The most beautiful church in Antigua

Saturday, Brenda, Adrian and I went ziplining just outside of Panajachel. They had never been before and it was a great time. The weather was perfect and we did 8 fabulous ziplines across the jungle. We fed bananas to the monkeys and a small racoon-looking creature that is apparently endangered in Central America. It was an amazing day!

Sunday, I spent much of the afternoon with Senor Pablo and his family in San Pablo. I took along a French-Canadian couple who wanted to help out the family and community but wanted to meet them first. It was an “eye-opening” experience to see the reality of life on the lake for the Mayan people.

That afternoon we learned that the next morning at 6:00 the teachers were protesting low wages and insufficient educational materials for the students. Therefore, it was decided that we would leave at 4:00 a.m. to avoid any blockages on the Pan American highway. Although it was not fun getting up at 3:30 in the morning, we decided that it was worth the trouble because getting stuck on the highway for hours or even days was worse.

Consequently, we arrived in Antigua at 6:30 in the morning and thankfully the beautiful bed and breakfast we had rented was gracious enough to feed us an unexpected breakfast and take care of us. We spent the day yesterday touring on foot Antigua. All of us have fallen in love with this amazing city. Now deemed an UNESCO heritage city because of the incredible monuments from the 15th and 16th century, Antigua is being restored.

We had wonderful food, pecan pie for $1.00, cappucino coffees for $1.00 and lunch at the most exquisite hotel set in an old convent. The bed and breakfast we are at was an old convent from the 16th century and is absolutely exquisite. It has been the most fabulous 24 hours already here and we are looking forward to another wonderful day and a half before we fly to Tikal to see the ruins.

Each of us had privately been wondering if the people in the “big city” would be as gracious and lovely as we had experienced at the lake. We had nothing to worry about as they have been just as beautiful to deal with. We´ll see how it is as we head to the hot climate on the coast and experience a whole new perspective of Guatemala.

A very crowded classroom in San Pablo

It turned out to be quite a different weekend than we had planned. Brenda and I both came down with a cold, probably courtesy of our time at Senor Pablo´s house last week. So it was a very restful weekend with homemade soup, teas and vitamins. Thankfully, Brenda being a nutritionist, came armed with lots to fix us up and I had a good supply also so between the two of us, we are on the mend.

It meant that this morning I headed to San Pablo on my own as Brenda was recovering and finishing up work that didn´t get done on the weekend as her husband comes in tomorrow.

Senor Pablo and I headed up to the school and left the remainder of the school supplies with the director to hand out to children in need. As the school has an attendance of about 1,500 students, there is plenty of need.

We headed back to his house and today the temporary school right behind his house was open. This picture is half of a very crowded classroom in a school that has several rooms. It´s actually a large house that is for sale and Senor Pablo´s dream is to have it function as a school permanently. Anyone want to buy a school in Guatemala?

I have learned a few things about Senor Pablo. He´s smart, he´s determined and he thinks big. He may live in absolute poverty but there is nothing poor about the way he presents himself. I am constantly in awe at what he brings to the table and the vision he has for his village. He´s definitely pushing me to think bigger about how I can do more. Brenda paid for four of his children to complete their basic education so that was another project completed and one of her employee´s sons donated $25 which went to extra food for Senor Pablo´s family.

Our next project is how we can help Juan, Senor Pablo´s oldest son, complete his University education so he can become the school teacher he dreams to be. He works Monday through Friday to support his wife and 3 children and goes to University on Saturday. I gave him the tuition for this month´s fees today and Brenda and I will see that he gets to complete his education. It´s just far too important to let his dream go by the wayside and knowing how passionate Senor Pablo is about changing the future for his grandchildren, I have every confidence it is money well spent. Juan seems to have inherited his father´s good sense about things.

Today we talked about Coca-Cola and the detrimental effect the soda pop has on the children´s health here. Unfortunately, the local people see anything that comes from North America as good. There is this notion, albeit untrue, that if North Americans eat it, drink it, smoke it or have it, then it is a desirable commodity.

Of course, it is an absolute illusion that the North American diet is superior, but try to explain that to a group of people who see you as rich, successful and healthy. I have been up to my eyeballs in research for my next book on breast health so I explained to them today that 1 in 2 men in North America will get cancer and 1 in 3 women so we´re not as healthy as we think we are. I personally blame much of that on the North American diet, which includes a diet that is heavy in sugar including soda pop.

So Senor Pablo and Juan sat with me and discussed acidity and alkalinity and I told them that cancer thrives in an acid environment which is exactly what drinking soda pop produces. My Spanish was definitely stretched to the max with that new vocabulary and we all got a good laugh when I mixed up the word for body cells and the word for a cell phone! But in the end, they both understood how much damage they were doing to the children by allowing them to drink Coca-Cola. They simply had no idea and they acknowledged their ignorance with such humility, it was truly remarkable.

The North American influence isn´t always good and this is one example. It breaks my heart to see them spend their precious little money on snack food imported from developed countries and see their far superior diet go by the wayside. The pervasiveness of the American diet into other cultures is definitely not something I encourage nor am I pleased to see it. It has created massive problems with garbage, plastic and health issues that could so easily be avoided. I just love seeing the children eating a piece of watermelon or an orange. The little bags of chips and bottles of Coke literally make me shudder.

It was also thrilling to see Senor Pablo´s wife walking through the village as I arrived. She is looking radiant and is now able to get out and about as the pain in her joints is diminishing. That success alone made Brenda and I cry when I got home and told her about the day´s activities. Out hearts are dancing with joy at what we have accomplished here in the last week…while our noses run!

We will have a busy couple of weeks at the lake now that Brenda´s husband Adrian is arriving tomorrow. There is lots to see and show them and many new things I have been waiting to do until they arrived.

I look forward to sharing them with you!

A little 6-year-old girl getting her school supplies

It seems like every situation in Guatemala is like a blind pimple that needs to be cleaned out. Government corruption, environmental issues, malnutrition, and education are probably right up at the top of the list.

But as right now Brenda and I are up to our eyeballs in the failure of the education system and seeing what we can do to help, I started to do more research. According to USAID, on average, Guatemalan children attend only 4 years of schooling and only 3 out of 10 students graduate from sixth grade. The Guatemalan educational system reportedly provides for only 20 percent of the country’s children, and most public school systems cap class sizes at 50 students, excluding many children from entering such public institutions.

We may complain about high taxes in North America but it´s also interesting living in a country where few citizens pay income taxes and property taxes are not enforced. There is apparently a sales tax but it is not applied to goods sold in the informal economy – the cash economy of the street markets which is enormous.

According to one article I read, “the Ministry of Education is reputedly one of Guatemala’s most corrupt government agencies, as its employees successfully embezzle funds otherwise allocated for educational purposes. The government agency also distributes funds irresponsibly, some of which is directed for purchasing computers, expanding classrooms, and increasing teacher services without hiring additional teachers.”

Consequently, private schools are now being established for those who can afford the fee but when you consider that according to the UN Habitat, that “70 percent of the population lives on less than US $2 per day, and of these, almost 30 percent of the population of the country, and 8 percent of the urban population live on less than US $1 per day,” you begin to understand the gravity of the education problem. Private schools are simply out of the reach of most people and certainly those who need it the most.

It is an overwhelming problem which is why it is so commendable that Senor Pablo has the passion and the conviction in his heart to make a difference in his community. Given the enormity of it, most people would be inclined to throw up their hands and say, “it´s way too big of a problem”.

Brenda and I are trying to stay focused on what we can do, rather than focus on how much needs to be done. We are still working on those details.

In the meantime, I just had to share this photo with you. Isn´t she adorable? 6 years old, this little girl was so tiny we thought she wasn´t in school. But look at that face. Absolutely priceless!

Some of the kids in Senor Pablo´s house ready to get their school supplies.

It has been a full week with Brenda arriving on Monday morning, starting to show her around and this morning having a very full experience in San Pablo. Brenda and I arrived by tuk-tuk in San Pablo at about 10:00. Senora Luisa, Senor Pablo´s wife was waiting for us. She was looking so much better having been on Greg´s super algae for just 5 days. What a difference! For only 56 years of age, she looks about 75. The price of poverty, sad to say.

Senor Pablo was so excited to meet Brenda and off we went to the school to meet the kids. However, when we got there the school was empty. A 32-year-old teacher had died that morning from cancer and school was cancelled. So we made arrangements to return on Monday. We walked back through the town giving both Brenda and I an idea of how these people live. Everyone was very friendly and there were lots of greetings of hola!

We got back to Senor Pablo´s house and the little house was full of children, all seated and waiting for us. Senor Pablo spoke for about 15 minutes, explaining the importance of their education, how they must care for the materials and not lose them. Then they clapped in appreciation for Brenda and I and started lining up. So well behaved and patient -it was remarkable. No pushing, shoving or whining.

Brenda, being the ultimate organizer got everybody organized despite not speaking fluent Spanish. There were 3 notebooks for each child, one blank one for drawing, one with lines for writing and one with squares for math. Then there was a pencil and Brenda had brought colored pencils so every child also got 2 colored pencils and an eraser at the end of the pencil.

They were so polite, saying thank you and some very shy, just took their supplies. There were lots of photos taken inside and outside the house. Then the daughter and son of Senor Pablo (the ones we had paid for their registration and supplies) were given their full box of what they needed to continue their education.

This had taken nearly 2 hours and it was pretty intense. The darkness in the home, the number of people, the abject poverty and huge need was almost overwhelming. The gratitude was also beautiful to see.

We left with a list of people who want to be able to finish their education and continue on to University and how much it will all cost. I haven´t even had the energy yet to go look at what the needs are and to figure out what the dollar amount is.

This afternoon, Brenda and I are headed to the massage therapist and bodyworker and then out for dinner to end a very eventful and meaningful day.

I will get some of the pictures posted as soon as possible on Facebook so you can see, although I have to tell you, pictures cannot even begin to capture this morning´s events but it will give you a very good idea. As Brenda has said several times over the last few days, “this is not a resort vacation, is it?” No, this is real life and although we are able to experience so much that is for the tourists, in Guatemala, it is very easy to be right here in the real life of the local people. It´s what I have loved so much.

Senor Pablo buying notebooks

Today I met my dear Senor Pablo in Panajachel to buy 262 notebooks for the students of San Pablo, a poor village on Lake Atitlan. I phoned last night and made arrangements to meet him this morning in the closest and largest town on the lake. He sounded pretty bad with a headache, cough and sore throat. However, he flat turned down my idea that he might not want to do this big trip today.

Although he was late because the boat was later than he expected, he arrived with a delightful smile on his face. I met him at one end of town and the place he wanted to buy the notebooks was at the other end of the town. I would have walked it easily but he was obviously sick. However, again he never suggested that it would be difficult for him. I quickly hailed a tuk-tuk and for about $1.20 for the 2 of us we got to the other end of the town. A small price to buy but half of a day´s wage for Senor Pablo.

I stayed out of the way in this small and very busy store. I just took some pictures and paid the bill. I expected it to be over 1300 Quetzals but the bill came in at just over 300. We even asked them twice if they had charged us the right amount but they insisted that it was right.

We walked out with 2 boxes of notebooks for a great price! Senor Pablo then asked if I would be willing to pay for two of his youngest children to complete their education. He has a 17-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter who can´t go to school this year because the bill for the registration and supplies is $50 each. I decided that we had got such an amazing deal on the notebooks that I would give him the $100 for the two teens to go to school this year. When you are supporting a family on $2.50 per day and have a very ill wife, $50 is a huge amount of money.

I also gave him 50 Quetzales ($6) for his boat trips to Panajachel and back, the tuk-tuk back to the dock with the 2 heavy boxes and his day´s lost wage of 20 Quetzales. He was incredibly grateful.

I found it fascinating that since Sunday when we arranged to get together to make this purchase, he never once talked about losing a day´s wage or the cost of traveling to Panajachel. Amazingly, he has only ever asked for money for others and never once asked for himself.

I know that if I was about to lose 1/6 of my wage for the week and I had no savings, nothing to fall back on, had a sick wife at home and kids still in school with expenses looming, I would have a worry or two. I might have even whined a bit or at least brought up the loss of my wages and expenses involved in doing this charitable act. But not him. Not a peep. I was pretty impressed because I don´t know that I would have been so obliging or gracious.

This little man has certainly been a gift in my life. My dear friend Brenda arrives on Monday and so on Wednesday we are scheduled to go to San Pablo to help hand out the school supplies.

What an amazing week it has been. I am having a potluck here at the place tomorrow night for the folks staying in the building. There should be 8 or 9 of us. It will be fun to get to know these adventurous foreigners.

Have a fabulous weekend and I´ll be back next week with some other things I am anxious to share with you about the lake and life here in Guatemala.

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.