Guatemala

The Many Colors of Guatemala

I went back to visit Guatemala after too many years to count. Guatemala seems to be one of those countries where time stands still and where contradiction is an accepted part of life. It’s quaint and novel to those who visit. It offers beautiful colonial towns, ancient Mayan ruins, unspoiled jungle, rugged coastline and colorful Mayan villages. To the Guatemalans who live here, it is all those things plus archaic, burdensome, and unjust.

On this trip, I had the honor of reuniting with a former refugee, visiting a woman runner from the town of Raxruhá, visiting natural wonders, and spending time with the grass-roots organization – Los Buenos Vecinos (The Good Neighbors).

Flores, Petén

My first stop in Guatemala was the island of Flores on Lake Peten in the north of Guatemala. I stopped here because I planned to met up with a woman who was a young teen when I met her in the Guatemalan refugee camp back in Campeche, Mexico in 1993. I was shocked that Nataly found me on Facebook in 2015. How did she even remember my name? Why did she want to find me? What were her memories of the camp and her childhood? What became of her and her family after I went back to the states and they returned to Guatemala? These were all the questions I had, and she had many more.

Unfortunately, the reunion we planned and looked forward to for so long was cut short by her job sending her away the precise weekend that we planned to get together. In Guatemalan there are no worker rights. There is no option to say no, no sick leave or vacation. In an instant, our reunion went from a couple days to a few short hours.

Raxruhá, Alta Verapaz

From Flores, I took a four hour bus ride to the town of Raxruhá. My goal here was to meet the famous Doña Maria del Carmen Tun Cho. I was not disappointed. My friend Dave Renfrow of Los Buenos Vecinos told me she was a runner and was interested in perhaps starting a women’s clean water cooperative. I went on the premise of seeing her aldea (village) and talking about bio-sand filters, but secretly I just wanted to meet this cool woman who was empowering both indigenous and non-indigenous women everywhere simply by deciding she had a right to run.

Maria participated in a fun-run in Raxruhá and won. She ran barefoot in her traditional skirt and huipil. She participated a second year and won again. She didn’t care that she was 45 years old and had six grown children, in fact being a role model to her children and community gave her the motivation she needed to fly. After her second win, the news got out. Soon, she was invited to run a half-marathon in Bilbao, Spain and then the Los Angeles marathon. As Maria would say, “I didn’t compete; I participated. It is my right as a women to participate.”

Semuc Champey

After leaving Maria del Carmen, I walked to the cross-road where the bus passes to go to Semuc Champey. After a four-hour bus ride and thirty minute four-wheel drive through lush tropical forest, I ended up in a very remote area of natural beauty called, Semuc Champey. I had no idea this place existed. My goal in Guatemala was to meet up with people and organization rather than site-see and “vacation,” but as soon as I saw a travel poster of SC, I was sold. Sometimes you see a photo of something and then get there only to be disappointed. Not the case here. In fact, there are few places to stay, but I managed to find an inexpensive hostel that – on paper – looked like a 5-star hotel. I was pretty sure it would be some cockroach infested hell-hole. Nope! It was just as amazing as the brochure depicted it to be. Okay, yes, I did sleep in a dorm room on the top bunk where I almost needed a rescue team to get me down in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, but that’s just part of the adventure!

Antigua

At the last minute, the night before heading into Antigua, I decided to book a place to stay. Typically, I just arrive in town and then find accommodations. On this trip, I changed that up a bit – get this, I got into the habit of booking a place a day or two ahead of time – crazy, right? It’s so easy!

To my surprise, Antigua was fully booked. I tried twenty-five different places before I found an Airbnb room in the historical center. For twenty bucks a night, it was perfect! When I decided to extend my stay a couple of nights, I was out of luck. Antigua is the place to be in Latin America for Holy Week. We were still three weeks out, but already it was completely packed. During the weeks leading up to Semana Santa, there are parades, tepetes, purple robes everywhere and street vendors eager for tourist business. During this special time, Antigua resembles an over stuffed corn-husk wrapped tamale bursting at the seams with a delicious heaping of sweet and spicy surprises – possibly too much of a good thing.

Adventures with Los Buenos Vecinos (The Good Neighbors)

Part of my reason for going to Guatemala, along with my reunion with Natalia in Flores, was to visit the organization, Los Buenos Vecinos (LBV) in San Andrés Itzapa (about 40 miles northwest of Antigua). LBV is a grass-roots Guatemalan organization started by Elmer Arriaga to provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene to his municipality and beyond. Elmer is a dynamo. He lived in the US for 20 years and not only learned all kinds of skills, like construction, electrician, plumbing, but also the importance of a clean environment and safe drinking water. When he came back to Guatemala to be with his family, he saw the poor sanitation, malnutrition in children, and unhealthy hygiene practices all around him and said, “I need to do something about this.” He immediately gathered children and adults to go around the neighborhood and start cleaning up. This simple act lead to bio-sand filters for clean water, tippy-tap hand washing stations for clean hands, sanitation and hygiene training for children in schools and workshops for behavioral change in rural communities.

Somewhere along the way, Elmer ran into Dave Renfrow, who rode his bike to Guatemala from Mexico. Dave and Elmer’s paths crossed and soon Dave became the fundraising arm of this organization. I subsequently met Dave because of another interest and soon he drew me into the mix (It was meant to be!).

I had no idea what I would be doing in Itzapa. I really just wanted to meet Elmer and learn more about the organization which to me is a social justice project at its core. Malnutrition in Guatemala is the fourth highest in the world and the highest amongst the indigenous population. Malnutrition is mostly due to constant diarrhea and intestinal disease from contaminated water. The resulting malnutrition leads to stunted growth, cognitive delay and failure to thrive. This translates into missed schooling, missed work, and missed opportunities.

A group of people from Montana – organized by Dave Renfrow – was coming down to learn more about the projects LBV had started. My knowledge of what that would actually look like was very vague. I didn’t have a lot of information and had no idea how it would all shake out.

As it turned out, I stayed with LBV for ten days before the group arrived. I had a blast meeting the LBV team (Pamela, Virginia, Eddy, and Isai) and going around to all their work sites with them and participating in whatever training or activity they had planned. After this early introduction to LBV and their amazing work, I was able to help out with the visitors a little more than originally planned because I was one step ahead of them.

Probably my favorite memories are the in-between unplanned fun like riding in the back of a truck and having a sing along to itsy-bitsy spider in both English and Spanish, spontaneous dancing in the pizza parlor, sing alongs on the bus, a hike through the jungle with a few ladies from the community of Acatenango, showing off my Shakira moves to the folks hiking up Volcano Acatenango, and the moments with Elmer’s adorable children Dave (6 months) and Benjamin (4 years) and, of course Pamela (19 years old).

I also had the great pleasure of Learning about the COCODES (consejos comunitarios de desarrollo) which are basically democratically elected “city” councils. Women were only allowed to join in the past fifteen years or so. In Hierba Buena, Doña Gladys was elected the COCODES President (equal to Mayor of the town). This is rare and unheard of. In fact, a gentleman from the community approached her and said something to the effect of, “If a woman is running the show then I’m out!” Doña Gladys is now on her eighth year of being President (it’s a two year term). That nice gentleman who left is now back. He apologized and said no man has ever done what she has been able to do for the Aldea. I could tell from the moment I met her that she is a force to be reckoned with. She is strong, firm, kind and present. She listens then acts. And, she smiles and laughs a lot!

At the end of my stay, I climbed the Volcano Acatenango with our entire group and about 200 other people. Guatemala has 87 volcanos. Acatenango is the third highest at 13,045ft (Mt. Rainier is 14,411ft). It took our group anywhere from 7 to 10 hours to go up and 4 to 6 hours to climb down. It was hard! Everyone slid and fell multiple times on the way down, some more than others. Everyone said they’d never do it again, AND it was amazing and they were so glad they did it once – including me!

After nearly a month in Guatemala, I was very sad to say good-bye to all my new friends, hands-on learning, and harrowing adventures. I have a feeling that this is not a “good-bye” by a hasta luego!

If you’d like to learn more about LBV, please visit their website at: https://www.losbuenosvecinos.com

Thanks again for joining me on another adventure into the unknown. I will soon be back on my faithful bike and riding into the sunset on yet another corner of our big blue planet.

Gracias, Amigos,

Denise