But First Reflections on Guatemala

10 days until Nicaragua...and I wanted to share some thoughts. My mind keeps wandering back to my trip to Guatemala in 2007.

I think often about the rugged and lush mountainsides, the wonderful Mayan people and the packs of laughing children, but also about the poverty, the constant struggle to earn a living in the remote villages and the fight to keep families healthy and warm in the highlands.

Some children were kept away from school for a variety of reasons: the family could not afford the school fees, the father would not allow the girl to attend, or the chores of cooking, washing, caring for young siblings and fetching heavy buckets of water were just too time consuming to allow a young girl to attend school.

I think about the stunning beauty of the countryside. The spectacular views from 10,000 feet. The Mayan weavers in huts creating beautiful textiles. The welcoming families, the smiling children and the sunny afternoons. The days were warm, the nights very cold on the mountain.

This Mayan village was relocated by the government high atop the mountain after devastating Hurricane Stan destroyed their homes on the slopes, making access to local markets and travel even more difficult. No indoor plumbing. Children sneezed and coughed, as did the women who spent hours each day hunched over an open flame cooking in an enclosed shack. We were there to build cinder-block stoves with proper ventilation. Rural and remote, the village was a far distance from medical care and medicines.

My story on Guatemala: http://www.contactomagazine.com/articles/mayanindians1207.htm

I loved the spirit and gentle kindness of the people, their strength in surviving the nightmare of brutality and injustices of war, their will to move forward from those horrific events and their marginalization in society. Their life is a constant struggle to care for families, with the men working all day to earn a living and women toiling for hours cooking, weaving and caring for many children in their simple homes along dusty roads, tucked away in cornfields high on the mountain.

The adventure begins...in two weeks

In two short weeks, I will be in Nicaragua for a mission trip where I will meet with local coffee farmers, artisans, leaders, teachers, church members and families as part of a delegation with Presbyterian Church USA and Equal Exchange. And I thought of no better way to inaugurate my blogging experience than by writing my thoughts about the trip ahead. I hope to be able to have Internet access while in the country and write about the people, post photographs and detail my experience.

Scared at first, I am really looking forward to the trip. I am blessed to have been selected to be on the trip that will include people from across the country. Nicaragua will be the third country in Central America I have visited (Costa Rica, and a mission trip to Guatemala, to be discussed soon in this forum, I am most certain), and let's see....my sixth country in Latin America and the Caribbean. I love the region. I love the laughing children, the warm and inviting people, the culture, the history, the religious traditions, visiting old cathedrals, the natural beauty, the beat of the music, the sunshine and dazzling blue skies against whitewashed churches, the food: black beans, plantains, mangoes, meat, fresh fish.

Nicaragua has been for years a country at peace moving forward to overcome the horrific scars of war, the ghosts of the past. Just like anywhere, problems persist: corruption, narcotics, crime, violence, gangs, trafficking, poverty, unemployment. But we are hopeful. I am hopeful. So as it goes, January 16th, I head to Managua.