Samox San Lucas

It’s been noted that my blogs are too long. So I will post only a short summary of my past two weeks in Samox San Lucas but I would be thrilled to talk about it more (please).

So, I left the beautiful, volcano views of Antigua for the rainy, rural, unelectrified, waterless community of Samox San Lucas in Alta Verapaz, approximately an hour outside of Coban.

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Community

Samox San Lucas is a community of 86 families with about 500 people split across three zones. They came to their current land as refugees in search of farmland in the mid ‘80s. While the government was responsible for finding and supporting land for the refugees, the land is still owned by a woman in Coban who lets them live and farm there until they can figure out a way to officially buy it.

While some community members have stores or grow food animals, most of the community members are farmers harvesting corn, beans, coffee, and cardamom.

They are only crops to harvest between September and April. One amazing community member sold two cows in order to construct the towns first 'pescaderia' (tilapia fish farm).

The community appears to be super organized with their six community committees but that brings along its fair share of politics and chaos which I got to experience while I was visiting.

New committee: Comite Consejos de la Comuindad

Used a modification of the Logical Framework Analysis to list and prioritize community problems, potential solutions, and the necessary resources. Top three to investigate first.

§ Business/agriculture

§ Water infrastructure

§ Improved Stoves

My biggest challenge in Samox was getting the community to appreciate sustainability and not develop dependency. They just started receiving outside aid over the past few years from several organizations including CasaSito, FONAPAZ, Centro de Salud and Asociacion Bautista K’ekchi’, the Peace Corps, Mi Familia Progressa, Euro-Solar, Rotary International, and Health in Action. They are starting to take advantage of these organizations and seem to be losing the energy to make change for themselves. The work I did with the committee aimed to reverse the growing paternalism by asking them to make their own goals and determine how to achieve them. By the end of the week, I think the message started to reach a few community members who had been frequently asking what HiA was going to bring to the community.

Telesegundaria

I went to SSL partially as a CasaSito representative to support the secondary school. A community committee of concerned fathers have struggled to get a secondary school up and running for their kids and others from surrounding communities. They have been fortunate to received support from CasaSito and a local man who has experience in school development projects.

CasaSito has helped to secure funds for the TV and DVD player that define a secondary school, teacher funding, some classroom supplies, and are currently in the progress of securing land and funds for a new secondary school and teacher salaries. They are struggling especially with enrollment. In order to receive funding from the government, they need to maintain a minimum of 25 students in each class.

Water updates

Back in February, HiA implemented some Biosand filters in the schools to encourage tooth-brushing and hand-washing with purified water. Since then, the elementary school has stopped using their filter because it started smelling like gas (that have students bring the influent and oftentimes water containers may be reused gasoline containers). The middle school still uses their filter daily but only for hand-washing since they don’t brush their teeth at school. It would be great to know if the filter is drinking quality so they could drink water after recess. I unsuccessfully tried to test the filters (I didn’t have the right Petri dishes for the test kits).

Since HiA was in town, Rotary International donated water filters for every classroom in the primary school. They consist of stacked buckets with 2 ‘candelas’ (activated carbon filters). The filters need to be cleaned at least once a month and the ‘candelas’ replaced annually. This is the reason they are unsustainable and not practical for this community…the community has been told that the candelas cost Q365 each (x2/filterx8filters=Q5840/year)…a ridiculous expense for a community of farmers that make about Q15/day.

Independence Day

On September 15, 1821 Guatemala gained its independence from Spain. Guatemalans go all out to celebrate their freedom. Two weeks before the event, street vendors took advantage of the patriotic season by selling Guatemalan flags for all purposes. The week leading up to I-day, SSL-ians started spending their entire school days doing patriotic art projects.

Finally, the I-day events started the night before with the Niña y Señorita de Independencia pageant. The men spent the whole day building and decorating a stage on the school grounds which would have a large stereo and lights powered by a generator for the special occasion.

The competition, the girls basically need to wear traditional clothing and do the slow, lonely Marimba dance up to the stage where they explain their message to the audience. I served on the judge’s panel for the Señoritas and my favorite (2^nd place winner) had a great message for the community, saying that women have the same rights and abilities as men.

The competition was interluded with performances from students in each grade including poetry, a Mayan futbol match (the kind where they light a soccer ball on fire and kick it at each other), dances, a reenactment of Guatemalan parties (with pushy millitary-men and police, drunkards, and all), and song...Samox is definitely not known for its Grammy winning singers...

The event was followed by some festive merengue dancing...

...and, much to my dismay, the slaughter of a one year old bull...

After the music stopped around 2AM, the children stayed up through the night playing fútbol in the schoolyard while the men started cooking the meat and chicharrones to share with the community the during the I-day festivities.

I-day itself was a big day for SSL because it would be the culmination of a month-long fútbol tournament where two SSL teams would compete for the trophy and pride. While miscommunication caused me to miss the game itself, the important part of that day was that people from communities all around SSL came to watch. With this, the telesegundaria had the opportunity advertise the middle school in hopes of increasing enrollment.

Following the fútbol game there was more music and the community chowed down on the 1000 pound bull.

I offered to help wash the dishes in the pila with the women…only to realize that the job entailed scraping lard (which reminded me of the butter mixture they sell for popcorn) off of bowls.

A local family

During my 10 days in Samox, I gradually made myself at home with a local family and they were a good resource for a lot of community information. Olivia is a 32 year old mother of 5 very unique children ranging in age from 2 to 16 and wife of a sawmill worker who has attempted some international travel but was kicked out of Spain and never made it to the States.

And the dog...Ca'an (he was just a puppy when HiA came in February)

With this family, I learned to bathe in the river, wash clothes in the river...

...desgranar corn...

...and tortillear (make tortillas)...Sharing nearly every meal with Olivia and her family, I left SSL craving homemade tortillas and beans.

ABK-Asociacion Bautista K’ekchi’/Ministerio de Salud collaboration

I met and worked with Rosaura (who happens to be the sister of Olivia), the field technician that offers monthly health classes to over 90 mothers in the community. The organization aims to promote socio-economic development in the country. Rosaura’s health lessons aim to teach the most basic hygiene and nutrition and the women seem to enjoy them. Some issues with the COCODE have made Rosaura threaten not to return. This partnership also brings a nurse to the Centro de Comvergencia in the community once a month to offer clinic services to mothers and children under 5 years of age. During the rest of the month, the associations keep the room well stocked with preventative medicines and antibiotics for the children. They have trained a community member on how to assess basic illnesses and distribute the free medications and conduct a monthly weigh-in of children under 2.

The association has also set up an emergency plan for the community including a fund where community members donate Q2/month and can borrow money in case of emergency.

SOSEP (Secretary of Social Works by the President’s Wife, http://www.sosep.gob.gt/perfil.php?codigo=11)

· Formed in 1991 to implement social development programs to benefit kids, families, and communities in general especially kids under 5, rural women, older adults, and the disabled. Colom’s wife and her team have developed new programs and re-vamped the old to bring a large scale sustainable and self-sustaining change to these populations to combat poverty and underdevelopment.

· SOSEP has two sectors: Hogares Comunitarios which provides home, education, and food for street children and Creciendo Bien which promotes improvements in health, education, and nutrition and opportunities for women through community self-management to be able to support the family.

· To use the programs offered by SOSEP, the community would need to take a written proposal for funds, materials, or education. We have considered requesting help from SOSEP for improved stoves but I really think the community needs to know why they need them first in order to write a powerful proposal.

Euro-Solar (http://www.programaeuro-solar.eu/eng/kit.php, http://www.mem.gob.gt/Portal/Documents/ImgLinks/2008-09/731/EUROSOLAR%20-%20INFORMACI%C3%93N%20GENERAL.pdf, http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/latin-america/regional-cooperation/euro-solar/index_es.htm)

The program is funded by the European Union and the Guatemalan Ministry of Energy and Mines. The goal is to bring sun and wind energy to rural communities while supporting education and health. The participating communities (of which Samox is one) will receive:

· Electricity and communication

o Solar panels

o Satellite antenna for Internet connection

o Satellite telephone

· Education:

o 5 laptop computers

o Printer

o Projecter

o Lights

· Health

o Refrigerator for vaccines

o Water filter

o Lights

FONAPAZ (El Fondo Nacional para la Paz, http://www.fonapaz.gob.gt/)

Created in 1991, it’s goal is to develop and implement projects to eradicate poverty and extreme poverty. It aims to construct homes in rural areas, government buildings, community meeting centers, sport fields, develop educational and recreational programs, donate roofing material and accessories for rural construction, provide nutritional aid, build and supply schools, aid Peace projects, and other projects requested by President Colom or his wife. They serve as a direct link between COCODEs in the rural communities and the President of Guatemala because communities used to have to go to their local Municipality for support and would often be rejected because of the extreme racism and corruption on the regional government level.

In Samox specifically they have started donating something annually. The women’s committee secretary fills out the application and gets it stamped by the COCODE. This year they applied for pilas and haven’t heard anything back yet. They can only apply for one project at a time. In 2008, each family was given a gas stove and a tank of gas. (Alice told me that they often receive material donations from foreign countries rather than funds so FONAPAZ sometimes just hands out what they receive even if it’s not best suited for a particular community. However, when they do have funds to spend, they seem to do a good job.) Earlier this year, they donated hand mills.

Mi Familia Progresa (http://www.mifamiliaprogresa.gob.gt/)

A government program to bring financial aid to impoverished famlies so they may receive a primary school education, preventitive health care, and proper nutrition. The vision is ‘a nation where every Guatemalan man and women may have the opportunity for a better life.’ They are currently supporting 41/86 families in SSL with Q300/month for the children. The program requires that the children attend school and the money can only be used for schooling and medicine and food for the children.

Other achievements

Rode standing up in the back of a pickup truck. Climbed a tree in the river to pick guava-like fruit. Reprimanded older men for abusing a dog.

Ate meals with only tortillas for silverware. Wore traje típico...

Camped alone in a village with no electricity or running water, ate PB&J dinners by candlelight (Lit matches!)... ...lived side-by-side with the creatures who made their home near my tent (Herded a cockroach out of my tent).

Castration Station

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in a ‘campana’ for animal sterilization in Sumpango (near AWARE).

They work with vets from a program called the McKee Project (http://www.mckeeproject.org/newsletters.html#) which trains vets in a less invasive method of sterilization specialized for trap-neuter-release protocols. In exchange, the vets agree to participate in these low cost or free clinics for sterilization, consult, and vaccination of animals in Latin American countries. This is they sort of project that I would like to make a career out of so I was happy to see that there was an organization already working on it.

There were two vets and about 6 assistants who were all vet students in Guatemala City. Vet school is 6 years here but you go straight to vet school from ‘carerra’ which is like high school where you get your bachelors.

Dogs and cats were anesthetized by the assistants and prepared for surgery. Then the doctor performed the sterilization and the dogs were taken to a recuperating area until they woke up. When they started to wake up, the assistants would give them their post-op, vaccines, and antibiotics and/or antiparasitics.

They sterilized about 20 dogs and cats yesterday. A few were from the shelter, a few more were captured on the street, and some were brought in by people who live in Sumpango. They are really clear about the sterilization process and do their best to educate visitors and children about the importance of sterilizing dogs. While it’s what I always wanted to do, I kind of felt weird about stalking dogs on the street to sterilize with the intent of releasing them again. We had pretty bad luck with the dogs we grabbed: the first was really slow to wake up after surgery so she couldn’t be released; the second was pregnant so she had a pretty traumatizing surgery that involved aborting her puppies;

and the third had an undescended testicle making for a slightly more invasive surgery and recovery process (he is my favorite, very well mannered and brindle with shepherd ears).

I asked about Neutersol (http://www.caribbeananimalwelfare.org/images/Neutersol_FAQ_CAWC08.pdf, a newer method of sterilization that had a rocky start and has undergone much criticism that involves injection of a zinc compound directly into the testicles causing them to scar and sterilize the male dog). It wasn’t until I started to defend the idea of an alternative contraception that I realized he was probably the Guatemalan equivalent of a PETA person and may have had me lynched for suggesting that I was interested in this new technology that required some animal testing.

I was put at ease though when he said he didn’t have a problem with the testing of animals but, he said that the Neutersol company (Addison Labs and Pet Health, now taken over by Abbott) came to Guatemala last year to do some sterilization clinics. They were really still testing the product and conducting experiments on the stray dogs and dogs of low-income families. Sure, I think it would be a great idea to use these populations who would not otherwise be neutered anyway to test the product. However, their approach was terribly immoral. They paid off the government to give them permission to test the product without having to go through the steps of registering it and advertising it as research. Thus, they were able to tell community members that they had a full functioning product and people had their dogs sterilized with this technique thinking everything would go smoothly. Rather, many people noticed the secondary effects of the drug including a really bad odor. This is bad for two reasons: 1) the company lied to get people, who are already hesitant to neuter, to sterilize their dogs and 2) this made people think that sterilization was a bad thing because it would make their dogs have these side-effect…thus reversing the work of the other organizations that promote animal sterilization using education and the old-fashioned safe, surgical method of castration.

(More to come on the past two weeks in Samox later...it will take a while to write all that up.)

The story of an ex-guerrilla

As promised, here is a little bit about ‘Salou’, the ex-guerrilla who is leading the construction of the community radio training center. He is a charismatic middle-aged man who is passionate about community radio because he wants to educate and believes that women, youth, and the indigenous should have a voice and a power. Salou has a 17-year-old son in Mexico living with his mother (Salou’s ex-wife). He also currently lives with his ‘wife,’ Betty, though they are not technically married, and a 3-year-old daughter named Estefany. Betty is one of five and we got to meet her youngest sister, Marlou who is 14 (she’s 20 years younger), and her youngest brother, Walter (24, who was working with us on construction but wants to be a teacher). We also got to get to know Elvia who is the outgoing, loving neighbor who is also Estafany’s nanny while Betty and Salou are working. It was with this crew (with the exception of Walter since he was off doing a site practical for school), that we spent the day at Laguna Chicabal.

When Salou was 7 years old, he remembers that all of his uncles and older cousins were guerrillas camping out in the mountains near Chicabal. He loved to go hang out with them and hear their war stories. He was fascinated by their big weapons and dreamed of being just like them even though he didn’t actually understand what they were fighting for.

What were they fighting for? I’m not sure that I can do the complete history justice but here’s a pretty rough summary of the Civil War (with a little help from Wikipedia):

In the ‘40s and ‘50s the Guatemalan government took a swing to the left. They supported reforms that would benefit the working class and the rural poor including a land reform that would re-distribute land to the peasants so they could grow and trade bananas. The problem here is that the United Fruit Company had largely dominated the land in Guatemala and was not willing to give it up. The UFCO was a huge US company that relied on special treatment from Latin American governments to monopolize the foreign trade of fruit.

This attempt to reform the land rights sent a red flag to the US. At that point, the Cold War was just getting underway so the US was pretty antsy about communism. Not only did this redistribution of land seem like a communist move to the US, it was also threatening the power of the UFCO which was a huge US interest. At the same time, there was a host of relationships in the U.S. government at the time that made the disapproval of the Guatemalan liberal reforms even stronger. Basically, the current Secretary of State had a law firm that defended the UFCO. His brother was not only the head of the CIA, he was also a board member for the UFCO. The Assistant Secretary of State for International Affairs had been president of the UFCO. And…to top it all off…the main lobbyist for the UFCO was married to President Eisenhower’s personal assistant.

Anyway, all of these factors combined led the US and the CIA used the financial backing of the UFCO to overthrow the democratically elected (liberal) Guatemalan president in 1954. They supported a conservative president who quickly started to undo everything that the liberal leaders of the ‘40s had started including outlawing labor unions (a major threat to the UFCO).

This was followed by a power struggle with a series of overthrows that was largely characterized by the ‘fair’ elections where all of the candidates were military men. In 1960, a group of military-men tried to revolt but failed and set up a base in Cuba where they would help to organize guerrilla troops during the subsequent 36 years of fighting. In the ‘60s the fight was largely the anti-communist right wing/military trained by the US and CIA versus the urban workers and students who had no military experience. The fighting alone would have been enough to convince the poor that communism, which theoretically offered equal land rights and wealth, was better than what they were currently facing.

In the late ‘70s though, there was a transition. What followed was literally genocide. Those which were once typical battles where one side would provoke the other was turning into massacres on the indigenous populations. The war turned to the rural mountainsides where campesinos (rural poor) were beginning to take action. It was really mass chaos though. People within the same communities, even within the same families, would be banded against each other when some would join the guerrilla side and some would join the military. The side the campesinos would join was really a matter of chance. Military troops would come through and demand information about guerrilla armies. If there were suspected guerrilla troops in a village, they would ravage it, committing uncountable human rights offenses and killing innocent people. One way to survive these massacres was to join the military. At the same time, the campesinos knew they would either be forced to join the military and kill their own people or be killed in a massacre. At the same time, the guerrilla forces often threatened violence when demanding food, clothing, or weapons from rural communities. Many figured that, if they were going to be killed anyway, it would be best to join the guerrilla forces so they could at least fight for their rights and for peace.

While the war was mainly among Guatemalans, the US played a major role. Not only did they promote the initial coup d’etat, they provided $30million in aid during the initial years of the war. At the same time, the US sent their own troops in to fight and they were training Guatemalan soldiers at the School of the Americas. The SOA was based in Panama since 1946 until 1984 when it moved to US soil in Fort Benning in Columbus, GA. During the war, the SOA trained over 1500 Guatemalans. Many of the largest massacres and most heinous human rights abuses were performed under the command of SOA trained soldiers.

And so this continued until the Peace Accords were signed in 1996. In the end, 626 villages were massacred; an estimated 50,000 leftists were killed in the ‘70s; over 200,000 people were killed, mostly Mayan; countless innocent people were tortured and brutally murdered; 93% of the reported human rights offenses were pinned on the military while 3% belonged to guerrillas.

For more information:
• On the war in general:
o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemalan_Civil_War
o http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/guatemala.htm
o http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/305724in.html
o http://www.mit.edu/~thistle/v9/9.06/7genocide.html
• On CIA involvement
o http://www.ciponline.org/iob.htm#EXECUTIVE
o https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/docs/v44i5a03p.htm
• On the UFCO:
o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company#cite_note-9
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5FEXDPal_4
• On the SOA:
o http://www.soaw.org/sub.php?id=25
o http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escuela_de_las_Am%C3%A9ricas
o http://www.nisgua.org/themes_campaigns/impunity/The%20School%20of%20the%20Americas%20and%20Guatemala.pdf

So where does Salou fit into all of this? Well, at the end of our trip to Chicabal, we settled in on a hill overlooking the Laguna Seca and I translated his story to the rest of the group. He as a very enthusiastic and emotional story-teller and I remember the feelings of pain and surprise as we explained his history. Here is all that I can remember about his rocky past and empowering present and inspiring future...

Before the explanation of the civil war, I explained how Salou was 7 and spending much of his time in the mountains with his guerrilla uncles and cousins being fascinated by big guns and war stories. It was all a dream world for him; he wanted to be just like them when he grew up. It was all just aspirations until it became really real for him. When Salou was 12, his father was ‘disappeared’ and most likely tortured and killed by the military. This event gave him the courage and the hatred to insist upon joining his older friends in the mountains. He had the urge to hold a gun and kill the people who had taken his father. While his family told him he was still too young, he insisted that he was ready.

He remembers the war being a very sad and hard time but, also, some of his best memories were had during the war. He built lasting friendships with his partners in the mountains. His adolescence was spent in a guerrilla troop. Since the guerrilla troops were fighting for equality among all people, women were allowed to join as well. Salou recalled the competition among his friends at a time when there were 25 young women and 100 growing boys in this group. The training he received also served as his schooling; he was given assignments. While he didn’t entirely understand the reason for the war initially, Salou learned about international politics alongside his basic military training.

One of his early assignments was to go the Mexican-American border where an unnamed man would fill hidden compartments in their ‘latest model’ car with weapons. Other weapons were won or stolen from the military. The guerrillas would also get funding and support from what Salou called the ‘war tax.’ Unfortunately, the way that guerrillas obtained this aid was to go to the homes of the rich sugar cane plantation owners and demand food, clothing, weapons, or money. It was fairly easy to get what they needed. If the owners did not oblige, the guerrillas would threaten to burn down their farm.

It wasn’t all theft though. Salou explained how he got food in the more peaceful times when he was with his friends in the mountains. They would descend from the mountains into the surrounding communities in pairs very quickly. They would spend no more than 15 minutes loading their bags with rice, beans, pastas, and oatmeal. One man would go inside to buy the food and the other would stand out front keeping guard to 1) protect themselves and 2) protect the store owner who would be killed if the military found out he was supporting guerrillas. Then, just as quickly as they came, they would ascend back up into the mountains with 80-100 pounds of food on their backs. Not only did they carry large amounts of food, their backpacks were also stuffed with their plates and silverware as well as a spare set of clothes. Additionally, the clothes they wore weighed more than 25 pounds because they were always loaded down with guns and grenades. (And WE thought OUR hike was hard!)

Salou had a lot of military training in his younger years. He was also a fountain of knowledge, ambition, and motivation. For this, he quickly excelled to the status of ‘tenante’ and was put in charge of a group of 15 guerrillas (5 women and 10 men). He remembers the added difficulty of this new responsibility. Now, it was even harder because he had to worry about 15 others before worrying about himself. The war was already hard for him because, at this point, he new it was indigenous families fighting for the military against indigenous families fighting for the guerrillas. But, he knew that the war meant sacrificing himself to create opportunities for others.

In his first battle as the leader, his 15 member troop was up against a 100 member military brigade. He painfully retold the story of his partner being shot 6 times across his abdomen. His partner went down but was still alive. The battle was brutal, uneven, and would mean certain death for all of them so they retreated. They watched as the enemy forces picked up his living friend and carried him 1km away to their base camp. There, they had a gathering around their fire pit. The slit the throat of Salou’s partner and drained it into a bottle and proceeded to pass it around and drink it one-by-one. After he was dead, two men got a large stick and impaled the man from his groin to his throat. The roasted him on a spit over the fire like he was meat and ate him.

And so his guerrilla career continued for 14 years. During his time fighting, he never saw his family. In fact, he assumed that his mother and siblings had been killed by the military in the early years of fighting because he had received news that his hometown had been massacred.

After 14 years, he received a little note from a man who had traveled down from Mexico. His commander called him over and handed him the note that just said, ‘Salou, Tienes una sorpresa esperando en Mexico.’ (Salou, you have a surprise waiting in Mexico.) His friends were all so excited that he would be traveling to Mexico so they sent him with plenty of money for food, drinks, and movies. Salou wondered what the surprise could be and kept thinking that it might be a trip to Cuba or Nicaragua, places he’d always wanted to visit. When he got to Mexico, he was taken to a five-star hotel where he spent three months losing wondering what his surprise was. During this time he remembers ‘fattening up’ and slowly losing his muscular guerrilla figure. After three months, a man came in a fancy, latest model car to tell him that his grandparents were alive and well and they lived just six hours away. Salou made the six hour journey to visit what he thought was the only family he had left. When he arrived, his mother was outside washing clothes. She looked at him, picked up her clothes, and casually turned to walk inside not realizing who she had just seen. Salou had been a 12-year-old when he last saw his mom, now he was 26-year-old grown man. His family had not received news that he was alive and would be coming to visit. Then, his grandfather came out, saw him, and called for his mother to come out and greet her son.

Salou remembers this very emotional time fondly. He asked his family about his siblings. They were thought to all still be alive and had been fighting in the war for 12 years. All of his cousins and relatives had fought in the war. Even his mother fought for 9 years. In the end, one sibling died, 2 were captured and tortured as prisoners of war. One of the captured was Manuel, Salou’s brother but quite different in appearance. While Salou is rather short and clean cut, Manuel was tall, bearded, and in control making him look more powerful. Manuel was indeed very knowledgeable and very powerful on the guerrilla side; he was a captain and a strategist. So, when he was captured after nine years of fighting alongside the guerrillas he was subjected to the most horrific tortures because he was the beholder of some very valuable information. He was subject to electric shocks and lie detector tests. He had an ability to control his mind. He was impenetrable and he overcame the torture and the tests for four years. His resistance did not come without consequence. During his four years in prison camps, he saw countless guerrillas come in and out, being tortured, and giving up valuable information. With this, he felt defeated. He agreed to join the military, justifying his choice by saying that he would only serve as a law enforcer, that he would only punish criminals who stole from liquor stores or harmed people. The problem with this is that he was under total manipulation by the military because they could tell him anything about anyone and order him to kill that person. He fought for the military for four more years until the signing of the Peace Accords in 1996.

Everything was not cured for the ravaged indigenous populations and the fight for indigenous rights did not end when the war ended. Salou and many others traded their guns for a microphone which he states, ‘is more powerful because his words can reach hundreds or thousands of people including women, children, and indigenous populations.’

Salou explained his personal emotional battle after the war. One thing he has not been able to recover from is the insomnia. He still has nightmares about his partners who are living, dead, disappeared. He has nightmares that he is back in battle where he had to ‘kill or be killed.’ He finds talking to groups like ours about his life like a therapeutic session and thanked us for our support not only of his projects but of him as well.

At the same time, he has a few aspirations. He explained how EGL was helping him to attain one of these dreams by assisting in the construction of a training center where youth and women can have a chance to succeed and have their voices be heard. Another dream has been to write a book about the history of his family. Amanda, the CasaSito coordinator, is helping him do this by transcribing conversations with him and his family and editing it into the form of a book. When the book is complete, it will be promoted internationally and you will be able to get the more detailed, well-written story of Salou (and maybe even learn his real name)...

EGL helps Mujb'ab'l yol give a Voice to the underrepresented

Over the past week, I had the opportunity to travel to Quetzaltenango (Xela) with EGL (Engineering Global Leadership: http://www.eglsociety.engin.umich.edu/). EGL is an engineering honor society that combines allows students to obtain both a bachelors in engineering and a masters in business. In addition to finding internships, EGL organizes an annual volunteer abroad trip to learn about another culture, make an impact on a community, and get to know each other a little better. Last year they were in Costa Rica pulling all-nighters to rescue sea turtle eggs from poachers and the year before they were clearing out invasive species in the Galapagos Islands. This year, they chose to work with CasaSito here in Guatemala. After they spent a week exploring Guatemala at Rio Dulce, Livingston, and Tikal, we headed off to Xela to work on the construction of a training center for community radio leaders. It was an amazing experience and I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. So…from the beginning…

Lauren and I arrived before everyone else on Tuesday morning since we took our own shuttle. We had a little bit of time to explore and settle in before the EGL-ers came. After lunch we ran to the little used bookstore (see previous post) before heading off to the hot springs called Fuentes Georginas (http://www.lasfuentesgeorginas.com/). The water is heated by the hot sulfur from beneath the nearby volcano then the steaming water is pushed underground and way up into the mountain where it escapes into a pool. Tourists pay Q40 to take a shuttle up the mountain and lounge around in the hot mineral baths that are said to heal arthritis, acne, and fractures as well as maintaining a healthy digestive system if you drink the water straight from the fuente (probably wouldn’t be smart to drink out of the pool that everyone is swimming in…).

On the way back from the Fuentes, the driver explained to me rather animatedly the consequences of coasting in a manual ‘turbo’ vehicle after I explained how I drove during the HiA spring break trip and he said that it was better that I don’t drive anymore in Guatemala. But, he also pointed out a church that was built by the Spaniards in the 17^th century. The altar and crucifix are covered in silver and the church is still in use today. The first church built by the Spaniards in Guate was constructed in a nearby village in 1542. The Mayans were using the church for their sacrifices (rather than solely for Christian uses) so the Spaniards came back and put walls on the building.

On Wednesday, it was time to get to work. After an incredible, huge breakfast of French toast at the Black Cat hostel, we hopped in a minibus out to San Mateo to meet the project leader and learn about his project. Because he was part of a rather controversial history, I will call him 'Salou' here.

When we got there, Salou and Amanda showed us a video about the history of the community radio project and explained the current issues. A law was proposed on August 3^rd that would legalize community radio (http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/news/article/community-media-bill-introduced-guatemalan-congress).

During the 36-year (1960-1996) Guatemalan Civil War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala_Civil_War), radio was the only way for news, political information about the peace accords, and music to reach the rural indigenous populations since the newspapers could not be delivered and very few had access to the electricity needed for a television. This movement came to be known as 'Voz Popular'. When the war ended, the Peace Accords included an agreement that community radios would be granted a certain amount of bandwidth. While they COULD legally broadcast today, they would need to scrounge up $28,000 to compete with the international commercial stations in a public auction…an expense that isn’t even fathomable by the rural poor who make less than $80/month. (http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/a-question-frequency-community-radio-guatemala) Thus, the radio stations that were a source of information that helped to pull people through the end of the Civil War are still being broadcast today on illegal ‘pirate’ frequencies. Now they play mostly music which pauses only for PSA-style announcements about topics such as boiling water and women’s rights. A major goal of the stations is to empower women, youth, and the indigenous populations so oftentimes the announcements will be made by teenagers or children in Spanish and an indigenous dialect like Mam or Kiche. The stations are even used by police and local governments to relay health, education, and political information to the rural communities. Most stations are privately funded, where leaders of the cause giving up what little money they have to start their own station. Some stations charge a few Quetzales to make a private announcement or ask for support from their listeners which can hardly pay for operating expenses. A few of the fortunate groups are supported by international organizations. So that they can support each other, there are community radio organizations that work together to support local stations and lobby in the Capital for reform.

Mujb’ab’l yol (http://www.mujbablyol.com/) is one of these community radio associations that works with 26 radio stations in rural western Guatemala. Salou is the ex-guerrilla who heads the association and is a voice with the overarching Guatemalan Community Communications Council is lobbying for the legalization of the bill that would de-criminalize their community radios. A current goal of Mujb’ab’l yol is to build a training center for youth, women, and indigenous populations to learn how to use community radio. The center will be two-stories with a double conference room, a museum, a broadcasting room, a kitchen, and dining room on the first floor and bedrooms for overnight trainees on the second floor. (http://www.mujbablyol.com/files/Plano_de_la_construccion.pdf)

The building is in its earliest stages and work is very slow since it is all done manually (that’s right…no CATs, no table saws, no cement mixers). One group from Holland went previously to help with construction. Otherwise, two men, Walter (Salou’s brother-in-law) and Selvin, donate their time on the weekends with no pay to move forward with construction. They can only work when materials are available (they only have materials when they have funding). CasaSito helped Mujb’ab’l yol obtain the land for the building and ConstruCasa (http://www.construcasa.org/nuevo/index.php) has helped some with the funding for materials. EGL’s donation purchased a significant amount of materials so there was plenty of work to be done.

Our 12 person team (which dropped to 11 when Lauren left on Thursday L), was running all over the construction site and working hard for 4.5 days. We successfully tied a whole lot of lead coated wire for the Rebar, moved TONS of dirt, and mixed loads of cement to pour another layer on the walls. Throughout the week, we got to build bridges, tear ground with pick-axes, shovel barrow-fulls of rocks and sand and watch our own progress as land was flattened and rooms were filled with dirt floors. It makes you truly appreciate the resources that we, in the US, often take for granted when we spent 30 hours picking, shoveling, and transporting dirt that would take have taken 1-2 hours to move using a backhoe. We hope to continue to watch the process progress as walls go up, floors are poured, plumbing is added, and furnishings are put into their places.

At the training center, there is a ton of work left to do and no funding or manpower to do it. Mujb’ab’l yol is trying to partner with CasaSito to find student groups in the US who would be willing to make a trip to Xela and donate materials to continue construction. If you know of any groups who may be interested or would like more information on this opportunity, please email me at cricketd33@gmail.com.

Other highlights of the week:

· On Wednesday night we headed out for salsa lessons at a club. Mid-way through the night, the dancing was interrupted for a fire spinning performance. A troupe of foreigners took the stage (indoors) with kerosene dipped torches and ropes to put on quite a show. They were good but one member dropped his stick once and scorched the sleeve of an unlucky audience member and a second time he nearly caught his own pants on fire until an audience member ran out and stomped it out.

· On Thursday EGL-ers (and UofM) became internationally famous. They chanted the UM fight song live on Mujb’ab’l yol radio including a ¡Vamos Azul! at the end and everything. Typical of Guatemalan men, the deejay had to slip in a question to Brian about Chapinas (Guatemalan ladies). But Estafany (Salou’s 3-year-old daughter) is his only muchacha:

· After working long days, EGL-ers would come together to play some hard core games of rummy and Scopa, an Italian card game that they learned on last year’s volunteer abroad trip.

During our commutes between Xela and San Mateo, we also learned why we need to wash our food before we eat it...

· On Saturday we had the opportunity to meet with an assembly of leaders from the Mujb’ab’l yol community radio stations. They were having a meeting and we gave a short presentation then they each introduced themselves and the work that they do in their communities. They mostly thanked us for the work we do, blessed EGL’s journey home, and expressed that they really appreciate our willingness to lend a hand to the rural villages that need the most help rather than doing ‘office volunteering’ like the Guatemalan university students. During the meeting, we also got to explore the current 'training center' which is really just Salou's office with a small station for recording programs (but not broadcasting) and a pretty tight meeting room downstairs.

After the meeting, a representative from Cultural Survival came to speak with our group and drop off a donation for Mujb’ab’l yol. They are a US-based organization that aims to save indigenous languages that are quickly being lost. One of the organizations they support is Mujb’ab’l yol since these community radios broadcast in 23 different indigenous languages, thus providing a way for indigenous Mayan’s to hang on to their language and culture. They send monetary donations to Guatemala and the Guatemalan office purchases equipment for the stations.

We had our fair share of visitors on the construction site...and they weren't all just Mayan community radio leaders...

· Also on Saturday we went to see Malacates Trebol Shop (this is the same band I saw the first week I got here). This time the experience was much better. We all packed into a little club called La Sahara with hundreds of Guatemalans. We may very well have been the only Americans there. Since Malacates is one of the most famous Guatemalan bands…there was a lot of Guatemalan pride and we got a lot of stares. It didn’t help that all of the Guatemalans were dancing peacefully in pairs and we were dancing like idiots in a circle as if we were in a club back home. In all, the music was great and we got in and out safely. (Amanda warned us before we left that shoot-outs tend to happen at concerts making the experience that much more exciting.)

· Sunday was a side-trip of its own value. We woke up early to hop in a van, pick up Salou’s family, and head out to Laguna Chicabal. Chicabal is a sacred Mayan crater lake. Legend says there was a lake on the other side of the volcanic ridge but the Mayan powers got mad that there were so many tourists and Mayans washing clothes in the lake that they sucked up the lake and moved it inside the volcano. Still today, sacerdotes (Mayan priests) come in March and April to make sacrifices of food and animals at the altars where they ask for blessings from the nuhuales (the gods of elements of nature…there are 20…just like there are 20 days in the Mayan calendar). They burn the sacrifices so the smoke will rise to the gods. It is also prohibited to bathe or swim in the lake since it is considered sacred. They say there is a hole in the middle of Chicabal that goes to the center of the earth so it will suck you in if you get to close. It was a super difficult hour and a half hike up a hill, and down again into La Laguna Seca (where the lake used to be, they now have bungalows for overnight visitors), and up and over again to the lake. The lake is really beautiful with a forest of clouds coming in and covering the lake on and off throughout the day.

Once we arrived we built a fire using wood that is particularly flammable because of the chemical it contains; so you can burn it even when it’s wet.

Over the fire, we roasted marshmallows then heated tortillas to eat with our ‘guerrilla lunch’ of beans, eggs, and cheese. Salou was a guerrilla in the civil war for 14 years and lived in the mountains on Volcano Chicabal and the nearby Tajumulco.

After lunch we relaxed for a bit then took a hike around the lake to see the 23 altars, each of which is used for a different request from a different god. After we rounded the lake, we headed up a flight of 600 stairs to exit the crater and descended on the other side back to the Laguna Seca.

On the edge of the Laguna Seca we sat down for the most powerful of all story times. We heard Salou’s story. See the next post for my best recollection of the history. After hearing Salou’s story on Sunday, we were even more inspired and reenergized to work hard for our last few hours on Monday.

We parted ways with Salou and his family on Monday for the long bus ride back to Antigua. We got back just in time to run (literally) to the market to buy food for our Monday night event. After dinner one night in Xela, I asked for EGL to do a reflection of the week, set goals, and give suggestions. One of the comments that came up (whether it was serious or not), was to meet some of the kids that CasaSito supports.

So, for Monday night, we planned to join Cris and his group of students for dinner in Santiago Zamora. They meet every night from 7-8PM to learn art, music, and English and they have access to a library. This is the group of students that won the music festival. So we rushed to the Bodegona to pick up enough chips, beans, and salsa for up to 60 children then over to the market to load up on fruit to make a giant fruit salad. We were already late for our shuttle to SZ so we ran home as fast as possible to cut up the fruit, heat up the beans, and stick everything in giant bowls with serving utensils. We loaded into the car and I called Cris to let him know that we would be late. Well…little did I know we wouldn’t just be late…we actually wouldn’t be able to make it…We were almost to SZ when we saw mounds of dirt entirely blocking the road leaving no way to pass. There was an alternative road but only tuc tucs could cross because there was such a huge ditch that the van we were in would have bottomed out. I called Cris to find out if there were another way to go around and he said we would have to take a tuc tuc from San Antonio (the nearest town). I explained to him that I didn’t feel safe taking 11 Americans in tuc tucs when it was dark and that we simply were prohibited from doing so. We felt so bad that we had enough food for 60 children and they would not get to eat it. I was also really sad that EGL would not get to meet and talk with the children. Instead, we returned to CasaSito and ate 2/3 of the fruit and did some damage on the beans and chips while playing charades. The rest of the fruit was gone the next morning with EGL donated it to the children at the bottom of Pacaya but I am still eating beans for every meal.

Anyway, since EGL left I have been rather lonely and have completely immersed myself in computer work for two days. I made a Facebook group for Mujb’ab’l yol (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=147683549594&ref=ts) so student groups and interested parties can follow the progress at the training center and stay up to date on news about the proposed law to de-criminalize community radio. Over the past week, I think I have learned and retained more information about history and politics than in all of my K-12 education and am actually interested and eager to learn more. Talk to me about it sometime…