Back from the Mountains

amidst the self-centered melodrama i have been mostly littering here, some lovely times with the people and natural beauty of guatemala have attempted to re-ground me.

here are some pics from a mini-stint to the mountainous department of San Marcos serving as a helper for the logistics of the CASAS group that headed out there with our "green" prof to hear from communities about their experiences with mining companies, family migration to mexico and the u.s., their experience of hurrican stan in 2005, and the rebuilding efforts since then to preserve and protect the beauty that is both the nature and the social and cultural richness of their communities.

our first stop was the community of comitancillo, where prof adrienne and her family lived working with a community development agency there for five years inthe 90s. the org and community are thriving, working in new organic agricultural techniques, creative cooking-nutrition classes, and organizing against the goldcorp mining company that wreaks havoc on their and neighboring communities - with diseases from mining contamination in the rivers and soil, cracked home walls from the explosions and huge dump trucks carrying rock and debris, loss of water sources and biodiversity, displacement of their homes, ancestrial burial grounds, and lives to other locations for the mine´s expansion, not to mention the depressing eyesore an enormous open-pit mine leaves behind.

we then traveled on to La Vega del Volcan. fellow mcc-er Nate has his placement working there and other tiny communities in the tucked-away mountain slopes of San Marcos, working with Caritas, a Catholic relief and development agency.

in La Vega and other communities in San Marcos, they are primarily working in food security and economic development, or in lay terms, in methods to increase nutrient-rich food production (in this case trout and mushrooms) and cultivating income-generating, environmentally-friendly projects in a community cooperative - where the community comes together to bring their products to market, and shares part of the economic benefit for community goals/projects and eventually to start a little cooperative store. (The extra trout and mushrooms, as well as roses).

the communities of San Marcos make it hard not to idealize rural communities and rural life in Guatemala. we stayed in La Vega, a community only accessible by 4x4 pickup, horse or foot, high up in the western highland mountains.

GREEN. is the first of two initial impressions. everything is so green. and there was water everywhere - little streams and rivers, clean, cold.

LOVE. is the second. people so warm, humble and hospitable. full of energy and hope to make their community the best it can be. filled with a faith that is pure. the bible passages of valleys and mountains, and god´s daily provision, his love and concern for the poor, all come alive in a place and people who´s lives and stories mirror exactly this.

and so we listened. to a first community story via a tour over boulders and nature-rerouted rivers. 2005. hurricane stan. the hurricane sent constant heavy rain for days. the mountaintops gave way, and avalanches of huge boulders, entire trees, mud and water rushed down, killing some, sending the rest to seek safety, and later to assess the damage that once was their community.

in a community already isolated by nature´s terrain, in "normal" times malnutrition and scare resources are a reality that come from being hours by foot from the nearest main road, reliant on what the mountainous slopes can provide in harvest time. hurricanes, heavy rains, drought - a year´s food supply is washed away in minutes, along with homes, farming tools, animals, and in some cases loved ones.

we stayed with families in this green paradise. trying to imagine what it must have been like to see the mountain slopes give way. where would you go? the community is in a basin - about a hundred simple brick, wood or tin homes with mud floors, completely surrounded by mountains. if one slope gave way, you would have to rush to the other, and hope it that it didn´t.

the community spoke of thier hope - of their reforestation projects and environmental preservation efforts - planting small trees on the slopes the most vulnerable to future mudslides. they recognized that their home was set in a natural paradise, one of the few that are rapidly disappearing from their country and the planet. a huge verdant lung that they desire to care for, so it can continue providing oxygen for life, and tranquility for the soul - not just for their community and animals, but the city dwellers and visitors normally residing in their concrete jungles.

they proudly showed us their fish tanks where they were raising trout that would provide their families much-needed protein and also a source of incomes, sold down the next mountain ridge in restaurants in mexico.

they talked about what it takes to make ends meet - about generations of seasonal migration to mexico as whole families during coffee season to earn enough cash to make it until their own little harvest of corn and beans.

and how when that was no longer enough, told of the sons, mothers, daughters, fathers, who carried the hope of their entire families -- a family-appointed pilgrim, risking pooled savings and the boarder-crossing perils of muggings, rapes, raging rivers, dry expanses of desert, carrying hope of finding a job as a dishwasher, a day laborer, a custodian-- so that they could send money back that could buy food staples, pay for a sister´s elementary education, rebuild a lost home.

and they showed us proudly to their community school, where they collectively pay a handful of teachers to make the trek in each week to teach elementary through middle school classes.

we feasted on fresh trout in the afternoon, and in the evening, the community arranged a party and bonfire for us - each one presenting him or herself, welcoming us, blessing us, a community band came and played their guitars and trumpets for us, we ate steamed "elote" (fresh corn on the cob) and hotdogs and "smores" fixings we had brought in our packs.

in the morning , we set out early. our contracted pickup didn´t come - the one that was supposed to take us to the top of the mountain ridge, where we would then hike the 2-3 hours out towards the main road. so we added another couple hours in the ascent.

(still climbing up. - note starting place, the community below...) but as tiring as the 5 hour-ish hike was, it was breathtaking.

i couldn´t how many climates we passed through - starting at 4000+ meters of cold damp air, and and then steadily warming as we descended on the windy mountain ridge paths and through the shades of green - first were the pines, potato farms and sheep at the highest altitude, giving way to cloud forests and mountain flowers as we descended a bit, which opened into some surprising tall grasses and small corn plots, which later opened to air like a warm, wet blanket and tropical flowers and foliage.

(we found some rain, and then some temp shelter. )

it was a good douse of beauty for my tired soul. the love, hope and well-determined and holistic priorities of a humble people with healthy relationships to god. family. a united community. their green garden plots. the mountains. streams. animals.

what could i say, but thank you.