makes us happy! During our visit we remarked that her son, one of a set of twins, seemed very small. We learned that he is 1.5 years old and weighs only 16 pounds. His twin sister is twice his size and the family is struggling to understand why he is failing to thrive. I brought my 17 year old daughter, Sofie, with me on this trip and I am reminded at every turn how grateful I am for our comfortable life in Portland and for the privilege of our health.

Two children watch as Stephen Johnson pilots his drone above their home

Despite the difficult things we see and the uncomfortable moments we have, we are most blown away by the smiles and graciousness of the families we encounter. The children’s smiles and curious nature are especially endearing. The kids especially love to watch Stephen fly the drone he is using to take aerial shots for the video. There is also a lot of laughter amongst our team of workers and they have a wonderful rapport together and with the families. I especially enjoy listening to Bety speak to the women about their stoves.

Bety has been promoted to team supervisor and she has a way with the women of these families.

Eva Hernández and Bety Hernández (no relation) with a new Justa stove

The men are sometimes surprised when we show up with women stove builders at their house. Yesterday we built a stove in a home where we met the father, mother, and 21 year old daughter of the house. As Eva and Bety set up to build the stove, the father said to Chato, “The women are going to build?” Chato said, “Yes, and Bety is my supervisor.” This came as a big surprise. During the entire process of building, the daughter sat on a chair and watched Eva and Bety work.

I kept thinking that she must be inspired to see these two strong women working together outside a traditional role.

Stephen films while Bety interviews a stove recipient

All in all, this trip has been amazing! I am so thankful to our family of wonderful donors who support this project and the people of Guatemala. And today, I am especially grateful to the Christadelphian Meal a Day Foundation for their continuous, generous support. We could not do this work without you.

All the best,

Shelby

Shelby Kardas is StoveTeam’s Executive Director.