Senor Pablo outside his home in San Pablo

Last week while I was in San Pedro, an older man approached me and started chatting with me. Once you´ve had this happen a couple of times, you figure out pretty quickly that they always want something from you. Sure enough, he got straight to the point in a very convincing manner. Senor Pablo from the small village of San Pablo was soliciting funds for pencils for the school in his town.

San Pablo was hard hit by Hurricane Stan in 2005 and is one of the few major villages on Lake Atitlan that has no tourism revenue. We talked for about 30 minutes while he showed me his credentials – a letter signed by the mayor of the village attesting to his honesty and credibility.

We finally agreed that I would give him the equivalent of $25 and he would buy pencils for 100 students and however many notebooks he could with the money left over. We also agreed that I would come to his house to see what he bought with my money.

I took his telephone number and on Sunday morning I phoned Senor Pablo and made arrangements to be in his village at 1:30 in the afternoon. I arrived in town by tuktuk during their massive annual festival but Senor Pablo was waiting for my phone call. He met me in front of the church and took me back to his very humble abode.

In a room that was dark, smoky from using firewood inside to cook over with no proper ventilation, a rooster tied up and crowing away and a makeshift shower where a man (in his underwear) was busy washing himself, with children and grandchildren coming and going, he pulled up a chair for me and proudly showed me the 100 pencils and 38 notebooks.

We talked for about half an hour about what else the children needed as he is looking after the poorest 100 children in the school, orphans or children without fathers or destitute families that cannot afford the school supplies. The school has about 1200 students in the morning and 1200 students in the afternoon but his concern is for the poorest.

Considering this is a man 58 years old who works in the fields 6 days a week for $2.40 a day, his compassion and passion for raising the village out of poverty through educating the young was impressive. I left him money for medicine for his sick wife and said I would get back to him about the rest of the supplies which was now a $200 bill.

I emailed my dear friend Brenda who is arriving here on Monday and asked her if she wanted to contribute to the project. “Absolutely!” she said. Not only is she helping out financially but she also has her suitcase filled with more goodies for the children. I talked to Greg and he offered cash and algae, his special healing product, for the wife. I was near tears I was so thrilled that two of the most special people in my life would be contributing to making a difference in this little village.

Yesterday I went to San Pedro to get the $200 out of the bank but alas, both bank machines in San Pedro were out of cash and there are no ATM machines in San Marcos or San Pablo. However, I phoned Senor Pablo and let him know that we would be providing the money for the rest of the notebooks the 100 students require for the next several months.

I will return to San Pedro this morning to hopefully get the money or I will have to travel to Panajachel. We are going to meet on Friday and do the shopping together and then Brenda and I will meet up with him and the students next week to dispense the school supplies. I am sure it will be quite the experience.

To watch his face and to feel his sincerity and conviction to move his people out of their poverty has been an empowering experience for me. To be so diligent with so little materially but to have a hope and purpose has been an inspiration. It also reinforces my goal to create massive income to be able to do massive work. This is a small drop in the bucket of what needs to be done in this one little area.

However, it has been a joy to get to know this delightful little man and to be part of raising a whole new generation that will hopefully be able to move out of this cycle of poverty. Makes me even more grateful that I have the education and opportunities I have and more committed than ever to use those to help others.

I am working on a win-win-win for everybody where you will have an opportunity to help out here at the lake. It won´t be ready for a few weeks yet but I know that many of you will want to share in helping out with some of these most amazing projects.

Have a fabulous day and feel lots of gratitude for all of the advantages you have wherever you live. Please also send a thought or two to the majority who are so much less fortunate.

The lake is used as a laundry mat and bathtub

Called “the closest thing to Eden on Earth”, by The Lonely Planet Guide, Lake Atitlan is now being threatened. Since Hurricane Stan ravaged the area is 2005, Lake Atitlan has never been the same. During the hurricane, an entire village was destroyed killing 1,400 people and leaving 5,000 homeless but also the sewage treatment plant in Panajachel, one of the largest towns on the lake, was severely damaged and has never been repaired.

It´s been interesting putting the pieces together as I have spoken to locals, foreigners and done lots of research on the internet. I feel like I have just scratched the surface but I certainly know more than I did a month ago.

Just before I arrived, I was completely unaware that the lake has suffered a terrible algae bloom. You can see pictures and learn more at www.lakeatitlanhealth.com Apparently this beautiful lake I look at every day with awe and wonderment was more like pea soup. The photos are pretty alarming! It scared some people for awhile and some action was taken but once it cleared, life has unfortunately for the most part returned to normal.

It´s a long story of what has happened since the hurricane and I don´t have all the pieces…yet. There is lots that still remains to be learned about this toxic form of algae but Lake Atitlan is by no means out of the woods. I have learned that there are currently six villages that have raw sewage coming directly into the lake. This is just one of the more serious problems on top of the pesticides from the coffee production and farming that flow into the lake.

Lake Atitlan is unusual because it was formed by a collapsed volcano cone thousands of years ago. Consequently, there is no fresh water source. It is so beautiful because it is surrounded by 3 traditional cone shaped volcanoes. It is also considered the deepest lake in Central America (320 metres – 1050 feet approximately) but that has given people a false sense of security. They honestly believe that because of the depth, Lake Atitlan can handle whatever they give it. Unfortunately, that is not true as is obvious by the toxic algae bloom this past fall.

There are several contributing factors to the growing problem in the lake. One is the picture above. The lake is used as a laundrymat by many of the indigenous people and unfortunately, the soap they are using is full of phosphates. Now I will be the first to tell you, I know very little about phosphates but I do know that the typical laundry soap most people buy is bad for us and the environment. And now that the lake is sick, it´s like a person who has had a serious ailment. It can´t handle the extra stress and pressure of all the toxins from laundry soap, pesticides and other sources of contamination.

In the past the Mayan women made their own homemade soap; now they buy the packaged soap instead. And honestly, with the heavy loads these women already carry, babies on their backs, huge loads of produce and firewood literally on their heads, combined with extreme poverty, little medical care and primitive living conditions, it´s hard to begrudge them the luxury of buying a package of soap like I do to wash the clothes. However, this change in custom is just one more deadly change in habit that is threatening the lake.

Aldous Huxley apparently described the lake as “the most beautiful lake in the world and really too much of a good thing”. And seriously, there hasn´t been a morning that I have awoken here that hasn´t taken my breath away and made me smile.

I will continue to share what I am learning and also some ways that changes are being made. I know there are alot of foreigners in the area that are deeply concerned and are doing some great things. I´ll look forward to sharing those with you too!