Proyecto: Casa Para Con Personas

Homes for People

Hello my name is Gavin
Hola, mi nombre es Gavino (in Guatemala).


Back in 2010 I journeyed to Guatemala to study and to learn a language, namely Spanish. My plan was then to travel south to Nicaragua volunteering working with children. I had it all arranged. I even had a school in place where I would be volunteering and working with children.

Plans changed as I fell in love with a people and its country and yes I stayed.

Guatemala is a forgotten land, lost in distant history with people yes all over the world not knowing where it is and still believing it is embroiled in some horrible and never ending civil war. 

Guatemala's a very long and protracted horrendous civil war back in 1996. 

So where is Guatemala?
Guatemala is situated just south of Mexico and Belize and north of both El Salvador and Honduras.  

It has two coastlines the Pacific and the smaller Atlantic coast. In Guatemala you can experience the very hot black sand beaches (volcanic) on the Pacific side. You can watch strong surf waves with equally strong rip tides. So if you venture into the Pacific, swimmer beware, the rip tides are very strong and only really recommended for very strong swimmers. Even strong swimmers though need to heed the warnings and no one can swim against a rip tide.

On the Caribbean side of Guatemala are steamy jungles and the Garinagu people who are mixed descendants of Carib, Arawak and West African people. Places there, such as the town of Livingston offer a lazy easy going sun drenched lifestyle. 

There are many Maya ruins in Guatemala. Well known incredible Maya ruins like the ones in Tikal in the north offer splendours unbelievable. There are also less well known ruins like El Mirador in the northern part of Guatemala near the Mexican border. Here to visit El Mirador involves a swift but expensive helicopter ride or a hike or pack horse five day round trip. 

Then there are the western highlands holding valleys crested in waves of hills and high mountains where volcanoes, some very active that dominate the view.

Lago Atitlan rightly names the most beautiful place in the world

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lago_de_Atitlan

by Aldous Huxley is a deep vast lake rimmed with small villages and towering volcanoes. 

Maya villages and small towns rim the lake from (gringo-ville) Panajachal ...    http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/_Panajachel

Santiago ...    http://www.santiagoatitlan.com/indexeng.html


San Marcos and the trendy .... San Pedro... 

Guatemala's cultural differences are played out in colourful costumes and beliefs dictated by region with the incredible Maya people. Crafts and art works carefully hand crafted present an array that dazzles the eye..

Guatemala is also second to Haiti as the poorest country in the region with countless people living without the basic human  rights of clean water and safe shelter. Safe housing in a land with too many fault lines, eight in total, making it a shaky place to live. I personally experienced countless tremours and earthquakes while living here... 


While there are many NGO's mostly operating out of Antigua a beautiful city the needs there are less. Comfort for volunteers seems more paramount in Antigua. While many do provide people with the basics of water and shelter, what I want to accomplish is much more than that. 

"Safe Housing" 

in a land that shakes a lot.  

Architecturally designed homes 

professionally engineered and constructed 

with local materials 

&

volunteer labour. 

I already have professional and skilled people for this project

 They are ready with your help to build

Homes to with-stand the tremours and conditions that are common.

Proyecto: Casa Para Con Personas

Project: Homes For the people.

In these uncertain times  

I still believe in miracles
Do You? 

With your help we can do this.

Charity sometimes gets stretched too far

so why not experience not charity but an exchange. 

 Take a Trip of a lifetime
Experience of a Lifetime

Learn Spanish

Learn about Guatemala 

plus

 Help Build a Home

Your time will give you the opportunity to help build an impossible dream and a home for a family. It also will give you an experience of a lifetime, to delve into a culture with ancient roots, the amazing past of the Maya people, a chance to salsa your legs off, to taste hidden depths...and so much more, so what are you waiting for .... join us.

A home-stay experience with a Spanish family and three meals a day and yes 3 hours of Spanish classes per day (can be arranged) Wow, this equals full immersion.

Join us, we really need you

Learn Spanish, an amazing language 

Experience Xela, Guatemala an amazing place

The very best place to learn Spanish

Xela does not cater to English speaking tourists 

so more immersion

This is not a charity project. People will work and purchase their homes. First we will train them to become self sufficient. We will school them so that they will become independent. Each home will be provided with a small tract of land for micro-farming. Skills for both men and women will be taught. 

Give a person a fish and they will eat for the day

Teach a person how to fish and they will eat for their lifetime.

For more information write me

Gavin Jones

gavjonessm@gmail.com

GUATEMALAN Affordable Accomodation

Accommodation!!

Where you stay and how you stay will depend entirely on your budget circumstances.

If you are only here for a few days then there are many different hotels and hostels that are available to suit anyone's budget and with a very wide range of options.. Hostel prices range from Q 35 to Q 75 a night (dorms) in Xela. Monthly rates can range from Q 600 to Q 1200. Hotels can run from Q 150 to Q 1000 a night.

If on the other hand, you are committed to a longer stay, say a few months or even longer, perhaps a year even, then your options can change considerable. Here you have the option or renting a room, an  apartment or even a house. All of these choices come with a bountiful of options and and yes different comforts. 

Renting a room will mean sharing both bathrooms and the kitchen. When you rent an apartment or house you will have everything just for yourself.

Someone once asked me what was the best way to find a place that would be considered long term accommodation that suited their limited budget ?

Here you have several choices. 

There are many rooms, apartments or even houses available at very affordable prices. Some are rented furnished and others completely empty. If you are staying for at least six months or more, then renting a small apartment or house is your best (financial) option. 

I prefer to rent an unfurnished space rather than one that is furnished. 

Most places when they advertise that the apartment of houses are furnished, well that can mean many things. Some are fully furnished yes, but others are somewhat limited in furnishing. That means that they have basic or very little furniture. There will be a bed (no bedding) and maybe somewhere to hang your clothes. Perhaps there will be a couple of (plastic) chairs, and a table. There will be a kitchen area, with a two burner hot plate, and a sink. Possible a fridge.

The difference in price is big. Rent a furnished place for one price and an unfurnished place for a lot less, sometimes half the price.

Furniture for me has a personal touch to it, so I prefer to rent an unfurnished place rather than one that someone else has furnished. For instance, I prefer a bed that no one else has slept in. 
There are always problems with beds other people have slept in. Problems like bed-bugs or fleas... and problems I just do not want.

A new matrimonial (double size) bed can be purchased for as little as Q 800 in a market. You will have to haggle that price to where you want it. Haggling that price is part of life in Guatemala.
It can be fun and it is certainly educational as to what you can get 
from one shop to another.

Okay now you need a place to live in.

Here is the very best way to find that ideal place (for your tastes) and within your very own budget.

First of all ignore all those posters plastered everywhere on notice boards and ads in those free publications. 

Yes you can search out places endlessly online, but I would never suggest to anyone renting any place they could not physically see or better still walked through. So forget about the Internet.

Most of these places will be "gringo" (foreigner priced) anyway. So most will be well over priced for what they are offering you. You can and will be able to get a place at much lower pricing. Yes a place you can call home and on your terms.

The first step... 
Sure you have learned some Spanish, enough to have fun with and to use in everyday life... You maybe able to converse fairly well. But I want you to forget all of that and yes (your pride) and find a local person you trust that is totally fluent in their (Spanish) language and that can also speak English to you pretty well. 

Then you locate a neighbourhood you like and one that you feel comfortable  in. This where your local translator will be very useful to you.

Both of you will walk the area of town that you like and start knocking on doors. 

You will be amazed at what you will discover. None of the places you will find, will be advertised in the conventional way. Some landlords of these places may have other locations that you can also discover. Or they will know someone else that is renting a place.
Most are known through word of mouth only. These are the ones you need to find.

So now you have found that ideal place, but it is empty. It is bare. What do you do? 

The next step..
Furniture.
Cama doble (double bed) as I mentioned before can be purchased new for as low as Q 800. A brand new plastic kitchen table will run you around Q 500. 

But here is a little something I found out for myself, a pure gem of information. You can have a wooden table built to your own specifications for very little. I had one made (36 inches long by 24 inches wide) and that right height made for me for only Q 350. It was precision hand made for me. I met the carpenter and with the carpenter I chose the wood. I felt it my hands. I chose the exact boards and its thickness. It was an incredible experience. AS great way to speak in Spanish as well... They built it more on less on time and or Q 10 they even delivered it.

You could also have shelves made for very little as well. Plastic chairs range from Q 60 to Q 80 each and plastic stools for Q 30. A two electric burner hotplate brand new can be bought for Q 185. Buy all of this in a market. Market prices drop the further away you get from the down town core. Yes you have to factor in delivery, but that should be part of the price. Arrange for that when you barter for the price. Yes barter. It is a way of life here. They will respect you more buy of you barter. It can be a fun experience and yes the price can drop drastically.

Okay it is possible to live without a fridge. Our ancestors did it. But if you must have one, the least expensive new fridge I could find was Q 1200 brand new. It was a 8 cu ft model with the freezer inside the main compartment. These models are not the best as the freezer controls the temperature of the fridge itself. You are better off to get a refrigerator with a separate freezer compartment. These can run you more money and depending on the size will run from about Q 2000 and up. But remember with a proper (separate) freezer compartment  life becomes easier and you can buy food in bulk and freeze it. That translates to cheaper living. 

Buying a used fridge can be problematic  The saving in the purchase price could be doubled in repairs. Not worth it, so buy new.

 Lights are super cheap to buy and you can make hanging (swag) lights for as little as Q 15. The markets are a treasure trove of things to decorate your place with and to give it your personal touch. The markets are also great places to find kitchen tools, pots and pans and those handy kitchen gadgets. 

That said and done what are the costs?

I know of people that rent small one bedroom (row) houses for as little as Q 800 a month. For a little bit more say around Q 1300 you will get a two bedroom house. A 3 or four bedroom house will go for around Q 2000. 

1 dollar = 7.5 Q (approx) CAD... it fluctuates.

So there you have it. Affordable living at yes very reasonable prices.

Good luck in your searching, it is after all just another adventure and one that will give you great satisfaction, your new home and a chance to experience new neighbourhoods and special people.

Have fun.