Spending time in San Lucas Tolimán

In an attempt to inform my friends and family of my recent trip to Guatemala, I hope to integrate my hand-written journal entries from my trip along with subsequent opinions I have formed since my return. Here goes!

Sunday, May 10th & Monday, May 11th
At 3:00 AM, we all gathered in front of the Mundelein building on campus to climb aboard the university ministry vans that would take us to O'Hare. I bid Jesse adieu, and got in the van. Our flight left at 5:35 AM and landed in Houston around 8:25 AM. We ran to catch our connecting flight to Guatemala City and were the last to board. Both flights went smoothly and everyone slept with their mouths open and their tongues out, a little like dogs. (I should preface all this with: graduation was Friday, May 8th and we were all more than a little pooped.) When we landed in Guatemala City, our van wasn't there, so we waited for about an hour. Once it arrived and we climbed on board, it soon became one of the most frightening of my life. The driver went about 60 mph through tiny towns and on bumpy dirt roads. We arrived in San Lucas Toliman and settled into our hotel rooms. We had dinner at the parish which consisted of stone soup (potatoes, carrots and onions) and a salad of cabbage and beef. After a day of traveling, the food tasted fantastic. We had a small reflection after dinner in which Patrick (our group leader) told us about our itinerary in Guate. Afterwards we all crashed early, around 8:00pm. I slept very well in our quiet, clean hotel room.

Tuesday, May 12th
Amy Dondanville (one of our student leaders) woke us all at 7:00am. I took a quick shower, woke Paula Bui and Jocelyn O'Campo (my roommates) and we headed to breakfast. We had eggs, black beans and bread, with plenty of coffee. After breakfast, we took a tour of all the parish projects. The first we saw was the Women's Center. Although it wasn't finished, it was a very nice building, made from concrete with wrought iron windows and doors. Once it opens, women will come to the center to learn about medicinal plants and other homely activities like weaving. Julio Martinez, our parish "tour guide" described how the women of San Lucas are very excited for the opening, but that some of the men had different opinions. He told us some men worried the education may encourage their women to leave their households.

The second project we saw was la clinica which held men's, women's and children's salas (rooms) as well as a dentist's office. Next, we went to the coffee house. Julio told us all about the different stages of the coffee, from the cherry-like fruit to the dried parchment stage, and finally the de-husked cafe oro or what we call "green coffee" stage. From here it is roasted and ground to make what we recognize as coffee. Our last stop was the reforestation center. The gentleman in charge, Juan Torribio, told us all about his role working with the trees. He was a very enthusiastic, intelligent man who shared with us some striking insights on the interconnectedness of the Earth, the trees and man. He told us that Guatemala means "the land of trees" and that the most important tree to Guatemalans is the cypress. He explained how the seeds of many different types of trees are grown into seedlings and then relocated. 90% of the varieties he distributes are free, all except the crops grown for profit.

After the end of our tour, we had lunch back at the parish. Then we joined another school group (from Rice University) to help move cinderblocks up a large hill to aid the coffee project. Their yields this year are expected to be much higher than usual and they are building another patio for drying out the beans. It felt good to do some physical work for the parish. We came back to the hotel for a bit to rest and then headed off to dinner. Afterwards, we joined together in Patrick's room for our first reflection. He began with a prayer and afterwards asked us all to describe our religious background and where we currently stand with God. Many people grew up Catholic, but some had varying religious backgrounds. I spoke freely about my religious past and described my strong feelings of spirituality that seemed to have no outlet. After this, we discussed the things that had most struck us so far. We all agreed on the friendliness of the locals and the passion for nature that Juan Torribio displayed.

Wednesday, May 13th
We woke again at 7:00am and had breakfast at 8. Afterwards, we went back to the coffee-growing area, spread out into a fila (line) and hauled more cinder blocks. We managed to move quite a few between 9:30 and 11 when we went to meet Torribio and he took us to Imox (pronounced "E-mosh"). He explained to us how sacred the area is, and showed us an alter formed from rocks that is often compared to a turtle (one of their sacred animals, the other being the lizard). We took pictures from the top of Imox with the town of San Lucas below us. We had a great lunch of beef stew once we returned to the parish. Then we took a new group, one from Marywood College to the coffee house where we worked picking bad beans from the good ones. After the work, we had some free time before dinner and I used it to shower (something we didn't do often in Guatemala). We had dinner at 6 and came back to the hotel to do our daily reflection. Amy led this one, and we started with a meditation. Then we discussed our impact on the community of San lucas and the positives and negatives of short-term trips like ours. Before breakfast, Fr. Gregg (the head-honcho so to speak) informed us of some political turmoil occuring in the Capital (you can see the video that was released to the public that sparked this turmoil here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC_ODpxMA10). In the evening, then we discussed everyone's feelings on that as well. I read a few more chapters in my book and called it a night - I was beat from all of the cinder block moving.