CHAJUL PAST AND PRESENT

I am compiling a history and cultural section on Chajul. The name Chajul is made up of two ixil words. Jul which means to be encased in by mountains and Tzaj which means lighting. According to the tradition of their for fathers this site was sacred and in the surrounding mountains were religous ceremonial centers for the Ixil people. It was in the second century that the Ixil people were pushed out of their lands to the south by the Kiche tribe and came to this area.

Chajul is a pre-colonial town but was concord without a fight by the Spanish in 1530 after they defeated neighboring Nebaj. It was then Chajul reached its population height of 20,000-25,000 inhabitants. In 1750 the population began to recover from Spanish rule and began returning to the establishment of leaders from the indigenous inhabitants.
In 1890 ladinos (people of mix Spanish and Indian decent) came to the region and began contracting with the Ixil to work in the plantations along the coast. This started a season of labor exploitation that continued into the present generation. In the book “I Rigoberta Mnechu” chapter four she describes a griping tale of this life. Forty Indians would be crowded into a large truck with their animals and began the trip to the coast. The trucks were tarped and they were charged a loading and unloading fee so they stayed inside with the feces and vomit for a day and a half. Once on the plantation with company ran stores, clinics and cantinas so it was difficult to save any money during the one to three month stay. This work force was made up not only of men but consisted of the whole family. Today along the coast by you can find a Ixil community still wearing traditional dress that has relocated there permanently.
Today the name Chajul can refer both to the town of 11,000 people or the municipal (a municipal is similar to a county) that consist of 60 villages and 37,000 people. Chajul is part of what is referred to the Ixil triangle, three municipals Nebaj, Chajul and Cortzal that are home to the Ixil a Mayan people group. The road to Chajul was paved in ’98 increasing access but transportation slows as you make you way on to other villages. I get excited as I approach Chajul from Sacapulas. One reason is you start to climb out of the dry lands into the greenery of the mountains and another is the colorful clothing of the women and the stylish hats of the men tell you that you are entering a specific tribal homeland. Life slows down a bit and you are in the lands of the Ixil. It is beautifully different.

When I first came to Chajul Higinio’s brother was the alcade or mayor of Chajul. It was under his direction that the fountain, benches and facelift of the porch were done. During the civil conflict that ravage Guatemala Chajul was particularly hard hit. The account in the book I Roberta Manchu where her brother was killed along with six other Guatemalans happened here. His body was burned in front of the Church. I have read that at night the army that garrisoned six to seven thousand solders here would hang the bodies of insurgents from this balcony and in the morning the local firemen would take them down. I am so thankful for peace.
When I come to Chajul from the outlaying villages we arrive here before dawn. I usually buy a glass of hot rice milk from a lady who sell it under the brick arch and then take a nap on one of the benches until daybreak. When the morning light starts to fill the sky the venders for the open air market begin arriving in the plaza below here and life begins again.

The photo above is of the construction of the central park with the goal of bringing in tourism. These construction workers are probable making $10 a day on this government job but I have seen entry level wages at $3 a day.

Today Chajuls population is 96% indigenous Mayan.

A farmer like this boy’s father will average $600 a year.

Literacy rates are said to be up to 80%.

Child mortality rates reach 40% by the age of 5 in some of the outlining villages.

Electricity and running water are available in some but not most of the villages.

Corn is central to their diet and coffee is an export item.

Traditional weaving and agriculture are the main commerce.

Many parts of the local architect are reflective of its colonial past.

Public education is avalible to the six grade level

CHECK BACK FOR MORE INFOMATION LATER ADIOS

CLEAN WATER

In today’s world where we have a never ending supply of tap water, cold and hot water in our sinks and showers, ice water from our refrigerator, timed water in our sprinkler systems, and bottled water in our stores it is incredible that 1.1 billon people lack access to clean drinking water. 1.1 billon! That is everyone in the United States times 5! What an outcry we would make if our state of Washington lost its clean water. What a tragedy to see our children die due to diseases caused by a lack of clean water. The nation, yes the world would take notice. Help would be on its way. The headlines would read, “Nine Million Washingtonians without Clean Water.” Why then do we stay silent at 110 Washingtons without clean water? If it is because the problem is too big and difficult lets break it down and make it doable and personal. If the statistic that 30,000 people mostly children die each week because of disease caused by lack of clean water is too abstract to act on let look at helping in a village of 22 families hat has an infant mortality rate of pushing forty percent. A kitchen sink in a home with access to potable water. This is one of the better situations. In February ’08 I took a quick trip back to visit five of 9 villages without water behind Chel. These these following photos are from Los Encuentros a village of seventy families. The situation here is typical of most of these villages. The villages are set on a ridge with some but not a lot of land above them so it is not a naturally good situation to find water. There is no electricity and many needs in these communities who rely on subsistence farming to survive. Open ponds and cistrens provide water for utilitarian needs.

The man in this photo is an active leader in the community. During a breakfast of Malaga, a starching root that grows wild and tortillas I listened to how his village was bombed during the civil war and all their crops destroyed. The only food source the army could not eradicate was the wild root Malaga so for two years this was their survival food. We talked about the water situation here where their only water source is collecting rain water.

He informed me that about 30% of the houses have one black poly tank to collect water. These tanks hold 1000 liters and cost about $250 dollars. They do not have a filter system nor do they seal the caps to these tanks. Both of these problems could be easily remedied but a family needs two to three tanks to supply themselves throughout the three month dry season. Even providing 50 families with one tank and a filter would cost $15,000. This would be a big help but is also a big expense for a Band-Aid fix. He also told me that they have found a spring 2 hours away by foot. This spring is only large enough for half of the community and would cost around $18,000 to develop and pipe to the village for a community water source. Wells can be a risky venture because this area is remote making the cost of transporting a well drilling rig is prohibitive ,the depth of the water table unknown and there is no electricity for pumping. All of this information show there is not always an easy solution and careful study is needed to proceed in the best manner. It also demonstrates that the need of the people is great as they live on the edge of survival. With limited food and water their need cries out to our compassion. This year I am going to meet and study a way to assist this community hopefully in ’10.

Children of Xesayi with there school house in the background.

There are two communities with similar needs but easier solutions that I want to help first. One is Xesayi, home to twenty two families, one hundred and ten people. All the homes here have dirt floors including the school. This community is one of the three that received electricity in ’07 by building a small hydro electric facility. This project was funded by a green carbon exchange grant and is the first such project in Guatemala. This community has access to two springs and either one could be developed into a gravity system that would supply the village both now and for the projected future. The distance is not great, the water is clean, the system would be easy to construct and maintain. When I see a situation like this I tell myself let’s just do it. It is so simple and will give a gift of life this year, next year, ten, twenty, and thirty years from now. What could be a better investment? This year we have secured the rights of usage and passage for one of these springs and had an architect look at tank size and design. I hope to finish plans and budget in my first few meetings in Guatemala and proceed with installation. We are hoping to be able to keep this project under $10,000 with the village supplying labor and Seeds of Hope supplying material.
The other community that I have been invited to visit is Nuevo Puntos. It is another community of 22 families. This community is further back in the hills with the final leg of the journey being a half hour walk in. This community is a C.P.R. community that had organized against the oppression during the civil conflict. It’s only source of water is from collecting rain water. There is a spring three kilometers away that would serve the community with a gravity feed clean water source. I hope to develop a working plan and budget for this community for the next trip in’10.

When I read statistics about clean water I can see the problem is huge. When I visit a family without a good water source I see it is personal. I want to share a little of both of these stories with you in hope of raising your awarenessand with that awareness action..

INTRODUTION TO TRIP '09

I have let my blog go silent for quite awhile but have not stop dreaming, planning, and working on how to continue helping in the Chajul region. Last May, I made a list of goals for the next six months. I have done well on three of the six, made some progress on two of the others, but haven’t yet touched the sixth. All this shows me that this is a big process, and it is accomplished by a lot of little steps. The biggest goal, and the most important one to achieve over this next year, is to come under a sister non-profit organization or to start one. Many of the steps for both options are the same so I can, “fish in both ponds” so to speak. It is a humbling process both in the daunting task of learning new skills and that of building a network of interested people. I love both the dream of assisting these people to better their life and the potential for people in the states to directly help these families, but standing in the middle of both worlds is very stretching for me. All said, I am at a crossroad of saying this is bigger than me, and I am starting to reach out for help. I am looking at this year as a year to solidify the form and direction of this organization and to prove the value and validity of these ideas. I invite you all to follow along. Enjoy the beauty and trials of life in this region. Along our journey in life, there are many ways that each of us can step in and make life better. If the opportunities presented here are of interest to you, please contact me @ mewens000centurytel.net Here is a photo of twenty widows to whom we have been providing a monthly allotment of food. Pictured below is an example of what is provided, with about #25 of corn being the largest commodity. Sixty widows around Chel have asked for help in establishing a weaving co-op. We are going to choose seven to ten of the widows presently in the food program who are too old to work, to stay in the food program and provide $25 worth of thread to each of the 50 others.I would like to provide thread twice a year. When the women sell their weavings, a portion of what each sells would go into the co-op to help the food program. A local fair trade store in Gig Harbor, Washington is going to sell some of their wares as well as display a photo journal of the program. I want the women to elect officers to record and manage the program. We will see how this goes. The man in the red and white shirt is Higinio Asicona. He is working for the regional government in developmental aid and has been a real asset in introducing me to communities and program development. The man in the green shirt is Manuel Riviera and is a very respected leader in Chel

( see entre "las viudas de chel '08" for more)

PROJECT TWO--- Water for Xesayi. This is a community of 22 families for whom we have been studying how to provide drinking water. In June, Higinio brought an architect to this village to look at the springs and work on a design. He provided this service for only the cost of transportation as payment. It was good to bring another perspective into the picture. The estimantes for this project have been varied a lot, with my projection landing in between Higinio’s and the architect’s. I have a friend who is researching using Ultra-Violet light to purify water from a nearby stream. This would eliminate a lot of piping. Rites of passages for the water have been cleared, but we are not yet solid on a budget. After some meetings and research, I hope to plow ahead with this project. The local community will supply labor and set up a maintenance committee, and I will provide materials and hire a mason to oversee the tank construction. Each of the choices for the water supply are higher in elevation, so this system will be gravity fed into a storage tank and then distributed to each house. One hose bib with clean water can make a huge difference to ta home. Below are some of the children of Xesayi in the “town center”. This village is just a fifteen-minute walk from Chel and sets on the side of a hill with a precious view. The building behind the kids is their school. Below and to the right are some of the men from this village after a meeting in Chel.

(view "clean water '09"post for more)

Project Three--- Giving people the ability to provide for themselves is one of the greatest gifts we can offer. It puts their future in their hands. It lets them dream and work to reach those dreams. In Guatemala the patience level required for bettering you life or the life of your family is totally different. Parents are willing to work hard, taking small steps with the hope that their children will have a better future. For this reason, I believe offering income generating programs is a great investment. We are trying to provide programs that require an investment by the recipient and multiply the original gift. We will develop and offer a small animal project this year. I do not have a lot of money for this right now so we will offer one of the small communities a program of sheep or chickens. The cow program that we started last year was very well received, and the regional government has used the same model to provide 200 cows in the Chajul region. Small gifts in this direction can really change the future for a family. I will post the details after some meetings with the local leaders. ( for more on the cows see "Operacion Bendicion '08")

Here is the start of a chicken project on which Higinio was working. Fifty meat chickens with feed and feeders cost around $100. Materials for a pen will run around $80. Sheep cost around $35 each and $15 to transport to the villages.
. In Guatemala I will be working to form a committee that will oversee the direction of future projects and the management of existing ones. I am also desiring to hire someone four or five days a month for research and reporting. The projects of pots and pans for Amechel and water for the community of Nuevo Puntos are still on the “to do” list but will have to wait for funding. I am looking forward to deepening relationships and clarifying how we can turn this effort into a real, working organization. I worry about the “bumps in the road” that always come, but, if life is nothing else, it is a journey. I would really enjoy feedback so if you have any ideas or suggestions please e-mail me. If you are interested in helping, let’s get connected. I know this year our economy is very slow, but imagine spinning a world globe, then randomly put your finger on a spot to stop it. Chances are the things that we might have to cut back on are things that the people that live where you are pointing will never even have the chance to experience. Good shoes, a good job, enough food, education, clean tap water or a shower are luxury items in many places.We still have the opportunity to share and make a difference in this world. I encourage you to find a way to do just that. Plant a seed and watch it grow. We can’t change the world or can we?

When Forrest died in Afghanistan he left me $10,000. Last year we used this money to buy 22 cows, one freezer, a table saw and some carpentry tools, materials for a concrete floor, 50 fence post and some other building materials for the people of Chajul. A little more was added, and we have been feeding twenty widows for the last ten months, bought a gas stove for a family, some blankets, shoes, and clothes. My family and some of Forrest’s friends pooled together and funded a well for 500 people in Afghanistan. I realize that my son gave me the seed money to pursue a dream of helping in regions of extreme poverty and need. With a high cost, he has planted a precious seed. With careful cultivation I want to watch it grow. By investing in a cow here, or a chicken there, clean water for a community, or just standing by someone in their struggle, I would like to see a garden grow. I would like to form an organization or sub chapter with one and name it “Seeds of Hope.” Doing this will form a bridge that we could use to reach directly into these lives and lend a helping hand. I don’t know what the future holds and even though this last year might have been hard, it was a good one. I look forward to planting some more seeds this years and seeing what grows

En camino sacrado Michael Departure date January 27th 2009 Return March 27th

For more about Forrest see the post "Thank-you Forrest '09"

Random Acts of Kindness (part one)

The following photographs are of different needs I came across that I wanted to be a part of. It is a privilege to have the resources... i.e. such as money with which to step into someone’s life and make a difference. I believe that is the benefit of unequal wages between industrial nations and the developing world. Since I can’t fix the inequality of national economies it is nice to share the material blessing I have received.

Here is Gaspar, a part time teacher and carpenter planing a table top. In the last year his village has received electricity which has opened up new possibilities. Carpentry tools are about 30% higher in Guatemala and, with the local low wages, it is very difficult to buy enough tools. I bought about $1200 worth of tools and set-up an interest free loan for $800 dollars and gifted the rest. For three weeks his family fed and housed me and I tried to teach them a little carpentry. The next three loans that I made in this community have the added feature so that the loan payments will go to the school to help buy books for a reading library.

The most expensive tool I bought was this tablesaw. In this picture Gaspar is routering a table leg.

Here he is cutting some decorative diamonds into the table top.

The finished product: Total value $50 .Materials $15. Time to build, 3 days. A good profit in a economy that generally pays $3 -$10 a day.

Another entrepreneur I met had an ice-cream business. He would travel three hours to buy ice and then store it in a gunnysack of wood shavings to insulate it. It was a race in order to sell shaved-iced cones before his ice melted and then he would have to travel back for more. Now he has a freezer and can sell ice, bags of frozen fruit water and shaved-ice cones. Here he is with his new freezer and ice cream cart.

Enlisting the relatives to bag colored water

With the busness going great, Silvistre can rest in his office!

Once again, here is my friend Manuel. His son needed help with tuition. His son Maximino is in school to become a teacher and needed assistance with tuition, room and board. With a $300 scholarship and a $300 loan Maximino will be able to continue attending school and graduate this year.

Random Acts of Kindness (part two)

I met these two men while walking outside of Chajul. The were repairing the fence around their corn field. Each post cost 26 cents and was made from one log split three times by a chain saw. The post holes were being dug with a machete and each fence post would only last a couple of years. I left them with enough money to buy 50 more posts and thanked them for the their conversation.

Once again, here is Andres. I gathered rocks and packed them out on mules so he could rebuild his house. I visited with him several different times over a six week period. I could not find a real good way to help him so on my last day in Chajul I decided to give him 1000 quetzales... which is equal to two months wages for his house project.

When I arrived at Andre's home, I found his house gone and his wife cooking in a three sided kitchen. He is starting the foundation for a new house and is a real hard worker. I really enjoyed him and his family and it will be interesting to see at what stage I find his home next year.

Dominigo and his family gave me a place to stay in Chajul and I provided them with a concrete floor for their house.

I have a stack of “ solicitudes”- requests - for help on my desk. Many of these papers are stamped with the village seal and thumb prints of the community members. I have seen so many needs and had so many ideas of ways to help it will be an evolving process to choose which projects and when. There is a need for a trade school, a weaver’s co-op, chicken, sheep and beef production, a fish farm, a shop for school supplies, a bakery and on and on it goes. Here are a few photos that correspond with some of these requests.

This man told me of life during the civil war and their present need for drinking water. We had fried tortillas and a root for breakfast. I visited their community to look at the water situation and found it would be very difficult to solve. He asked for water tanks to help collect rain water until a solution could be found.

Here is some of the open pit storage that they presently use.

This system is better designed for mosquitos then people.

This school at Fatima needs desks. 40 desks cost about $600.

These two men came to me one night and asked if the could summit a request for help with metal roofing for their village. They had to walk two hours to make the request, then came back three days later with two copies of a proposal. One copy had twelve signatures and 8 thumbprints for me to keep and the other that I signed so they could show they village they had summited the proposal.

Mateo, a school teacher, was showing me his house one night and I asked him if there was only three in his family. The house was so small I didn't think there could be very many more living there. He told me yes, there were only three presently, but clarified that they had already lost two children, one at 6 months and another at 3 years. I think they could qualify for a Habitat House if we are successful in bringing Habitat for Humanity into the area. Very few people could qualify because of their low income.

This village has requested a kitchen where the mothers would be able to prepare snacks or a meal for their students. All the schools have needs for school supplies and books.

This is our sponser child through Christian Children's Fund , Anna Maria. She has the privilege of studying with personal work books, a rarity in Guatemala. In the municipio of Chajul there are 37,ooo people without a bookstore.

Here is part of the community of Xesalli. There are 22 families without drinking water yet there is a nearby spring that could be bought and developed for under $10,000. Another $3500 would also provide 2 sheep for each family. The posibilities are endless. Is our vision to help others equal to the opportunities?

The chidren of Xesalli. The next generation's future is in the hands of today's people. I want to make a difference with "planned" acts of kindness in this community and others. Adios y Dios te bendiga!

'

OPERACION BENDICION

Well I had another excellent day today! I recovered 117 photos that had been corrupted and so now I get to share this story in technicolor. The most expensive project I was involved with was a project I called "the cow project". I heard the leaders in Chel talking about Operacion Bendicion and asked my friend Miguel what they were talking about. He said that the leaders had named my "cow project" the "Operacion Benicion" Well I have to admit it sounds better then “the cow project” so “Operation Blessing” it is.
Here is a brief outline of what we offered.:
I would buy 22 cows that would be about a year old. The leaders would select 22 families with enough pasture to raise them for 18 months. The families would give 1 vaccine every 6 months and provide vitamins and feed their cow. After 18 months they would sell the cow and buy two more. One of these new animals they could keep and the other they would give to another family selected by the community leaders. There were eight to ten leaders in this committee and the families submitted applications to help determine whether they had the capacity to raise a cow and also that we were reaching across the community and not just within a select group. This is a seed project that could grow to help 66 families in 3 years. One cow equals a little over 1/3 of a year’s income. The committee then sent two teams of two looking for cows. It is easy to buy one or two cows but to buy 22 meant that we would have to travel to one or two communities that raised lots of livestock. The team that went to Uspantan had success and a round up was planned. Higinio contacted a business for transportation, I transferred funds, and 6 of us from Chel would head to Uspantan in 10 days. The night before we left, I was in a village called Santa Clara and it had one pickup that carried people out each day. That was the good news. The bad news was that it left at 12:30 a.m. and I had only just gotten to bed at 11:00pm. There was only enough room in the pickup for one of my legs to touch the pickup bed and I couldn’t have fallen over if I tried. Three hours later we switched to a bus in Chel, and then at 7:00 we changed again in Nebaj, and at 3:00 in the afternoon we arrived in Uspantan. Transportation is a real issue and expense in this region .

Here is the Saturday livestock market in Uspantan. Uspantan is a drier and more open region then Chel. This market was described as very big with all kinds of animals but it was not at all like a stockyard in the U.S.. The team had made arrangements with a rancher to bring about 35 cows to a field about two blocks away.

We had inspected the cattle the night before and after agreeing on a price, called for two trucks to meet us at 6:00am and started the round up. It was obvious we had some new cowboys in the group.

The first truck loaded easy but the second took three times as long. This is the easy one.

Meet Juancito and Higinio. Higinio has been my main contact in Guatemala and we have been e-mailing ideas back and forth for a year. On this day it dawned on me that this was not simply an idea anymore but a flesh and bones reality. The animals were good, the people grateful, excited, and I was getting to live out a precious dream. I couldn’t have done this without his help.

The cows looked heathy and ready for some good pasture.

The ride back was more direct but the last 2.5 or 3 hours was a low geared crawl. Here is one of the corners that trucks and buses must back up on because it is too sharp. The second truck broke down on this road and we had to hire another truck to replace it but it did not arrive until 9:00 at night. The owner of both of the trucks we hired had worked in the U.S. and started a trucking business with the money he earned. His son was driving the truck I rode back in and told me that the people in Chajul were saying that when I died that I would go straight to heaven. I didn’t understand the Spanish very well and when I asked him what he meant he said that anyone that did so many good works would go to heaven. This statement made me aware of what impact we have the opportunity to make. A small amount of help and most of it hours away from Chajul was the subject of talk ,hope and prayers of blessings. For me this whole trip has been humbling to be embraced with such appreciation.

We arrived to people waiting and fireworks and started unloading the first truck.

A sign of thanks and a day for fiesta.

Finally a long awaited drink

Who benefits from programs like this? Whole families and whole communities. Later that night the second truck arrived and there was more fireworks with scared cows running up and down the road. When things settled down Higinio read the rules of the program and then Manuel read the list of selected families(see above). This was my last picture of the night because the memory card in my camera was full. We tied cards with numbers around each cow's neck and then men and a few of their sons picked a number from a hat. They were smiling like little kids and the whole family was excited when they found out which cow was theirs. That night they gave me a hat that is typical for the Ixil men to wear and I felt that life is good .

A few days later I shot these pictures of the new cowboys. Juancitos corn field is some distance away from here and he arrived covered with sweat but proud and happy to be carrying feed for his cow.

WITH FEED IN ABUNDANCE THESE COWS WILL GROW!

EATING AND CONTENT

GRACIAS Y ADIOS

cost per cow including transportation --$350 the experience -- priceless!