August 17, 2009

Hola everybody!
We just returned from our last week of homestays in Santiago, Atitlan. It has all rushed by us so fast we can hardly believe were back at CASAS! We had an amazing time over the last week, staying in the community of Panabaj. This area was strongly affected by Hurricane Stan in 2005, over 250 people were killed and hundreds misplaced from their homes and are currently living in semi-permanent housing. The government had started to provide permanent housing for the refugees and even built 100 new homes. They got warning that the area was in high risk to another mud slide and quickly stopped the project, leaving majority of the homes unfinished. Over 100 families still live in the area and are restricted from using the housing. The government is now encouraging alternate housing on the other side of town. Many of the families don’t want to leave their land and source of work so they are stuck in semi-permanent housing in unsuitable living conditions. MCC supports a local organization called Anadesa. Anadesa has done a lot of work with rebuilding after the disaster of Hurricane Stan, created a local children’s program and a women’s beading cooperative. Over the last week we stayed in the homes of families involved in the organization and volunteered doing small projects around the community. First project we completed was gathering soil for the Anadesa tree nursery. We then helped with the children’s program by organizing crafts using the art supplies that everyone donated. It turned out great! All the kids enjoyed it so much so thank you for all your wonderful contributions! Another project we helped with was carrying 309 saplings to the top of a mountain that we planted to prevent future mud slides.

Last night we said our goodbyes to the community in a closing camp fire. A woman came and told us about the history of the Mayan people in the area, we shared several songs with the group and roasted marshmallows!

This morning we packed up and went for breakfast at a beautiful little spot across the lake and had a chance to reflect on our time in Panabaj. We talked specifically about the affect of our visit on the communities and on ourselves. We have learned so much from the people of Guatemala, especially about the importance of interdependence. Families and communities in Guatemala need to rely on one another to survive. In North American society we are taught that interdependence is weakness. We also are not obligated to rely on one another because we already have the means to survive. Instead we rely on materials for support and comfort. Guatemalan people could be more community reliant because of their difficult past and the major conflicts the country has and is still going through. Guatemalans need each other to help recover from their struggles. This is one thing we have gained from the people here, among many others.
We hope that our trip here has also made an impact on the people. Inspired them and showed them that someone cares about their struggle. We talked about how by visiting we didn’t want to encourage the ´American dream´ that many Guatemalans aspire to. Rather we want to encourage Guatemalans to uphold their strengths to help them out of poverty. MCC has followed this philosophy by supporting local organization such as Anadesa.

So here we are with only two more days left in Guatemala and there are a lot of mixed feelings about leaving. We are excited to be reunited with our family and friends but also sad to leave the relationships we have created here. Hope you’re all doing well and can’t wait to see u all Monday night!
Lots of love,
Marina Classen

Hola, Buenes Dias, Good morning!!

This past week has been a great time of reflection, learning, experience and hiking! Alot of our recent activity has been high in the sky on mountains with a great view overlooking Guatamala. From San Marcos we took a bus and a sketchy truck ride to La Vega Del Volcan and Nuevas Maravillas. We met with an MCC worker, Nate who showed us how people live and work. We also hiked a couple hours between towns and to work projects.
The first day up on the mountain we learned about different co-ops they had in the community. Some of the key ones were producing fish ponds, growing mushrooms and planting trees. In these communities they don´t have alot of materials so because of this the projects are completed based on learning from their mistakes and experiences.
The group also had a chance to get involved in a soccer game and talent show. Soccer was great fun, for a few days we were travelling with a man named Osmar who has been working in the communities but also wants to go soccer pro. The talent show was an evening of singing and sharing. Our group sang two songs, Amazing Grace and See a Humba. I think the community enjoyed it alot! One of the men really involved in the projects we learned about shared at the talent show. One thing that really stuck out to me in his talk was 'No matter what religon or race we are from God excepts all of them!'
We did some more climbing on foot and by truck. The town we visited next was affected by Hurricane Stan. That day we hiked 3 hours to the town and then 2 hours to our project were we moved a thousand bricks and sifted thru dirt to build a farming centre. It was a big day of physical work for the group minus me because I was sick. Me, Nate and Keenan stayed at the poorest house in the community. Nate explained this was because they had been hit by the hurricane the hardest. Taking livestock and their house. On top of that the father of the home has a desiese in which he cannot work very much because he´s not fully healthy.
Finally the last day in the community we hiked another three hours out of the communities took a bus back to San Marcos. We stayed overnight in a motel and then made our way to Santiago. A long hot drive we finally made it to a gorgeous, big hotel. We have had a great time so far in Santiago and are heading in to the communities tomorrow!

I feel as though many people miss their family although i´m not going to specifically say who. But all the families should feel loved.

Adios,

Brendon Charlos Martin

Hi to everyone back at home.
I know it has been a while since we have last blogged but we have a good reason for it. Today is the first day that we have been able to access the internet. For the last week we have done a fair amount of interesting things. We all realized that we were tanks, by vigorously climbing up a mountain, I have to admit then when i reached the top of that mountain it was the most joyous moment of my life (and i feel that other people thought the same way). We have learnt to eat a lot of new foods, most of which none of us like to eat, but somehow manage to get it down. We have seen the true beauty that Guatemala is comprised with and we have learned that with some sweat and tears we can build a green house. OH ya and how can I forget the sickness that lots of us have had to deal with, let me tell you...not the funnest times we could have been having.
But seriously, this week was a week of learning and getting the opportunity to experince so many new things. Our week started off with a lot of hanging out and guitar playing, which was a good thing because it allowed for us to connect to the people we were staying with and begin building relationships. Every chance we could get the guitar would come out. The next couple of days was focused on constructing a green house. We moved a heck of a lot of dirt and learned how to use a machety (the boys especially loved every minute of the machety using). It rained everyday we worked on it, but that was part of the reason why building the green house was so amazing. We learned a lot about work etiquette, and how with multiple hands working together something amazing can be built. We unfortuantely, do to the weather, were not able to complete the construction. We got the structure up, but the plastic covering needed to go on when the sun was shinning, and that didnt happen once.
Besides the joy of building and connecting with people we got to experience a lot of other interesting things. Don Pedro (one of our host fathers) shared his story about La Violencia with us. We were all pretty shocked about how open he was with us and how comfortable he was. The moment was probably one of the best for most of us. Not only because we learned a lot from him but because halfway through his story, it started to pour rain and we had to quickly move to a sheltered place where he continued. What he told us, most of us already knew, but it was interesting to hear someones personal story. He was extremely passionate about it and was so happy that he could share his memories with us. Upon his story ending, it started raining even harder and seeing as most of us are risk takers we decided to run back to our house it the rain. I need to add in though, that Don Pedro told his story at the cemetary in Acul which is on the oposite side of town from our houses. So this run back was not a short one. I do not think that we have ever laughed so hard, and been so happy. We were all giggling and did not care that we were drenched from head to toe. It was a memory that most of us won´t forget.
We took a day trip to Chemal, towards the end of our time there, and got to learn more about the Ixil culture. Keenan and I were sick that day so we spent the day sleeping in the van but from what we heard on the van ride home was that it was an amazing day. David (our MCC`er) had us plant three small pine trees. We were not sure what the point of planting three trees were, but he continued to tell us that by planting three tress we would help families in the future build homes and support their familes. He also told us how important and cherished family is in Guatemala compared to that of north america. For a lot of us, this comment hit home. The rest of that day was spent playing soccer and getting to learn more about that locals that lived in that community.
As for the rest of our trip, there are defintely things that i have not added in, but for the most part we all had an amazing time and enjoyed oursleves through all the thick and thin. I wish i could write more but i have 2 minutes left before this internet cafe closes. Just know that we are all missing out families at home, and we send our love. We are keeping safe and trying our best to stay emotinally and physically stable.
San Marcos is our next destination, which will bring more excitment and interesting things. We are all excited to venture into the next part of our trip.

With all the love i can give from the crew,
Emma Horvatis.


ps. mamma, dad and sweet willy styles...i love you and miss you guys like crazy!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all doing well and trying not to miss us all TOO much! We are all doing excellent and are excited for the next three weeks of our trip!

I am going to try to make this one fairly short, mostly because not a lot has gone on today. We had spanish lessons today for the last time. I think our groups spanish is still sub-par(except for Monica), mine vastly below sub par haha, but we have learned lots, and are ready to put it to good use!

We had a speaker today talk to us about globalization and its affect on Guatamala looking forward. Thankfully he( I believe his name was Jaime Diaz) could speak english, so it was easy to follow him. Just like all the other speakers we have had, he put forth some great ideas. Also, it was nice after a week of lectures to finish off with an upbeat talk that did not make us want to fall asleep!

The rest of our day was spent looking at the logistics of our next three weeks together. We are all excited, and somewhat scared for what is ahead!

We are not sure how often we will be able to update this blog in the coming weeks, as we are leaving casas and internet access may be scarce . That being said we will try our best!!

Thats about as short and sweet as I can make it. Again I hope everyone at home reading this is doing well. I just ask you keep us all in your thoughts and prayers over the next three weeks as we venture out of Guatamala city and start the service portion of our trip!

God Bless!

Eddie

Day 6

Today we had the opportunity to go to a local Mennonite Church.
It was amazing to contrast the service there to other churches or congregations we have been to. Although it was in Spanish, you could sense the passion in the tone of their voices. It was a community, everyone playing an active role, rather than one voice preaching.
They welcomed us with smiling faces and we even got an introduction.
It was so great to see a small woman with her arms reaching up in the air, as the congregation tapped their tambourines.

After we met with the youth there, and we discussed the topic of security.
It was interesting to hear the youth of Guatemala tell us themselves how they fear even going into a bus.
In the small groups we broke off into, we deliberated what we could do to help Guatemala's security
if we theoretically had the 300 billion dollars that America spends on war every year.
We all basically were in consensus that the people needed more social organizations to help them feel like they had support and they were not alone.
By starting with education, we can create a foundation that allows the next generations to reduce poverty, and start growing a stronger work force, which could grow up with better knowledge and morals.
It was sad to see how people felt helpless because the corruption in the police force.Imagine if you could not rely on the only people who truly have control over order?
Crime is probably also incited by a general unrest from the past, and the racism and hate that still resides over the people today.
Guatemala can grow in security even without the money, but it all needs to start with the correct mindset of all the people.

After we went to a small Mennonite family's home.
Apparently it is the "hot spot" after church because it was swarming with people and laughs.
The food was very delicious.
It is so interesting to see how welcoming and friendly the people are here compared to home.
We have already gotten a few people’s emails and you get a smile wherever you go.

We succumbed to our sugar needs and made a visit to the local ice cream store.We all got sundaes, and John, a gigantic banana split to quell our growing need for the lack of sweets.

To channel our energy- we of course had a heated match of soccer where Emma victoriously scored our winning goal, leaving us with the gold and John with an iced heel.

Yesterday two large groups arrived, and perhaps more today.
The small, quaint CASAS we once had all to ourselves is now overflowing with people.
To get off on a good start, we had an avocado fight off the roof after dinner.

-The cook is now, as we speak, showing the guys how to do proper sit-ups- which they apparently can not do.

Tonight we actually got to sit down and talk to the MCC representative, Adriana, who will be traveling with us for the next three weeks.
She talked to us a little about the next week in Nebaj.
Tuesday we are going to be going on a SIX hour car ride there and meeting up with another MCC representative, David.
Were going to be splitting up into small groups and staying with families in the close-knit village, which we are all extremely excited for.
We will also be building a green house there, and have the opportunity to be taught how to weave!And of course we will be connecting a lot with the youth there.
Anxious looks filled the room as Adriana warned us of the talent shows that they have which they take VERY seriously. But of course we are all extremely excited.
I think more than anything, although CASAS has been a wonderful learning experience, and a great way to ease into our trip, we are all excited to get out and immerse ourselves in the Guatemalan culture.

We are now watching a documentary on Fidel Castro, and then after Men In Black- just to cram as much in before we are destitute of "North American" culture.

It has been a most amazing 6 days, and we all look forward to many more. We have all accepted that we will be sick- so hopefully not much more can go wrong!

Sam

Ok so I figured out how to add some pictures. Here is Monica and Emma practising their yoga at the top of one of the Mayan Ruins.

Here are the four girls looking out at the countryside.

Here are some of us at the top of one of the Mayan ruins.

This is a picture that I took of the garbage dump. As you can see a truck is about to unload. There are people holding on to the truck to guarentee themselves a place to look through the garbage.

This is Addy and Keenan smiling in front of the mosoleum that they talked about!

Hope these pictures help you visualize things a bit

Ruth

Today is Saturday!!

Today we woke up nice and late I might add (8 am) and ate a delicious breakfast. After eating we got ready for a talk on Mayan Culture and History. It was interesting however, I believe it would have been more beneficial had the translator been easier to understand. The speaker, David had created a great powerpoint in English that we were able to follow.

Some of the interesting things that I learned were...
that there are 400 Mayan sites in Guatemala
the Mayans created the number zero

There was a Mayan ball game that was played with a rubber solid ball. It was a game that was associated with human sacrifices, sometimes kings played to symbolically record an alliance. They played it with their elbows. Very interesting.

The talk ended and we got ready to leave for Mixco Viejo, a Mayan ruins. I was not expecting such a long drive (2 hours) but the trip wentby fairly quickly. It was extremely hilly going up, up, up and then way down and twisty because of the great travel in elevation. There were also many bumps. Kudos to our superb driver Hugo who kept us safe. Once we got there we got out and saw a wonderous view.

I don´t exactly know how to describe it and feel that I could not give it justice. It was glorious. You see there were mountains all around with many trees on them. Some of the mountains were taller than the clouds. We walked up a hill and came across some Mayn ruins. Although I would not really call them ruins. It was a whole bunch of pyramid like structures made of wood. They had steps which you could climb to get to the top. (or you could be ike Keenan and scale the structure without the help of steps!!!) So ya we climbed many of the structures and once on top we saw a breath taking view of the world. I am the king of the castle. IT WAS AMAZING!

It was worth the two hour drive each way. It is amazing to think that the ruins were created such a long time ago, and that they are still in awesome condition.

So did I mention that it was hot. It was extremely hot. So hot that we got tired very easily and on our way home, we opened all the windows and bought water at a store. We drove home and when we got home, I think everyone showered.

We have had a relaxing evening. We watched a movie. Some of us are now on the computer, others are playing a game and others still are playing ping pong. It has been a great day full of beauty and lots of fun and learning.

I hope that everyone is doing well.

Peace out for now

Ruth Wright(I can´t find the hyphen) Gedcke

Friday July 24th 2009

Today started like any other day: we woke up, had a rousing devotional led by Keenan and Eddy, ate breakfast, then made our way into our spanish classes.
Next, after a quick snack, we settled into our seats and awaited Carmen's arrival.

Carmen is a human rights activist from Guatemala. She discussed with us the current situation and was full of hope for the times ahead. She told us that social change takes time and that already children and youth are demanding social justices and rights that would have been distant dreams in the 70's or 80's. Although people are still suffering from political injustice the main difference today is that people have the freedom to speak out against it. She told us that in Canada we don't think about human rights because they are not tested, whereas in Guatemala they don't think about human rights beacuse they are to distant. This was hard to hear.

Carmen was a great speaker, despite the estrangement of translation, she really challenged us. She told us not be ashamed of what we have back in Canada but hopes instead that we remeber the feelings and emotions that touched our hearts while in Guatemala. She encouraged us to keep faith and not to loose hope, to tell others and to educate them about the situations we have encountered thorughout our time here.

This lecture was to be a lead into the afternoon's activity; we were to visit a local human rights NGO named HIJOS which is led by young men and women working to ensure that Guatemalan history does not repeat itself. Unfourtunatly, both for the NGO and for us this was not possible because of death threats. It seems that HIJOS' work is headed in the right direction because it seems to have drawn attention from some fairly powerful people. The group has been forced into keeping a low profile and is constantly moving around to keep themselves safe, therefore difficult to get in contact with. It is a shame beacuse these people have achieved a temporary victory for HIJOS cannot share their work with us, but at least they continue to persevere in their fight for human rights.

Luckily things have a way of working themselves out for it seems that even with last minute timing we were able to squeeze a visit in with a local cooperastive named UPAVIM. UPAVIM is a fairtrade cooperative which employs Indigenious women, many widowed surviors from the violencia, whom make hand crafts (many which are sold to Ten Thousand Villages), provide an offordable montessori school for the community, run their own tasty bakery (I can personally voche for the "tasty"), and even manage their own local pharmacy. We had the opportunity to chat with some of the leading women, take a personal tour of the facility, and had the chance to purcahse some awesome hand made teasures.

The women at UPAVIM volunteer two hours of work each week and use the pharmacy to rasie enough money to keep prices low and wages fair. It was great to recieve a first hand cooperative experience. It was trully inspiring to see a successful organization not only providing businesses like MCC with great hand made crafts, but also supporting local women with fair wages and a community with affordable social institutions.

On a much sadder note we returned home today to hear that Ruth's Great Aunt has passed away. Death is always a difficult time but Ruth is especially feeling the sting of loosing a loved one because she was not only very close to her Great Aunt but she will also not be able to attend the funeral. Please keep Ruth and the entire Wright-Gedcke family in your thoughts and prayers.

That's all for now, thanks for tuning in and please continue praying for our health as some of us are running off to the bathroom more than we would like to.

Much love,
John Wideman

Ok
so today we did a lot of stuff, it was kinda hectec (as everything has been so far) I will give a quick overveiw of my day to show you why I'm so incredibly tired.

wake up. stumble into shower. get out. get dressed. put shirt on backwards. go to prayer. go to breakfast. eat 3 bowls of fruit loops. (payback for the fruitloopless childhood my mother forced on me) go to spanish lessons with Emma, the coolest girl around! She may be the best spanish brotha out theeree. (written by Emma. although I do agree) Feel like I missed a lot of spanish jokes the teacher made about me. go for early lunch in brown bag in van. go to gargantuan cemetary. name it dirty grave town. get lost while getting answers we need for questions about dirty grave town. get lost again. repeat x4. think about buying ourselves mosoleums in dirty grave town. learn lots about dead people and what they did wrong. look at garbage. take pictures of garbage. feel bad for people working in garbage. be frightend by hundreds of massive human eating vultures that live in garbage. say goodbye to Eddie as vulture carries him off into the sunset. go to mall and look at things that poor guatemalans could never afford. feel bad. eat hawaiin pizza. be disappointed there is no such thing as guatamalan pizza. come back to Casas. lose to Brendon in pizza eating race. listen to speaker. try not to fall asleep because it is interesting, but we are so dang tired. finish listening to speaker. go for a nice graze. watch movie on guatemalan civil war. be forced to blog as everyone else is on roof laughing. feel like I'm on time out. realize my shirt is on backwards. oops.

the cematary was really big and I have never seen so many graves in my life. honestly it was like a town there were roads and the cemetary went on for at least 5 good sized consessions. it was weird to be surrounded by so much dead memorabelia, it kinda had a soffocating effect after awhile (or that might just have been the sun) but then to stand among the tombs and look out over the valley of the dump it was weird to think that people's bodies when thier time is done end up so much like the once valuable objects that now lie in the dump not 500 yards away. the only difference was that the garbage had people working with it while the graves were completely forgotten. It was with this in mind that we headed to the mall where we saw a glimpse of life back home in the reflection of the lifestyle of the few affluent guatemalans whose lives were so different from the ones working in the dump. soon we were back home and we had a speaker to listen to. I really did not want to listen to his story going into the seminar but it ended up being very interesting. he was hiding in the mountains for a long time during the war and many in his family were killed. the fact that he spoke no english kinda took away from the presentaion because it was choppy, but it was very interesting none the less and gave us lots to think about. after the speaker we watched a movie on the civil war and learned a lot, there were so many different things going on in the war that I still don't really understand everybody's motives. but it is interesting to try to unravle why it happend.

although I do joke about the day and quite calously describe feeling bad for poor guatamalans the things we did and saw today really gave me alot to think about. but I'll leave the thinking for another time.
fingers hurt. hope this shed at least some light on what we are doing. need sleep.
-Addy out

Saludos de Guatemala!

From the CASAS roof, we can see mountains on three sides of us, a smoking volcano, palm trees, a sprawling city, and secure, decadently built houses which directly surround us. We´re already convinced that Guatemala is a country of extaordinary beauty.

These first two days in Guatemala have brought with them a disorienting number of questions. We as a group have already grappled with unanswerable questions of what this means for us as affluent North Americans - citizens of countries directly involved in the exploitation contributing to this country´s many griefs. Hector´s discussion yesterday about Guatemala´s history and current issues challenged us personally as he spoke of systemic injustice and globalization. Today, however, was more about observing circumstances in which people live and work, and hearing stories. Critical aspects of the painfully slow process of ´learning a country´before one can really begin to approach the ´so what´questions.
Group dynamics are great, CASAS is so organized and hospitable, and days are dense with experiences causing us to think and feel very deeply.
Thank you for your much-needed support and prayers!
Monica

Hey hey hey hey e-hey and hola amigos. we are all doing swell, no diahreah and whatnot. good food, good toilets, good everything. today we had our first spanish lesson which was... good. i think the first lesson was more teaching us about ` how to cope with not knowing any spanish´. at least for my group LOL (laugh out loud, for the parents)

we also went to the palace, or one of them, of the president. hes super-uber rich. there were some pretty cool murals. a 2.5 ton 25 carat gold chandalier covered in crystals (i know, hes putting the money RIGHT where it should be going) which was pretty nuts. we also went for a bit of shopping. LOVELY people, very kind. the cooking is sweet. i tried a chocolate banana and it was very tasty, shared it with everyone. `I´ as in keenan. we all get super tired over here cause sun tends to set at 6 haha, so ya we all like to sleep.

i encourage everyone to donate to some cause or maybe talk to Dalton Mcguinty or your local MP and tell them to buck up and stop being so greedy. after our history lessons today. we feel very powerless and yet very responsible.

lots of love from everyone. excluding addy. he sends hate, for some reason.

typical teenager. full of angst, that boy

still, hes rather funny

everyones getting along, we already feed each other regularily. i think we shouldnt do that in front of other people though.

it rains a ton

we played basketball and soccer

everything is SOOO cheap! mom and dad, im buying a puppy. you have no choice

so hey to everyone back home we´re all swell. and youll be getting differnt blogging personalities since we have this sheet and everyone is signing it for blogging duty and church in the morning (we have our own service)

peace on earth.

Keenan Paul Reimer-Watts

or if you feel adventurous

the Keewatee Reimeratchee

Off to Guatemala

Hello everyone,

My name is Ruth Wright-Gedcke and I am one of the participants going to Guatemala this year. Today is the day where we are all meeting at Marina's house for a send off party and barbeque. It will be great to see all the participants again and awesome to see Sam who came from California.

As I was packing for this trip I started to think of all the learning, growing and sharing that I will be able to experience during our month in Guatemala. I am excited to learn some Spanish but also about the culture and history of the Guatemalan people.

I want to thank everyone who has helped us through donations, prayers or thoughts. I hope to come back to Canada with a new understanding of the world. Take care.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Enlace blog for 2009! This is where you will be able to keep yourself posted on our latest adventures, discoveries, and reflections on our trip to Guatemala. Please share this link with anyone who may be interested. Your support means a lot to us!