A Vanishing Culture?

Last week, as we were riding the van to school, we were discussing the Mother’s Day celebration at the school. Family is very important to the Mayans so this day is very special. GVI mentioned wanting to bring in basket weavers to show the kids this art form that is slowly beginning to fade from the culture. The only holdup was where to find the money in the budget as the price of food has gone up and more of the budget is going to the food. When I asked how much it would cost to bring in a basket weaver, the reply was 400 Quetzals which is about $52. I offered to pay the cost and then all the other volunteers also wanted to pitch in so that we could make sure that the kids get educated on this vanishing art. It seems like such a small price to pay to save an art from becoming lost.

We are hoping they will also bring in wooden mask makers and marimba players as well. Marimba is an instrument very similar to a xylophone with the keys arranged as those of a piano. Those are the 3 biggest art forms of the Guatemalan peoples.

Some of you have asked how to donate. When I come back to Colorado I will be doing presentations about this trip and you will have the opportunity to donate to Whole Planet foundation. If you are interested in this project in particular, I can try to see how to set up an account with the project manager to get funds directly to the school project. I hope that all of you are learning a lot. I certainly am!

Climbing Vulcan San Pedro

So on our first and only day off last week, Leah and I decided to climb one of the dormant volcanoes called "San Pedro". After a 45 minute boat ride, we were greeted by the guide and transported to the bottom of the volcano in a "tuc tuc" otherwise known as a 3 wheeled scooter with a carriage. We thought we might have to get out and push it up the steep road, but somehow it managed to get us up the road at about 3 mph it seemed.

At the base of the volcano we were issued walking sticks and a new guide, Pedro. It was a little warm starting out, but we started hiking at a brisk pace learning about the history and the plants of San Pedro. The most prominant plant being, you guessed it, coffee! We also hiked past fields of maize (corn) and frijoles (beans). We were impressed by the recycling containers along the way (go green mission!!!) for compost, plastics, and paper.

This hike was a little more intense and it took us 3 1/2 hours to reach the top which is almost 10,000 ft. although just a baby compared to my Pikes Peak in Colorado. Unfortunately it was a really hazy day and you couldn’t see much from the top, but we felt a great accomplishment anyway. It’s interesting because on Pikes Peak, 10,000 feet is just starting to get to tree-line where trees don’t grow, but as we neared 10,000 feet on the volcano, the terrain became more lush and rain forest like.

The way down took us 1 1/2 hours but I fell about 4 times because the soil is so loose. I was so covered in dirt that when I got to my home-stay, that I just got in the shower with clothes and shoes on to rinse all the dirt off. Now I can add climbing a volcano to my list of adventures!

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The School

Oh boy! It will be so hard to put into words my thoughts when I first visited the school where I'm teaching Spanish to kids from the village of Pèna Blanca. I was overwhelmed with emotion and could hardly hold back my tears as we as we drove up the narrow winding pot holed road approaching the school.

The kids were looking out their classroom window as our van pulled up. They were so excited to see us. We got introduced to each class room, then we went to the principals office to have a meeting with the "comite" (co met teh) which is basically the village government of 5 men. Then we all went to our classrooms.

I have twenty-one 2nd grade students when all are in attendance. Right away the children wanted me to sit at a desk in the middle of them. They share a classroom with the 3rd grade students which can be a challenge when the 3rd grade prof decides to teach at the front at the same time as the 2nd grade volunteer teacher, Shonah.

The school is community ran, which means they have very little resources and not enough teachers. There is no 4th grade or 2nd grade teacher so the principal teaches 4th grade and Shonah, the GVI volunteer, teaches 2nd grade. I am assisting her. Forget what you know about any school system or teaching practices here, because it doesn't exist. I have one word for it all. CHAOS! Teachers will just walk out of the class room and kids are left unattended for who knows how long. Some kids occasionally have a toddler brother or sister in the class with them. The kids in 2nd grade are at all different levels which makes it really difficult to teach any lesson at all. Some are extremely hyper and out of control, some are dyslexic, very few really listen, and most don't come to school consistently because they have to work.

The kids have very little as far as school supplies. Most don't have markers or colors needed to do their coloring sheets. The colored pencils and supplies that GVI provide are trashed and well used. At recess, a soccer game and a basketball game is going on at the same time in the same place and there is dust and dirt everywhere. There is no running water at the school and the toilets are like porta-potties with no doors and the smell is, well, disgusting. But the kids don't seem to know any different, so it appears not to matter to them.

Besides education, GVI focuses on providing nutrition, so they started a school lunch program as well as a snack program. Most of the kids have not eaten before school and don't have anything to bring for lunch. The school originally provided them with a hot drink called "atol" which is basically a milk-like drink made from corn. GVI added a piece of fruit to this snack so that the kids could get more nutrition. Then they also provide the food for lunch and we go as a group to the market 2 days a week to get all the fruit and veggies and starch for their lunch.

The kids bring their own cups for the atol and their own plates or bowls for the lunch. I was shocked when I saw what they brought to eat with. The cups and bowls are like what you´d find on the side of the road or in a junk pile. They are broken, chipped, and don´t look very safe to eat out of. The kids don´t use silverware, so they are eating with their hands. Forget about food safety! At least the kids are getting a healthy meal. The GVI staff said they are looking much healthier now. Many kids will eat some and then put some food in their backpack to take home to their family. We don't eat or drink in front of them.

My first day was very emotional. My eyes kept tearing up. It is so difficult to see poverty in the face of a child. Many wear nothing more than tattered rags for clothes and shoes that have holes in the front because they've outgrown them. All the girls wear the indigenous attire, however the boys do not. During the Civil War, a man wearing indigenous dress was a target for the death squads, and even though the war ended in 1996, the boys never went back to the indigenous dress.

As the days go by, I'm getting more used to it and it's getting easier to just focus to the task at hand. I teach one lesson a day for the morning class, then I'm in charge of the afternoon class which is optional so there aren't very many kids. Leah and I taught directions in Spanish by playing "pin the tail on the perro (dog)". It was a blast. I really love the kids.

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My Homies

My volunteer teammates consist of 2 women, including me and 2 men. They are a blast to be with, I feel very lucky that I have these folks on this trip. We make each other laugh so much!

My house-mate is Leah and she works at the home office in Boulder, CO. She is in her early 30's and lives in Broomfield with her husband. We share similar interests and are both picky about our food in the same ways, which is great for our house madre Maria. Leah likes to hike and she speaks pretty good Spanish. We get along really well.

The guys stay at a different home-stay and are Jeremiah and Michael. Jeremiah is in his late 20's and from New Mexico. He is very much a "new ager" hippy type with some absolutely CRAZY stories. He made his way to Guatemala by landing in Costa Rica first and taking the "chicken bus" to Guatemala. (This is the local version of the Greyhound bus, but locals really do bring on chickens and all sorts of goods and livestock.) He is not going to return home after this trip, he is going to continue to travel through Central America for a couple more weeks with no plan, just a notebook with names of people that he's met along the way that he will try to stay with. He has a beard and really long hair, so he looks like Jesus, yes, Jesus. The kids at the school call him Jesus and want to see his scars on his hands from the nails in the cross. He was in a motorcycle accident and broke his arm and wrist so he actually has some scars, and the kids are in AWE of him. He loves to cook and wants to study Ayurvedic medicine in India.

Michael is from the Bronx and works in one of our New York stores. He is Puerto Rican and speaks Spanish fluently so he does all the bargaining and communicating for us. While we are all learning Spanish, he is learning Kaqchikel, which is the indigenous language spoken here. He is the Panajachel bachelor, we tease him about that because all the local women want him as their husband. He has a big heart and will often buy a plate of food for a little kid on the street who then goes and brings back 3 of their friends and then he has to walk away from the food stand or he would be buying the entire city some food. He pointed out that they don't want money, they are just hungry. He has a beautiful 3 1/2 year old daughter and is in his mid 40's. His mantra is "don't hate the player, hate the game" and we about roll on the ground laughing, it's such a great act with his body language and facial and voice expressions. LOL. He has the older kids at the school and they love him, he is a great role model for them. I think he wants to stay in Guatemala with the kids, he is loving this experience so much.

The real heroes are the GVI (Global Vision International) group. Alton is the director, he is from up state New York, and was a high school Spanish teacher at one time. He has done some extensive traveling throughout Central and Latin America. He has been on this project for about 2 years. He initially set up the project by going to the village of Pena Blanca and gaining their trust. He is so passionate about the kids, getting them some decent education and is trying to get them some good nutrition as well. Tracey and Shonah are both from England and have been here over a year. They teach 1st and 2nd grade and are volunteers. They are angels. I don't know how they continue to do this day in and day out. There is no money in it and they live in just very very basic living conditions.

Everyone is so great out here.

Martin the Coffee Farmer

After a boat ride across beautiful Lake Atitlan, we arrived in the village of San Lucas Toliman where Whole Foods Market sources some of their coffee. We were met by a 67 year old Guatemalan named Martin (mar-teen) who has worked this land for over 40 years. He lead us up a steep mountain trail to proudly show us where he grows coffee plants, fruit trees, and keeps bees for honey. Along the way he entertained us with stories of his life. He lived during the civil war and as a young man, he found himself penniless with absolutely nothing, not even shoes. He went to a Catholic Church and asked the priest if he could get shelter in return for work. The American priest took him in and he worked as a handyman doing odd jobs around the church. The priest bought a bunch of land and offered a plot to Martin for around 100 Quetzales, which today would be around $13 dollars. It took Martin 3 years to pay off the loan, meanwhile he worked on clearing the land to grow coffee just a little piece at a time, as it was just himself.

After trudging up the steep path to Martin's property, we got to see the coffee plants and even the "real beginning", the bed of seedlings that will become coffee plants soon. Martin described how the seedlings need to be shaded because they can't receive too much sunlight and they must not have too much water, he talked about them as if they were children. After about 6 months they are ready to be transplanted, then a couple of years before they become a fruiting coffee plant. Coffee plants live and produce coffee berries for about 30 years.

Today he still works the land by hand, almost completely alone. During the harvest, he hires a few men to help carry the 150-200 pound bag of coffee beans down the mountain into the village. The trail is steep, narrow, and slippery. They can't use donkeys because there is no way to get water up the mountain for the animals.

I never really put much thought into where my coffee originates from. However, there are many lives affected by that steaming cup of coffee that I sip on practically every morning. It was a really neat experience to see where it all begins, and I have a much greater appreciation because that is such hard work.

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Microfinance Loans

Today we went to the Grameen Bank and met with the bank directors to learn how it got started. Grameen means village in Bangladash. It was started by Muhammand Yunus as an experiment in making microfinance loans to poor people to start a small business. The Grameen bank in Guatemala was started in 2006 when Whole Foods partnered with them. Whole Foods felt they needed to help the poor people where they were sourcing their coffee and some of their produce. The program in Guatemala has doubled in less than 2 years and already have 2500 women waiting to join. The conditions for the micro loans of $200 are:

• they must be women
• they must be poor
• they must live in the area
• they have to have a group of 5 women (only 1 from each family) to support each other, in case one woman can't make the payment, she has the support of her group.

At this time, the repayment rate is 100%.

We then got to visit a branch in Santa Catarina Palopo and meet the women that have taken out micro loans. There were about 20 of them lined up in a circle around the room all wanting to sell their goods. They had scarves, necklaces, purses, etc. These women used the loans to buy these goods to sell in the markets or along the streets. What they can sell in a day depends on if they can buy groceries. I don't think we as Americans can understand that concept. We have credit cards, home equity loans, unemployment, food stamps, and soup kitchens. These women have none of that. It is purely survival, and thanks to the Grameen bank, they have been given a little life line for a chance at a better life.

Just as we cannot conceive of their day to day survival, they cannot comprehend "the future". We volunteers were given the opportunity to ask the women questions and one of the volunteers asked what they see for their future, the future of their families and their villages and it drew some blank and confused looks. They didn't really know how to answer that. But we know that these loans mean a lot to their future. That they can feed their families, they can make improvements to their home, and their kids might be able to go to school. If the children can go to school it will improve their chances for a life out of poverty. These women are very hard workers but the job situation in Guatemala for women is grim. When asked what their typical day is like, they said they rise at 5 am and go to bed at 10 pm. Some women had 4 or 6 kids, and many did not have husbands to help support them.

I bought a lot of goods from the women. The Whole Foods Pikes Peak team members donated some money during our last store meeting for me to buy some goods and bring back to use as raffle prizes to raise more money for Whole Planet foundation. It was great to use the money to buy from the women which helps them out today and then for the long run by raising money for Whole Planet Foundation. I'm so glad that we are given the opportunity to donate to Whole Planet through our paychecks, because even just $2 goes such a long way to helping these women lead better lives.

As we were getting a group picture, they were collecting their goods to start their day, wrapping them in fabric and carrying the bundles on their heads. How do they do it? I tried (with my little bag) but didn't make it very far before it fell off. One little girl said she had been doing that since she was 1 year old. We had a good laugh, and I realized how much respect I had for them. They do their best and don't complain.

I am so thankful to have this opportunity to see first hand what a difference it makes. It is hard to put it into perspective unless you see it for yourself.

Home Away from Home

Well, Hola everyone!

I am having a great experience in Guatemala! Where do I start?

I'll start with my home-stay. My home away from home. Leah (another volunteer) and I are staying at la casa de Maria. She is a wonderful bright cheery Guatemalan madre who makes us delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We each have our own room which consists of a bed, a night stand, a really old little chair, a rickety old set of shelves covered in old wrapping paper, and a small mirror. That is it, everything. There is a light, but no outlets. The bathroom is a tiny little sink with a mirror, toilet and shower. The shower is interesting because you have to turn on the water which is little more than a trickle and ice cold, then flip a big fuse box switch to "heat" the water which gets to lukewarm at best. There are wires sticking out of the top of the shower and the shower head is a big pipe held up by more wires in the ceiling. Then you have to flip the switch off while the water is still running. I hope I don't get shocked. I take a lot fewer showers out here for sure! Sometimes there is no water in the sink, especially if they are doing laundry or dishes by hand downstairs.

The food is wonderful. Maria is a great cook. She has a kitchen as big as my walk-in closet, her stove is half the size as a regular stove and her half size refrigerator is in the dining room where we eat. We get a lot of fruit for breakfast, fresh cut pineapple, mango, bananas, cantaloupe, watermelon and fried plantains. Lunch is usually a homemade soup such as asparagus, lentil, or vegetable and fresh squeezed juice or hibiscus tea. Dinner is steamed vegetables, fresh made guacamole, and potatoes. Little corn tortillas with every meal. She served us spaghetti the other night, and has promised us pizza next week.

We live on one of the 2 streets of Panajachel, right in between little mini marts, kinda like a 7-11 or quick shop type shop but much smaller. Those are about every 5 doors. It is a very busy bustling town and pretty noisy all the time. The house is closed on the front but open ceiling to the street so it is very noisy. I have just gotten used to it and sleep really well despite all the noise.