Greetings from Guatemala...

I´m writing from the little village of San Marcos de la Leguna on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. It´s an alternative experience far from the AFOPADI project in the mountainous Northwest where I´ve just spent most of the last week...you can read about my previous trip in November 2007 on this blog or other info on my website homepage. There is so much to process that I imagine I will need the perspective of returning to the States to be able to write coherently, but that won´t stop me now from trying.
In the year and a half since I visited the AFOPADI project where I work with the agricultural arm of the project, on balance things have progressed. One of the realities of a third world country is that progress is not a straight line. Events that would be traumatic but survivable for us, can completely alter the direction of somebody´s life.
As everywhere, water dictates life´s possibilities for humankind. This trip I saw more new cisterns (expensive but a lifeline for subsistence villages) that catch rainwater that make our rainbarrels at home seem a tiny part of the bigger sustainable picture. I learned that the organic compost that AFOPADI teaches the campesinos how to make, is only used for trees and corn, but not on the vegetable gardens. This time I met more people who understand the benefits of the corn silos for which we help raise money. The silos not only protect the corn in terms of quantity, but as well they keep out many of the unsanitary effects of rats & insects. In communities where medical care is rare and no income exists for medicine, it´s so important to have a more stable and clean food source. It´s hard to overemphasize the importance of corn in the Mayan culture. Not only is the milpa at the crux of nutrition, but the corn remains the spiritual sustenance of the indigenous communities as well.
For a flatlander from Chicago, the altitude is always a challenge. We have been traveling to places between 5000 and 10,000 feet. Even though one of the highest spots is the most deforested, an incredibly sustaining energy exists there and we felt lucky to partake. I usually travel alone, but this time I had a wonderful traveling companion, my friend, Judette. It was her first trip to Guatemala and the third world. But her ancestors hail from Guatemala & Mexico and it was very moving to see her profound connection to the places, the people, the culture and the project.
For me, the people I have become priviledged to know in these comunities and in AFOPADI nurture my soul. As I´ve told friends, I don´t believe I can assist in sustainability in any large way. In my landscape design business in Chicago, I am lucky to have great clients who are interested in connecting with their land and connecting their landscape to more meaning than just decoration. Here in Guatemala I also feel graced to help affect people in small positive ways....perhaps having silos, reforesting & organic agriculrure will allow a few more children to survive, enable a community to learn more solidarity through the process, grant a woman a moment or two of peace amidst her life of child-rearing, cooking and clothes washing. I am an unbearable idealist and also know that I receive more than I give.
The sustainable methods AFOPADI is committed to here (Medical, Educational, Agricultural) teach me so much about what is possible with next to nothing. In turn, this informs my work at home where possibilities of land and lifestyles are pretty much endless. During these hard global times, I feel sustained by the gift of a broader perspective. Rough times are very real at home in the States, my husband and I feel them just as much as everybody else personally & vicariously, so I feel this trip is an especially welcome opportunity to focus on what we do have: each other of course AND water, food, shelter (including heat & air conditioning), work, friends, family, education, art, communities with hospitals & grocery stores & nurseries with healthy plants. In short, we have a healthy support system & choices, what a marvelous life!
When I return, I will post photos and hope that each picture will be worth a 1000 words...