Chichicastenango: Market Day

The third day of the trip was definitely one of my favorite because we got to go shopping! Chichicastenango is famous for its marketplace on Sundays and Thursdays. We arrived on Wednesday evening and had no idea what we were in for. We had a couple hours of free time that night to check out the town and as we walked around we saw people setting stuff up. I thought I had a basic understanding of what the place would look like the following day but I was very wrong.

When we woke up the next morning the town was completely transformed. We walked out of our hotel and every inch of the street was filled. People were selling anything you could imagine. From purses and headbands to flip flops and alarm clocks.
After breakfast Corey and I decided to check out the church. The steps were lined with people selling flowers. As we walked into the church there was an overwhelming aroma from the incense. Unfortunately I couldn't handle it for too long and soon left to wait outside. Once Corey was finished we met up with Julie and hit the marketplace ready to explore.

I was hesitant about haggling at first but once something caught my eye I began to make offers. Trying to negotiate a price with someone that speaks an entirely different language can be very challenging. It was fun seeing how low they would go. They'd insist you drove them down to their lowest price but as soon as you walked away from the deal they would say "Okay, okay, okay" and lower the price a little more. Everything was so unbelievable cheap because our dollar is worth so much more.

The marketplace is set up with material goods on the outside and food on the inside. We went to see what grocery shopping was really like in Guatemala and at first it didn't seem so bad. There were fruit stands, people making tortillas and a few deep fryers.
But as we made it closer to the heart of the market we started to see some pretty gross things. Once I saw this bucket of fish I decided to turn around. (Dead fish terrify me.) Apparently it was a good decision because when we met up for lunch people in the group were sharing stories of seeing piles of chicken heads. (Ewe!)



At one point a woman stopped Julie and convinced her to let her do her hair. Here's the video.

Overall it was a great experience. I got plenty of gifts and souvenirs and had a great time in the process!

2012: Myth or Reality?

I have to admit when I first realized we were meeting up with Mayan descendants I was excited. I mean with all this hype about 2012 who wouldn't want the opportunity to ask the descendants themselves about the fate of our civilization?


As luck would have it many of the people we met with spoke about the Mayan calendar because it's such a major part of their lives. A couple even brought up the possibility of our world as we know it coming to an end.

For starters it's important to understand that the calendar is very intricate. Based solely on astronomy it seems amazing that people without our technology could create such an accurate calendar. For anyone who is not familiar with how the system works I found this short video to help explain. It is believed that 2012 is the end of a 394 year period called B'ak'tun. Traditionally the Mayans believed this time represented great change, but nobody ever stated what would happened when the calendar ran out.




Two of the men we met with were quite convinced that drastic change will occur. They both had similar things to say about how destructive humans are. They talked about how we waste resources and keep taking from mother nature like we are entitled to everything.

The first man said he didn't think the world would come to an end, but he believed there would be a lot of suffering and change. He believed the people that would be most affected would be those at the bottom. For example the rivers may run dry and the have-nots would be without water becuase people with all the money and power would take it from them. According to him this is already happening but 2012 will be the breaking point where the most people will suffer.

The second man who discussed the issue was our tour guide in Tikal. Time after time again he would talk about how powerful mother nature is and how she always takes back what is hers. He mentioned the movie Hollywood produced and insisted it wasn't that far off. Having never seen 2012 I asked him to elaborate. He said that the world as we know it will cease to exist. mother nature will take back what is hers and our civilization will fall, leaving room for a new civilization to rise.

I don't know if I believe in 2012 or not but it was definitely cool hearing Mayans talk about it.

The Strongest Women I've Ever Met

After learning about the woman's co-op we were able to ask questions. When I asked the current leader of the project, Maria to tell us about her life I got more than I expected. Something must have gotten lost in translation because as she began to tell her story she was looking at me directly, smiling. It was one of those genuine smiles that you can't fake. As her story was translated from Q'eqchi' to Spanish and then Spanish to English I returned her smile, unaware of what I was about to hear. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

She started out with her childhood. Her mother passed away when she was only 7 years old and she lived with her father, two brothers and sister. At that time she didn't know any trades but her sister soon taugh her to weave. As they got older her bother and sister both married and left the house. She lived with just her younger brother until she married at 17.

Maria only spent 8 years with her husband before he was murdered during the war. When he was killed she fled to Guatemala City with her two children and a baby in her womb. When the baby was born it only lived to be a year and a half before it died. This was all said so nonchalantly I couldn't really process it at first. How could a woman sit there and tell us of this tragic life with a smile on her face? If those same things happened here in the US the woman would never really be expected to move on from what happened. Loosing a husband to violence and then a young child soon-after is seemingly one of the most terrifying things that could happen. Yet she seemed to be okay.

Later, we learned that this has much to do with the Mayan lifestyle and their traditional beliefs which I will be sharing with you. We came to realize that these people don't move on because they want to but because they have to. It's a part of who they are. Not to mention they can't spend all of their time dwelling on the terrible things that have happened to them because there are too many horrifying stories in this country to count.

My only hope is that if events that tragic ever strike my life I can find half the courage and half the strength that these amazing women have found.

100 Pounds of Thread

Please bear with me as I try to convey our experiences down in Guatemala. Meeting with people who have been subject to the most horrible atrocities this world has ever seen is not an easy experience to describe. However they were moving and I will do my best to shine some light on what we went through.

Our first day of the trip consisted of travel and a brief orientation to Guatemala. We spent the first night locked inside our hotel in Guatemala City. We later learned why were asked to stay inside... it's not the safest city in the world.

The next morning started out early as we hit the roads for Chichicastenango. After dropping our luggage off at our hotel we took a van ride to the town of Chontola and met up with a minister from a local sector of the Methodist church.

Ho took us to a woman's cooperative that started during the 1980s. During this time there was a lot of violence in the area and many women lost their husbands. Children became orphaned and had no place to go. The women tried to take children in but soon realized they didn't have the money or resources to provide the most basic of necessities including food. They went the the church and begged for food but the minister was not allowed to give it out. Giving the women food for today was not solving the problems of tomorrow so he asked them if they would be willing to work. They responded by saying yes and he was able to get them 100lbs of thread. Their plan was the weave it into material, then create finished projects and sell them. From there they could buy more and live off of the small earnings they made.


The project which is now known as Ruth and Naomi has helped find homes for children, build several clinics and schools and created programs to work with women.

Unfortunately this community continues to struggle as they try to solve problems. It seems like each time they solve a problem another one is created. For example they were finally able to provide food to the children and as the children grew up they began to work and support the community. However the adults realized these children were very good at their trade but couldn't read or write. They didn't want to go to school because it was time spent away from working and they wouldn't make as much money. To solve this the group said the children could work during the day but they had to attend classes at night.

From there they ran into problems with gangs. Young men would go to Guatemala City in hopes of finding a good paying job, but when they arrived they realized a different reality. There were no jobs for them and they wound up getting into drugs and drinking. Soon the young men who grew up without fathers became members of gangs and made money through drug trafficking. The women didn't know what to do.

With the aid of a woman from California, the co-op sold enough product to buy land in Chichicastenago. They built a small home for the men to stay in and were able to obtain four used sewing machines for the men to become tailors. Here is a brief clip of them doing embroidery by machine.

Visiting this group was an eye opening experience. It's very inspiring to see how much change can be made with a little help from strangers if the community is willing to stand together and make an effort.

Intro to Guatemala: Banana Republic

In order to understand exactly what we were studying it Guatemala it's important to understand a little bit about the country's history.

Originally Guatemala was ruled by the indigenous Mayans. Around 1523 the Spanish took over and ruled for almost 300 years. During that time they took the land from the natives and divided it into large plantations. Natives had no where else to go and were forced to work as slaves or for very little pay.

The country finally gained full independence in 1839, and from there it was controlled by warlords and large land owners. During this time foreign companies (mainly from the US) saw opportunity. They wanted large quantities of land to set up banana plantations. Bananas are a very vulnerable crop because every single banana we eat has the same DNA. This means if a disease manages to kill one banana tree it can wipe out an entire plantation. Out of fear, major fruit companies obtained copious amounts of land and used only a portion of it. That way if disease or natural disaster destroyed their crops they could easily replant. At one point the United Fruit Company (now known as Chiquita) owned almost 25% of the land in Guatemala.

At this point there were still natives with no place to live so they were once again forced to work for almost no pay. Everything seemed hopeful when Juan Jose Arevalo became president in 1944. The country was finally beginning to democratize and he wanted to redistribute the land to the poor. The United Fruit Company didn't want to loose their land when the Guatemalan government demanded it back so they decided to use the Cold War to their advantage. They convinced the United States Government that Guatemala was a Communist country because of their attempts to aid the poor and redistribute land. The US planned a military coup and overthrew the government that was in place. This led to civil war for over 40 years. During this time hundreds of thousands of people died because of death squads organized by the government. Over 40,000 people went missing and thousands took refuge in Mexico and the US.

It's important to remember that all of this happened because a few greedy men wanted to keep land that they weren't even using, land that was never really theirs to begin with. This is where the term "Banana Republic" comes in. It has an actual meaning beyond that of the clothing line. El Salvador, Hondourous and other surrounding countries also earned this name when civil war was brought on for the same reasons.

In 1996 the Peace Accords were signed and the fighting stopped. Since then Guatemala has struggled to Democratize.

It is here that our journey began. With a brief understanding of their background we began to explore this poverty stricken land. We talked to people who lost family members in the genocide as well as people who had no idea that war a even happened in their country. We talked to politicians from both the left and right winged parties as well as social workers who have no political affiliation. Through this journey we began to understand the exactly what happened down there and hopefully through these next few posts you will gain a better understanding as well.

Hola from Guatemala!

Just wanted to give a quick update to let everyone know that myself and 10 other CMCers are here and safe in Guatemala! We are a little over half way through our journey and have learned more than we would have ever imagined. It's been a wonderful experience so far and I'll be updating frequently with pictures and stories once I'm back in the states next week!

Hello World!

I realize my last couple of posts have been a little less than optimistic, but this one will be a change of pace... promise.

First, I am sad to announce that Jake beat me in "The Coat Vote". It was really close though! And we received more votes than anticipated so thank you to everyone who took part. If you have any suggestions for recipes I am open to making something new and delicious for dinner.

Second, Spring Break is just days away here at the Alpine Campus and I couldn't be more thrilled. In less than four days I will be joining some of my fellow students and professors on a trip to Guatemala! I've traveled all over the United States but this will be my first time visiting another country (other than Canada). Hopefully my friend will let me borrow his mini lap top and I'll be able to keep you all updated throughout the trip.

And finally I am proud to announce the arrival of the site thecoloradounderground.com . While at Dew Tour I started talking to another member of the media. It turned out his name was Andrew and he was working on a project called The Colorado Underground. It's an online magazine based out of Denver and they have invited me to write articles about Steamboat. Here's my first one about local skier Kerry Lofy ... check it out! http://www.thecoloradounderground.com/articles/you_cant_get_hurt_in_the_air