A Blogger's Recap

Greetings to all!

Welcome to Waxiru - Loco - Crazy (WLC). For those of you who haven't dusted off your Q'eqchi in a while, or Spanish for that matter, "Waxiru" ((Q'eqchi), one of the Maya dialects that is spoken in Guatemala) and "Loco" (Spanish) both mean, "Crazy," or one of the many words I could have chosen to describe my experience thus far in Central America.

This is my first ever blog entry and had I been writing seven months or so ago, the introduction would be a bit more fluid and this would have read more as a pre-departure for my trip to Guatemala. If you check your calendar today, it is not seven months ago. In fact, it is today, the 9th of April, the birthday of the wonderful Sarah Schauben-Fuerst (brownie points) and the beautiful Joseph Thomas, and therefore it is my duty to backtrack just a bit. I will refrain from a detailed outline of the past half year I have spent down here, but provide a recap of several highlights.

1. Decided to move down to Central America for some time to do some volunteer work, help find my passion and some direction in life all while trying to make the world a bit better a place topped off by trading in a New England winter for a Central American one.

2. Helped re-organize the Kamalbe Spanish language school (kamalbeschool.org) in Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala. Spent about five weeks with three determined guys who started this school with the intention of offering Spanish courses to foreigners while providing volunteer opportunities in the rural outskirts of the second biggest city in Guatemala. Things started out well but I decided that this work was not fulfilling nor sustainable and it was time to move on.

3. Before moving on was possible, twenty-five local police officers thought it would be nice to thow me a "going-away" party at 5:45 am on the my intended day of departure. They brought party favors including big guns, a broken front door, a full search for fire arms, drugs, rabid animals, etc., the arrest of my housemate for a few crumbs of marijuana, and his charging of storage and distribution of illegal drugs. What party favors they forgot: cake, presents, the little cone-shaped party hats. Needless to say it was not the best party I'd ever been to, but boy did they think it was fun to come wish me off! My friend spent six days in jail before the ludicrous charges were dropped.

4. I arrive back in Livingston, Guatemala in route to Ak'Tenamit (my current place of volunteer employment) after first visiting the Caribbean coastal town two years earlier with a group from the University of Vermont. A small, laid back beach town, Livingston is made up of three primary ethnic groups. The q'eqechi indigenous population, the latinos, and the garifuna (a black population made up of the mixing of Caribbean, African and Arawak people.) Livingston continues to be the main weekend destination of Ak'Tenamit volunteers for an escape from some of our (not so) pleasant realities (keep reading further...)

5. Ak'Tenamit (aktenamit.org) is a multi-faceted social development project, owned and operated by the local and indigenous people focused on improving the lives of the native population which was targeted during the 36 year civil war in Guatemala that left 200,000 dead and another 50,000 whose whereabouts are still unknown.

The organization works in areas of health care, education, community and gender development, HIV/AIDS prevention, and alternative income generation. Tucked away on the Rio Dulce between the towns of Livingston and Rio Dulce, Ak'Tenamit is as serene a setting that one can find in Guatemala. With breath-taking sunrises over the river, animals singing their songs in the jungle, people trying to improve their own lives and those of others, my six months here have been one of the greatest and most beneficial experiences of my life.

Highlights here include eating beans and tortillas for almost every meal for six months; using a hole in the ground for a bathroom; having a tree-trunk bridge (intending to support both me and a co-worker) snap below my feet while we hiked into the communities to conduct research on contaminated water sources, leaving him to jump back to the mainland and me plumeting down about 13 feet into a water source below, and my first of too many cellphones breaking in the process... the camera fortuantely survived; having another cell phone see its life end in the river and an iPod to boot. Since then I have divorced almost all electronic devices from my life. Had I only learned before the iPod.

I currently teach English and a class on American-Guatemalan relations at our boarding school to about 2/5 of the 550 indigenous students (aging from about 12-23) from aldeas (villages) spanning from one coast of Guatemala to the other. My life consists of waking up in my little, electricty-free house to the shouts of the students bathing and washing their clothes at about 5 am. That usually means that it's time for my morning bath/swim in the river as we don't exactly have a running water supply. Breakfast comes and goes and then it's off to class. After about a 30 minute ride down river in my hollowed-out tree (or a canoe if you will) I teach for the day. We subsidize our food - beans and tortillas for the most part - with fruits and vegetables from down river.

Life is simple, but romantic. Other volunteers come from Argentina (1) Austria (2) Belgium (2) Germany (1) Spain (4) and two others from the US.

So there is a not-so-brief recap of the past six months. I just got back from a three-week trip back home. So for those of you whom I saw, it was great to see you. For those of you whom I missed, until the next time. Easter, or Semana Santa has arrived and is one of Guatemala's biggest holidays. Therefore, in order to escape a bit, on Saturday I leave for Nicaragua for about 10 days before the next trimester starts.

Stay tuned for updates. As I am a new blogger, it is still undetermined how attentive I will be. Some overdue it and end up concentrating more on writing than actually experiencing, others never post again after the introduction forgetting to keep their readers in the loop. Here at Waxiru - Loco - Crazy we will be looking for that perfect balance. Thanks for reading.

To a better world,

Jesse