Once 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.
GCJ India 2017 delegation is complete!
The weeks were so packed and amazing that I never got to blog during the delegation itself! Now the US delegates have departed and I am alone for a few days in the beautiful hill station of Panchgani at a wonderful conference center and headquarters for Initiatives of Change (IofC) — an organization that was once called Moral Re-Armament (MRA), an international moral and spiritual movement founded in 1938 by Frank Buchman as Europe was re-arming militarily. Look it up on Wikipedia – a remarkable organization that has nurtured many ‘global citizens’ for so many years. Like Compassionate Listening, they believe change arises from the inside out. They identify four absolute values: honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love.
Parag (with his lovely wife Asma) works at Panchgani. He arranged many of our Delhi-Agra-Pune logistics
Who needs a conference room for a meeting in this lovely place
It has been wonderful to have the beauty of this refuge filled with calm and green trees, flowers, and positive vibrations — before I rejoin Maher with all its vibrant life, chaos, and the noise of streets and many children – all bathed in love and compassion.
Our GCJ delegation was filled with 24 extraordinary people. Of course, I knew our awesome 8 US women well – and felt so deeply supported and appreciated by them. Then we had 3 internationals – a German young woman of just 18 years who is on her gap year as a volunteer in Pune, a lovely young man from Venezuela who has been volunteering at Maher, and a Spanish woman who had been an intern in Pune as a social worker. Then we had our amazing Indian delegates – 5 women and 4 men plus 3 Maher guys (Mangesh, Gaus and their dear friend Nikhil). So in all, the delegation comprised 8 men and 16 women (including me!). We had about a dozen circles – including team building, compassionate listening. and a powerful gender dialogue. Fascinating discussions! Of course, we had a lot of explaining to do about our new US administration. Many of us made traditional home-cooked dishes for each other: I made matzoh ball chicken soup, Irene managed to make apple crisp, and Liz stuffed us with her amazing self-caught and smoked salmon plus more.
While together at Maher – we stayed at Vatsalydam. It is one of the largest homes, a big property with gardens and smaller homes for grandmas, boys, and mentally-disturbed persons, and elderly men. The main house had over 100 mentally ill or developmentally-delayed women on the ground floor and several homes for girls on the upstairs. It was so beautiful to see the interactions between these different groups – filled with loving compassion, patience, and affection. Some of my favorite times were singing and dancing joyously together, playing with the kids, and hugging the women. Some of our most exhausting moments were the trying, long, bumpy, and dusty bus rides to many outlying Maher homes. When I have a chance to debrief with Gaus, Mangesh, and Sister Lucy we will explore the question of ‘quantity’ vs ‘quality’ of these visits from the delegates perspective. We longed for more time to interact with the residents but often these visits were mainly being very, very warmly greeted – with song and ritual (incense and bindi marking with red vermillon or gold turmeric powder, perhaps a cup of tea or water, a short talk, occasional performance by students, possibly very short Q&A, etc). Before we knew it, we were back on to the bus to yet another location. Of particular interest was the tribal village that has been transformed by the relationship developed with Maher. Now they are growing many acres of veggies and children are going to school.
We saw the slum where the ‘Fun School’ attracts little ones with games and food as they wouldn’t be sent to school. Also, after ten long and patient years they now have a computer lab for the older children. What a struggle of love, after building relationship and trust (15 years ago or so, Sister Lucy actually moved in to live in the village for several months – they were so wary, thinking she was coming to convert them to Catholicism or trick them and take their land which had happened by others) the Fun School started. Some of the school-aged children were brought to live at Maher so they could go to school. They began to show the value and the culture changed to where school was appealing. One of the school girls has now become a policewoman and another one a social worker! They started the computer lab about 10 years ago: at first it wasn’t valued – no one knew anything about computers. They were all stolen. Sr Lucy persevered and put replacements in. After a while again they were stolen. Again she put in replacements… by now some of the kids were learning and appreciating and the community came to value them and trust her sincerity. So at last, the community itself guards them and calls as soon as there is any trouble. One of my most striking insights or lessons as a global citizen came on that visit day: one of the delegates said, well why don’t they just put in a security camera! Mangesh, dear one who grew up at Maher and says, ‘love is my religion’, quickly responded: that would be materialistic instead of heart-fullistic. Wow! In our western world we value the thing – the property – and I realized I was blind to the message hidden in a security camera which is that we don’t trust you and we value this property way more than our relationship or connection with you.
I am fatiguing so that’s all for now! I’ll hope to get to write more soon about our amazing Delhi visits with the likes of Vandana Shiva and Swanu Agnivesh as well as several extraordinary NGOs, our tourist adventures in Old Delhi and Agra and so much more about Maher and the delegation. Write to me! Tell me the news and spirit and arising movement!
US delegation departing January 9 !
NEWS FLASH: GCJ Delegation departs on January 9! Stay tuned for blog entries from India.
We will begin in Delhi: all 11 US delegates will gather by Thursday evening, January 12. We’ll spend the weekend enjoying visits to historical sites, such as temples, fortes, Old City, the museum at the site of Gandhi’s assassination — and a trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. We will also visit several NGO’s and meet local leaders.
Then on to Pune where we’ll join our 11 Indian delegates plus 2 Maher hosts and spend 8 days in the rural areas of Maher homes, interacting with the women and children of our home site (Vatsalyadham) as well as visiting the many varied aspects of Maher activities, including the self help groups, preschool in the slum, women’s vocational training, etc.
We’ll also visit Pragati Leadership in Pune, to discover how they combine western results-orientation training with spirituality, as well as their small foundation that supports and empowers urban women. The US delegates will spend our last days up in the Hill Station of Panchagani, partaking in the international program of Initiatives of Change in the morning and spending the afternoon reflecting and harvesting on all our learning. The program ends in Pune, on Friday afternoon, January 27.
Meet Sister Lucy on her visit to Seattle! Tuesday, September 20
We are thrilled to welcome Sister Lucy. Come join us Tuesday evening, September 20, at the Phinney neighborhood center. She’ll be accompanied by two extraordinary young men who grew up at Maher – Gaus Sayyad and Mangesh Pol. We’ll gather at 6:45 and begin the program by 7 pm. What a night!
India Blog 12: Holiest of Holies – Varanesi
Villages of the Lake
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.
Encounters with Mayan Cosmo-Vision
As is common to human groups everywhere (at least everywhere I’ve visited!) –there is some competition and uneasy trust amongst various schools, factions or groups… So there are multiple answers to many questions about what is the Maya way. Some feel the traditions should be held closely, others feel it is time to share and spread throughout the world. As the year 2012 came to a peak, so much interest and energy was aroused and attracted – it has created a renaissance within the Mayan community as well as with visitors from around the world. This seems wonderful indeed! My sources teach me that 2012 marked the end of an over 5000 year cycle, which was characterized by patriarchy and domination over nature, thus a lack of balance with the natural world – And now, the new era being ushered in has the chance to be a time of transformation, with the integration of the feminine and harmony with nature. We humans have to do our part in the awakening and changing. If we wise up we can be collaborators in bringing about this wonderful new era. Read more
Second blog from Guatemaya: San Pedro de Lago de Atitlan
Hard to believe tonight is my 10th and last night here at the Lake. Time slows down and yet is also very full. I’ve just felt very present to every moment and reluctant to step away from what is happening to write about it. It has been a blessing to have several friends to connect with here, to get a deeper sense of life and the changes going on.
The Maya call the lake Our Mother – and she is so beautiful! My eyes drink in the view, the beauty – and immediately want to take it in again and deeper. Now I understand why many say it is the most beautiful lake in the world… Surrounding by mountains including three awesome volcanoes 10,000 feet high that look like a child’s drawing, they are so vertical and steep, arising directly from the shore. Though once some of the slopes were denuded and ravaged by scars of war, now there is green everywhere, with many coffee trees and cornfields all around. The lake was formed as a caldera about 84,000 years ago and is Central American’s deepest lake (1,120 feet): It is technically endorheic (lacking direct flow to the sea) but substantial seepage feeds two nearby rivers: in other words, water flows in but not out. The introduction of bass some years ago ultimately led to the loss of the local flora and fauna. Plus the introduction of fertilizers and raw sewage which run off compounded by the lack of circulation which has contributed to many ecological issues, with the growth of a deadly bacteria (cyanobacteria) at times.
My hotel is right at the lake-shore – in fact, it may soon be IN the lake, as it is rising. Read more
First Days in Guatemala: Antigua
Que pais magnifico! What a wonderful country! Despite Guatemala’s horrendous history and recent past – I find a deep sense of serenity and welcome here. The climate is deliciously perfect. The scenery is astonishingly magnificent. The people are impeccably kind and friendly. The arts and crafts are an explosion of color and gorgeous design. Antigua is a city of remarkable beauty and charm. The artistic life is pulsating –from traditional crafts to contemporary art – painting, sculpture, architecture. Oh fellow Global Citizens, we are blessed with such an amazing planet and so many rich cultures!
Yet amidst this beauty, serenity and charm, I find myself repeatedly triggered when confronting the beautiful and pervasive colonial influences. I feel my stomach tighten and churn, as every historical figure, church, painting all make me think of Los Conquistadores – the cruelty, greed, violence, genocide that has swept this land for hundreds of years with their wanton destruction of so much of Mayan culture – which manifested in the last century in the cruel greed of “Banana Republics” and CIA supported death squads. (With Israeli supplied helicopters.) I feel culpable and sad. Read more
India Blog 11: The Planet’s Favorite World Heritage Site – Taj Mahal and other Agra sites
We headed out early towards Agra in an especially comfortable and spacious car for the three of us, arranged by a travel agent. Interesting that all the stops were now at much more upscale (and expensive) restaurants that were also filled with overpriced souvenirs to buy. I kind of missed our more low-keyed grassroots experiences.
We stopped at Fatehpur Sikri, built by Emperor Akbar, capital of Moghul empire during its hay day in the 16th century. This spot was chosen as the Emperor made a pilgrimage to a saint in hopes of a blessing for fertility so he would have a male heir – when his hopes were fulfilled, he moved the capitol and built this splendid City (such were the riches of Emperors), soon to become a ghost town as there were difficulties with the water supply. Akbar was a fascinating character: Muslim but extremely devoted to inter-faith (indeed, he developed a new religion called “Deen Ilahi” to try to synthesize all faiths. His palace included fabulous structures for Hindi and Christian as well as Muslim. Read more
India Blog 10: The Pink City of Jaipur and Ranthambhore National Park
Oh my. Jaipur was astonishing. Take a few moments to fantasize what a fabulously wealthy and artistic lineage of maharajas would create… and now multiple it up by several powers of ten and you may begin to imagine some of the wonders we saw. The older Amber Palace atop a mountain – multiple courtyards – a brilliantly designed system of air/water cooling and plumbing from the 16th century (and we thought we were creators of sustainability and environmentally responsive design???!!). Jewel, granite and mirror encrusted gorgeous designs everywhere. Suites for harems, administrators, billiards, relaxing, writing, dance-music performance, etc. etc. A floating garden. Another ‘floating’ palace – known as the Water Palace – not far away – where the sultan could relax and hunt ducks undisturbed… Fort with an incredible network of walls and watch towers that seemed like the China wall. And then – several centuries later, abandoning Amber Fort… and creating the City Palace in Jaipur itself with it’s adjacent astrology/astronomy center (Jantar Mantar – a garden like park setting filled with futuristic incredibly accurate structures to track time and stars – within 20 seconds!!) and the Wind Palace (Hawamahal) where the harem was housed in beautiful glory… One example to help you imagine the scale of life: in early 19th Century the Raj was going to London for a big exposition. He wanted to be sure to have enough water from the Ganges along for the trip and so had two enormous pure silver vessels constructed to take along – the largest silver containers ever made – about 6 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter… (When near the Ganges people fill containers with holy water to bring to their homes as we saw in Haridwar and soon in Varanesi) –And on and on. The old City is surrounded by a lovely crenellated wall and all is painted in a pinkish salmon tone thus Jaipur is known as The Pink City. We capped off our day of touring with a visit to Tiger Palace (Nahargarh Fort) – which floats high above the city with an incredible view. I hope you get to visit some day! Read more