IN MEMORY I know it is good to leave a space of time between blog post to allow our readers time to read them but the timing of this event is too precious for me not to join this blog and the one title Zacpotal together. Anyway the events happened together with one event’s photos being taken in between photos of the other. I hope that if you come across this blog first you will not let the convenience of a click keep you from going back to read the story of Zacpotal. I want to dedicate this blog to our son Forrest who passed away on this day June 16 in the year 2006 and a young girl Mirage Perez Castro from Xesalli who passed away June 6th 2014. Her father is a good friend and member of the TRE Ixil team. There will not be a lot of words with this blog for it records a deed beyond word. You can see the silence in the crowd. The few words that do come from an event like death are deep and profound. Three words I saw in action during the days these photos were taken and the weeks surrounding the death of our son were community, family and friends. We found out Saturday the seventh that Phillip’s daughter Mirage had passed away. Two and half weeks earlier Phillip had borrowed some money from me so he could take his daughter to Guatemala City for treatment. She had been battling an infection in her system for a year and a half. After two weeks of treatment her situation was only deteriorating and he prepared to go and bring her home again. He told me it was very expensive if she died in the hospital so it would be better to bring her home, pray and hope. Those are words of poverty that are hard for me to comprehend. She passed away two days before he was to leave. After receiving the phone call announcing her death he left the community to go without telling anyone. The community quickly learned about the death for news like this cannot be hidden. They banded together to support the family and prepare to receive the young girl. Early Sunday morning men started cutting and hauling firewood to his home. This is the second trip for these men. All day long wood was hauled, everyone participated. The wood would provide a period of rest for Phillip when he returned and also allow the women to prepare a community meal. Relief from a heavy burden.The wood would provide a period of rest for Phillip when he returned and also allow the women to prepare a community meal. This is the first of three fire pits that were stated inside the kitchen. The next night one of the men commented how the women suffered. They cooked for 24 hours straight in that smoking kitchen. A collection was taken and we bought four hundred pounds of corn and beans The house was swept clean and a table prepared to receive the casket. The women borrowed the big pots from the neighboring villages At 2:30 in the morning Phillip and his daughter arrived. He had not slept for two days. When the body was in place they gathered to pray The following day at 12 sharp we descended down the hill. The girl had been dead for three and a half days and needed to be buried. People had come from 5 villages to honor the family They came And they came And they came Arriving at the cemetery Mirage was carried to where her mother who had passed away years ago waited. I did not take photos when Phillip spoke, it did not seem right. He spoke of suffering, of injustice, of sorrow here in this place. He also spoke of hope. Mirage was not here anymore. There was rest for her. He spoke in Spanish and his words were not translated into Ixil but they had a power that was felt by all. They at times seemed to be spoken just to me. There was not the sound of a bugle blowing taps but the sound of the shovel and trowel mixing mortor as the cement cap was made. Candles were lit, flowers laid and the crowd slowly left in silence. With a little help from friends Phillip and the whole crowd headed back up the hill to eat. To eat another meal, gather strength, face another day and carry on. I feel at times I get on my soap box and that I am a little preachy because I believe life could be different. We could band together and do so much good in this world if we put our backs into it. But tell me where would we be without family, friends and community? On this day, in honor of Mirage, in honor of Forrest let us stand together for healing and hope and be the kind of community that will bring about the future that we have in our hearts.

Zacpotal

B’an a Tu’le’ ta’n Tiuxh Welcome Thank-you Come and visit us at Zacpotal.

Zacpotal is a small collection of families that live between Chel and Xesalli. When help does come to Chel or Xesalli this community is almost always left out. In many ways they could be labeled the forgotten of the forgotten. I think this title would apply even more accurately to the emotional state of the community than the physical.

In the search for lower land prices this community of around 150 people who have located outside of the other two communities. Homes are simple and made from a variety of materials. Most are one room and house three generations of family.

This photo was taken at our first community wide meetings. The home is owned by the family of one of the garden leaders is one of the nicest and largest in the canton. A group of four TRE leaders and I arrived five minutes late to find the four walls of the home lined with family representatives. As we enter a round of applause erupted that shocked me. Some of the older women line up to greet us with a kiss on the check and words of thanks for coming. It is very touching to be able to bring help and hope to people such as these. As welcomes like this are bestowed on TRE it has shown me the level of respect and hope we carry as an organization. By standing by these people we have earned a place in their hearts and they have a home in ours. By sharing with us you, our supporters, have earned this place as well. At the end of the meeting we handed out knit blankets, vitamins and hats.

Out of the 34 home we have started 22 garden spots. Magdalene and Anna are the two garden leaders who are organizing the community. The have conducted a full community survey and census, measured all garden plots, organized the portage of all the fencing, and lead us on a tour of all sites with fence post in place prior to the distribution of the fencing materials. All of this work is done with out pay as a service to their community.

Here Magdalene introduces us to one of the families in front of their home.

Three young girls behind two new puppies curled up on a worn out gunny sack

Providing firewood is a constant chore. Not only does this father have to chop the wood to size the trees are felled and chopped to length with ax or machete and then carried a half hour or more on their backs.

This girl has a scarf on because she has flu and fever symptoms. The day I toke this picture I visited around 20 families and a third of them had members with the flu. Poor diet, sanitation and a wet climate allow sickness to travel fast and hard.

Here is the home of Hacinta, one of the young mothers.

The week following our meeting 17 families built the fences for their gardens. To set fence post they are sharpened like giant pencils and lifted and slammed into the earth time and time again until they reach the proper depth.

A garden spot that is almost ready for the wire. We have gotten very strict about the fence preparation and this plot still needs the angular braces in the corners and a few more post where the spacing is too long. The Spanish nickname for the corner post with its two braces is “pie de gallo” or a roster’s foot. It is thus named because of its resemblance to the three claws of a chicken’s foot.

Two other plots in preparation. With over 70 garden spots in three communities being prepared and 34 chicken runs being built in another village TRE is defiantly in a fencing phase. It seems that everywhere I go there is a new plot being prepared.

This muchacho has cut down his coffee plants to put in a garden plot. This would have been unheard of three years ago but with the blight “La Roya” destroying the coffee crop families are desperate to find another alternative. Last week another man made me a dozen rake handles out of coffee trees which even astounded me.

Well this is just the beginning of the story of gardens in Zacpotal. We want to thank those who have dug deep to share with us in this project and the fund drive to raise $4,000 for seeds. All the gardens in this community will receive three fruit trees and training as well as fencing and seeds. At the end of June TRE is excited to host a training session for representatives from 7 villages in a neighboring town of Barrillas. This will be taught by a professional organic gardener and owner of a tree nursery with over 30 years of experience. We are also excited as villagers around our nursery plot in Xesally have started bringing us starts and seed to help us in our distributions. In June alone we distributed 200 tomatoes plants, two gunny sacks of yam starts and planted 100 pigeon pea bushes that were all produced and donated by members of the garden program. Never underestimate the power of a ripple!

Spring Gardens

It is with joy that we announce our first garden harvest in 2014. After a lean winter season the gardens are producing nicely. I would like to share these photos and discribe some of our practices and experieces. This picture, taken the first of April, shows some of our first cabbages of the year. A garden like this is a godsend. This young mother can supplement both the food needed for her family and sell a little extra to her neighbors. Due to a blight on the coffee plants called “La Roya” (Which literally means “The Red” and is an attack from a red fungus) many villagers have not had hardly any income for two years. this lack of such a central source of income has had a serious affect on the food that is available at the dinner table thus making these gardens all the more important.