Habitat for Humanity/ Thrivent Builds Worldwide trip to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

The second build trip to Guatemala, this one in the northwestern highlands, was a far different climate & geography than the first trip to Huite’s eastern desert.

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The higher-altitude, cooler weather was wonderful for working. The project site was situated in a fertile farmland valley. A volcano sat picturesquely in the middle of the sloping green vista, giving off a puff regularly each afternoon. In the morning the sun would rise over the eastern mountains, evaporating the nighttime mist off the tin roofs of nearby houses as if they were smoldering from cooking fires.

Concrete block walls were built for a four-room house approximately 400 sf in size.

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Spending the ending weekend in Antigua, Matt Flynn ventured on a trek up the nearby Volcan Pacaya. After using every syllable of minimal Spanish to obtain locally-equivalent ingredients for s'mores, a nearby broken tree branch allowed him to cook marshmallows over open lava near the peak. The volcano erupted six months later.