desde San Andrés

Bueno, the days are nonstop wonder. One description of this job would be comfortability with chaos... we just never quite know what may pop up. Fortunately, my co-leader, Nico (in pic above) is an insightful and grounded teammate to dialogue out solutions along the way...

We´re in the second ´chapter´of our Central American journey. The first week was reforestation and lots of play at the elementary school, with afternoons for sewing, cooking, trips to the ´city´... one of the most impactful afternoons was when my host mother granted my wish of meeting a well-known human rights worker, Salvador Cutzál. A gracious yet clearly overburdened soul, Salvador lost 17 of his family members in the civil war here. Once a priest, he continues to struggle on behalf of indigenous Guatemalans who continue to suffer from discrimination. He assures me this is sadly very unchanged. Now indigenous are exploited to join the narcotraffic industry. But, as he told me, he´s has a proposal rather than a protest in his current mission, which is a school for local children to return to their Mayan ancestral roots and learn the language of the natural world. I left humbled and honored...

Now we´re in one of the most gorgeous towns I´ve ever experienced. San Andrés is on Lago Peten-itza in the Mayan biosphere. Before swimming in its inviting waters, I heard from my wise and weathered host father about the legend of the stone horse from back during the time of Cortés´arrival. Today I took an infirmed student to visit a traditional healer before meeting up with the rest of the crew to clean up a nearby beach that will be heavily trafficked during Carnaval weekend coming up. While the students are in Spanish classes, I take care of business little by little. Tonight we celebrate Nico´s birthday at a humble restaurant which hangs above the lake... and with a cake I ordered this afternoon from a woman while she chatted to me out of her house window. Sent to her from a random passerby on the street, turns out the baker is one of my host mother´s seven sisters.

Like a storybook, the sweet breeze inhales and exhales me along this butterfly existence. Time to pick up the cake...

Be well, my friends.

guatemala

Super quick, I´m again on the move. One of our students wrote quite a comprehensive blog. I´ll send that along for now, and hope to write from my lens later... hope all are well. In a nutshell, Guatemala feels like home:)

http://carpediemeducation-cam.blogspot.com/

Compassion for CA

A new month, and soon a step into yet another life chapter. Now I've revolved a big 30 years around the sun, and find myself on the cusp of venturing back into 'my other home' of latin america. I've been delving into the history books and sussing out the complex dynamics of what has made each country a unique story... Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras will all be places I'll be exploring with five students and my co-leader under the banner of Carpe Diem International.
I grew up in a home which we opened up to (what at that time were called) 'illegal aliens'-- Central Americans fleeing harsh, oppressive regimes in their homelands. These regimes yielded weapons and utilized tactics supplied by the US government, which it doled out for fear of rising communism. Essentially, at that time (as has been often repeated) the US government chose what it considered a matter of 'security' over supporting principles of democracy. In turn, thousands of innocent people were tortured, terrorized, killed or displaced... while handfuls of the governing elite benefited from their close cooperation with the US.
Growing up watching films such as El Norte, and vicariously registering the flowing of the Sanctuary City movement in Allentown, I lived a certain quality of personal experience with this painful saga in the 80's. A compassion, particularly for people of this region, has nested in me and slowly I've gained wider lens by which to envisage the roots to the tremendous suffering there.
As I visit the region in 2009, I'm looking to develop an understanding of the extent to which there has been healing from this time and/or how the violence then has rippled into the present generations. News of Central America faded from our US media after the end of the Cold War and as the axis of global war economy shifted to Iraq and Afghanistan, but this certainly does not correspond with relief to a region troubled with extreme inequality and impoverishment. In many cases, literature speaks of drugs and gangs that have taken hold, showing how the horrors of the past are too often replicated in the present, just wearing different masks.
But perhaps those nuggets of healing we are able to find on our travels will have a certain essence that we, as visitors, can attempt to understand and in turn bring back with us to the US as we embark on our own quest for healing.
After all, the era of "we, as the more 'developed' nation, have a duty to help them, the less capable" is long gone. Indeed, our Central American brothers and sisters, who have endured tremendous hardship and pain, have the potential to impart to us vital wisdom.
I ask your prayers for safety and growth as we seven pack our backpacks and venture off... I'll be carrying you all in my heart as well...