Alta Verapaz Experience Part 1

February 5-10, 2009

Coban and Semesche

While in the region of Alta Verapaz, we were taken in, taken care of and worked with a couple; Rob and Tara Cahill. They have been living in this area for over 7 years and have invested their lives in the K'ekchi' (a group of mayan peoples) communities. First Rob took us to a sacred Mayan cave where we got to walk down into. He told us about the Mayan god- Tzul Taka which literally means Mountain-Valley. He explained it is the same as how the Bible says God is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega.



Then we were taken to a Church that had a beautiful painting of the history of the Maya.

Next we went to the Bezaleel School which was set up by MCC for K'ekchi' children to have a good education and to learn some skills as well.

When we got there, the school had an assembly and we were invited to join. They sang K'ekchi' (their language is also called K'ekchi') and Spanish hymns and we sang some English and Spanish worship songs for them.

Rob (person on far left) translated a Mayan traditional story for us. Jose Maria (person on the right of Rob) shared with us a story that has been passed down orally from generation to generation. He shared about their creation story. The main characters are: Lady Moon, Jaguar-Deer and Itzamna.


Site 1: Guatemala listening intently to the story!

Here is Jose Maria telling the story.


This is how we got around. The Microbus that seats us all!!! Only in Guatemala!



We also got to plant some trees!

Emma and Jill with some trees.

Linda and Holly also with some baby trees.

After being in the city of Coban we went to Semesche. Semesche is a small remote K'ekchi' village in the mountains. For the next 7 days we were either living with K'ekchi' families or treking in the jungle. It was an adventure like no other- our comforts were taken from us (no electricity and running water for 7 days... this means we didn't shower for a week!!!), communication got harder (K'ekchi' families only speak K'ekchi' and obviously we don't!), and our bodies and minds were stretched to the limit (we hiked and hiked up and down mountains in the jungle, some of the mountains were so muddy our rubber boots would get stuck!). And for all of those days we only ate beans and tortillas!!!

This is where the girls were asked to wear long skirts to be more appropriate in the K'ekchi' culture. The girls on site 1 embrassed the long skirts wonderfully!

Coban was very cold so Jenna, Christina and Linda wore pants under their skirts. This is what we call "Classy!"


These next photos are of the K'ekchi' Host families and Site 1 students. We stayed with host families for 4 days and we were split up into groups of 2-4 per family.

While living with the families we were able to try some things like patting tortillas. Holly is trying to pat a tortilla in a circle. It's harder than you think! It was very rare that we could pat a circular tortilla and when we were finished and showed them they would laugh and laugh and kindly say "Oos" which means "good."

Other things we tried was putting things like a water jug on our heads. Once again it's harder than it looks, but Shannon is doing a good job of balancing it on her head!

During our stay in Semesche we helped the families by working in their gardens. The village is pretty spread out and so some of us had to walk 45 minutes to get to the job site. Our host families were very hospitable- they would walk us to work everyday and usually it was the children that would walk us!

This was one of the work sites. All day we bagged dirt. We would put soil in small bags and then we transplanted small trees into them. It was a lot of work and we got a lot done for the community.

Lindsay and Mel bagging some dirt!

More dirt bagging!

These are the bags of dirt with the trees in them.

We made hundreds of these.

And since we were bagging dirt, we got dirty!!! Lindsay, Shannon and Nikkita showing off their dirty hands!

Holly saying "Hi" in a creative and dirty way!

Alida- enjoying the mud in her hands!

By the end of 3 days of being in the dirt and mud the girls skirts got darker and darker by the day.

Our bums were dirty!

The houses that we lived at were always in and amoungst the corn fields. Corn is the way of life for the K'ekchi' people.

From the corn they make tortillas.

Eating the usual meal of tortillas and beans! This time we also got some rice!

Emma and Linda resting.

AHHHHH turkeys!!! They are everywhere!

We also went to a K'ekchi' Mennonite Church service.

Joel and Jason wore their best Sunday clothes to the service: Hawiian shirts!!!

After church we got to play with the children of the community. They do not get to play a lot because they have to help out in the house or work with their parents so this was a special time for the children where they got to play games and draw some pictures!

That is the bathroom!

This is the view in the morning- the mountains, the jungle and the clouds!

This was a misty beautiful morning!

And an amazing sunset.

After our stay with the families we then went straight on the Cloud Forest Trek.
You'll have to wait for the next blog to hear about our great adventures in the jungle!!!

Carolina!