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Villages of the Lake

IMG_4755 IMG_4745 IMG_4700 IMG_4765 IMG_4786 IMG_4822 IMG_4852 IMG_4688 IMG_4679 IMG_4641 IMG_4620Once you settle in, the fun thing to do is take day trips.  There are villages all around the lake.  I got to visit a number of them.  In each town, the women and girls wear the beautiful and colorful hand woven huipil symbolic of their village.  Everyone is very friendly – is considered polite to always say hello, Buenos dais (or tardes…).  The people are so beautiful – though, compared to most North Americans, tiny:  I feel so huge and lumbering!

When I first arrived I came through Panajachel, known as Pana, which was the first area to become well known by tourists and has many hotels, restaurants, nonprofit projects, markets, etc.  It is a great place to shop and access services but lacked much charm or atmosphere.  You can hop on a boat for a 20 to 30 minute trip across to San Pedro for just 25Q (quetzals – about 7.5 to a dollar, so the ride cost $3.25).

I found San Pedro quite enjoyable – easy to walk around through narrow alleys that the ever present tuk tuks managed to squeeze through, with a steep hike up to the central market, church and lovely tiny city park.  I enjoyed heading to the outskirts of town where my friend Nancy is living in a friend’s house that she has helped to landscape and decorate exquisitely.  With an incredible view once you hike up to the upper house and climb up three steep flights to the terrace!  Wowowowow.

One day we headed to nearby Santiago – a more traditional town where even the men still where their village trajes.  It is beautifully situated on the shore of a deep inlet of the lake. This is the town told about in Martin Pechtel’s colorful and amazing memoir of how he became a shaman, Secrets of the Talking Jaguar – a great read, especially while here.  This town was the capital of the Tz’utujil since pre-colonial times. During the war Santiago was especially hard hit with state-sponsored violence.  Many villagers were murdered, tortured, disappeared – including the assassination of Roman Catholic Priest Stanley Rother by right-wing death squads on 28 July 1981, and the massacre of 14 people (and wounding of 21 others) when the Guatemalan Army opened fire on a crowd of unarmed civilians on 2 December 1990.  Today there are collectives of women’s back-strap weaving and many Mayan traditions continue.  For example, there are Cofradías (religious brotherhoods) who are the guardians of the modern and ancient religious practices:  one task is to take an annual turn in guarding the cult of Maximón –a cigar puffing god-effigy to whom people come to offer liquor and tobacco in exchange of favors.

On the other side of my base of San Pedro is a small village, San Juan.  This town seems to have a very unique character.  Almost no hotels, no tourists – and a very enterprising population:  apparently an American helped create a women’s cooperative many years ago and from that has spawned many women’s’ cooperatives.  So all of the shops sell wonderful, organic, natural dye products and all share the profits with their members.  There are many gorgeous murals throughout the village.  And some of the services such as school and sports field seem better established and maintained.

Beyond that I visited San Marcos – a haven for New Agers.  There are holistic healing centers, yoga retreats, and health food stores.  It is on the shady side of the lake and has a more tropical feel.  Very quiet, peaceful and lush, with narrow paths from the dock leading up to a sweet shared playground where gringo and native families gather to watch the children play.  There is a beautifully maintained little park with paths and vistas and swimming holes – and four ceremonial circles (one for each pillar of the earth – used at different seasons) – where I came upon Tata Pedro and Shuni.

I also visited Santa Cruz, accessible only by boat:  there I visited friends’ of friends who founded Amigos de Santa Cruz which has established wonderful programs for the six small communities associated with the town – for vocational training, nutritional education, early childhood education, and scholarship supported advanced education.  This small village needed to be traversed by precarious wood planked walk ways at the lake’s edge, as the planned lovely broad pathway was now submerged.

On another day I took a day trip away from the lake to Chichicastenango’s famous market and vibrant K’iche town.  The shopping everywhere in Guatemala is insane:  there is such richness of beautiful textiles, beads, etc. in wild and vibrant colors with painfully detailed handwork.  Needless to say, my suitcase is now emptied of the books and art materials I brought to Taa’Pi’t but is overflowing with handicrafts….  The church at ChiChi is fascinating, with observers conducting a maya-catholic blend of ritual similar to what I once saw in San Cristobal in Mexico.  Candles, incense, offerings of corn, flowers, pine boughs, liquor and prayers by shaman while the Catholic saints look on.  The church is the site where the one remaining copy of the holy Popul Vuh telling the Maya origin stories was found in the early 18th Century.

…I was sad to leave the gorgeous lake, which really cast a spell upon me… But excited to have more adventures ahead: I’ll soon post the last two blog entries – one from Tecpan and my visit to Project Somos and one from the jungles of Peten where I visited Tikal.IMG_4623 IMG_4856 IMG_4646

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Final Days, Final Thoughts

During the last few days of my visit, we were joined by Molly from iLEAP :  it was through this small Seattle based nonprofit that I met Emmanuel, as they brought him to Seattle as a promising young leader from the developing world.  Molly came to Monrovia to get to see Emmanuel and his organization, PCO (Population Caring Organization), first hand.  Unfortunately she didn’t understand that you need a visa, so Emmanuel ended up having to run around to manage to get her one from this end and then send it to her in Kenya where she was visiting in the days before – He managed it well, but it became one more pull on him that took him away from the training.  PCO had so many logistics to juggle, they were often pulled away.  For me, as a sole trainer, the most stressful moments were those when I found myself without PCO staff to help translate or adapt what we were doing at crucial moments.  Still, we always managed to muddle through, and by the last day of training I felt so proud of the Core Team and all that we had accomplished

One evening I  got to visit Emmanuel’s home, share supper with him, and met his daughter Jerrine and nephew Stanford (who are living with him.  This warmed my heart – and gave me a chance to see a typical neighborhood more closely.  Behind Emmanuel’s house were shacks barely protected from the elements.  The well was down the street – no running water in any homes.  Electricity is purchased from a private agent:  $45/month per ‘limb’ — for power from 8 pm to 5 am – on a good night.  If you have an air conditioner or a TV you would need two limbs.  Think about this tonight after your hot shower and you lie comfy in bed watching DVDs at any hour!

On Sunday we went to visit Teresa, one of the Core Team members who had sadly lost her oldest son to illness just the week before.  She is an amazing, powerful woman – one of the market women who helped end the war.  (Did you see Pray the Devil Back to Hell?  If not, do so ASAP!  Inspiring and compelling)  –as were a number of our Peacebuilders including several women who went to Ghana.  I was delighted that Sara and Stephen, two, other Peacebuilders, came to join our visit – I believe the group is really bonding and forming relationships.

We were welcomed with open arms by Teresa’s whole extended family – from her mom to her grandchildren.  Her home seconds as a  little restaurant – and we were graced with a wonderful traditional meal, where everyone eats from the same bowl.  Everyone enjoyed the fun of taking lots of photos.  It was a warming and loving circle.

Last day of training was Tuesday, the day after the Community Summit.  In our debrief, one of the Peacebuilder shared an interesting experience from the World Café:  in his circle, one of the participants refused to take the talking object.  There was some discussion and initial insisting… Fortunately our Peacebuilder remembered to listen for the facts, feelings and values –and ultimately discovered that this person was from an ethnic group that believed taking a stone would bring misfortune and was a bad omen.  This led to a lively discussion in our group – We talked about the need to be culturally sensitive; how the actually holding of the object wasn’t essential, rather the taking of turns.  But then Ibrahim, another Peacebuilder, passionately interjected saying “No!  We need to leave all tribal practices and differences behind.”  Many in the group got triggered and the debate was off and running….  I reminded them to use the skills we have learned, to listen from the heart, to seek to understand not persuade…  When we were able to reflect Ibrahim’s deepest values, (“You are worried about divisiveness and are really wanting to find unity, so everyone can move forward to a peaceful future”) he completely relaxed – and then everyone was able to see they all shared that value and common ground – we went from debate to dialogue and speaking from the heart.  Ibrahim and the group came to understand that honoring culture and allowing for different practices didn’t need to divide.  It was a great reminder to all about how easy it is to polarize and get pulled into debate – and how the practices we are learning can create the turning point and bring understanding.

This final Graduation day ended with great celebration.  We were honored with the presence of Dr. Latard, the Director of the Interfaith Church Council where we held our training (and who has offered Office space to PCO in the same building for a generous affordable price);  this wise elder gave a stirring speech with encouraging words for the Peacebuilders and the important role they need to play to manage the challenges ahead with elections coming to Liberia in October.   The political parties thrive on dividing people along ethnic lines and the youth are especially vulnerable to their offers of money and small gifts to get their support.  There is concern that violence will erupt since with so many candidates (up to 27 for President right now!) there are bound to be many many disappointed groups.  Many of the Peacebuilders are engaging in voter education around such issues.

The Core Team was thrilled to each receive a gold-seal certificate – and a set of chimes.  Far East Handicrafts donated 35 sets of chimes so each of our Peacebuilders now has one.  They are founded on Fair Trade principles and support the making of new items in traditional and ancient art forms plus support many medical and educational aid projects in Nepal.

Finally, training was ended!  All responsibilities were fulfilled!  We got to walk to the beach just down the street – yet my first time there!  And, joy!  We had a party my last night!  What fun!  We came to my little apartment and the guys made the dinner:  Alex Morris was the chef, Emmanuel was sous chef, and Madison did the dishes (reportedly the first time he washed dishes at a sink with running water.)  The bar-restaurant upstairs happily loaned us a big pot and extra plates.

The next day we did a little shopping (I bought a flipchart for PCO!) and some debriefing.  I was chagrined to learn that what I thought was welcomed coaching from the side felt uncomfortable for two of our Peacebuilders at the Community Summit:  I thought we had made clear agreements at our training that I would step in whenever it seemed needed, to support them and the process in this their first experience at facilitating large group dialogue…  But I now learned, the more culturally appropriate way to partner in public would be to quietly go up to the person and whisper in their ear, rather than to add remarks publicly.  Sigh.  It was painful to learn this after the fact!  Cross cultural communication is such a challenge!  You just don’t know what the invisible barriers are until you slam into them.

This is all part of the Journey of being a Global Citizen.  It is never easy, but always ultimately rewarding in growing and learning and deepening the possibilities for mutual understanding and ultimately building a sustainable peace — especially in a nation as challenged as Liberia, with its post-war devastation and trauma.    I think our whole circle of Peacebuilders, with all of our diversity, learned so much from each other.  I was heartened by the commitment the group expressed, and their willingness to continue their monthly practice groups even when our small funds run out in September.  May their skills deepen and grow and may they spread the practices they learned far and wide throughout the counties of Liberia!

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Liberia Peacebuilder Community Summit on 4th of July

What a way for this American to celebrate the 4th of July!  Our Liberia Peacebuilder Community Summit was a great day, with well over 100 diverse people in attendance – primarily community members, with a sprinkle of NGOs and Western expats.  Our theme was, How can we Build Partnerships and Strengthen Peacebuilding Together? NG0  + Business + Community + Government

It was a day that began with torrential rain and thunderstorms – despite our many efforts to influence the weather patterns through pleas, visualization, prayers and any ways we could imagine… WAWA (“West Africa Wins Again” – our code word for the unavoidable complications and chaos that arise in a developing world with minimal infrastructure and different views of time)… Arrival for everyone was delayed well beyond the usual, due to the rain…  Plus, the AV guy with the sound system was nowhere to be seen and the generator was locked up and no one present had the key (yet all parties had been pre-paid for their services).  The noise from the rain was so intense that we felt we couldn’t begin the program without amplification.  Fortunately, the culture troupe was there – and they were great troupers indeed, offering a wonderful morning performance even before they had their costumes on.  Finally, we decided we’d just have to make the best of it and get started with the program, sound or no sound…  And happily, in the middle of Emmanuel’s welcoming remarks, the AV guy showed up.

A small group of our Core Team and I had worked hard on Saturday to prepare all the signage – and to take on the facilitation.  I prepared a sample script and coached them Saturday afternoon, with the assurance that I would be ready to intervene and support them on Monday.  It was a thrilling to witness them stepping up to leadership as I stayed ‘in the wings’ and played a very minor role.  The World Café was a powerful way to begin the morning and get everyone engaged and intermingling across the many differences present in the room:  men/women, elders/youth, educated/illiterate, Christian/Muslim/Traditional – and 16 different ethnic groups, plus Westerners.  We used stones gathered near the beach for talking objects.  The questioWorld Cafe conversationns:

Round 1) Think of the times when you had successful partnerships across sectors…Share the highlights. What made it possible?

Round 2) What are the challenges that keep you from building stronger partnerships?

Round 3) What can you do to build better partnerships?

The notes from the debrief have not yet been typed up – I’ll post those to a later blog.  The Open Space generated about 20 topics for the two sessions.  It was great to see many in the group really get the idea of the Law of Two Foot – and move around amongst sessions.   However, what I noticed during many of the sessions was a tendency for one person (typically an elder male) to become the director of the session and, rather than generative conversation, the group tended to just list ideas for the ‘director’ to record.  Observing this in so maOpening the Circleny sessions opened my eyes again to how many skills and experiences we may take for granted that are essential building blocks for the capacity for generative conversation:  asking questions, taking turns, building on each other’s ideas (rather than making parallel speeches), being open to new ideas or uncertainty or not knowing, etc.  In the future, I would recommend that a Core Team member attend each session to help serve as a facilitator with the goal of facilitating conversation and brainstorming.  In any case, the day brought a sense of community and empowerment to all who attended, and a number of ideas and action plans were set into place.  You’ll hear more in the next few days!

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Getting to Know Monrovia Communities

Saturday I got to meet with the Pt. Bushrod Island community of “Liberian Returnees Women For Self Empowerment.”  They are courageously creating a vocational skill training center with practically no resources – volunteer teachers, little or no equipment or supplies.  Sewing with  two machines and occasional fabric; soap making with intermittent ingredients that must all be imported; computer skills with one broken and one functioning computer (no internet connection).  Today about 20 of these women gathered under the leadership of our core team member, Emma.  After leading us through a meditation and paired listening, she asked her boss to tell the story for our facts-feelings-values exercise.  It turned out to be a very live and hot story that involved Emma herself, her boss, another core team member as well as another woman who was not present.  Many feelings were stirred, so we got to apply Compassionate Listening on the spot as it seemed wise to listen to each of the involved parties.  It was challenging, and there is still more healing to do around their challenges – but the circle left feeling inspired, motivated and ready to learn and experience more.

I get to speak to all kinds of interesting people in the bar upstairs during the evening…  Last night I learned about a very disturbing situation with large Chinese fishing boats:  there are supposed to stay 5 miles off shore, yet come right in to the bay – several boats, with nets cast between them – which of course trumps the local small fishing industry. Indeed, several times the small local boats (more like canoes) have gotten caught in their illegal nets and people have drowned.  When taken to court, corrupt judges here just pocket a bribe of $20k and dismiss the case without levying the appropriate multi-million dollar fines.  Needless to say, many Liberians feel cynical and helpless with the level of corruption here and the apparent inability or unwillingness of the government to clamp down on it.  Still, most people I talk to believe re-electing Ellen Sirleaf Johnson is the best choice at this point…

Today (Sunday) was very packed.  In the morning I went to the Muslim community for a baby-naming ceremony.  I sat on the floor behind the scrim curtain with all the festively dressed and veiled ladies and their darling, cooperative babies.  (Although one toddler burst into tears when he saw me… I hear he just received an injection from a white lady dr. last week.)

Then we went to the Pentecostal church of the Superintendent of Montserrat County (home of Monrovia):  she is a remarkable leader and an awesome preacher.  I loved her sermon – yup, the nice Jewish girl was enthusiastically yelling out Hallelujah between all the glorifying of Jesus’ name.  She talked about how we all have the keys to Heaven and everything we need.  It’s up to us to use them.  When Emmanuel and I got to meet with her afterwards I explained how LPI is working to teach people the skills so they can use those keys.  She was very interested and receptive, especially when we mentioned the Restorative Circles and how we will have some trained facilitators who can help with community conflicts.  She invited us to join her to go to a community meeting with a difficult land-ownership issue on Wednesday.  And she agreed to come to our Summit – so we are thrilled to be building this strategic relationship.

Later in the afternoon we headed way out of town to the poor community of Rock Crusher outside of Paynesville where there is an orphanage/school with 30 orphans and 90 children from the community that attend the orphanage sponsored school.   Today was their K2 graduation and we were treated to song, juggling, spelling bill, samples of homemade jam, demonstration of sign language.  It was a very sweet little place filled with loving, devoted teachers and volunteers.

Finally, we  crawled out way through horrendous traffic to way other side out of town  ‘to meet with another core team member’s womens’ group.  Christine did a great job facilitating and demonstrating some introduction to Compassionate Listening… And it has been extremely instructive to see how our group is translating what they learned:  I have a clearer idea of what is needed to strengthen their ability.  The list is long and a bit daunting…  But I know some of the members really get it and will help the others step by step.  At one point Christine kept disappearing from the Circle, worrying me a bit – how could she leave the group?  Then she returned and said, “Please follow me.”  Very mysterious… It turned out she had prepared a fabulous Sunday supper for Emmanuel, PCO staffer Pauline and I.  YUM.

Well, dear readers.  It’s getting late and I have lots of preparations for tomorrow’s first day of the training!  I’ll head up to bar with hopes of an internet connection so I can post this…

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Field Visits on my first day

Emmanuel and our loyal PCO crew (Alex, Madison and Pauline) delivered me back to The Tides, where I am staying, after a satisfying day in the field.  Now I’m sitting on the open air deck of the café/bar above my little studio – with a lovely cool breeze, the sky pulsing with lightening flashes…  but alas, no internet connection nor TV-cable signal.  WAWA (West Africa Wins Again), especially in the rainy season.  Hopefully by the end of the night I’ll be able to get on line and send this message!

We began with a visit to the Council of Tribal Elders, where we were greeted and endorsed by the National Chief.      Two of our Peacebuilders are part of the Council, so they gathered a dozen people to demonstrate/explain what they’ve been learning.  More were expected – but people’s mobility and activities are often curtailed during raining season.  [It’s always hard to get around – it often takes an hour to flag down one of the drop-taxis, which cram as many bodies as possible in for a cheap fare.  In the deluge-pouring-rain it is even more miserable.]  Alas, none of the women were here.  Still, the two guys did a sweet job of sharing the importance of what they are doing – and they gave a little demonstration of compassionately listening to each other.  They did a great role play with one of them acting very upset and yelling at the other, who managed to stay calm and centered and listened actively and (with a little coaching from the side) reflectively.

Later that afternoon we visited   the community of one of our Imam’s, Muhammed, who gathered about 20 men and 2 women (behind the curtain) at the local mosque – very apologetic to not have more.     He is a great speaker and really gets the essence of what Compassionate Listening is all about.  Together, we led the group through paired-listening and then facts-feelings-values.  They had great questions about challenging situations.  I left feeling hopeful that Muhammed has a responsive and receptive community to work with.  It was a beautiful sight to see the Muslim men deeply engaged in compassionate listening in their mosque.

Today started with a two hour wait for Emmanuel:  car break down and other complications…  Now I am holed up in an Internet café, as the internet at my lodging is down.  So dear readers – appreciate the comfort and infra-structure ease with which you are probably viewing this entry!

Side note:  Life is quite dear here, especially when you consider the low low wages:  $4/gallon for gas.  $5 for 15 eggs.  $1 for the cheapest small bottle of beer in the market.  $9 for ‘chicken wings’ as a snack at the bar.   $11 for a simple lunch at a restaurant.  Most people have to live on $1-2/day … so the struggle for survival is intense.

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Anticipation!

Countdown to Tuesday, when I return to Liberia to complete the train-the-trainers program with our 35 incredible core team members.  I hope to blog daily while I am there, so stay tuned!  Emmanuel G V Dolo and his staff at Population Caring Organization have been working hard to prepare everything to make the best use of my time there on this, my third trip.  We will have 5 days of training with the core team plus another all day Community Summit – which I will coach the team members to facilitate.  My goal:  by the time I leave, they all feel ready and inspired to teach Compassionate Listening to their community, establish Restorative Justice Circles to resolve conflicts, and adept as facilitators of World Cafe and Open Space to empower their communities to find their voice and create action steps to create a sustainable peace.  I’ll arrive in Monrovia next Wednesday night.

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