Adventuros de fin de semana

Hey guys,
I spent quite a bit of time yesterday on the lake in solitude just trying to sort out the difficulties of reconciling the lifestyle I come from, the lifestyle I am seeing, and the lifestyle I feel called to live. Fortunately, I think my answer came in the form of a book (imagine that!!!) It is a biography about a doctor/anthropolgist who grew up pretty simple, but as he grew older began making connections with some well-connected people. It seems that he had the same difficulty in reconciling the life of the poor with the life of the rich and being one of the few people to have relations with both. There is a story recounted in the book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, where a wealthy benefactor from Boston who had given Paul quite a bit of money for his health care missions in Haiti said: "You know, Paul, sometimes I would like to chuck it all and work as a missionary with you in Haiti." Farmer thought for a whiule, then said, "In your particular case, that would be a sin."
I guess what that said to me is that we got to deal with where we have been put. Mother Teresa wrote about that, Latin American Liberation Theologians write about that, so there must be something worthwhile in it to look at. Who knows why we are where we are, but one thing we know for sure is that we can better where we are for ourselves and others. And in a world where my neighbor very well could be imagined as a starving child in India or a stock broker in New York, I have a responsibilty to each of them to offer them a better life. Perhaps it could be in the form of a meal for one and an opportunity to practice charity. All I know is that there are two things in this world that are required for change: time and money. Some can give a lot more of than the other. That being said, I have some appointments set with Father Greg and Bob Henzen, the director of CFCA, to get a better understanding of their programs, the philosphies that run them, the shortcomings, the successes, and all that jazz. I will let you know how it turns out.

On a lighter note, I hiked to the top of Volcano Attitlan on Friday. We left San Lucas about 4am and reached the summit around 10am. A couple people had to turn back because of a rolled ankle, but the rest of us (A random Swiss guy, a high school girl, myself and our guide Eliot) made great time. It was pretty tough at parts with some steep grades, but worth every minute of it. We walked through streets, past villages, through corn and coffee fields, through tropical forests, over rocks, into wind...Thankfully we are in the middle two weeks of beautiful weather where the rain stops during this winter rainy season. We had blue skies and great views. The trek down took us three hours, our Guide said that was one of the fastest times he had made it down with a group. Believe me, we felt it the next day. Some of us celebrated the accomplishment, along with some other friends, with a few cervezas and some homemade concoctions of pseudo-margaritas and watermelon with rum (which was terrible, stick with vodka).

Saturday hurt. My calves were tight and the hands were a bit chewed up from sliding down the volcanic rock. It was cool though because many of the rocks emit heat from inside the volcano and it really warms you up with the biting wind on top. Overall, it was about a 24km round trip with over 4000m of change in elevation (San Lucas is at about 1500m and Attitlan is at 3500m and change, close to 11,000 feet). Lots of heavy breathing.

Like I mentioned earlier, I got out on the lake Sunday morning kayaking on an overpriced kayak made for a lazy river. I spent about 3 hours paddling around before heading back to run some errands. I delivered a letter to a woman who lives in a community near San Lucas (that was for you Diane, I succeeded and only made myself look like a little bit of a fool with Hortencia and my Spanish!!!). I also bought a couple of boxes of cereal (Fruity Pebbles and Coco Krispies at about 4 bucks for both!!!) In the afternoon, Tono, Hannah, and Myself went cliff jumping off of some rocks along the lake that are situated about 25 feet or so up. It was pretty sweet but I did hit the water pretty bad one time. I was diving in and was too concerned with jumping out that I didn't ark and hit the water first with the top of dome and again with my thighs. It hurt pretty bad. Josh, it reminded me of the time you tried the 2 and a half and didn´t make it all the way around and smacked your face...bummer. So today I am a bit sore from that on my thighs, butt, and head while my shoulders and neck hurt from the kayaking and calves still ache from the volcano...but hey, I can´t complain!!! Except for another possible case of amoebas, either from the lake water or from some water that didn´t properly get treated with my crystallized tablets, I am in great health!

Today I was asked to translate on of the tours of the mission for some new groups that just arrived, but there ended up being a fella who lived in Guatemala and he just kinda took over. So I got to play tourist and learn more. Father Greg is giving another talk here in an hour or so.

But before that, I would like to share a story some volunteers here told me. A young couple, middle 20s, just arrived here from Guatepecae (sp?), a larger city that borders Mexico. Thriving spot for drug trade. In fact, about two weeks ago they made front page of the paper because the city´s police chief, some army, and some thugs were killed in a gun battle. There was a planned raid, looking for drugs and arms, but someone within the police tipped them off and a day long firefight ensued. There really isn´t any of that where I am, but it is fairly prevalent in other parts of the country. Anyways they are volunteers in the first class of the new CRS (Catholic Relief Services) long-term volunteer program that places volunteers with projects worldwide for 18 months and then they come back to the States for 6 months and act as educators sharing their experiences. They were transferred here to San Lucas for their safety (they found out about a month ago that the Peace Corps does not even send volunteers there). I will be interesting to see what sort of projects they get involved in with their final 8 months here and how the CRS thing ends up working. Anyway, the story they shared which I enjoyed is this: Their neighbor, a Mexican immigrant who runs a chain of used tire shops, told them that if they ever got scared or worried that something was going down in their home to just bang on the wall. Well they did that and he stuck his gun out the window and fired shots into the air!!! On another occassion, he invited them into his house to "see his guns" and there was a wide assortment of weapons laid out on his bed.

Part 3 of a Treatise on Globalisation is in the works...but don´t hold your breath!