When we first moved into our clubhouse in the cornfield, the trip out to the latrine involved clambering down a steep, slippery, muddy hill. After a few falls, we decided this should be changed. I went to the woodpile, and got some quarter-round split logs to install as makeshift stairsteps. I embedded them in the muddy hillside, and that was a bit of an improvement. However, the log steps had a tendency to come loose if you didn’ t step on them just right, and it turned our muddy slip-and-slide into more of a minefield. Neither of which are fun when you are trying to resolve a central american toilet emergency.

After Emily took a few bad falls, I decided to get serious about fixing it. I scoured the local fields for big, square-edged rocks. I mixed up xan (adobe) mortar with mud and straw. I then spent several weeks building stone steps. They aren’t perfect and would be rejected by a code official in the US, but they are solid and easy to navigate in the dark. And, they don’t look too bad if I do say to myself. Here is the final product.

Two of the local girls, Anix and Ingrid, watched me during most of the work. The last day, Anix came up with a big bowl of flowers she’d collected. The kids around here are always amusing themselves with things like that, it’s kindof cute. “What’s that?” I asked.

“Hin mulnajil,” she replied (my work). Fair enough, that is what I told her the stairs were.

I went up to get a drink of water, and came back to find them decorating my stairs, as a sort of inaugeration. Aaah, Guatemala.