The heartbreaking but strong and hopeful Guatemala - Part 8

One of the most spiritual experiences we participated in during our trip was a traditional Mayan ceremony. The ceremony was performed in a Mayan language. There are 23 different Mayan language, and I am not sure which one she was speaking.

The ceremony begins with the shaman preparing the fire. She put aromatics, sweets, chocolate, bread, honey, sugar, cinnamon, and herbs. The spirits like sweets, which makes me feel better about the fact that I have sweet teeth (not just one sweet tooth - but a whole set of sweet teeth). Those offerings were covered with colored candles.  

The first part of the ceremony was for gratitude, and in the second part, she prayed for us to be successful - to achieve our goals. We began the ceremony kneeling and kissing the earth. She blessed us by touching our heads and feet. We then got three candles each to throw in the fire.  She anointed us liquid sprayed from a bunch of herbs. The fire was mesmerizing - so beautiful - the color, the shapes. I know this sounds weird, but it was the most beautiful fire I have ever seen. We were given sesame and sugar to rub between our hands over the fire, and later we prayed and threw sugar in the fire.  It was a really moving ceremony. The students really enjoyed, as did I.  

I thought it would be rude to take pictures during the ceremony, and I wanted to be present and involved in the ceremony itself. However, I did get a picture of the alter beforehand. Some of the students said they saw faces in the stones on the alters. Delores, our guide, said they were our spirit animals or ancestors. 

The next day we had free time to go to the market. Josh, Felicia, and I also decided to hike back up to the Mayan ceremonial site. There were two. Our ceremony was at the lower site, so we went up to the top site.  I didn't think we had enough time, but Felicia really pushed us. She wanted to see it, and I am glad she did. It was beautiful and peaceful up there. In fact, peaceful is what I felt at the Mayan temple ruins as well. 

Our last day we made our way to Antigua, which is probably the most famous tourist spot in Guatemala. We had the night there and then the next day it was off to the airport. During our stay, we stopped and visited a chocolate museum, which was yummy!! I got chocolate tea with cardamom - so very good! 

Mmmmmm.....chocolate! 

You can just make out the volcano looming over Antigua. Apparently it is not active. At night we even saw lights on the volcano of villages or houses, so it must be fine. 

The town square...

There were a lot of tourists around and about. It was a beautiful, colonial style town. 

Delores took us to a textile museum and shop. In the shop they had a Mayan ceremonial site and a shrine to Maximón, who is somewhat of a folk saint. Delores' hometown of Santiago Atitlan, also has a shrine to  Maximón. She told us that he is known for healing people. In return, the people hang colorful ties around his neck. He also likes expensive liquor and cigarettes. In my research on him, I discovered that there is a lot of conflicting information about him. He is a mix of Christianity and Mayan religions. He is seen as the devil, a saint, or a god depending on who you ask. Here's an article if you would like to read more about him: Link. 

Night scene, Antigua. 

Well, that concludes my series on Guatemala. I learned so much during this trip, and honestly, I am still processing a great deal of it. Not only did I learn from our speakers, but I also learned a great deal from our guides, Ali and Delores, as well as the other faculty leader, Josh. I learned from the students as well. Every night we had a guided reflection led in turn by each of the students during which time we were posed with a question and each of us answered it. That time was really beneficial for processing what we heard, learned and saw during the day. 

I kept a journal during the trip, and it is filled with wisdom and quotes from each and everyone of those that I travelled with. I look forward to reading through it again. 

The heartbreaking but strong and hopeful Guatemala - Part 7

Our next stop was to more of a tourist town on Lake Atitlan, Panajachel. We had two talks that day. The first was really moving, Willie. I've mentioned him already, he was a former guerrilla warrior and political refugee in the US, where he trained to be a sous chef. He shared a lot about his struggles and life. He said he was forced to learn English, but he nows sees it as a weapon of self-defense. 

He left the US because, in our guide Delores words, "he wasn't taking his medicine there" or in other words he wasn't doing what he was born to do in the US. He was pursing the American Dream - all about getting stuff - houses, cars, new gadgets. In the US, we want everything right away. We are slaves to the clock. He realized he needed to pursue the Guatemalan dream. He returned to Guatemala to help his people - to fight against the corporations that are polluting the land - to help his people find their medicine. 

He started Cafe Red- a place where people can gather and support organic farming and the local economy. He works with Desgua, which works with returned Guatemalans to create economic and educational opportunities. Today there are over 1.5 million Guatemalans living in the US. 

Another interesting thing we learned is that the farming in Guatemala was largely organic until companies like Wal-Mart came in and asked (forced?) them to grow foods for export. But in the US, we want our fruit to look perfect, and our tomatoes to be perfectly round, and our bananas to be huge. To do that, the farmers had to resort to using pesticides and other means to make "pretty produce."

Our last talk of the trip was the CCDA, which is somewhat of a union. They fight for labour and land rights.  They help people recover their land and provide legal counsel. When people fight for their land, they are jailed or worse- killed! Just the other day, I came across an article: Latin American Environmental Activists are Paying for Protests with Their Lives.  The government uses bullying and intimidation to get people to quietly let companies take their land. They violently evict the people from their land - burning down their houses and crops. The leader of the CCDA has even had to go into exile three times. 

We then had some free time to explore the town. 

I thought these roasted nuts were pretty...granted we couldn't eat them. 

Aren't these just the cutest street pups!! Those eyes!! 

On our way to to our next stop, Chichicastenango, we stopped at a Widow's Cooperative, which was a group of women who banded together to survive after their husbands were murdered during the genocide. They learned to weave and sell their products to support their families. This was hard. We heard about how her husband was murdered. I imagine it must be awful to tell that story to groups of students, tourists, whenever they come by. I really hope she wanted to tell the story and didn't feel like she had to because she wanted us to buy the weavings. I did buy a lovely blanket here. 

Last post coming soon....

The heartbreaking but strong and hopeful Guatemala - Part 6

Still on Lake Atitlan, we boarded a ferry and went 20 minutes down the lake to check out a missionary and its projects in San Lucas. Then back on the boat to visit a permaculture educational site. 

To tour the missionaries projects, we road in the back of a pick-up truck, but don't worry we were all safe. Our first stop was a center that teaches women how to sew and cook. I think it goes without saying that I bought several things there.

Next stop, a coffee roasters. 

The missionary also has a coffee roasting operation. They pay the local farmers a fair rate for coffee beans and make coffee. Here's a picture of some of the workers hand selecting the best beans for roasting. Also, goes without saying that I bought some coffee. I haven't had a chance to taste it yet, but I can't wait! 

It was a sunny beautiful day on the lake! 

Our next stop was to learn about permaculture and have lunch at IMAP (Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute).

The lunch was delicious. This is when I first learned about the Guatemalan squash, guicoy. The soup above is made with it. I love that squash so much! 

Here, we are learning about an alternative cooking stove that uses solar power. The cooking is primarily done in wood burning stoves around the lake, which is brutal to the lungs. Smoke fills the air day and night as people cook their meals. In fact, one of the most common diseases that the missionary hospital treats is asthma. 

This is a gray water banana tree circle. They use the water from the kitchen to water these banana trees. There is natural filtration in the soil to filter out the soap and what not. The bananas grow really high up and the tree also filters out any pollutants from the gray water, so the bananas are perfect to eat. 

Next up, we visited the seed bank. They exchange seeds and loan seeds to local farmers in return for seeds back. It is a really cool program. 

We learned a great deal about permaculture here. Since that is not really my field of expertise, it was especially interesting to me. It is a way of thinking and of seeing the world. It's ecocentric, biocentric, not anthropocentric (human centered). Humans are only one element - not the central element. We make a ton of waste and in nature there is no waste. 

For Mayans, corn is everything. Our guide told us, you could give a Mayan a huge steak dinner with potatoes, but if there wasn't a corn tortilla - it wouldn't be considered a full meal. 

A good example of how nature designs things to work in harmony is the holy triangle (the three sisters) - corn, beans, and squash.  The corn supports the beans, the beans grow up the corn stock, the beans give the corn nitrogen, which it needs to grow, and the squash needs shade, which the corn provides. The squash keeps in water for the corn and beans and helps stop erosion. Also, the squash attracts bees and encourages pollination. These three also make a complete meal! Love love love that the complete meal does not include meat!!!

 

We made our way back by boat to San Antonio and visited a ceramics shop. 

Everything was hand painted and simply gorgeous! We even saw ceramics made here in a shop in Antigua! 

To be continued....

The heartbreaking but strong and hopeful Guatemala - Part 5

Our next stop in Guatemala was our home stays on Lake Atitlan in San Antonio Palopo. The town is nestled right at the edge of Lake Atitlan and across the lake are three volcanos, although it was hazy for most of our stay there, so they were somewhat difficult to see.

These are the two guides and myself - Ali and Delores. We are standing on top of the school. 

The white house in the this picture was where my homestay was. We stayed with the principal of the school and his wife who is a teacher there. The house was very large, with a central courtyard (below). The room with those large windows was a large room for celebrations! It was at the top part of the town, so Ali, Delores and I got a work out every night :) The students were paired up in different houses across the town. 

The homestay was really lovely. Our hosts wouldn't let us help with chores, but on the second night, our host Dad, Vincente played guitar and sang us a song about San Antonio.  He's even got a video on youtube singing it: Es San Antonio - after that we sang La Bamba together. It was a blast! 

Our hosts also host other students, so they were really familiar with the process, and I had a nice room to myself. We were lucky in that they also had water and a heated shower. 

We got to visit the our hosts' school as they prepared to pick their representative for a big festival the following week. Eachclass sent a representative and a whole entourage to preform in front of the whole school. It was adorable - also they are dressed in traditional Mayan outfits.  

See!!! How cute are they!! 

The heartbreaking but strong and hopeful Guatemala - Part 4

Probably one of my favorite things we did was visit Iximche, a site of Mayan Temple ruins, but also current Mayan spiritual practices. It wasn't just that the day was perfect and the site was beautiful. But we also had an amazing speaker, Antonio. All of our speakers were wonderful, but at times it was like he was speaking directly to me. 

We learned about our Nahual from Delores, our guide. Nahual's are your Mayan spirit animal or totem, much like your zodiac sign. Each person has a Nahual based on the date, month, and year of their birth, and it influences your character and demeanor. I learned from the book I read by Rigoberta Menchu that in Mayan culture, you don't find out your Nahual until you turn 13, although your parents know from your birth. You also never ask someone what their Nahual is, although they can tell you if they would like. 

You can calculate your Nahual here: Link

Here is a carving at the entrance to the Mayan site with  Nahuals 

As we travelled through the site, our guide gave us information about the Mayan Religion.  I wish that I could remember everything that he told us - it was very powerful. I will try to capture at least some of it. 

The Mayans believe in creativity and imagination. However, now people want to be analytical and in control of everything. But this control is an illusion. The mind does not control anything. We have to be willing to let go of that control. We can't be filled with worry, or we will waste our energy on that rather than finding solutions.  

When we are forced to be a certain way or write a certain way, we lose our creativity. This part was really interesting to me because, Josh, Ali, and I were just talking in the car about how academic writing has to be a certain way - use a certain writing style - and it can be so frustrating sometimes to write like that. 

I really liked this particular temple. I took about 50 pictures of it. The tree growing out of the top, the sun shining on it - just beautiful. The pictures don't really do it justice. 

Antonio, our guide, told us the only way to be happy comes from within. We asked him how we can be happy within, and he stated silence. We need to be silent and listen to ourselves at least five minutes every day. This is something I would really like to work on because I am very analytical and controlling. I hate sitting in silence. Literally, I always have something on - TV, music, white noise...

This was the alter of the Mayan site that is still used for worship. I am not sure if you can tell, but there are bright red chilis in the fire offering. 

Antonio told us our minds are just tools for love, but we cannot just be ruled by our minds. We have to strive to have our eyes open - not just the physical ones, but the eyes of our heart and mind as well. We must ask the creator for help with this. Also, praying isn't a miracle, it's an exercise. Impatience causes the creator to be unable to help us. 

Being grateful is very important, in fact, one side of the current Mayan site was for gratitude worship. We should thank our bodies for the work they do for us - our feet for carrying us about, our stomachs for digesting food, etc. We need to quit committing violence to our bodies. He cited the morning alarm as violence to our bodies (lord knows that is how I feel when my alarm goes off!!). We should just tell our bodies what time we need to be awake. 

We finished the day by traveling to our homestays on Lake Atitlan. 

To be continued....