lunes, 28 de febrero de 2011

Fresh Air

3 Volcanoes in the distance

I can’t remember the last time I saw a sunset or at least it seems like forever. But a sunrise is also a special moment and I saw one of those yesterday. What better way is there to start the day? Sunrises seem better suited for coffee or tea and sunsets for beer. When you climb to 13, 845 feet (the highest peak in Central America) to see a sunrise, just being there in the company of friends is plenty.

We had camped below the summit of Volcan Tajumulco after afternoon showers told us to take it easy and wait for morning. At 5:00 am, I squeezed myself out of the tent to find a clear sky, full of stars. I just knew a spectacular sunset would be greeting us very shortly. We made the final push to the summit as the frosty ground crunched below us. It got lighter, volcanoes in the distance came into view, and then that magical little ball of happiness bid a spectacular good morning. 

There is something amazing about short adventures in the natural world. You can be away for such little time but feel so rejuvenated and alive after them. This time was twenty-four hours but I know that an hour has the potential to be just as special. You just have to make the moments happen. During my time in Guatemala, I have plans, with two adventurous souls, to meet up once a month for an outdoor adventure recharge. I am making it happen and you should too.

Of course we made it! 
Cheers!


Then and Now







Seems unlikely that I would find myself at Mayan ruins on the tail end of a work trip, but here I am lying under a huge pine tree in the midst of what was once at important city: Iximche. What remains now, forces your imagination to run wild: important ceremonies, human sacrifices, the comings and goings of people from the surrounding villages, a soccer type game, using a ball similar in weight to a bowling ball, that ended in death, weddings, births. It was an elaborate and complex society that only the impressive trees remember seeing. The wind rustles their leaves as if trying to whisper the story of this place and the birds chirp and fly by, as they always have. It is the most peaceful and serene place I have been in Guatemala and there are few things better than finding a quiet, breezy place where you can lay and watch the clouds roll by as the symphony of sounds plays a one time show.






Yesterday was a 18-hour day. All that time was used to visit two homes, eat a couple of meals and compile the information from the interviews and photos.

6:00 am found me taking a taxi to a direct bus that had been cancelled, so a “chicken bus” it was. Three exciting hours later, I hopped on a motorbike with Jose, the Habitat promoter, for a nearly three-hour ride on unpaved roads to the first home. The scenery was stunning as the motorbike struggled to carry us up and down the numerous mountains and along the ridges. The steep mountainsides proudly displayed their crops and were dotted with workers tending them. Textures and hues of green varied as we crossed through many microclimates and in front of some homes, women were crouched down on their knees, weaving away on their looms, as they have for generations. As the day-to-day life whizzed past, it was so easy to see the connection these people had to the land and place. They learn skills at a young age and many will teach their own children the same thing in the same place. Is it important to pass down skills from one generation to the next? I think so and maybe those skills are what we are knowledgeable in and we find to be useful wherever we are in the world.

Mejia family
Barely able to get off the motorbike, I hobbled down to the first house. It was the first time I had seen a home that was given as a gift with no payment expected. The Mejia family’s previous home (a one room, adobe walled, dirt floor, tin roof sleeping area) was destroyed, in December of 2009, during Tropical Storm Agatha. For the past year, the family of 10 slept in an even smaller adobe room, connected to the kitchen. Financially, there was no way to repair or even consider building a new home, so life went on. The family lives three hours by bus, on unpaved roads, from the nearest town but the father heard about Habitat helping victims of Agatha while working in the capital city. A year passed with no word, more money was donated for Agatha victims and then came the news that they would be given a house. Two months later, their new three roomed home was ready. All three rooms will be used for sleeping and it is surely a much warmer night’s sleep with no worry of the house washing away. The family is full of thanks, overflowing with joy and still in awe. Their smiles and kindness wrapped around me like a blanket and made me feel the warmth of the human spirit.
The Mejia family's old home
New home

The two and a half hour ride back was bumpy and my legs could barely be convinced to stay in place to hold me on but I was pleased with what I had seen and I felt lucky to be in the moment. With a new appreciation for paved roads, a quick lunch and two more hours riding, I found myself at the second home. Flora and her two daughters greeted me with big smiles and curious glances. Their family of seven had been taking cover in the kitchen when their tin walled and roofed home was ripped away during Agatha. They managed to put it back together, in a sense, but there were gaping holes and a certainty that it would not withhold the rains that are soon to start. A year also passed before they got the news that they would receive a free Habitat home, and it was a huge surprise when the materials started to arrive. They are beyond grateful and after 26 years, they will have a sturdy, warm, dry home. Volunteers did not build either of these houses and it seems that I was the American face that had the pleasure of accepting their gratitude. Many people don’t see or realize the direct impact they have on other’s lives but I am certain that if we put forth the energy to help others, we can rest assured that somewhere things are just a little better. 

Old home





New home











I arrived back at my hotel after dark and when I looked in the mirror, I saw a dirt-covered face with a huge grin. My body ached, I was mentally drained and I was filthy from all the dusty roads and black smoke of buses, but I felt recharged. I drank a beer, had some dinner and wrote and emailed the reports and photos just before midnight. Dormí como una piedra! (I slept like a rock)


She asked for a picture with me.

martes, 15 de febrero de 2011

little by little

tobacco drying

Lucky and her son

I traveled a full day to arrive in Rio Hondo, in the Oriente of Guatemala, where it is overwhelmingly hot and dry. The landscape changed dramatically from the fertile, patch-worked hills of the Highlands that I now call home to the “montanas secas” (dry mountains) that remind me of another home in Southern California. The typical clothes worn by women in the highlands don’t colorfully paint the landscape nor does the impressive array of fruits and vegetables. The kindness of the people in this area is genuine, the cheese and milk delicious, the melons abundant and a sweet bread called “quesadilla” not to be missed.

This trip was different than my normal routine and unfolded in quite a remarkable way.

A group of volunteers is coming to help build in less than a week and Habitat needs to send them photos and info on the families they will be working with. I oriented myself to the new questions, since this was “a before you live in your house” interview and not after. Confusing after only a week on the job!

I had heard about “La Colonia” or the colony, a type of housing development done by Habitat, but had never seen one. I arrived at the colony, where the new homes were going to be built, and immediately thought, who would really want to live in a place like this? All the houses are exactly the same and close together. I definitely prejudged and made assumptions.

Earlier in the week, when I was doing my first interviews, it became clear that a family member had given all the new homeowners, except for one, their land. It was unsettling and made me wonder how people in this country got a home if they didn’t have land.

Introducing ……”La Colonia”         (applause please, un aplauso por favor)

How it works: Habitat buys a large plot of land with the intent to build houses close together and form a community. By purchasing the land in one lump piece, they are able to offer families a plot to build on for less than 50% of what land would normally cost them. For the first time, it becomes affordable to own a home and the land it sits on.
Due in 4 days!
The old saying, “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, true again.

While waiting for the families to arrive, I walked in the colony that was built the year before and skeptically looked around. I was invited inside a home and given a tour by a smiley, proud homeowner. After talking to her and seeing how happy she was to be living in the colony, I started thinking; maybe this place has some good things going for it.

In the course of the afternoon, I interviewed 12 families. Their stories were genuine testimonies to perseverance, moving forward in life, raising your self-esteem, and creating a better and calmer home for the sake of their children. Without the colony, they could have never afforded their own land and home, at the same time.

One single mother, who goes by Lucky, had been keeping the dream alive, of home ownership, for decades and she will move out of her mother’s home for the first time ever. Another woman’s husband died 5 years ago and she is finally able to move out of her in-laws home after 19 years. A couple, pregnant with their first child, is excited to start their family in their OWN home.
Rene in front of his nearly built home
I was filled to the brim with utter joy from the stories but still had one family left. Rene (25) and his brother, Rony (23) were abandoned by their parents, at ages 7 and 5, and spent most of their lives moving around, from one place to the next, sometimes with extended family. Rene, now a teacher, worked hard to make his way through school and managed to keep his dream alive. Rene said, “Owning my own home it is my biggest dream. I am on a good path and little by little I am changing my life and making it better.”  Rene and Rony are a reminder that people all over the world are manifesting their dreams.

The temperature is rising and I have photos and reports to get ready. It makes me happy to pass on the stories, so the volunteers know the families are worthy of the time and energy they are putting forth. Two weeks from now, those 12 families will be waking up in their new homes and staring their days, but things will be just a little bit different. Little by little, change is possible.

Peace in Egypt.


One thing leads to another...



It almost seems that the Voyage of the Misty Moonlight was in another lifetime but each day it is apparent that Misty is the gift that keeps on giving. First and foremost is the friendship and sisterhood that grew and continues to thrive. It is the grandest gift of all and has made my life more exciting than any bus ride in Guatemala (to date) or any moment of terror on a boat with two other people that don’t really know how to sail.

Somewhere, on a completely different level, is the chunk of money I received when we sold the boat. It was understood that the journey might not/would not return what was invested and if it did, we were dam lucky. I guess we got lucky and now, thanks to Misty, I am able to be a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. Habitat pays my travel expenses while working, which includes food, lodging and all sorts of transport but I pay the rest. I am hopeful that the opportunity here in Guatemala will give insight into the international non-profit sector and possibly open some doors later.

So what do I do? Well, According to the manual they gave me, this is the description of my position, “ The profiles volunteer travels within Guatemala visiting families in their new Habitat homes. They are required to conduct a short interview with the family and take photos of the family in their new home to aid in the creation of reports for donor follow-up.”

That’s me, the profiles volunteer and work has started. Last Monday and Tuesday, I visited 12 finished homes in the Lake Atitlan area using panga, motorbike, tuk-tuk, bus, micro-bus, back of truck, and walking to get around. In each area that I go, there is a local promoter (who often has a motorbike) who takes me to the houses and often has a little beta on the families. I would be lost without him, as there aren’t really addresses or mapquest here,

During the interviews (in Spanish of course), I inquire the families about their previous living arrangements, which is often grim, as far as quality of the home or number of people in the home.  I ask about their experience with Habitat, why they wanted a new home and how it feels to have their own home, among other things. I take lots of photos, inside and outside, of the house. The information and photos are used for international donor relations and sent to the volunteers who came to help build the homes. It is quite amazing to hear the stories of these families and see how their quality of life has improved substantially through owning their own home. I have to write up reports of all the homes I visit and organize/edit the photos. Last but not least, I rest. Public transport really takes it out of you.

Habitat offers non-profit loans so families are able to build a home or improve the one they live in. The loan is paid back in a specified amount of time (usually 10 years). Habitat has been in Guatemala for over 30 years and built over 30,000 houses here.  For more information, check out the website: http://www.habitatguate.org/



miércoles, 9 de febrero de 2011

A New Journey


Guatemala!!

I am here. It has not been a short path, nor one with few choices, to get here, In fact, it has been 30 years of living that has put me here and seven difficult months. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and sometimes the beauty of believing in that is waiting for the reasons to unfold. I know that I am here for a reason.

It has been two weeks since I arrived. Hurled into the chaos of a new dialect of Spanish and the cacophony of horns and “bombas” (fireworks not bombs), I have found myself excited and often grinning at the circumstances that currently are my life. Strangely enough, it all feels quite comfortable. The question of  “how the hell did I end up here, right here, right now?”  has crossed my mind but seems to be dismissed by the answer –“you manifested it”. More on manifestation at another time.

I arrived to Guatemala city via plane and took a taxi/bus/taxi combo to a friend’s house that is in the Peace Corp. Yes-I (as I know him) has become Jesse, cut his hair and is clean shaven since our days working together on Catalina Island.  I think it has to do with the fact that he is working for the Mayor in a town called Totonicopan (20 min. from where I live) on an ecotourism project that involves waterfalls.  His kindness and introduction to the marvelously crazy country of Guatemala has been invaluable.

I spent the first few days figuring out how to ride the “chicken buses” and micro buses without getting lost or ripped off. Check! I made my way to the Habitat for Humanity office where I will be working, set up Spanish classes, and committed to live with a family, for a bit, that will hopefully fatten me up some.

The weekend found me heading out with Yes-I to climb my first volcano in Guatemala: Volcan Atitlan (11,604 ft.). It was an organized trek with the intention to remove trash from the volcano. I was nervous that the summit would elude me (out of shape and middle aged) but I was in the company of over 60 people (Guatemalans and foreigners) that were full of determination and the notion that, of course, we are going to make it to the top. It did not matter that nearly everyone was ill-prepared, according to American standards, and seemed to lack sufficient amounts of food, water and shelter. First valuable lesson in Guatemala: food, water and shelter are meant to be shared. Why else would you have it? 

After 10 hours of hiking, we make it to the summit, totally exhausted, and Yes-I, Judy and I set up our broken tent. Even though it was really cold and windy, I awoke in the night sweating, and realized I was sleeping on some serious thermal activity that was heating the ground. I had a little difficulty easing my mind and falling back asleep. The volcano was shrouded in clouds the following morning, thus holding the views to the coast for another day. As the sun peeked in on the 60 or so exhausted folks at the top of Volcan Atitlan that morning, it was clear that we all felt fulfilled by the journey. We removed an absurd amount of trash as we stumbled, and sometimes slid, our way down.

I continually find myself inspired by the people that cross my path and this weekend was abundantly giving in that regard. Taking the insight and wisdom from those around you and being able to listen is truly a blessing and a gift. The hike made me feel ALIVE and ready for this journey to unfold in whatever form it chooses. I know I made the right choice. This is where I am supposed to be.

Irene (E-RAY-NAY)