2011, A Fresh Start...

---

Guatemala is full of massive, beautiful volcanoes, practically all lined up in a row, sharing roots beneath the earth all connected with strong, united energy forces. Not too long ago, a group of us had the opportunity to climb and sleep on top of the volcano, Santa Maria. I am actually able to see the top of this volcano from my village, as well as a beautiful view from Quetzaltenango (Xela) a city an hour away. I am not sure I can describe in words what an amazing experience this was, but imagine yourself in a world completely different than you are in now. Carrying a rather large backpack and a tent, water, and food on your back as you are working your way up an almost 12,000 foot volcano. Starting this journey as we got dropped off in a village below the base, one step in front of the next is all it takes. Simple one would think, yet the extra weight, heat of the sun, and steepness slow you down, and all you can do is keep climbing up, up and up. The trees and foliage change as you get higher in elevation, bright purple and yellow flowers keep a colored presence and beautiful contrast against the green bushes, plants and trees. The clouds slowly creeping in around you where at some points all you can see is a few feet in front of you. The winds pick up as you get higher, air is thinning, yet the stillness and calmness of the cities and busy life below keep things in perspective. How peaceful a volcano can be, covered with lush green foliage, birds of many, people of few, and yet volcanoes can also be the complete opposite.. destructive when active and erupting, ruining all in its path. Yet being in its presence I felt a powerful energy, both humbling and peaceful as we traversed up its steep, narrow paths. It grew colder as we neared the top, but setting up the tents to hide from the wind and the few sun breaks before sunset were just enough warmth. The view of the other volcanoes on each side all lined up in a row were absolutely breath taking. We all stared in awe, above the clouds seeing the other volcanoes peering through the cloud layer. We sat watching the beautiful sunset which led into the transition to night, also enjoying the moon setting, and stars rapidly appearing and brightening the night sky. We then awoke early to welcome the sun as it rose with splendid colors, changing every so often. A few of us did yoga and brought in the day, the 360 degree view was unbelievable! I cannot wait to climb another, for Guatemala has several various volcanoes all suited for hiking 😊

A group of us brought in the new year in a place called Earth Lodge Hotel, which is located on an avocado farm full of tree houses and cabins to sleep in and is nestled high up next to a small village with an amazing view of 3 volcanoes, just outside of Antigua. Being here helped me start 2011 with a fresh start... We would wake up before the sun and watch it rise with these volcanoes, the sky, clouds, and land beneath all changing colors and watching the towns below start their day. Drinking coffee and tea to bring warmth to the body as well as practicing yoga which also sends warmth and energy to the extremities, I have found has been a perfect combination for starting the day, especially on these cold mornings. I continued to do this on my vacation over my own new years break I took with my friend as we went to the beach and the lake. I now have brought this deep appreciation and love for starting the mornings with the sun, and have tried to incorporate this back into my life in my village. Appreciating each day as it is a being of fresh start, always. It was moments like these, welcoming the sun and seeing its power as it peers over the mountains and pours its rays of light and warmth all about the land. It melts the frost covered land as its rays send waves of heat, leaving shadows of frost where trees and mountain hide the earth below from the sun. The sun warms up the water in the rivers and in the pila for the women to wash dishes, laundry and for bathing since it is typically very cold since we live over 9,000 feet and without the sun's rays of support, it is very cold. To live in a place very dependent on both sun for warmth and energy for daily tasks, and also relying on rain, rivers and water springs for many as a main source of water is a world different than I am use to before coming to Guatemala. I only bathe or can do laundry when the is sun out available for warmth. It really puts things in perspective, seeing that many all over the world must rely on the sun, still. It helps one to appreciate our connection we as humans have with the earth.

Now more than ever have I been enjoying waking up a bit before the sun to get centered with myself, realize and actualize where I am and what I am doing at this current point in my life. It is with welcoming the sun as it rises over the mountains and trees, making tea and doing yoga that I have begun to appreciate more and more the unique beauty that each day entails. I feel more connected with a profound gratitude to everything around me when I wake up and take time by myself, especially before starting a day of work in a place where everything is different, yet is becoming more familiar with each day as I continue to live and slowly integrate into this community.

Starting a new year also means planning out the new year, with the schools, community leaders, health workers and our counterparts. We have finally finished building the benches out of the trash-filled plastic bottles the kids in the school filled and turned in, and we are currently painting them with the winning classes who filled the most bottles. This has been a very long, but enjoyable process which I hope will lead to our overall attempt to help create a trash management plan including a trash committee here in the village. We will continue to educate about the importance of protecting our environment from contamination with our health promoters who just graduated as well as other community leaders. We are doing our best to get the whole community involved, and are starting another bottle project one of the other small schools in the village, for they are in need for a kitchen, for a few mothers come to cook the kids their daily snack and currently cook in a closed off lamina shed full of smoke they are constantly breathing, along with their babes on their backs who are also breathing in all the lung damaging smoke.

Along with our environmental projects, we are also working with the older kids to make a few trash cans made of bottles, too, and these would be distributed around the schools, in the office of the mayor and community leaders´ office, the church and in the center of town. We have been working with several community groups on this and are hoping to start a trash committee to be responsible for collecting and separating the trash and the plastics because there are a few organizations that buy plastics, and in turn we can use the money from the trash for bettering the community in various ways. Next month we plan to have an inaugaration for the bottle projects and invite all the community groups, leaders, and those who have been working with us in order to celebrate the hard work everyone has been putting in and to show the community in a formal way that we can re-use trash to make new things in the community!

Touching more on the health promoters and their graduation... Another volunteer and I have been training and working with a group of local, health promoters who recently graduated from their one year course. We celebrated with them by first going to the zoo in Xela then we had a lovely ceremony with the Guatemalan national anthem, bringing in of the flag, diplomas, cake and a slide show of their photos. Twice a month we have been giving them many lessons and activities about various health topics and have also been working with a non-profit that comes 1-2 times a month to work with them to also make an emergency plans for families here in the village. These include knowing what are the danger signs during pregnancy since the majority have home births with comadronas, or mid-wives. This organization also works with giving educational talks and activities with the mid-wives every month. Our health promoters once graduated will then help with the work I do by giving more health talks in the schools, waiting room of the health post, and hopefully each will be in charge of their own ´´paraje´´ or neighborhood, since my village has 21 Parajes (smaller communities within one big village). Since they have all been trained in several health topics, they now feel confident to step up as community leaders, and after their graduation they will still continue once a month trainings for continuing education and help serve their community in areas mainly focusing on health. They are all very excited and have already given their first charlas (health talks) to schools and groups at the health posts!

In the past couple months, I have been collaborating with One Laptop Per Child and have received a starter kit of 2 computers from them to work with in the schools here in my village. They have already been making health programs for computers in Haiti and other countries, so I would be helping translate these health computer programs into Spanish and performing field testing in the schools. I am excited for this since I already work in the schools often and teach English weekly in 2 of the classrooms as well as all of our environmental activities we have been doing with them. Once the starter kit arrives we can start working with the teachers to introduce them to these health programs and then to teach with them in the classrooms. I am anxious to get this started and see how it flows here in my village, but my guess is it can help with not only learning about important health issues such as not drinking water from the river, how to purify water, sanitation, hygiene and other topics relevant to life here in my village, but help these kids learn and excel with their computer skills, especially if they want to continue into further education and universities where computer work is mandatory.

It is ironic how the same thing can both tire you out and bring you down, yet also lift you up and give you energy... I have been realizing this is the case with several things in my life here; the kids energy is empowering and contagious and they are probably my best friends here in my village. It is the youth here who accept and welcome me the most, and those that I can communicate with the best since they are learning Spanish in the schools. The majority of the women and men only know a little Spanish since their lives are still mainly carried out in their own dialect of Ki’che’. However, teaching classes with kids or doing long activities with them can also drain all your energy and even bring on frustration with their lack of attention or consistent fighting with others. Even in the same day, I could get completely worn out teaching an English or cooking class with kids and come home with frustrations, but to then have my spirit lifted by my young host brothers and their love for having fun and their interest in painting, dancing, playing with our puppies, and even cooking with me. My 5 month old puppy Canela is another example... how frustrated I get when I come home after a long day as she greets me with pieces of foam hanging from her mouth as I see that she had been chewing up my foam mattress into millions of pieces dragged all over, but then later that night as she cuddles with her nose on my neck in complete peace and happiness, all out of love. It is almost everything in life that we can have opposite reactions and emotional responses to, and I have noticed this more than ever living in a world different than my own, seeing that everything I once knew is now being tested to some degree. However, at the least we are always learning, growing, and changing with each experience. It is just allowing yourself to be open to all the new experiences, letting them teach us what they are meant to and enjoying each moment for what it is, because life truly is beautiful.

Peace and blessings to each and every one of you in this new year 2011.

To view photos of current happenings, here are some links:

Bottle Project:

Volcano Santa Maria: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2461078&id=19214165&l=457897ca6f

New Years Travels:

---