Help Jeany & Erick

Did you know that only about 3 out of 10 Mayan students in the Guatemalan highlands complete the 6th grade because of extreme poverty? Most have to quit sometime before then, in order to help earn money for their families. Of those 3 students that make it through the 6th grade, only 1 finishes high school. 1 out of 10. This is because after 6th grade, school costs money. For 7th-9th graders the cost is about $400 and for 10-12th graders it costs about $600. It might not seem like a lot to us, but families’ salaries average less than $900 a year, and most have numerous kids. 

My Story:  This year will be the third year that I celebrate my birthday by having a big fundraiser for 2 Mayan students living in Guatemala– Jeany and Erick. In 2014 I was lucky enough to plan and then take a trip to Guatemala during my last year of homeschool. It was a trip that changed my life. I was able to meet Jeany, Erick, and their families and I couldn’t believe how thankful they were. They couldn’t believe that so many American kids would come together to help them – it really made them feel good. With the extra money I raised, I got to take each family into the town and buy each of the many children something they needed, like shoes or a sweater. I was told that this NEVER happens. If, by any chance there is any extra money in a family, only 1 child at a time gets anything new and even THAT is a huge deal. So for every kid in the family to get 1 new thing, it was like the biggest thing that ever happened to them.

Beyond a lack of education, most of these families struggle and live a subsistence lifestyle. Many still bathe and wash clothes in the lake. The towns around Lake Atitlan actually have to share water service. Each town receives running water for only a few hours a couple days a week. During this time, families and businesses fill up barrels and small cisterns to use sparingly until the next service.

When I was there in 2014, I got really, really sick and had to go to the doctor. However, the doctor's office had run out of water. So they had to take buckets to neighboring businesses to fill them up and bring back JUST to flush the toilet and so I could wash my hands. (There are more stories and if you ever want to hear any, just ask me.)

The whole trip made me really reflect on how much people in the USA take things for granted. School… clean water, HOT water, any water at all… shoes that actually fit, a NEW sweater… a doctor’s appointment & a doctor’s office that is clean, and has water…

Now that Ive made a long story, long… that’s why I keep having birthday fundraising parties. For kids to help other kids and to change lives. Jeany and Erick are now in 11^th grade and 8^th grade respectively and their lives have already changed for the better. Jeany’s high school experience is training her to be a preschool teacher, so even if she doesn’t go to college, she will be able to get a decent paying job and maybe help her family break the poverty cycle. During her vacations, Jeany works part-time at a travel agency where she gets to practice her English skills and learn about office work. Next year, when Erick is in high school, he will get similar experiences and hopefully, ultimately help his family break the cycle of poverty.

I really hope you can make it to the party but if you can’t and still want to donate to this amazing cause, thank you!

trip summary

 First off it is infanantly good to be back! All the buildings are completly painted and actually look like they have been maintained in the last three years. I feel so spoiled in the place that I get to live.

What does having been on this trip inspire me to do? 

This trip has inspired me to continue to return to Guatemala and similar places to help education, change laws, and do garbage pickup projects.

I believe that the key to digging any country out of poverty is education.

With an educated population the more people can, get better jobs, understand law and change it to help the people rather than just the government, women can obtain rights with undiscrminitory laws, animals will be treated better and there will be less litter.

What are the top three things I have learned on the trip? 

How important education is in creating a developed country.

Spanish.

Mexican and Guatemalan history.

Compare and contrast: 

On one side Latin America seemed to be more unorganized and unmaintained. Also, especially in Guatemala the cops were extremely macho and seemed unprofessional. The more north I moved, the more professional they seemed and the less macho they got.  The transportation in Mexico has much surpassed ours, as far as prices they're cheaper, as far as quality there better. In Guatemala everybody will give you directions whether they know what they are talking about or not. The farther north we got in Mexico, they actually gave us good directions, so it's much easier to know when you're going in Mexico than Guatemala.

When I got back to Washington everything seemed so clean and organized and I was awed in beauty by all the tall, green trees covering the mountains. It was so odd for me to see buildings completely painted without many large ware marks or having only the front of the building painted and the rest just grey concrete. Everything seemed generally more maintained with less garbage and better kept plants. But, I do think that the United States is at a plateau and the rest of the world is certainly catching up.

Monte alban pics

 A Zappatec scull I was lucky enough to see!

    Before excavation:

After excavation:

A representation of a prisoner of war with mutilated genitals.

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan was amazing!

It was Quite a bit of walking at quite a high altitude. But I think due to sprinting up the extreme number of stairs at our last hostel, it took quite a bit more to put me out of breath. From where we came in, there was a more than 2 mile road to the temple of the moon going north and there is still a lot to the south of the ruins they have not uncovered yet. I also didn't feel to resticted as to were people could and couldn't go.

The little dots on the stairs are peolple so you can tell how big it is.  Many pyramids were built level by level each dynisty, but the Temple of the Sun however, was built in one setting.

The jaguar is a main theme at many Mesoamerican sites. The jaguar was worshoped in one form oranimal towas associated with many thing some of witch are, the sun god, courage, caves, the unknown, political power, and other.

This is what all of the buidings were painted like in ancient Mesoamerica.

Before:

After:

Painting of a jaguar.

Templo Mayor and Mexico City 1

Going to Mexico City was a bit intimidating, and i told my self that when i got there i would realize it was not as ominous as i thought... nope. Coming in on the bus first seeing the outskirts it was like a small poor towns in guatemala, made up of cinder blocks and tin roofs, but it streched for miles. As we went deeper into the city there were large, worn, cement buildings covered from head to toe in graffiti. it looked extremely sketchy, but I remember the people not fitting in. They were walking around looking perfectly decent. Then when we reached the historical part of town it was too dark to really see.

While we were in the taxi, right before we got to the hostel, we realized...uh-oh, where is my bag? I finally convinced my mom to go back. We dropped our stuff off at the hostel and then we got another taxi and went back. There was a lot of trouble getting it because my mom threw awway our ticket before we left, but we finally got my bag back, and got to bed at 11:00-12:00.

In the morning I saw the area out side in the light and it is in reality quite nice. I also feel very safe due to the fact that there are 3-10 police officers on every side of every block and about 50 soldiers with assault rifles in the historical center. However, we are trying to travel smartly by not having jewelry or bags or too nice of clothes when we go out.  

Summary of Mexico City: It was built on a lake on top of an Aztec city after the Spanish conquered it. This why the city (or a lot of the old, heavy buildings are sinking. The Aztec temple was demolished by the Spaniards and they built atop of it what today is the largest cathedral in all of the Americas.

Oaxaca and Monte Alban

Oaxaca was a very nice city that I felt really comfortable in, I got a good vibe from it.

It has some good food and 0one of the things that I have noticed is that all the vendors are a lot less pushy than in Guatemala, even though Mexicans are steriotypically some of the most pushy. I got experience a great big procesion of silence, that was a very beautiful event. I am so gad i got to be there on Easter, the celebration was a blast. People held figures of angels and lambs with fireworks covering them above their heads and continued on to dance to live music. The figures sprayed a shower of sparks in a 5-7 yrd. radius hitting themselves and the massive audiance with hot, orange pieces of ash. Then we both got hit with a bag full of crackers and candy that was being  thrown off the roof tops.

The ruins of Monte Alban were very impressive, the main plaza was prabablly about 4 football fields with pyramids and tempes surrounding it. It was a spectacular sight, but everything is so restricted it took off a good sized part of the experiece I wish I could have had.

Monte Alban is the largest ancient city in the state of Oaxaca and it is only 10-20 minute drive from the state capital. This site was the home of neather the Mayans nor the Aztecs, but of the Zapotecs. The Zapotecs came to Oaxaca from the north in about 1,000 BCE, their empire lasted for 2,221 years from 700 BCE - 1521 CE. They were a very small yet very formidable group that resisted the spanish for 42 years after the fall of their empire. 

Palenque, Yaxchilan and Bonampak

I will add more photos when I get home. We ended up taking more photos with the camera than with my phone and there is no place in the iPad Air to stick the cameras card to download all the photos. Sorry.

I will also write more soon... Im just recovering from my second bout of Montezuma's revenge :-(

Palenque had a very similar feel to Tikal, but was 30 times smaller. There was a palace that probably took up a whole football field. It was originally just where the emperor lived but as need grew they started to add different governmental areas to it. 

It was soooo humid and soooo hot. It was about 90F at 11:00am and it rose from there. When you took a breath in you could literally feel mist being sucked into your mouth. Thank goodness we got there early and left before noon!

Living quarters.

Ancient water system of big stone pipes.

Our mattress at our hotel sat on a big, purple, cement matress frame. (:

Here is the eclipse that probably no one in Bellingham saw due to the clouds (:

This is at Yaxchilan. Here you can clearly see the imprint on the altar, that would fill with blood when the head of the sacrifice was placed in the middle.

This building was extraordinary, it is justly nicknamed the labyrinth. Within the stucture is a maze that once entered you cannot see your hand infront of your face.

The limestone freezes are truly spectacular, how can they make them and not crack it in half?

The last day in the town of Palenque it rained like a carwash, I can't remember ever seeing that much rain with my own eyes!

This is a new veggie we discovered called uiskjil. I don't love it or hate it, but they put it in everything as a filler food.

All the pics are on my digital camera I can't show you right now but i will when I get back. 

We got a chance to see the only known Mayan pianting still in existance. I felt honored to be able to see these. On some places it looked like people had scratched the faces off of some of the paintings. It makes me physically sick to think that someone would do that.

Some people maintaining the paintings cleaned them with kerosene (liter fluid) which brought out the colors, but is now eating away at the paint and limestone. 

Sorry to leave on a sad note, but keep checking for more blogs. (:

Xela and Crossing the Border to Mexico

Xela was an old colonial city but still was very poor. I got a strange vibe from the place. I felt odd there, but I still can't put my finger on the unsettling feeling. (Perhaps it had to do with the owner of the hostel we stayed at. He looked just like Dexter.)

Here is a picture of the market in Xela.

We stayed there for only 1 day and took a 6 1/2 hour ride in which we changed buses 4 times. It took us an hour to cross the border due to a series of time consuming events - including waiting for people, paying to go to an awful bathroom and a girl's passport not working.

When we finally crossed the border it was a bit different from Guatemala. The terrain was a bit like Colorado, full of dry trees and prickly pear cactus. There were not many houses. But soon I started to see gas stations with actual mini-marts and more houses, then a Walmart and other stores.

Dry land, not tropics.

A gas station with a mini-mart!

A medical center!

When I got to San Cristobal de las Casas, the outskirts looked pretty rough, all the houses were made of cement blocks with tin roofs and graffiti. But as I got closer to the center of town it started looking nicer and nicer. Now where we are in the center (the historical/colonial part of San Cristobal) everything is super nice. One way we can tell it is really safe, is that there are no guards with shotguns standing outside of every other store and the cops don't even carry guns. 

This is the quiet street where our hostel is. Posada del Abuelito... it is awesome and we have met some really great travellers here. We talk in the morning when we are all making breakfast and then again at night, when everyone sits around the kitchen table exchanging stories. Last night mom went to get some water but never came back. Finally, I went looking for her and she was sitting around the table with 3 German guys talking about experiences. They were really nice so, even though I was exhausted (and we had to get up early for an excursion the next day) I sat down and stayed a while before dragging my mom off to bed.

This was our key at a hostel we stayed at one night when Posada del Abuelito was full. It is a doll representing an EZLN Zapatista soldier (the insurgents under the leadership of Commandante Marcos -against the Mexican govt. He is an educated leader and had a little more luck fighting for civil rights then the guerrillas did in Guatemala.)

And they have street names here. :-)

NEXT ---

Excursion to the autonomous, indigenous town of

SAN JUAN CHAMULA:

Back to San Pedro and Dad week

Getting back to San Pedro felt like I was back at home. It was a wonderful feeling.

I've been having a spectacular time with my dad! He will get to meet Maria and Erick on the 2nd of April. We are going to Xocomil with him the day after! It's fun introducing my dad to the people we've met here and our home stay family! 

My dad in a hammock at Hotel Sak'cari in San Pedro la Laguna.

Our home stay family.

From left to right:

Miguel (father), Angela (daughter, 9), Norma (daughter, 16), Anna-Maria (daughter, 18) Maria (mother)

A recommendation from my pops:

Chicken buses painted; white, turquoise, blue, green, red, yellow and orange. large black water barrels, thatched roofs, tin roofs, cement roofs with rebar still protruding 3-7feet out of it.

Bamboo and corn stock fences tide together with rusty wire. A ring of mountains surrounding me, each one engulfed in a layer of small trees. Small tri-wheeled red and yellow tuc-tucs a groaning up steep handmade cobblestone streets. Colorful art painted on the side of buildings built brick by brick at a time. Dresses the color of a beouket of flowers, with the people in them hard at work on artisan and the preporation of cuisine. Black hair, large brim hats and torn jeans.

Wires running across the sky like a spider web draped over the beautiful imperfection that is San Pedro.

Garifuna History

HISTORY

The Garifunas were shipwrecked African slaves that collected on the island of St.Vincent. they developed a new culture and language witch was a mash-up of the indiginous caribbeans, west African and French. The English tried to gain control for about 100 years. They finally succeeded in 1796 and deported the surviving Garifunas to the coastal Honduran town of Trujillo. Then over time they spread along the Caribbean coast and one of the places that they collected is the town I have been staying in for the last few days called Livingston. 

CULTURE

(later)