And then school started.
Enter uncomfortable moments, confusion and swallowing any pride I've ever had. This isn't exactly Eat, Pray, Love (at least there's no beautiful Spanish man whisking you to his private villa) however, the school is beautiful and my teacher, Slyvia, is so patient and kind. We sit in a courtyard with a waterfall and fish to one side and the mountainous vista to the other. In the middle of a frustrating verb conjugation (verbos, verbos y mas verbos as we like to laugh about) I do have to pinch myself that this is life for awhile. Sylvia laughs at me all day as I make mistakes, correct myself, make more mistakes, laugh a lot and do it all loudly and over-enthusiastically. She told a friend that I have a true passion for Spanish...which I guess is true, as one needs to have in order to stand being corrected a million times a day. Si. We get along very well and I've discovered we're both over-emotional. Wednesday we went to the market to practise speaking and in one of the stores I bought a beautiful newborn outfit for my new niece-or-nephew-to-come. For no reason at all, the store owner began to wrap up these beautiful dried flowers for my teacher and I, as a gift. She sent us both on our way with these beautiful arrangements and told me that when I return to Canada, to place them in my the living room as a reminder of Guatemala...they act as a blessing for your space. Slyvia & I both teared up upon leaving the store...it was a beautiful gesture and yet, that's just how the people are here.
 |
| Casa Xelaju |
 |
| From the rooftop terrace where we have tea on our break. |
 |
| Bonita Slyvia. The little teacher that could. |
 |
| The oddest flowers I ever did see. |
 |
| My courtyard classroom. |
 |
| Con las flores bonitas. |
 |
The day Slyvia decided I could actually speak &
understand Spanish. |
 |
| Guineos y Platinos |
 |
| Dulce old man |
 |
Just for fun.
Want some?
I don't. |
So each day, after breakfast (all conversations in Spanish), five straight hours of Spanish, and lunch (you bet, everything Spanish), I tend to be mucho ready for a siesta. However this week, the school lined up a Mayan Ceremony (with everything but the animal sacrifice of course) and on Friday, a conference on the changing of the Mayan Calendar. The Ceremony was beautiful, and I received the rojo candles for "amor" to offer to the circle. And as for the "world ending" on December 21st, we stayed at school for hours talking about what is really to come. It´s about a time of a time of rebirth as to what the world will look like in the future. It will be based on love for all living beings, for everything that is on our earth. The cycle is 5,125 years long and we may not get to see this...but I sincerely hope we do.
 |
| Believe it or not, Jeans is a Mayan priest. |
I feel strongly that creating sustainable food systems will be an important component of this new cycle...leaving behind the Multi-Nationals who care only about money and greed...bringing it back to local, sustainable sources...which, fortunately, brings me to this Food Security Project. After you see these countries that lack so much and have a day to day struggle from hand to mouth, I believe nutrition will be the key, the first key, to change. Once we have full bellies, we can work on education, empowerment, development, nourishment...I'm thankful for the opportunity to learn firsthand how this could work.
So, on Monday when I had the pleasure of meeting a like-minded individual from New York, I wasn't surprised to hear that she is going to take her Masters at Georgia State and intends to do a research project on...none other than sustainable food systems. We got talking and she is going to come with us this weekend on a trip to discuss the El Salvador project further. Future co-project manager? Maybe that's the way the Universe works.
We were also lucky to meet a woman here who was the recipient of a Habitat for Humanity home in 2002. When she discovered that that's how Jim & I met, her smile lit up the whole street. Truly inspiring to see how far HFH reaches.
We also got to enjoy a few tropical storms. Walking the narrow streets on tiny sidewalks with an umbrella and rain and wind is like a video game. When you pass others, one of you innately moves their umbrella up so you don't hit each other. It's like a jedi mind trick, who is gonna go up and who is gonna go down? I always try to will the oncoming person to go up. Going up is harder. Next, there are poles and cars parked so tight to the curb that you must withdraw your umbrella so it fits through and immediately put it back out so that your bag (i.e. Laptop and school notes) don't get drenched. As soon as you do that, you have to swing around the pole to avoid being hit by oncoming traffic. I laughed the whole way home although I was soaked, as the rain is warm and I feel terribly cozy.
 |
| Epic storm rolling in. |
As we head into the fin de semana and I finish up my first week of school, I bid you adieu for the weekend and hope everyone at home is warm and enjoying our beautiful Canadian lifestyle. I have much time to reflect here and it's been tranquil thus far. It brought tears to my eyes to hear that my teacher told a friend that I live with a lot of heart...that even though I cannot seem to get my point across all the time in Spanish, I am at least attempting to get it by with my character. I try to always remember that a smile is universal and somehow it works. Everyone in the house teases me incessantly and I wonder sometimes how that happens in the different places I go. Either I'm really blonde, or it's that I always turn into the little sister / clown of the house because I do things like throw chilltepe peppers into my mouth without thinking and then die laughing and crying...or I spend 10 minutes trying to explain that I need to have my lightbulb changed because it's burnt out in the middle of a storm that has rendered us with no electricity...or maybe because I use universal expressions such as "ei yi yi" that no one seems to understand, but everyone seems to think is funny.
Entonces, I'll leave you with the wise, wise words of Parker J. Palmer, the author of a book called
Let Your Life Speak. I was given it almost the day I arrived from mi amiga here and finished it in four days. It's a must read. Anyway, I hope you enjoy:
In talking about Vaclav Havel, playwright, dissident, prisoner, the old president of the Czech Republic and Chairman of the New York based Human Rights Foundation... “The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human modesty and in human responsibility. Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better...and the catastrophe toward which this world is headed, whether it be ecological, social, demographic or a general breakdown of civilization...will be unavoidable.”
The power for authentic leadership, Havel tells us, is found not in external arrangements but in the human heart. These are the inner points from which oppressed people have gained the leverage to lift immense boulders and release transformative change.
More to come...
The defining moment in my life that shifted the way I was thinking...and brought me to ubuntu.
Great question. Tough to answer.
In the sense of living and breathing and working and playing.
