We have been back from our Guatemala Mission Trip for several weeks now, so I better do a brief synopsis of our trip. (not as brief as I intended) I am doing a more detailed series on the trip on All-travel-sites.com. You can click on each picture below to see the full online version. Additionally, you can go down to the bottom of the page and visit the Fromhousestohomes.org Facebook Fan page to see all of my Guatemala Mission trip pics.
Volcan Agua seen from the Antigua Market
Overall, it was a great trip…I am blessed to have gone. Guatemala, from what I saw is a very beautiful, but poor country. Antigua, is an old city, with cobble stoned streets and lots of ruins for tourists to tour threw. We actually went through the ruins of one old church on our first full day.
We arrived in Guatemala on Thursday the 28th of July in the early afternoon. Our work week with Fromhousestohomes.org (FHTH)began on the following Monday. On Friday, we climbed Volcan Pacaya, one of Guatemala’s active volcanoes….well worth the trip. The next day we went to Lake Atitlan, which is the largest and deepest lake in Guatemala, and is also a must see for any one touring Guatemala. Sunday we went to a bi-lingual church for our Sunday service. Other than buying occasional hand crafted goods from the locals, this was the extent of our vacationing.
FromHousestoHomes.org Mission Trip
Guatemala Mission Trip day 1 -August 1, 2011we arrived at the office at 830am every day and worked until 430pm with frequent breaks to play with the family kids and neighborhood kids through out the day. We also ate lunch at noon, and depending upon the afternoon rains, might have a lengthy lunch or just a half hour lunch. Today, our goal was to establish the boundaries of the house, dig a trench for the footer, poor the footer, and then the first layer of block for the walls. Additionally metal mesh wire and rebar were installed before putting in the footer. Oh, the cement for the footer, was mixed by hand, and then the bucket brigade of us volunteers poured the footer.
1st Day Progress
Guatemala Mission Trip day 2 – August 2, 2011Today we did about 8 courses on the walls of the house. Much of the labor involved mixing mortar by hand, keeping the two skilled masons supplied with buckets of mortar and block, and filling in cracks with mortar. There was lots of time for taking breaks and playing with the neighborhood kids today as well.
Day 2 Mission Trip Progress
Guatemala Mission Trip day3 -August 3, 2011Today we started out setting up scaffolding inside the walls of the house. Then the work involved again supplying the masons and with mortar and block. Also 4 volunteers were employed to fill in cracks with mortar. In the US, and else were masons typically do this at the same time they lay the blocks. They might have purposely not put mortar on the sides of block so the volunteers would have something to do today.
Volcan Agua
At about the 10 course, or about the middle of the wall, the blocks that were used had the middles hollowed out, so a trench was formed. The trench was then filled with cement and rebar. This layer of cement served to tighten up the house. The same process was then repeated at the end of the day for the final row of wall blocks. The back wall of the house was one layer higher than the front, so that the flat roof would have a slope for rain to drain off.
Day 3 Guatemala Mission Trip Progress
Guatemala Mission Tripday 4 -August 4, 2011 Today was actually a very short work day. We started out the day by going to Escuela Kemna’oj de Santa Maria de Jesus, the Montessori elementary school in the town of Santa Maria De Jesus that is supported by FHTH and will be run by FHTH starting in November of 2011. This school serves to provide an education to many of the children in the poor town of Santa Maria De Jesus, which was the town were we built our house. FHTH has built over 150 homes in this small town alone.
Inside Escuela-Kemna’oj de Santa Maria de Jesus
Then after touring the school, our primary task today was to get the cement floor poured. So all the concrete had to be mixed by hand, and then bucket brigaded the cement into the house, where a mason poured it and floated a nice flat surface. All this was done before lunch. After lunch, we took the kids of the neighborhood out for ice cream at a local hacienda(store). After ice cream, the staff and volunteers were driven up to the top of the town to a field for a football(soccer) match. This was great fun. My team however did loose, but did manage to score two goals. A great day, with no injuries.
Day 4 Guatemala Mission Trip Progress
Guatemala Mission Trip day 5-August 5, 2011 Sadly, today was the last day of our official Guatemala Mission Trip. This days tasks consisted of painting the inside and outside of the house. Each family chooses the colors of their house, so each house is unique to each family. Our family’s house has a blue interior and an orange exterior. While the volunteers were painting the house, the masons were busy putting on the metal roof. For safety reasons, volunteers are not allowed to help with the roof. The family’s dad stayed home from the fields today to help with the final touches and to be available for the dedication ceremony which was when the volunteers gave the family the keys to the house and a plaque which is affixed to the house.The closing ceremony was marked with a lot of tears from both family and volunteers. To show their thanks to us the the family mother made us lunch which consisted of the most delicious Pollo Guisado (stewed chicken), cervesa(beer) and rum and cokes. Additionally, we also each given a hand made shoulder bag.
Inside the house,volunteers,crew and family
While we were in Guatemala, history was made. For the first time ever, Guatemala had a team in the World Cup and on Saturday night, they scored the first goal ever by a Guatemalan team, and beat Croatia 1:0. That night, there were fireworks all across Guatemala.
Tips for Traveling to Guatemala
Take a bottle of Lysterine- gargle in shower to be sure you don’t drink any of the water.
Ask for Agua Pure at meals..bottled water is the only safe water.
Never eat roadside fruits..period..unless you want to be seriously ill.
Only eat fruits that need to be pealed, like oranges, melons. If you eat apples or strawberry’s ask if they have been washed with pure water.
Keep a record of all atm transactions, and check to make sure you have not been double billed. Be careful which atm machines you use. You may want to consider canceling your bank card upon return home.
As with many countries, never exchange currency at the airport, unless you want to pay a poor exchange rate.
Don’t just give money to beggars, but give them food. We always saved our left overs and gave them to homeless people.
Be prepared to be swamped with goods to be bought by the locals. If you don’t want to buy anything be prepared to say ” No Gracias” frequently when out. Don’t get angry with locals if they are very persistent in trying to sell you their goods.
Don’t flush Toilet Paper(eww), but put used TP in the bucket beside the toilet. Its gross to us int he US, but its what they do.
Grilled food from roadside vendors is delicious.
Spanish schools are really cheap, and immersion is a great way to learn a language.
Visit by volunteering on a mission trip. Its a great way to get to know some locals, you are not just seen as a tourist, but as someone who wants to help.
Don’t be afraid to barter with the locals for their goods, but don’t beat them up. Remember they need to make a living.
At the time of my trip the rate of exchange was roughly 7.5 Quetzales(Q) to the dollar. I read on the FHTH site that teachers earn 1-10 Q per day..wow..for me, that would be really hard to live on.
Don’t climb any volcanoes by yourself unless you want to get robbed.
Ask around for a reputable tour guide, some are not to be trusted.
Take a ride in a Tuk-Tuk (three wheeled taxi) its really fun.
Be careful when crossing the roads, motorcycles are everywhere. Jokingly, I heard someone say, there are rules for driving in Guatemala, but no one follows them. But they do come to a crawl before speed bumps.
Additonal blog posts about my Guatemala Mission Trip can be read on all travel sites. The first post I did about my trip was Pre-Mission Trip Activities
Guatemala is a beautiful but poor country that really should not be missed in your travels. As I have seen on other web sites, it is known as the land of eternal spring. Not once did it get so hot that I thought I would die. Even during our hardest labor, the temp was not much higher than 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Its a country that has a lot to do, a lot to explore.
Things I would like to do on my next trip to Guatemala
Do a mountain bike tour with oxexpeditions.com. I stopped in and talked with them, and it sounds like they have a cool ride around 5 towns which is geared to all riding levels.
Take a zip line through the rain forest. I believe there are quite a few companies that do this.
Spend a night or two touring the towns around Lake Atitlan.
Go to the beach, next time we are definitely going to check out the beach.
Rent a house instead of staying in a hotel..HomeAway has tons of homes for rental, and I believe I would save money doing..
I was doing a Dallas Mexican Restaurant Review on thegrubhound, for the Mexican Restaurant Mattito’s. Upon doing a ctrl+U shortcut to check out the code of their site, I discovered that the vibrant Mattitos Mexican restaurant site is using WordPress as its CMS.
Mattito's Screen Shot - Doesn't that Margarita Look tasty!
The Amazing WordPress CMS
I have been seeing more and more sites that are using WordPress for their Content Management System(CMS). At our SEO Company, Baldydog.com, we don’t normally build websites, but we refer potential clients to our select group of Web Designers like Newconceptsonline.com who designed the current Baldydog.com site or Liquid Interactive, a company that specializes in B to B sites for fortune 500 types of clients.
However, as a service to the local business community and many friends, I do occasionally build a site using WordPress as the CMS. These are usually small Mom and Pop types of sites that don’t have a huge budget, for a designer or a premium website. A few of these are the Limerick Barber.com, Cdsplace.com, Dierolfsupply.com, and EasyDesigns.
Several of these have static home pages, which are homepages that are not blogs.
How Do You Make a Static Home Page
Depending upon the Theme, you are using, you might be able to make a static(permanent) home page differently like EasyDesigns, which was made with a premium theme(not giving a link because I would not recommend or use the theme again). WordPress does however give you an easy way to make any page you chose to be a static home page.
Visit the previous link to get detailed directions on setting any page to be a static home page.
How Do I Design a Home Page
To let you know, I am not a designer. Baldydog.com does have an in-house graphic designer, who does our basic work, and as I mentioned before, we have partnered with web designers who we refer to for more elaborate designs. Unless you are a programer, and would like to slowly define your website design like Wayne, my suggestions as a non-designer, is to start with a good theme, and go from there. For many of the sites I have been building lately, I have been using the free Mystique Theme by DigitalNature that was recommended to me by my wife, the owner of Fatladysingz.com.
Mystique is an easy to use theme that allows for a multitude of adjustments that can be made, some easy, and some a little more tricky, which involve adding some code to the template such as these 40+ Mystque Theme modifications. Using any of these modifications as well as the many options available on the Mystique user panel, the web designs you can make with Mystique are unlimited. Mystique can be found in the WordPress themes directory.
I probably will not be creating any sites that look half way as nice as Mattito’s since my design abilities are so limited. But using WordPress as your CMS, allows you to create sites that can compete with large company websites .
7 Reasons to Use WordPress As Your CMS
Its open source, so there are tons of pluggins that can enable it to do just about anything you could want a site to do, such as have a video or photo portfolio, do a fundraiser such as my Guatemala Trip Fundraiser and show how much you have earned.
Its customizable. You don’t like the look of your site, its not difficult to change. Often times it can be done with one click, and a new theme.
WordPress is SEO friendly. Search engines, especially Google love fresh, original content. Using WordPress, you will be able to make updates as easy as writing an email. Additionally, there are pluggins such as the TheAllinOneSEO Pack.
In my opinion and many others, it is the best blogging platform on the web. This will enable you to make your website social, so you can make it the hub for all of your Social Media profiles.
Easily integrates with Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
WordPress is inexpensive to use as a CMS. Compared to some other CMS platforms, WordPress is relatively inexpensive to use for a business website.
As I have discussed, its easy to make a static home page so your business site, does not look like a blog, yet it can easily incorporates a blog as well.( I highly recommend having a blog if you are using WP as your CMS).
What Do You Think?
Do you know of any good business sites that utilize WordPress as the CMS? What do you think about using WordPress as a CMS?
As part of the fundraising for our FromHousestoHomes Guatemala trip, we are donating 100% of our directory submission review fees to the following directories until July15th.
General link directory Jagdirectory.com (6.95 general submission)
In addition to the directory submissions other advertising options are available as well. See the Guatemala Fund Raising Advertising post for more info.
Of Course if you just want to make a donation, that is always appreciated too. $10 donations will receive a link on our Guatemala donors page. Via You can now donate via my Guatemala fundraiser on Crowdwise if you don’t or can’t use Paypal. If you prefer Paypal, you can use that as well, just visit the first link on this post, and click on Paypal button in that post.
From July 28th to August 7th, a group of 5 from my church, which includes my friend Dave who was in the video on the older post, and his two oldest kids along with my step-daughter and I, will be building a cinder block house for a family that previously had a corn stalk house.
Corn stalk houses vs Cinder Block Houses
Corn stalk houses are not very secure and can be easily destroyed by the tropical weather. The cinder block houses can not be easily destroyed, and have a tin roof that keeps out mother nature.
The corn stalk houses also are easily broken into by animals and other unwanted guests. The cinder block houses have doors and windows that can be secured. Additionally, each house is equipped with bunk beds, a stove, and some shelves.
The cinder block houses we are building are not very luxurious compared to our homes in the States, but compared to the corn stalk houses, they are a huge improvement.
Fund-raising for Guatemala
My daughter and I need to raise $3777.00 for the trip, so we are ramping up my fund-raising efforts. I would like you the reader to to donate $10 usd to help me with our trip. For your donation, not only will I be grateful, but I will add you and your site url to the donors page that I will have on this site as well as All-Travel-sites.com Guatemala Donation page.
In addition to donating, I also have some advertising specials available which will result in up to 100% of the proceeds going to the trip. Check out the advertising for Guatemala post for info about the advertising options. If you are interested in some other advertising that is not included, or if you have suggestions, please let me know in a comment.
Additionally, until July 15th, all directory submission review fees will be applied to the trip 100%. This includes submissions to the following directories:
Will you donate and help poor families in Guatemala?
UPDATE: I deleted the Paypal button after we got a donation several months later. However, if you would like to donate, please feel free to visit the Fromhousestohomes.org site and donate.
Last week I started using the GeoLocation Based Social Media site Gowalla to check in while out and about and I like its features that allow me to update not only my Gowalla profile, but also Facebook places, Twitter, and my Tumblr. I also like the feature of being able to post pictures to my profile and add the pics to the spot that I am visiting as well as posting to my Twitter and Facebook profiles if I desire.
Gowalla and FourSquare
Gowalla and FourSquare are not the only players in the GeoLocation Based Social Media game, but they are the two major players. FourSquare being the bigger of the two, but Gowalla, which was established in 2007, is the older of the two.
Who Uses GeoLocation Social Media sites?
Users of these GeoLocation social services tend to be tech savy, young people who have disposable income. If I had a business that relied upon foot traffic, I would strive to get these users of both Gowalla and FourSquare into my establishment.
For more info on using GeoBased Location Social Media for Business check out the following SlideShare presentations:(I will be doing a post on this subject in the near future)
Gowalla is into the Geocaching Game vs the Social aspect of FourSquare
Both now allow posting of pictures.
Choosing not to update followers for a particular check-in on Gowalla requires up to four taps on my iPhone vs FourSquare which it can be done with one tap.
Design wise I think they are about equal, both are pretty easy to navigate.
I am not going to go into any more detail in this post. I encourage you to check out both GeoLocation Social Media sites and compare the two. I myself, will be keeping an eye on both, and will be looking for ways that I can use them to enable my local Search clients to drive foot traffic to their businesses.
Several weeks ago, after hearing about the 2010 Google Zeitgeist list, I did the blog post Google Zeitgeist 2010 – Food and Drink Category on Thegrubhound, my restaurant review/foodie marketing blog. Upon checking out the Google Zeitgeist list again, I realized there is a huge potential to earn some end of year revenue..for both you and me.
My challenge to you is to check out the Google Zeitgeist list and see what keyword rich blog post you can come up with that an advertiser would love to sponsor or purchase at least 1 keyword rich text link.
I already did a post on Thegrubhound, although I did not actively seek out advertisers yet. I am however thinking about doing a post about “Dubai Tours” which is the number 10 most searched word in the Fastest Rising Translations category of the Zeitgeist list. The reason I am choosing the phrase “Dubai Tours” is because, I had an inquiry about doing SEO for a Dubai travel site, so I am considering this contact to be a warm lead for potential advertising opportunities.
Potential Dubai Tours Blog Posts
So a Dubai Tours blog post is forthcoming on AllTravelSites.com. What will my blog post on Dubai Tours consist of since I have never been to Dubai?
Well as you can see from my Dubai Tours blog post notes, writing a keyword rich blog post that focuses on one of the Google Zeitgeist search terms, should not be that difficult.
Do I want to Write a Google Zeitgeist Blog Post?
I wrote a similar Google Top Keywords post back in 2007 on Club Penguin and Webkinz. That post still gets about 10 hits a day..after 3 years that is a still a steady flow of traffic. So yes, if you don’t want any of the traffic to your site that a Google Zeitgeist blog post would provide, then don’t take up my Google Zeitgeist Challenge.
So What is the title of your Google Zeitgeist Challenge post going to be?
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