final musings

Well time to process. Always the best part. I have had a couple of days rest and recovery but I still do not feel like I am back in the States. It really doesn't feel like I am anywhere. Maybe this is what Thomas Merton meant when he said we need to find our home within ourselves? I doubt it though, it's probably just the amoebas. All in all, it was an amazing experience and I was very blessed to have it. I was not quite sure what I was doing down there, but now that it is over, I am thankful for the learning experience and friends I made. I learned so much about the world, another culture and people, politics, international development, Spanish and some Kaqchikel, made some great friends in Guatemala and from other places all over the world, got some experience in development projects, learned some patience with myself and with others, a bit more confidence in myself (the good kind)...not bad for a couple of months.

When I left Nueva Providencia, the Fish Farm was just about to be started. Rick, Kush, and the other fellas working with it say they are all set to start construction. It is kind of a bummer not being around for that, but I think I served my part. I can speak fluent Spanish when it comes to plumbing, construction materials, measurements, etc. It will be exciting to return and see what becomes of the project. I hope it works out. There are some skeptics there, especially on how quickly it will be finished, but if I learned anything in Guatemala it's that they have the time.

People have different ways of living. My lifestyle is not the same as a Mayan from Uspatan, and it is not supposed to be. But when the differences are that I have adequate healthcare, a decent education, potable water, religious and political freedoms and that he does not, there is a problem. Something I hear quite a bit of is how that God did not make all of us equal. Many times this is said to self-justify our own actions or obscure some moral responsibility or immoral action, but I think it is true. I cannot play basketball like MJ or write like Tolstoy. I cannot make tortilla out of corn like a Mayan woman. Equality is a term that applies to our gift and talents as well as our responsibilities. But equality also demands opportunity. Justice demands opportunities for healthcare, education, work, housing. When someone lacks this there is something wrong. We cannot blame "backwards living" or "uncivilized savages" for a poverty that is no one person's fault but everyone's responsibility. But I feel like I am beginning to sound too much like Bono, so just one more thing.

We have more than we could ever need. When we start talking about issues of justice, charity, equality, human rights, solidarity, etc. we are actively recognizing a responsibility that all of us have to each other:

"Mother, little heart of mine," he said (he had begun using such strange caressing words at that time), "little heart of mine, my joy, believe me, every one is really responsible to all men for all men and for everything. I don't know how to explain it to you, but I feel it is so, painfully even. And how is it we went on then living, getting angry, and not knowing."
-Young Father Zossima (Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov)

On the special features of the movie Syriana, director Michael Gagghan speaks about how everyone is responsible for the global oil situation we are facing. It all comes down to personal responsibility. No one in their right mind is going to connect the oil in your gas tank to the dying Iraqi women and children in the Middle East and you not buying gas isn't going to end a war. But those responsible for such actions, oil CEOS, Government officials, etc. are agents of our choices. By us continuing to buy gas, we are telling them that whatever it is they are doing is ok. It seems to be more of a symbolic act then, not buying oil, but it is more of a personal rejection to the values and choices that we do not want to be responsible for. That is what justice and solidarity demands. It demands that we individualize each choice, each decision and ask ourselves if we are comfortable with all the implications that come along with it. Am I at peace with my Nike shoes and the Thai teenager who is working 12 hour shifts for minimal wages under conditions of at best, 15 minute breaks every few hours or at worst, sexual harassment and rape? Can I drink my Maxwell house coffee knowing it takes a farmer one day picking beans to make barely enough to buy food for the day? Will I drive my car when I know full well I can walk? Personal responsibility in justice and solidarity require sacrifice. Public Policy and Corporate functioning is not going to change because I decided to drink water out of the faucet instead of buying a Coke, but I am at peace with myself knowing I am not actively participating in that chain of injustice and violence.

Algunas Fotografias Mas

View of Lago de Attitlan

Cornfield in the Mountains

Slow Market Day

The Crew at Nueva Providencia

The Casa Madre Crew

Pick-up Ride

Sunrise over Attitlan and San Lucas

El Jefe y yo
(The Boss and me)

Algunas Fotografias

On top of Volcano Attitlan

El Remate

On Top of Tikal

Tikal

Waterfall around Uspatan

Last Post from Guate

This is my last post from Guatemala. I am sitting in La Aurora airport waiting for my flight at 930. I have already been here for 4 hours. Mala Onda. It sucks. Everything is super expensive (like 32Q an hour for internet) and I am tired. Thus it is a short post with more to follow when I arrive home where internet is much cheaper. Hasta la proxima Guatemala.

Solo un pocos dias mas

I am down to my final few days here in Guatemala. I had previously thought of spending the last few days in Antigua, making it easier to get to the airport Friday night when I fly out, but instead have decided to stay in San Lucas until Friday morning and just bite the bullet of hanging out in the airport for like 9 hours.

The trip back from Tikal was hell. I was up for almost all of it, with a dead ipod. I know...I am spoiled to even own an ipod (it is broken though). Anyway, I arrived into Guatemala City early Friday morning. I had directions from my guidebook to where I could catch buses towards San Lucas. It was only 6 blocks or so from the terminal I arrived at. Thankfully the sun was already coming up so I didn´t have to walk the city streets at night. I reached the corner I was supposed to be at and it was desolate. It looked like an abandoned Old Western city street. A tumbleweed might have even blown through, I´m not really sure. So I walked back up a few blocks to where I saw some buses earlier to ask someone for directions. Like 10 people just surrounded me offering me buses to destinations in all directions, hot meals, live chickens, it was nuts. It turns out that I was no where near where I was supposed to be. Some fella offered his cab to me and kept saying ¨mas seguro¨ which means safer. I figured to trust him but not enough to put my bag in the trunk. I was in the cab for probably 20 minutes or so and the whole time I was thinking that he was taking me somewhere to kill me and dump my body. We were driving through some pretty rundown neighborhoods where there wasn´t a soul in sight. Some solace was offered by the new BMWs I would see here and there. Finally, we turn a corner and I was greeted by the miraculous site of red and green school buses, the Esmeralda Line that run to the Attitlan region. All in all my safety wasn´t in an jeopardy, I was just tired and edgy and too out of it to comprehend everything around me. All that lay ahead was a 3.5 hour bus ride, above the wheelwell, I might add, to San Lucas. It was a beautiful ride and was cool because it made the trip full circle. I did not go down any road twice (with the exception of to and from tikal). All in all it was 1300kms in 6 days. The total trip cost 405 Quetzales in travel, about 54 bucks...not bad.

Sunday I went up to Santiago Attitlan to the market there. There was a fair going on in the town so it was pretty busy. I am spending my last few days here saying bye to friends, especially Kush and some of the fellas that work out at Nueva Providencia. They have been my best Spanish teachers (mostly just the bad words). The CRS volunteers moved into Casa Madre so the place has been a circus cleaning, sorting, moving, organizing. They are here for 8 more months. Last night Katherine cooked dinner for us and we just hung out all night drinking beer and wine and telling stories about our families. Only good ones though....

I am ready to come home. I will miss San Lucas and the friends I have made here and the more relaxed way of life, but it is time to move on. I plan to write a few posts, some concerning the history of the war in San Lucas, the U.S. role in it, the future of Guatemala, and maybe a spiritual overview of my experience. But I am sure once I return to the States I will have no time. Such is life.

Hace calor!!!

I feel like I am back in Chicago with all the heat and humidity. I am on pretty much the last leg of my little tourist vacation. I am in Flores, literally a manmade island, south of Tikal. It is about 90F and high humidity. I am wearing the only clean things I had left (a swimsuit and a new tshirt) as my other stinky, dirty, nasty clothes are being washed by a wondeful washing machine. This is the first time I have used one since being here and it is not soon enough!!!

We left Coban early Tuesday morning. There were two of the airport shuttle vans full of internationals. It was kind of nice being in a shuttle that did not stop every time someone waved on the side of the road. Us gringos kind of have space issues that are hard to break and deal with. We are used to having much more space, both in terms of our houses, cars, travel (probably moreso because of the size of our country not to mention wealth) and the personal space we require. I regularly notice people back up, turn their heads, shift uneasily, etc. Very interesting how the body language can reveal our attitudes just as easily, if not more easily, as our word choices.

There were people from France, Guatemala, Italy, USA, Argentina. Four of the five of us from USA were Chicago Area and three of us go to school in Minnesota (two went to Hamlin). We ended up getting screwed by the travel operator in a really simple scam that make you feel stupid. They advertise on a 4 hour trip from Coban to Tikal, but they only take you to Flores, and that is the box checked on your ticket. From Flores to Tikal, another hour or so, costs about 4 or 5 bucks more. On top of that, the journey took like 5 or 6 hours, not 4. But that is what happens and when you try to talk to them, they look at you like they do not understand...but they do. Anyways, we got a pretty good rate on our travel so it was more the principle than anything else. There was this one spot where we had to ferry across a river and it was the most creative ferry. It looked like a barge with random metal welded on it with two outboard motors on one side. These two guys who were sitting in inner-tube like contraptions, motored the ferry in a wide arc out than shot back in. It was perfect, like a glove.

From Flores we shuttled up to El Remate, a tranquil lakeside village halfway between Flores and Tikal. We spent the night here in a bungalow with open aired rooms and mosquito nets. It was pretty rudimentary but very peaceful and beautiful. Killer bugs though. Too bad I still don´t work for Clarke Mosquito Control and sweat insecticides. Spent some time walking around the lake, eating simple meals, drinking beer and reading out on the dock watching the sunset. It was a very hard day.

Yesterday morning we packed up and left El Remate by shuttle up to Tikal. It was about a 35 minute drive. We dropped our bags off at the place we would be staying the night at, Jungle Inn, grabbed a simple breakfast and went into the Tikal Maya Ruins around 830. It really is in the heart of the jungle. The National Park is about 500 square miles and you just walk these paths and around the bend...bam!...here is this giant, old, stone structure. Freakin´sweet. All day was spent applying mosqutio spray, sweating, drinking water, hiking, saying "whoa, freakin´sweet", applying mosquito spray, sweating...etc, etc. I have some wonderful pictures of all these buildings of which I have no idea about their history, use, etc. I didn´t have enough money to buy a book and needed everything I had for some grub and a ride back to Flores where there was an ATM. I will do a future post with Tikal history and photos.

After the park, I took a shower, my first one in like a week. It was amazing, but I do not have a towel so I used my swimsuit and drip dried. Had a sandwich, drank some beers, finished LOTR part I over some Papas Fritas and listened to a killer storm come in. It was wild. You could hear the rain coming from miles away. It started out really soft but steady hums. It is hard to distinguish it from all the other screeches, rattles and rolls from the jungle. Soon though it was upon us just terrorizing us with its scream. It is kinda like the whitefuzz from TV when the volume is all the way up and you are not expecting it. Then it hits you and you are soaked. I spent the night in a hammock with a mosquito net. It was under a pavillion and a bit uncomfortable until I figured out how to sleep in a hammock. I have slept in them before but it has been years. It was one of those all-cloth, not rope, ones. You need to angle your body so that your feet and head are on opposite sides and your upper half of the body needs to be all the way up on one end of the hammock, as if you were reclining against a wall or a tree. It is an art and I feel that after 11 hours of sleeping in one, I am a master. I awoke at 430 this morning though to all the people who were trying to make it to Tikal for the sunrise...Overrated, it was still hazy and clouded this morning anyways. Started reading LOTR part II over breakfast, caught a shuttle to Flores, bought my bus ticket for tonight and am relaxing until the bus leaves. It will be nice to get back to San Lucas. Travelling sucks when your food options are limited. There really aren´t many places to buy store food that is sustainable and healthy besides the market, but that stuff all needs to be washed with bleach and that is not always available. Meals are cheap from comedores, which is where I mostly eat. 4-6$ bucks for a pretty decent meal and a beer or a water. Diet is really sufferring here, even more so than Italy. I eat a ton and it is always delicious, but lacks protein and is way to rich in carbs. Between all the activity, lack of my usually diet (not much dairy here), and the wonderful water quality (I bet I get sick again cause I just ate three fabulous tacos from one of the places gringos aren´t supposed to eat from: kinda like a food stall at the carnival), I have lost roughly 12 lbs.

On the plus side I bought a hamaca (Hammock) today from an artisan´s coop. The woman started out at 365Q but I ended up paying only 270Q. I might have been able to take her down lower but I don´t really like screwing the actually artisans as opposed to those bastards who try to trick you into buying "factory hand-made" crap. Jeanne this place would be heaven for you. There really is no concept of fixed price in many places. Sometimes it can get you if you are too tired to bargain and end up paying too much. Oh well. Well the internet here is the most expensive I have paid yet 10Q an hour so time to go to the beach and soak up the sun before happy hour starts. You know what the say, No descanso para el malo.

A Treatise in Globalisation (part 3)

So we left off with what appears to be an urgent demand from the masses for more equitable land rights. Father Greg said that a day does not go by without at least one person or family approaching him to ask assistance in securing their own land.

The Advanced Horticulturalist lifestyle is one so unique and precious to Guatemala. Where else in the world can mountain side land that would be deemed impossible for farming be 4 cropped by Maya farmers. This marginal land ends up being quite the opposite. It is fertile soil for maiz (corn), black pull beans, squash, and black beans. (This is San Lucas region). There is 12 months of agriculture as long as the lands can have access to water. They do not need to use chemicals because insects become confused among so many plants, so close together. It is almost ecologically perfect and it is disappearing. All of this with only 3 acres, a machete, and a hoe with some fertilizer (compost). But this type of farming is being forced to compete on a world market level against giant multinational corporations such as Monsanto and Cargill.

Many Maya have their own defenses as to why their land should be respected and theirs legally (as if they really needed one...well I guess they didn´t have a flag (sorry, lame Eddie Izzard joke)). I will be taking a more anthropoligcal/socio-economic approach that, unfortunately, would probably have more weight in the realm of first world politics. There are roughly 5 criteria that almost everyone recognizes as the basic human rights: food, shelter, medical care, education, and the right to work. Others include right to worship freely as well. This is what happens...

We look at a third world nation where standard of living is low. We see that they do not have many sustainable jobs. This is a market of cheap labor. We build factories, plants, mines, fields, etc. in this nation and employ workers at dirt cheap wages. Sure it is better than before, but are they better off? The country is now being depleted of resources that are being exported out of the country. The profits the company makes hardly makes an impact on the economy as all of it is being spent in the first world. Sure there are some good deeds, a school built, a clinic stocked with meds, but nothing lasting. It is a fact that people need less to live here. There is no snow in San Lucas. The temperature stays at about 74F almost year round. Their homes are simple. Close the window when cold, open it when hot. Is there something wrong with how they live in San Lucas...no. Is there something wrong with having winter clothing and insulated housing and air conditioning...no. Both climates demand it. But is what is happening ethical? A people are being taken advantage of. Often times, they become locked into their jobs and forced to withstand terrible working conditions (heat, pollution, overcrowding, long days, no breaks). This leaves no time for a lifestyle of one´s own. When someone needs to borrow money for some emergency such as an operation, the only one who can lend it is the company. They are locked in even further now. Labourers in Guatemala make about 35Q a day, a little under $5. A family of 6 needs 19Q a day in food. Let´s do the math and we see that nothing gets saved, only borrowed. How do we fix it?

Part 4 soon....muwahahaha

Siempre hay espacio mas

A brief word from Thomas Merton (Thanks Laplant):

"Life consists in learning to live on one's own, spontaneous, freewheeling: to do this one must recognize what is one's own-be familiar and at home with oneself. This means basically learning who one is, and learning what one has to offer to the contemporary world, and then learning how to make that offering valid.

The purpose of education is to show us how to define ourselves
authentically and spontaneously in relation to our world-not to impose a prefabricated definition of the world, still less an arbitrary definition of ourselves as individuals. The world is made up of the people who are fully alive in it: that is, of the people who can be themselves in it and can enter into a living and fruitful relationship with each other in it. The world is, therefore, more real in proportion as the people in it are able to be more fully and more humanly alive: that is to say, better able to make a lucid and conscious use of their freedom. Basically, this freedom must consist first of all in the capacity to choose their own lives, to find themselves on the deepest possible level. A superficial freedom to wander aimlessly here and there, to taste this or that, to make a choice of distractions . is simply a sham. It claims to be a freedom of "choice" when it has evaded the basic task of discovering who it is that chooses. It is not free because it is unwilling to face the risk of self-discovery."

(Thomas Merton. "Learning to Live" in Love and Living. Edited by Naomi Burton Stone and Brother Patrick Hart. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1979: 3-4.)


It is actually quite difficult to learn to be at home with oneself. It is even harder when people look at you and you can tell that you do not belong there. Perhaps an illustration will help.

I left San Lucas on Saturday morning to start making my way up to Tikal. The method of travel will be what is still considered the backroads, chickenbuses and this shuttle vans that are like the things you get from Holiday Inn but with many more people. The reasons I stick out are as follows: 1) It takes me longer to board the bus because I ask and then ask again to make sure this bus is going where I think/hope it is going; 2) It takes me longer to find a seat because of the stuff I have to put up on the racks, which is only a regular school backpack and this man-purse/ European Carry-all type thingy. I am doing this as the driver is whipping corners at high speeds along cliffs and turns where you cannot see oncoming traffic until it is too late. It reminds me much of the Going into the Sun Road in Glacier National Park but without the rinky dinky rock wall and at much higher speeds. 3) I tower over the Maya people by at least 6 inches. I regularly clothesline myself walking through the market under their makeshift tarp roofs. It also does not help that I have no hair and a beard on a brilliantly white head (which is fairly tanned by now). Needless to say, I am noticed. I hide behind my sunglasses because I don´t want to be caught with all the observing I am doing and it also hides me from potential conversations that could possibly never end. This time it did not.

My entire bus ride, from San Lucas to Quiche, was spent talking theology with a Pastor Evangelico from the Highlands. It was enjoyable and I did learn a few things, but he never shut up. He was very nice and offered us food and some travel tips, but trying to pay attention to him in Spanish, for three hours, is tiring. I cannot even do that in English. However he did invite me to his home and to a theology seminar this coming weekend. I do not think I will make it though because travel is very difficult and tiring. It mostly consists of luck/fate. We got lucky on our ride from Quiche up through Sacapulas to Uspatan. We hitched a ride in one of the shuttle van thingys for a good price. But it was overcrowded and the rapidly changing altitude levels make me a bit sick. I was miserable and tired and had a man sitting on top of me. We arrived in Uspatan after about 7 hours of total travel. I am traveling with another volunteer from San Lucas, Mara, and we headed up to Uspatan in the highlands to meet up with a friend she has in the Peace Corps. It worked out well for me because it offered a chance to take the adventuresome "back route" to Tikal.

Jonny, a Peace Corps volunteer from Oregon, is in environmental education. He is doing a lot with trying to get ecotourism developed and halt the rapid rate of deforestation in the country. There is also a problem with garbage in this country. People are never taught to use garbage cans and they are few and far between. There is no national recycling program which forces us to be creative in our consumption practices as travellers and volunteers. People regularly throw shit out the buses, drop garbage and kick it like footballs, throw bags on the sides of hills...I perceive it as a real problem that needs immediate attention. The problem is complicated though by the poor school system and lack of educational standards to promote healthy, sustainable lifestyles with regards to the environment and natural resources.

We spent two days in Uspatan, hiking to some gorgeous waterfalls, wandering and bartering in the market, cooking and inventing new desserts, watching the Cup, playing some games and chatting. It is off the beaten track. I didn´t see any other gringos except for the Peace Corps volunteers (Jonny´s friends) in the area. It was cool hearing all his stories and his experiences. They are much different than my friend Jenny´s from Kyrgystan. He lives alone in a new house he found after moving out of a troublesome host family situation. He is building his own furniture, cooks from a propane stove, buys food fresh everyday because he doesn´t have a fridge. Pretty cool.

We left Uspatan this morning to head up to Tikal. Unfortunately the shuttle van ride thingy to Coban took a bit longer and now we are here for the night. Our driver was stopped by the police, paid a bribe, still given a ticket (I think it was something because of illegal documents) and I took a picture. Probably not a good idea, but I was real sly and sneaky. Before we left San Lucas, some other friends were telling us of all the violence and robbings in the country. Mara almos t bailed out of fear. Good thing I freaked up before I left the States. I have run into nothing of the kind thus far and probably would have traveled anyways (Against the fatherly adviced I received: ¨Jake, don´t travel alone." Sorry Dad, no disrespect, only youthful ignorance. And besides, you taught me it is better to ask forgiveness than seek permission. I am helpin you be more patient.) I am also begining to get pretty good at judging situations fairly well and I think it helps that I am a BAMF. (If you don`t know what a BAMF, ask your kid.) Anyways reading the newspaper is a good way to gauge what is save and what is not. Something like 16 Guatemalans are killed a day by weapons. I don´t know how high that is compared to other places, but Amnesty Internationl has Guatemala on its watchlist because of rape and violence against women and the lack of government response to it. Check out(http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/guatemala/). Also asking around has been fairly helpful (mostly in the comedors or lodgings).

This lull in the action is kind of a blessing in disguise and gives me a chance to read, write some emails, reflect, etc. Coban reminds me a lot of some of the Italian towns in Tuscany. Hilly streets, coloful homes, lush greenery, nice churches, markets. Coban is a bit bigger and modern, lots of internet, banks, cellphones, schools. We have a direct shuttle to Tikal in the morning, which is nice so I don´t have to think again until tomorrow afternoon. (I am really tired of thinking now. Lots of information has entered and do not have time or energy to process it...I´ve lost probably 12 pounds or so despite all the food I eat and beer I drink. Lots of walking, little protein in the diet, stomach "cough" problems...)

There was a really intense Evangelical preacher in the market today reminding me of my need to repent. He was out there man. There is a strong Evangelical presence in Guatemala, moreso here than in any other Latin American country. I am told that during the Civil War, the Catholic priests, who were of course Commie Scum encouraging proletariat revolt, were considered to be high risk threats because of their ability to congregate people (something called "Mass" or something). Anyways the people in power, one specifically was the dictator General Rios Montt in the 80s (an evangelical "educated" in the U.S. and praised by our friends Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell for his faith in God and country, but not well liked among Maya survivors of the army´s brutality) brought in Evangelicals to break up Catholic communities. Interesting eh? Anyway, a strong presence still remains, especially in the Highlands where there was a lot of guerilla activity.

What is the news from San Lucas. Sister June left the other day and I think Josiah and Catherine, the CRS volunteers are moving in. The Aquaponics project is close to really get off the ground. The guys we work with out there are great. They tooks us up to their community for the grand tour of Nueva Providencia. It is a beautiful community in the hills above a river. Their bridge is busted though due to some failed considerations of American engineering students. They forgot about heavy rains. I know I have so much more to add and say but I am drawing a mind blank. There is a really great Cuban musical group called Orishas. Check them out.

Estoy enojado con las computadoras

The blog I was writing was deleted on accident. I am too upset to continue. I am Coban headed to Tikal. I am safe with no fatal stab wounds. There will be a big update this week...

Conversaciones con un alumbre de la Universidad de Santa Maria

Yesterday morning I went up to CFCA to speak with Bob Hentzen, the president of CFCA. As it turns out, his alma mater is Saint Mary´s University and he was a Christian Brother for nearly twenty years. I guess Spring of 2005 he received an honorary doctorate on Founder´s Day but I was in Italy then. Our conversation we very enjoyable and I learned quite a bit.

Many of the concerns I shared about CFCA earlier on the blog I also presented to him. He did a great job of helping me sort them out. As it turns out, the philosophy of CFCA is something that I find very attractive. It is founded in the mutual respect and dignity of persons from different cultures. It is not a cash station and all the programs it offers are funded by the sponsors. It assists people in the forms of technical training, educational scholarship, farm and ag grants, sustainable income projects, etc. It is very focused on working with people and what they ask for/need as opposed to handing out a blank check.

CFCA finds it motivation in the tradition and core values of the Gospel call for the poor. Matthew 25 (Whatever you did for the least of these you did for me, etc.) has been popping up quite a bit lately for me (Farmer´s biography, CFCA, La Parroquia...) Bob is quite an amazing fella and he really put at ease many of the apprehensions I had about CFCA. I still don´t think it is perfect, but then again, what is? There still is a sticky situation in preparing people in cross-cultural experiences and learning how to be open, respectful, etc. I think it is something you learn best by doing, but only when you are in a different culture alone. It is hard to really be taken into a culture, to walk and talk with a people when you are with a structured group, tourist experience, and whatnot. Anthropological concerns aside though, Bob told me that about 85% of its money, which this year was close to $70-80 million dollars, goes directly into its programs with the people they work with. There are sponsors from 62 countries sponsor 310,000 children and elderly in 20 something countries all over the world (Much of Central/South America, parts of Africa, India, Phillipines). I would really like to recreate the conversation we shared but my brain is a bit fried today. It is quite warm and sunny in San Lucas and I didn´t sleep too well last night. Madre Junia (Sister June) said I probably had too much on my mind, but hey, when don´t I?

In terms of what is means to be sensitive to cross-cultural experiences, I think there are only two elements that are necessary, but quite difficult. Patience and Listening.

Padre Greg told a story the other day of one of his first experiences in the country. He had recently arrived and was standing outside the church when a fella known as Old Mox (sp?) asked him what he was doing in San Lucas. Greg replied that he was here to serve the people. Old Mox turned and walked away without a word. A few days later, the same episode occurred again. By the third time this had happened, Greg was beginning to wonder whey Old Mox, one of the cofradia - the respected and wise elders of the community, kept asking this. When Greg replied he thought he was here to serve the people, Old Mox replied that he believed him. He then told Greg that there are two things you need to know: "You must learn to be patient with yourself and learn to be patient with my people."

Sometime later, Old Mox sent one of his grandsons to fetch Greg. When Greg showed up, Old Mox was sitting on a stool chipping kernels of corn into a bucket. For a long time there was such a silence that Greg thought he was intruding. Just as he was about to leave, Old Mox spoke up:

"You´re my friend right," asked Old Mox.
"Of course I am."
"Then can I have $50?"
"$50?...well what for?"
"I am going to die soon and it is custom, that when one dies, the family offers some coffee and food and maybe some drink for the community. My family cannot afford it and I cannot borrow it, so can I have it?"
Greg began to begin a long tirade of medical care, a clinic, medicines. Old Mox just sat there quitely until Greg was finished as asked him again:
"You´re my friend right?"
"Sure I am"
"Then can I have $50?"

A bit later on, Old Mox´s grandson came for Greg, asking him to bring the sacrament of the sick for Old Mox. Greg obliged and when he entered, he saw Old Mox lying in bed with covers up to his neck.
He sat down and Old Mox asked him to give him the blessing for the dying. Greg again protested citing advanced healthcare, medicines, etc. When he had finished, Old Mox simply asked him again for the sacrament of the dying. Greg administerd it faithfully and when he was finished, Old Mox asked him if he could give him a blessing. Slowly, Old Mox raised his arm, put it on Greg´s head and said: "Father, help my friend to learn to be patient with himself and patient with my people." He lowered his arm and went back to rest. As Greg was walking home, Old Mox´s grandson caught up to him and said, "Padre, your friend Old Mox just died." Greg broke down into tears in the middle of the street.

I´m not sure if I shared this earlier or not, but I overheard maybe last week something wonderful: "We are here to learn and die." I think the story of Old Mox is a wonderful vignette of such an attitude. For it is through patience and learning, from both sides of different cultures, that we can become people of dignity and solidarity. Solidarity is an interesting word. It is tossed around quite a bit and its meaning, its true meaning is hard to pin down, let alone see it in action. I was recently made aware of an Asian liberation theologist, Aloysius Piciris, of whom I´ve not yet read. But what I´ve been told, is that his premise is that in solidarity, God is not demanding the rich to give up everything they have to walk with the poor. What solidarity demands is the rich to look at the poor with dignity and respect, as a people who are no less human only because of their living situations in poverty, a disease of society. It also demands the poor, in their exploited state, to not target the rich as someone to be taken advantage of and swindled, for when that happens, both individuals´ humanity are undermined.

This is, no doubt, a very difficult thing to achieve and something that must be kept in the forefront of one´s mind. CFCA is constantly struggling with how to be an organization of solidarity and respect and not just charity. Pope Benedict XVI´s first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, deals specifically with the responsibility one has to both Justice and Charity and where those two Gospel values meet. It is a very exicitng and passionate read as well as a good insight in the mind of the Pope. I recommend it although the beginning part can be a bit tiresome. Also, the Houston Catholic Worker, Casa Juan Diego, featured much on it in their latest newsletter, so try and get your hands on that if you can.

www.cfcausa.org

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!

Additional Notes

While I am not going to expand very much on the two previous posts, there are some clarifications and excerpts I would like to add.

In terms of how most people view the land issue, Che Guevara puts it quite eloquently, summarizing what he feels the people of Cuba and Latin America feel:

"But what is Cuba´s main problem if not the same as of all Latin America, the same as even enormous Brazil with its millions of square kilometers and with its land of marvels that is a whole continent? The one-crop economy. In Cuba, we are slaves to sugarcane...We must diversify our agricultural production, stimulate industry. And we must ensure that our minerals and agricultural products, and -in the near future- our industrial production, go to the markets that are best suied for us and by means of our own transportation lines."

Putting aside the common view of Che as a revoluntionary who subscribe to a system of violence for social change, we can appreciate his political and social insights. The ideas he supported and wrote about can be a valuable tool in the dialectical conversation between "developed and developing." Perhaps through the insights of Che and an agricultural people, we can have a more socially-orientated look with organizations such as USAID, World Bank, IMF, etc. I think this will serve as a good jumping point for the next part of the discussion concerning the current problems facing Agricultural Horticulturalists as well as those desiring Agrarian policy and a more Industrialized nation.

We have had beautiful weather in San Lucas lately. It has not rained for a couple of days and the bright sun really dries the clothes quick. The Aquaculture/Hydroponics project is moving along. The other day an engineering student working for the Parroquia was out and the final measurements were recorded for the plans and layouts. I now have a roommate in Casa Madre and living with a nun. Sister June returned, she has been living here for 6 years, from a trip to the States and the rooms were consolidated. She is a blast and has a quick attitude. She is really giving me a run for my money with the sarcasm. Tomorrow I am waking at 3am to hike Volcan Attitlan. It is supposed to be a 10-plus hour hike. There are some girls from high school going too so I am imagining it to take a bit longer. I took some girls over to CFCA today who were interested in sponsoring a child. As far as I know, CFCA (The Christian Foundation for Children and the Aging) sets donors who are interested in providing financial assistance directly with a child or elderly person in need. I am sure many people reading this already do something of the sort, if not CFCA specifically. I think I am going to go ahead and share my thoughts anyways, in a way to sort them out for myself. I am a justice orientated person, I tend to think and feel more strongly about the hows and whys of injustices. Now I am not saying Charity is wrong, because we are clearly called to love tenderly and act justly (while walking humbly, if I may add that). Charity, to me, often seems to be a band-aid on a wound, possible even a wound that is getting worse. While CFCA and the like clearly are a very charitable and loving organization with an important mission, I think it is necessary to ask ourselves if that is enough? I fully support the work that they are trying to do, but I feel like I am left with the impression that the mission is being left misunderstood. I do not know what the solution is, all I know is that some of the language I hear being used in regards to this ("My kid", "I want to pick out a child", etc.) Some will probably say I am too caught up in linguistics, but I really believe that the language we use reveals our attitudes (and yes Mom, I know I have a dirty mouth but I am not sure what that is revealing about me). I think ideally, I would like the relationship to be more of one based on experience and respect, as opposed to an emphasize on money. Charity done without a true and authentic respect for an individual´s dignity seems, to me, to be done more for the person giving, than a true desire to enable another person to fully realize the self through previously unavailable resources. I think I lost myself in this and probably upset a number of people, which really was not my itention. It was just on my mind and I am trying to find the balance between Charity and Justice and how to do both. So with that, check out CFCA.org (I think that is the website) and think about the possibility of opening an opporunity for another person, not because it makes us feel good about ourselves, but because that person and and justice demand it of us.

Well, as my friend Mary likes to say, Justice Out.

A treatise on Globalization (part 2)

(I apologize for the poor formatting of the last post. I typed it in word and pasted it into my email. The first part of this continuation begins below in the previous post.)

So we left off exploring the right to choose a way of life. There are many different directions to go here and there is a British journalist, Paul Kingsforth (something like that), who cites specific examples of communities and cultures asserting this right successfully and sustainable (One No, Many Yesses). We will be sticking strictly with the Mayan people in the highlands of Guatemala.

There is an anthropologist/sociologist from the States who identifies five characteristics or categories of cultures (Gerhard Lenski):
1: Hunter/Gather communities - typical of the Bedouins or the Dakotas for you Great Plains people.
2: Simple agriculture/horticulture - Stick and hole type farming predominant in Africa
3: Advanced Agriculture/horticulture - Small, local farms without heavy machinery. People own their own land, set own prices, make own decisions among a community basis. Rousseau would most likely support such a community as the best option for man to live in.

It gets a bit fuzzy here but this is how Father Greg presented the remaining two.

4: Agrarian - mechanical farms, mostly one cropping leaving the farmer with no say in the value of the product. (Che Guevara writes extensively on the social ills that Cuba suffered because of such a policy with regards to Sugar Cane) In up and coming countries looking for assistance with their development, what typically happens is the World Bank or IMF dictate a specific commodity or resource or product to become the sole means of production for a state, pumping all resources into the development of this product for the world market. This often leaves little political or economic leverage for a newly developed nation to negotiate prices, values, tariffs for their own resources, but rather rely on the whims of the market. A look at the collapse of the coffee industry a few years ago and how many Latin and South American countries suffered is an example of this (simplified of course!!!).

5: Industrialists - typified by high energy consumption, waste and want, the need to buy as the dominating force is the market. The brain child of Adam Smith and John Locke. In real terms, the G8: US, Canada, Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, Japan. This would also include China but they are excluded from the table. For the most part the culture is democratic and capitalist with neo-liberalistic policy toward trade. The criteria for what makes a country developed is GROWTH. Growth = Profits. In the simplest terms, nations want to produce at a low cost and sell it at a high price. These principles, unfortunately, do not encourage respect for markets as the motivating force is the philosophy to always find and create new markets. Even the technology and laws that a nation adheres too support this economic principle driving the ability to respect other cultures further out of grasp.

How does this apply to the situation in Guatemala and San Lucas? Father presented three sources of evidence that propel the belief that an Advanced Horticulture/Hands On Agriculture is best for this region. These also serve as an indication of how the struggle to achieve it will unfold.

1: Heritage - the Mayan people have a deep, religious and spiritual connection to their land and the fruit they reap from their land. I wish I could go further into this with more concrete examples and stories, but I do not have my books or notes with me right now.

2: Support of the Episcopal Conference (Bishops of Guatemala) - Religious, especially the Bishops, are very revered and respected here in Latin America, generally much more so than in the U.S. In the past 20 years, they have published two pastoral letters decrying the injustice of land distribution in Guatemala. In 1988, The Cry for Land spoke for the people in their desire to own their own piece of land. Again, in 1992, celebrating 500 years since Columbus "discovered" the New World, the Bishops released another letter, written by a Spanish graduate student, finding that all the land grants written and given out by the Spanish government in the past few hundreds of years, it still remains in control of some 22 extended families. That translated into roughly 94% of the land to some 7% of the people. Some years later, Prensa Libre, one of the two main newspapers in Guatemala, found that of all arable land, approximately 80% of it is in the hands of some 2% of the people (foreign and domestic owners).

3: Newspaper/ Journalistic Accounts - At least twice a week, without fail, there is some article, demonstration, movement, op-op-ed piece concerning the need for better ownership.

So Land is clearly on everybody´S mind (even in the U.S. how land is valued can help us appreciate the need for a person to have a place to call their own). So what does all of this add up? A culture that values and desires to be Advanced Horticulturists (to some extent). This is not true for the entire country as there are many parts developing rapidly in tourism and industry, but we will touch both of these at a later time as it is beginning to rain and I need to run back and get my clothes off the line).

By the way, I have like 6 blisters today from shoveling dirt into a wheelbarrow and taking it about 15 meters away, dumping it, and doing it all over. But I´m not complaining, I love it here and keeps me out of too much trouble. Paz y Amor.

A treatise on Globalization

My weekend in San Pedro was a blast. It was great to get out of San Lucas and to a place that was not as touristy as Pana. San Pedro has an amazing international feel to it and we spent the evening partying with the youth/hippie culture, consisting of folk from Guate, Austria, Holland, US, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Guatemala…The trip back to San Lucas was a bit tiring as we took a lancha, a small, quick boat, from San Pedro across the lake to Pana, then a much larger boat to Santiago and then a pick up to San Lucas. Quite a trip and we were pretty tired by the end of it. I promised in the last post about an update on the mission and here it is:

(The following is taken from lectures given by Father Greg, the priest who assists the running of the mission and parroquia and by Dr. Garcia, a Guatemalan doctor who brings students here from University of Nebraska, as well as a bit of my own opinions added in. I will do my best to reference and clarify and add further resources)

The history of Guatemala, the modern history, is really a story about globalization. In reality, then it is ultimately a story about capitalism. There are two award-winning authors who assert the undeniable influence of the capitalist model on the world. Thomas Freidman, in his book, The World is Flat, provides numerous examples of this. Sachs, a renowned economist and consultant with the UN (most recently famous for his book the End of Poverty) lays out two basic principles that are primarily related to developing countries: (1) Women in Bangladesh walk an hour to work, work almost 12 hour shifts straight, walk back, get up, walk to work, work…etc. (2) When enough money is saved between a group of women (approximately $50), they invest in a microloan to set up some sort of small-business…Step (1) leads to Step (2) and Step (2) is the beginning step out of poverty…The free trade and capitalist model says this is economics working and making better lives for people, Fat
her Greg says it is unbridled capitalism and nothing short of immoral and inhumane. Economics are meant to serve people, not the other way around.

What is globalization? It is about making the world flat, making it instantaneous. It is about communication. According to Father Greg, it is about coming to know you, coming to know all about you. In a sense, I agree with him. However what scares me is asking what are the motivations for coming to know you? I think it is advertising and anyone who has watched foreign television in another country for a “free world product” will notice that it is an ad that we would never see in the U.S. Also, stories of companies coming in with slogans and ad campaigns that totally backfire because of a lack of understanding the language comes to mind as well. Needless to say, this way of communicating globally seems to be an attempt to understand the world in order to impose another view of the world (Confessions of an Economic Hitman is one man´s account of having such job). It is a world where there are predetermined lines of Rich/Poor, Haves/Have Nots, North/South. A simple co
mparison of newspapers will reveal this. Listen to the language people use, the assumptions that are inherently made in their statements. Often times it reveals an Us/Them view of the world where We have it Right and They have it Wrong. Father Greg cites an international summit held in the 1960s. During the early stages of the Cold War there was an international gathering in Budapest where 120 nations were presented the choice to either be democratic and capitalist, or communist and socialist. 2/3 said Other. Now what this Other was is, unfortunately, left to speculation. The assumption Father Greg takes is that the said some form of government and economic policy that supports “hands-on agricultural.”

In 1999, during the last few months of the Clinton administration 25 were invited to develop a plan for globalization in regards to the Third World (or Developing World or Countries that are not fully Capitalist). All of this was directed under the World Bank, IMF, etc. and that is a much more complicated issue that will not be fully dealt with here. Anyways, at the same time, 77 other countries met in Cuba (our “unfriendly” neighbour to the South that no one can seem to remember why we have economic sanctions with them) to discuss development. The answer was roughly “our own country.” (The majority of this is according to Father Greg and his sources. Anything added in on my own was prefaced by an “I think, I feel, etc.”)

This is roughly translated into presuppositions of the industrialized, dominating First World about how the rest of the world should live. This leaves us asking the question of why are there poor people in the South? There are perhaps three ways to answer this question (Fr. Greg):

1) Empirical Lens – because the poor are dumb and lazy. The solution is charity. We feel sorry for them, call them Pobrecito, and shed some tears without really changing anything.
2) Functional Lens – because the poor are uncivilized. They are outside the 20th/21st century. The solution is through intentional programs. We will show you how to be like us. This is what the World Bank and IMF does. It is perhaps even done with the best intentions in the world, but the results are piss poor and often leave a country worse off than before because now they have no internal resources or structures and a huge amount of debt. We need to ask, after decades of aid and trillions of dollars, why are some of the same countries not alleviated from their poverty. Check with Make Trade Fair and the BBC for more on this.
3) Oppressed Lens – because the poor are not able to live as they please. The solution is to let people live their own way. A dialectical conversation and experience is what is needed, and it is what the mission hopes to achieve in San Lucas between a partnership between Mayans/Guatemalans and Americans in the context of the Catholic faith. Dialectical often makes some people nervous as it has some philosophical intonations with Marxism, but simply put, it is looking at reality in an objective way – asking people what they want.

As Father Greg put it, “there is an obligation to enter into dialectics that is rooted in faith in a monotheistic god because within one god is the same beginning.” In one God is one People.

I think this is enough for now as I am running out of time on the Internet and have no more money on me. Also dinner is soon. A short story before leaving though. This afternoon, Katie and I accompanied Father Rich, a diocesan priest from New York who is friends with Father Greg and Father John here in San Lucas, up to a small town in the mountains to say Mass. Driving in a stick shift car with over 200k miles and a broken speedometer, no shocks, loose seats is somewhat an experience when the clouds and fog are so dense that you cannot see any more than 15 feet or so in front of you. Anyone who has been down South in the early mornings will know what I am talking about…But, and this is somewhat typical in Guatemala, there was no mass to be found and after looking for a woman named Isabella, we found there were about four Isabellas in the community (including the one we were talking too!!) We left the twilight zone shortly thereafter.

Hasta luego amigos. Tienen una buena semana.