This is a nice summary written by John Barrie on March 15 about what we accomplished on our trip.

Hello Everyone-

I’ve been back for a few days and I now have a moment to catch up with you. 

First, I can’t imagine the trip without all of you.  Everyone contributed in a unique way and no two people did the same things. 

We worked on a total of five projects.  We accomplished our two main objectives – installing the solar panels on the CECAP school in Santa Cruz and building “bajareque” walls at the Párvulos school in San Marcos. 

We also prepared materials for teaching solar to trade school students at the Centro de Capitación CECAP school in Santa Cruz la Laguna.   Classes start today and our solar installation will be part of the curriculum.  The solar class already has a wait list for summer 2012.  Later this month we will teach the class again in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. 

We visited the highlands village of Nueva Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan to start the process of designing passive solar heating for their homes.  We visited the nearby school in Tzanjomel to collect preliminary data for a future project to install solar there. 

The natural building project was particularly important – it helped ATC create a strong bond with the community of San Marcos and the Párvulos school.  We are now in preliminary talks to work on a community center next year – more on this soon.

Since our trip we have been asked to work on more solar projects in the area, and we found a source of solar panels on Lake Atitlan!  We know how to make solar mounting hardware from angle iron (!) so we only need to find electronics and batteries.

Our long range plans for the area are to help start small scale businesses using ATC designs and clean technologies. 

Thanks to you and your work there is new interest and opportunity for local residents on Lake Atitlan to have a brighter future.

Looks like I’ll see most of you at MJ's and Greg's next Sunday March 18 from 5-9. 

Many Thanks,

John Barrie