Whew! So it has been a pretty action packed week. We started working in The Garden and it looks like a completely different place from what it was when we first stepped foot on the plot of land. While cleaning, we discovered a lot of interesting things like a fancy spoon, glass cups, lots of shoes, a pair of scissors and countless dirty diapers…yeah, I know gross. The important thing is that The Garden is clean and ready for the medicinal herbs!

Juliana working on clearing garbage out of the garden.

Before we whipped the garden in to shape. This is only one corner.

We spent a lot of time this week carting wheelbarrow loads of fertile soil back and forth from Vicenta’s (mine and Maris’ host mom as well as one of the women in the weaving cooperative with Maya Traditions) coffee plant plot, to the land donated for The Garden by Cecilia (Juliana’s host Mom, also a part of the cooperative). The distance is about a mile and we are all going to be totally ripped (have big muscles for those that aren’t hip to the lingo) when we get back to the U.S. We are all extremely happy that the garden is shaping up because when Oseas (the Maya Traditions herbs expert, gardener, and herbal products creator) showed us the plan for the layout of The Garden on Monday and then we actually visited the land, we had a group mini panic attack. Let’s just say we had no clue how we were going to make that plan a reality. After long, sweaty, days of work we now have a clear walkway through The Garden and are nearly finished with dividing it into sections for the different herbs.

Juliana and Christina carting brosa (fertile soil) the mile to the garden from Vicenta’s plot

Taking a break after hours of heavy lifting

 

English classes went surprisingly well this week. Tuesday we taught months, days of the week, and some basic verbs. The rainy season has officially arrived everyone, in fact it is pouring right this moment, and it hit right before our Tuesday lesson. The sound of the rain hitting the tin rooftops in Vicenta’s home where we hold the classes was so loud that we could barely hear each other, but the kids didn’t seem to mind and were still eager to learn so we pushed forward. On Thursday only Emily and I taught English while the other girls returned to the garden after lunch to keep working and take advantage of the presence and assistance of a few of the Maya Traditions staff who ferried over that morning to attend the Compost and Permaculture seminar hosted in The Garden by Viviamos Mejor. We taught the kids body parts and clothing and they loved our teaching method of putting an article of our clothing on each child while the rest of the class named it in English. Apparently our clothes are hilarious.

 

Emily and Brianna attempting to get a picture of the kids in our clothes… They were really excited. Emily’s host brother went home that day and told his mom it was the the most fun he’d ever had learning. 🙂

Another attempt

Friday morning we watched two documentaries from the Unlocking the Silence Foundation which encourages the preservation of the indigenous cultures here in the Lake Atitlan area. Many people were persecuted during the war in the 90s for not conforming to the culture of those in power in Guatemala. Since then, there has been a decline in many traditional practices and the sharing of traditional knowledge because the indigenous populations lived in fear. The foundation works with youth from all around the lake area, even extremely rural towns, giving teens access to technology like laptops and cameras as they work in teams to tell the stories they believe need to be heard. A few of our host siblings are involved in the foundation and it was really nice to get to see what they are passionate about. Both documentaries were very inspiring and awakened in all of us a new found appreciation for the rich and unique culture that surrounds us here and the incredible resilience of the people in this town.

We are currently preparing for the clinic The Maya Traditions Foundation is going to host in San Juan to provide access to traditional Mayan healers. Here people must be blessed with the power to heal and some towns have more medicine men than others. Maya traditions has partnered with a medicine man association as part of their community health program and these healers will be traveling to San Juan to treat illnesses and prescribe medication. My host bro Cheima came with us to post signs around town so we could be sure we hung them in places residents are sure to see them. We also have made plans that have been given the green light by Maya Traditions to hand out informational pamphlets about different types of medicinal herbs and their healing properties as well as sell some of the products at discounted prices before and after the clinic. The whole idea as a chapter of Nourish International is to participate in sustainable community improvement projects and we are looking for ways to make sure that after we leave our impact won’t diminish and the community will continue to benefit from the project and the time we spent here. We want to help educate the community about medicinal herbs so that the knowledge can be spread giving the people more independence. For example earlier this week Julianna’s host mother had to travel to a different town to get medicine for her baby. The women in the weaving cooperative here in San Juan attend the informational seminars and demonstrations concerning the herbs, how to prepare remedies, and how to take care of the garden with us because when our time here ends they will be the ones the care for The Garden and make use of the herbs.

Learning along side the women about healthy soil

Compost demonstration

Our group has made sure to keep a good balance between work and play. We have made a lot of friends here these past few weeks with great thanks to our super social host families. Seriously, they are really cool. We have discovered an amazing swimming spot in San Pedro, the next town over from San Juan, and are becoming regulars there, as well as frequenting the beach here in San Juan with our younger host sisters. We also found our center in a two hour morning Yoga class and went kayaking in San Pedro as well. One evening a few of us took on some locals at basketball. Basketball is actually really popular here and the women were really good but I think Maris, Christina, and Emily gave them a good run for their money. Thursday and Friday we had movie nights with a bunch of our host siblings. We watched Tangled and Gone Girl in Spanish…it was rough, don’t try this at home. Today Maris and I hung out with our family and had lunch on the beach which we helped prepare and included crab and fish and soup and rice and was delicious. Then we donned our trajes and went to church. I say this to let everyone know we’re are all eating plenty and look really cute in Traditional Tz’tujil clothing.

 

Maris, Emily, and Christina take on some friends at basketball

 

Emily and I learning to kayak

Maris and I before heading to church with our host mom Vicenta and her daughter, our host sister, Sucely

 

Signing off until next week,

Bri Wilkins.