We are just back from a week with the AFOPADI projects high in the mountain villages of NW Guatemala. This has been my most incredible trip yet. Because I wasn´t traveling with anybody from the States, my brain switched into Spanish and I believe that helps me remember my experiences more strongly. Although I have to admit, not having been trained in Spanish, listening in Spanish, while taking notes in English is a bit challenging. And then there is the local language, Mam, which I can only barely mimic, let alone understand.
The highlight of this trip was two hot sunny days spent walking up and down the slopes of the higher villages: Xacala, Pisuche and Tumiche. We were only four: one of the promotores in Permiculture, the couple who head up that part of AFOPADI and me. We visited nurseries in two of the villages and ate lunch in people´s homes. It was a very intimate time and I got to feel a small part of life there with no water, no electricity, little education or health care and few rights for women. The men are mostly absent as they are working to harvest products like the melon Mark G. mentioned in his last comment from Madison, Wisconison. Of course, winter feels very distant now even though it is always soooo chilly here in this mountain city of Quetzaltenago. I can´t wait to sleep without a hat! As I mentioned, it is the dry season, but it has rained three or four times this past week. Climate change perhaps. Quien sabe....
As usual, I will start posting photos when I am home some time this week.
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