Our boss was a 16 year old “mason” with 3 kids who spoke Mayan but called himself Yer Mi. The dutch translator was a sex pervert. Welcome to “ethical tourism” via Habitat Guatemala 2007.. Livingston port of call.
Kyle was a master of langue’s and worked out their Mayan roots for trowel and “spoon” were the same word.
At lunch they made fun of us for using spoons in their own language and it was their same word for trowel. Butch ala: But backwards hala is trowel or spoon and butch is action of placing material.
To prove his thesis Kyle made a joke with them about the trowel/spoon commonality…. While we were placing block yer mi, he got frustrated and called out to his brothers aggressively in their slang … “get the spoon, you fools and put the food in” and my brother stopped the show by trying to eat mortar. The masons: They all fell off the scaffold laughing.
The masons were so enamored they showed us how to play with scorpions…
Building culture is a human technology. And a universal language spoken by all people. You cannot buy it or sell it.
Trad Building 
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