We're Thankful For YOU.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!

Down here in Sololá we're gearing up for our sixth and final week of camp already!  How time flies.  Enthralling and exhausting all in one, camp has turned into quite a hit.


                       Here's to another 8 months...

                                                                          ...Ready. Set. Go. 

Mamabear,

Dana

Full House

One of Manna Project International’s founding tenets is to foster communities of young adults and encourage them to use their passions and education in service to communities in need. In accordance with this mission, the organization has campus chapters at 11 universities which not only raise awareness for international issues and fundraise for MPI programs, but also that send groups of students to live and serve at MPI’s three permanent sites during their spring and summer vacations. 

This March, MPIG will host 2 groups of 10 volunteers from Vanderbilt University and University of Georgia who will stay with us for one week each. Later in June and July, we will have 8-10 summer volunteers who will live with us for 4 or 8 weeks.

This past week, MPIG and I were fortunate to have a taste of life with short-term volunteers as we were joined by five wonderful people who lived with us and helped out at camp. Hailing from Colombus, Ohio, Jason Kluk-Barany and Sean McGrew arrived at the MPI house after travelling throughout Latin America for the previous month. With no hesitations, they jumped right in helping with the Art and Sports programs at our summer camp. So helpful and energetic (they even cleaned our kitchen!), we were so sad to see them leave after a week.

Dana’s friend from Engineers Without Borders in Ecuador, Mark “Marco” Rohan, also stayed with us for a week. He is also on a month-long Central American vacation from his job as a mechanical engineer, testing weapons and completing system improvements for the Navy. Definitely a smart cookie, he assisted our Science program and even led his own class about water filtration. He left on Friday to climb the highest mountain in Central America, Tajumulco, with Dana and continue on with the rest of his adventure.

We were also fortunate to be joined by Chris Barry. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Chris currently works for the non-profit organization Hug it Forward dedicated to both the environment and education system in Guatemala. Normally stationed in the Alta Verapaz region, Chris came and helped run a special program at camp, in which we focused on the importance of recycling and environmental responsibility. The campers watched an episode of LIFE, did fun crafts with recycled bottles, learned about bottle schools and stuffed their own bottle with trash. At the end of the program, numerous campers approached Chris and us with questions about bottle schools and recycling. We were so glad to have Chris present to help motivate the campers about environmental stewardship.

Finally, our last volunteer Kate Bennett will be staying with us for a total of three weeks. After farming her way through Argentina with WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), Kate received a grant from New York University to research non-profit organizations working with indigenous populations in Guatemala. She is also writing a blog for Idealist.org, a website that allows non-profit organizations from around the globe to exchange resources and identify supporters and volunteers. Our 7th roommate for 3 weeks, Kate has brought a new spark of enthusiasm and optimism to the house. She has not only provided much needed manpower and energy for our summer camp programs, but she has also contributed valuable insight on upcoming projects and we are so thrilled to have her staying with us.

After five months of life here in Guatemala, I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to see our work through five fresh sets of eyes. The past week has really re-energized our mission, work, and general everyday life. To our five new friends, we cannot thank you enough, and we miss you! To all our future short-term volunteers, can’t wait to meet you. Insert cheesy friendship quote here, I can’t bear to choose just one.

Ginny and the MPIG team.

A Congenial Cast of Characters

            One of our favorite weekend destinations is the infamous Iguana Perdida hostel, located in a small town called Santa Cruz on Lake Atitlan. Santa Cruz is a charming town with a welcoming atmosphere and a stunning view of the lake and bordering volcanoes. However, the town’s real tourist draw is the Iguana. Located right on the edge of the lake, the hostel is the quintessential backpacker hotspot. Not only does it possess bohemian dormitories tucked into the jungle of banana, avocado, and palm trees, but the Iguana also provides diving lessons and certifications, a Mayan sauna, hammocks, Spanish classes, weaving instruction, guided hikes, kayaks, a library, and a lounge complete with a fireplace and a huge flat screen, cable television. Every night, the hostel provides an all-you-can-eat, family-style dinner, in which hostel guests all sit at long dinner table and swap stories of their travels. Overall, I concur with the many guide books that say that the Iguana Perdida is its own, small but pleasant universe.

            A few weeks ago, my friends and I were fortunate to be at the hostel not only for BBQ night, but also for the hostel’s notorious costume party that occurs each Saturday. Raiding the Iguana’s costume closet (yes, the hostel has a costume closet), we quickly made friends with the other guests as we all helped each other to select the most ridiculous outfits possible. For example, while I sported a fuchsia business coat and a one piece floral jumper that could have possibly once been a bathing suit or maybe an adult diaper, Hudson donned a pink terry cloth dress, cowboy boots, and a sunhat. Lawyers and business men in the United States, two of our fellow guests wore outdated prom dresses and neon exercise suits, while two pairs of newlyweds sported tacky makeup and MC Hammer pants. By and large, the evening was a classy affair. With all of us decked out in the “fancy dress” required for dinner, we ate our BBQ and tried to take each other seriously as we discussed travelling, life, and work. Following the meal, everyone began dancing and playing games like musical chairs, limbo, and other games from our childhoods. The fun lasted well past midnight, until everyone went to bed, reluctant to relinquish their earlier elegant attire.

            For me, the evening at the Iguana perfectly embodied one of the reasons for my love of travelling. Throughout my life, I have been blessed to have backpacked in many countries, including the Dominican Republic, the majority of Western Europe, and Germany for the FIFA World Cup in 2006. I have most often travelled alone, but no matter the destination, I have always met fellow backpackers and have left the place with new friends and memories.  Innumerable people have shared a similar experience. When travelling, it is very common and almost expected for strangers to meet and immediately make plans to grab dinner or explore the location. Somehow, making new friends is just easier when you are travelling.

            I believe that these quickly established friendships are not just random phenomena or trivial occurrences, but that they are in fact the most magical components of the travelling or backpacking experience and should neither be underestimated nor overlooked. At the Iguana, I helped complete strangers to select some of the most absurd outfits that they have ever seen. I cannot say their favorite stores, their political opinions, or what cars they drive, but I can say that we now share a bond, a common memory that we will cherish for years to come. And thus is the magic of travelling. When you meet another backpacker in transit, the superficial facts about his life cease to matter.  You both occupy a liminal space, that is to say that you both are living in transit and out of your comfort zones, and this mutual liminality creates profound bonds based on shared experiences rather than common interests or opinions. While the bonds between backpackers are in no way better than the friendships established at home, these connections are special and magical both in their depth and in the speed with which they are forged.

            Perhaps the power of liminality applies to even more than friendships. Perhaps, not in the routines of daily life, but instead in the breaks from these routines can a person can best strengthen his self awareness and world perspectives. I do not know if this idea is true or not, however I do hope that everyone can and will seize the opportunity to travel and experience the magic of these friendships firsthand.

Peace

Ginny Savage

Spice Up Your Life

We thought you guys might enjoy hearing about our work in different way tonight, so here's Jared to tell you more about a community celebration we were a part of in early October.  Hope you enjoy.

A Reflection on Cultural Exchange

The bustling market. A steady stream of public transport buses. Mail and laundry services. Easy access to Panajachel. A soy store that sells delicious strawberry soy ice cream. These are just a few of the reasons for which I find living in Sololá, as opposed to Chaquijyá, to be very convenient. Though I may sometimes joke about the bother of not being able to find chocolate chips here, there’s no doubt that we have it good in this big town, and I am very grateful for that.

On the other hand, one of the greatest compromises that we have made by living in Sololá instead of Chaquijyá, at least initially, is that there is seemingly a limited amount of cultural exchange between us and the people we work alongside. Even though we go to the community several times each week, it is still difficult to appreciate the ups, downs, norms, and daily rhythms of life in Chaquijyá without actually living there. As a group, we have acknowledged this, and last week we were able to verbalize our concern over such narrow exchange with Esteban, the director of La Primaria. Esteban strongly agreed that up to this point, the cultural exchange that has taken place has been somewhat lopsided. For example, he noted that we teach English to students at La Primaria, but we have yet to take any formal lessons to learn Kaqchikel, the indigenous Mayan language spoken by many in Chaquijyá. Similarly, though people in the community have been kind enough to invite us to various celebrations and activities, such as Día de los Muertos festivities and graduation ceremonies, I still feel like our relationship and interactions haven’t delved much below the surface. 

Sharing ideas, beliefs, and aspects of one’s culture generally seems to be easier in an informal and comfortable setting, such as someone’s home. So, in order to facilitate a greater exchange between community members and our group, we are hoping to arrange homestays in Chaquijyá for each of us early next spring. The opportunity to stay in someone’s home provides an avenue through which we can build confianza, or trust, with residents of Chaquijyá and establish relationships that reach beyond our professional interactions. In such an intimate environment, it would be much easier to establish a sincere friendship on which we can ground a cultural exchange.

Such a great opportunity for sharing exists, and I am very excited about the prospect of exploring and nurturing this cultural exchange. Personally, I would love to learn more about Mayan beliefs and rituals, speak enough Kaqchikel to have a two-minute conversation with someone, and develop a better understanding of the cadence of life in Chaquijyá. In return, we, will likely be some of the only foreigners that people in Chaquijyá will meet.  We can expose them to a completely different, less defined, culture and introduce the idea of diversity.  More expressly, because America is such a melting pot of peoples, races, customs, and beliefs, our culture is seemingly less simple to characterize. Even within our group of MPI volunteers here in Guatemala, we represent such varied parts of American culture, as we are from different regions of the country, hold different beliefs, etc.

In the end, despite how different the customs and cultures between us and the people of Chaquijyá are, I believe that we will find commonalities that will enhance our relationship that much more.  For instance, discovering similar or shared family values will improve our bond and, in turn, probably our receptiveness to each other’s culture.  Thankfully, we have several more months to try to overcome any obstacles and really partake in a cultural exchange. I look forward to all that which lies ahead!

Hasta pronto,

Karen

The Recycling Habit

      Walking through the streets of Guatemala, you find trash scattered around and piled up, ignored as a problem in many parts of the country.  Generally, NGOs in Guatemala either focus on environmental education or on the economic growth of an impoverished area;  Long Way Home is working towards both. This non-profit is educating the community in Comolapa, Guatemala by building a school with recycled waste materials. This idea of alternative building isn’t new, but they are using this project to provided better education and employment opportunities. They are changing the mindsets of the people by demonstrating that the trash they throw out on the street really can be of use and of value.

     Hudson, Dana, and I had to opportunity to visit Comolapa and the Long Way Home team. We saw first-hand the construction of the main vocational school. As we climb up to the site from the town below, a large structure, made of tires, came into focus.  It was amazing to me that they had built this seven roomed structure with all recycled tires. Walking inside, the ceiling was decorated with skylights made from different colored glass bottles.  This was one of about five projects they have planned for the school’s campus.  The classrooms up on the hill, though not yet under construction, will be made  out of earth bags (polypropylene sacks filled with soil - we didn't know either).  Other buildings will be constructed with plastic bottles packed with trash gathered in the community.

     Not only is Long Way Home providing a school for the community but they are raising the bar by demonstrating efficient and effective ways to be environmentally friendly. With trash piling up throughout the country, building schools with recyclables is only the start of the solution. It is wonderful to meet people in Guatemala that have such an inspirational drive to improve life in this country.  Our hope is to educate our community in a similar light, but maybe not with a massive construction of tires.

Most exciting, Long Way Home is a finalist in the BBC World Challenge Competition.  If you have a moment to vote for them online, it would go along way towards helping raise awareness for Guatemala and environmental issues.

Best,

  Jared Stepp

Day of the Dead

This morning we had the opportunity to join the members of Chaquijyá for a special moment - The Day of the Dead.  Where cemeteries and death are often somber topics in the United States, here it's much the opposite.  Here, they don their nicest clothes, pack lunches, and head en masse to the nearby cemetery.


It's a time of celebration, of cherished memories, and socializing with neighbors.  A time when kids fly kites, when bright flowers adorn each grave, and when music and delicacies are passed graciously from hand-to-hand.  We'd like to share some of those moments with you.

Example of color used for family tombs.

One of the rows of families in the cemetery. 

View of Chaquijyá from the cemetery entrance.