Today we °did° Almolonga, Zunil, Cantel, and Totnicapan, then came back here. Just when I was convinced I would never get to meet Rolando{s family, his dad turns up in the internet cafe here (Alternativas) and we make plans to finally head up there. Should be interesting, given I dont quite understand the dynamic there, but suffice to say its not the norm- Rolando moved out when he was 11, and has been a free spirit ever since.

My cameras memory card is almost full, and I am totally kicking myself for not shelling out another $100 back in Canada for an extra 256 MB because some of the pics Im gonna have to delete are priceless - and I{m only have way through my trip. Plans almost crystalised to head up to San Cristobal for the huge 10 year anniversary of the Zapatista Revolution - planning to meet up with Amanda from Toronto-Alberta and others met in San Pedro there.

Im getting a bit tired. Feeling the need to connect more profoundly. Like to people I will have in my life longer than a week, or nature (still havent climbed a volcano or swum in a lake), or something... I don’t know. Maybe being on the road is just getting to me. Analogy of the safari came into my mind


I am seriously thinking of ways I can return to Guatemala and get involved in helping. There is such pronounced need. But I want to make sure that any way I start meddling will not have bad repercussions down the road, and there are so many complexities to the situation and so many ways Im thinking I could get involved: like supporting community based eco tourism, fair trade, organic agriculture, capacity building, teaching, etc.

The man I spoke with in the back of the crowded truck I took out of San Something (near Lake Atitlan) was so excited to tell me about the Spanish School his brother is running – the San Juan Spanish School, I think – and how he is a hero in the community because of the shared income generated. He sees the solution to the pronounced poverty as bringing in more tourists to stimulate the economy. In a way, I think hes right, but am dubious about seeing catering to foreign interest (on an individual or national level) as a panacea. I mean, in working with environmental issues, there are some obvious setbacks to inviting over-consuming wealthy folks into your community without getting them to pay the full cost of their stay. Yet the girl sitting beside him kept looking into my eyes and smiling as he went on and on. I am a sucker for children. The connections I was able to make with them, simply by showing interest and accepting their invitations to join in their games and exchange languages, were easier and left a more profound feeling than all the adult conversations I had.

If anyone knows of any funding sources or wants to help me write a grant proposal for a project, please let me know – any assistance would be much appreciated.

K, gotta go up to the land of cold mountain air and Rolandos family and no hot water or internet - rural Qutzaltenango; looking forward to it.

P.S. Mom, thought Id tell you Ive been thinking of you and even bought some organic naturally sweetened chocolate with you in mind. Thing is, I ate it. Id say it was cuz I don’t have room to carry extra stuff, but really it is cuz it looked good and Ive been off chocolate for almost 2 weeks thanks to the Flagyl and I couldn’t help it. It was yummy. Besides, it would have been stale by the time you got it. So thank you ;) I will save you the wrapper and try to find some more…

[Note the very out-of-place McDonald's fries container in the pictured traditional market...]