Darwin´s night mare/ Don Chebo´s dream

Edu (a Basque working on a drinking water project in Nicaragua) takes me along to the cinema to see ¨Darwin´s night mare¨, a documentary on the Victory Lake in Africa. On the introduction of the Nile baars, a deprador fish that ate away all the indigenous fish, but is very much wanted for sale to Europe and Japan. On the realities of the people living and working around the lake. A very very harsh and seemingly hopeless reality. Because even though much money is made by the fish industry, it is the profit of a happy few, leaving the workers in extreme poverty. With a lake full of fish, the people have nothing to eat. The planes that transport the fish to Europe, return with weapons for the many wars on the continent. The migratory status of the workers and the position of the church on condoms enhances the problem of AIDS: people dying daily. With only the strongest surviving, on the cost of others...
I come home shocked and think about Anouk´s question of ´how I take the povery here.´

I feel the answer lies in my sensation that the poverty that I experience here in Chiapas is a povery with hope. Around the Lake Victoria I would not know where to start, here I see many opportunities. The people are strong and have a lust for fighting. Although, now that I know the reality of Los Altos a bit better, I have to say that yes the poverty is bigger than it sometimes shows at first looks. This week we visited a community where a group of women has organized themselves to make and sell artisenal clothes. Of the four women present at the work shop for the preparation of water collection (in the upcoming dry months, the women are not allowed to bath or wash the clothes nearby and have to go very far to the river...), two of their husband had gone North (USA) and two of them had died (in their late thirties) because of drinking too much. Many people suffer of diabetes as they drink liters of Coca Cola each day. The children often malnourished.

That makes me think of Don Chebo with his dream of reaching the number of cows again he had before 1994 or more. In 1994 Sub-Commandante Marcos and Commandante Pedro passed and took most of his flock away, although he was only using it to sustain his large family. But ok, in a revolution all suffer and he stayed with his land. Then Don Chebo hopes that they will build a road so that he can start selling more cows, more coffee etc. He dreams that this will make him rich, so that he can go anyplace he wants ´simply to visit´, like we do...
I have to admit that I sometimes hope that the road will never be build. That when I compare them to other villages that do have a road, they are better off. There are less health problems, as their diet is not based on Coca Cola and totties (all kind of crisps) and they still have access to clean water. Alcoholism is not absent, but not yet epidemic. There still are young men to work the earth, with a will to build their communities. That even though one has access to the road, does not mean he will receive great prices for his products. Lastly with the road, more people will try to come to the area, and with the bad control in place that will mean more destruction of the forest. A forest that is so generous: where else can two maize cycles be grown, the earth has such a big capacity for regeneration when you treat her gently and fruits and wild animals are there for taking without much effort. And one they I am sure, Don Chebo will receive a chingo of money for the forest he is not cutting down!!!
This probably is a paternalistic thougt, so be it. I am happy that some of the people share this thought, that they have resisted the government´s will to help them by building the road.

Laguna Miramar

Not to make you guys feel jealous (just think of all the parasites, diarrea and bronchitis you also miss out on, if that helps), but these are the photos of our excursion to the Laguna Miramar 23 th of December, a tropical lake in the middle of the forest, two hours beautiful walk from San Quentin.
foto 1: The bridge where my camara had his adventure, which it survived (!!), my photos not, so that is why everyone helps me by sending digital ones... A bit scary walking over it, but ok your fears are there to be faced, no?
foto 2: Just picture me and Nacho with two small boys giving ´swimming lessons´ here, while some wooden kayak float by and you have the full memory. What a laugh when Mariano (8) decided to take of his swimming trunks, we agreed completely with him, swimming naked it so much better! So we joined, only poorArmando (10) was not so comfortable with my ´chichis gueras´ (white breasts), even though you can see a lot of women feeding their children in public even of kids that can already walk.

San Quentin

San Quentin where I staid over Christmas for a week and is a good example of the villages in Chiapas. The fotos are shot by Ignacio (Nacho) over the last year when he worked there as a docter in the health centre. San Quentin is a 6 hours drive in a pick-up truck on land roads from Conmitan or Ocosingo, a beautiful ride if you only have to make it once or twice or maybe three times... along some of the Zapatista caracoles. It is a 5 hours walk (for me it would be 10 hours!) through the mud to Amador-Hernandez where Carolina and I ´work´.

foto 1: Ignacio´s neighbour children which called me Elisa-Elisa all day long (Elisa is Ignacio´s Italian amore), then changed to Juanitaaaaaaaaaa!! or Elisa-Juanita to be sure... Their mother, Doña Rosa, pretends to be too busy with degraining the maiz ears, to look in the camara. They all gave me Tseltal-classes.
foto 2: Nacho, Gilberto and Victor. Gilberto was my most enthusiast fan, ´ix bonix ta holanda´, let´s go to Holland, we used to tell him! I´d happily would have take him and Edgar Benjamin (Juana´s baby, no foto) with me, those big brown eyes...
foto 3: The streets of San Quentin, the light blue door is Nacho´s.

Aid (continued)

Or should we say it is the curse of our academical formation that we cannot simply enjoy the scene like the other participants seem to do? Why criticize good intents? And I think a litlle desperate: ¨oh no, please, I do not want to become a cynic at 23 years young...¨

Jerry gives us a ride back and we cannot help to pose a few cautious questions. On the clothes they bring and whether it would not be better to help them conserve their own beautiful clothing. Mireille, the gringa woman, is quick to taste our critique even though we try to hide it in a played naivety. ¨Oh no, we do not want to them to stop wearing their beautiful customs, that is why we only bring clothes to the men, that wear western clothes most of the times and for the girls just t-shirts they can wear under their customs.¨
(silence)
Another try by Carolina: ¨You know, one of the young farmers just told us about the peach trees they planted and how they cannot pay a technician, would that be something to help in?¨
Mireille: ¨Oh I did not know that, but you know we are now trying to get them a bull, so that they get more baby calves!¨ Ending with a triumphant smile.
In the silence that follows I think of the mountain landscape here in Los Altos de Chiapas, of the poor vegetation, of the scarcity of water, of how the farmer told me they do not have land themselves, but need to rent even to make their milpas. And trying to find the naivest voice without a hint of accusation (you guys know what an effort that is for me when I am strong about something...): ¨I just wonder what those cows are going to eat?¨
When Mireille answers defiantly that they also gave them an electric fence and that they already had cows anyhow, Carolina tries to broaden the lines of the discusion: ¨You know, we work in the Selva and we have the same problem. You see, you bring things or knowledge to satisfy needs, but often you are at the same time creating new needs. Like with the protein banks, the banks of forage plants that we showed them to make. This way of semi-intensive feed production reduces the need to open up new forest land to pasture the cattle. But now the farmers say they need a cutter (that works on petrol...) and an electric fence...¨.
(silence)
Me in a reconciliating manner: ¨You know we face the same dilemmas, it would just be good to share our doubts and learn from each other.¨
(silence)
Mireille changes the subject with renewed energy: ¨You know next week I am flying to Guatemala, because I do this work all the time, being retired I just go to poor villages where they need help. Actually we are looking here in Chiapas for new villages, aren´t we Jerry? Poorer ones, because San Hisidrio already has quite some things. So how about your communities in la Selva? You say they do not even have a road, so I am sure they are really poor and very few people come to bring them things?¨
I get a horror vision of the small air plane landing in Amador Hernandez, the people crowding around it and Mireille stepping out like a queen, telling them all: ¨Please line up people, I bring you gifts from the generous people in the USA¨, helding up the barbies and base-ball caps.
Just when I imagine how our proud farmers linch her, Carolina ends Mireille´s dream and my nightmare: ¨You see, the only way to enter is a day long walk through the mud, or by plane which is really expensive.¨

Lago Atitlan (Guatemala)

Feliz año nuevo!!

Gelukkig nieuwjaar for all of you!!!!!

With my best wishes I send you some of the energy from the magic places I am staying.
Or does magic not depend of the places we are in, but becomes visible when you allow to look at life with the eyes of a child again?
When you sit down, leave all the stress, work, craziness and worries of our modern world behind and take the time to look at a tree, to feel the wind, sun and rain on your face.
To look at the person next to you, seeing the beauty that hides in every line of his face. Taking the time to sit with them in silence or talk. To feel again that we are all born from the same earth.
Maybe that is why I feel so happy and fortunate to live here for a while, to spend time in the communities. It is a cliche for sure, but like all cliches very true. Among these people, that live a harsh but tranquil life on the land, it is easier to apreciate again the beauty that is in the simplicity of life.
In the Netherlands, I enjoy highly intellectual talks on philosphy, science and politics. I apreciate that everything functions so well (in Guatemala the banks closed down for a week and many were unable to buy their Christmas meals and gifts) and is so neatly planned and that corruption is minimised (in comparison..). That is great - without cynism nor sarcasm- because we reach a lot, we are able to move mountains or more literally the sea. And even though we treat immigrants horribly, in general people are not dying from hunger or without medical aid, there is no waste everywhere in the streets...
We Dutch have the gift of rationality and a very firm work ethos and we should be proud that we manage to live together with so many on such a small space in such a small country.

But how I often miss, what I find here. Time, tranquility and space to express, experience, live through and enjoy our feelings. All our feelings, not just some of them and at the times that it suits. To understand that suffering, pain, jealousy and sadness are not something to evade, but something that is part of life and that can ultimately produce something good, if we wish to embrace it.
The people here work physically hard in the field, and their life is not easy. Juana is happy when her husband does not drink for a day and she does not have to run the restaurant on her own while minding her 4 kids. Santiago is fortunate when he gets a lift and does not have to travel in a pickup or walk two days home from the nearby hospital. Juan is hoping that the plagues will not finish with the maiz he cultivated so carefully. I do not want to romantize their life, because the trouble and risks that some of the youngsters take to cross the border to USA tells enough...
But still, many people told me they are happy and would not want to live anywhere else in the world...
Where the village´s party is the biggest event of the year on which they spend most of their scarce money. Where the forest provides suprises in the forms of good meals. Where there is no television, but there is time to sit down together. Without worrying about being busy, about having to go somewhere, about having to do something ´useful´. To tell stories of the time that the jaguar attacked the chicken or of the crocodile that was caught. To exchange family stories of death, birth, weddings. To ask simple questions on how you are, on how you awoke today, on the weather, on how the maize is doing in your field. Questions that are repeated, not because the answers are forgotton, but just to extend the time spend together. To let you know that you are welcome, that you are human just like them. As one drunkard told me truly ¨bones are bones, flesh is flesh¨.

So I send you this energy from the green mountains of Chiapas, the hapiness and sorrow of its people. I wish you all less work and more time to enjoy life in all its aspects!!
And I send you some greetings from the monkeys, birds, nosebears, tepescuintles in the archeological Mayan site of Tikal in the Guatemalan forest where I spend New Years night sleeping under the stars and almost full moon.... I have to admit I was so tired of my Guatemalan adventures that I fell asleep before 12, but several hours before I brinded on you guys with a good vegetable soup (uhmm yeah, since the banks closed down we could not afford to spend any more Quetzales on beer or wine)!!

Well to finish of... Like some of you know I have a little addiction for stealing, that manifests itself every now and then in rather innocent, non-preocupying forms...
So today I steal from Merlí a text that he used to inaugarate the new year, that he at his turn ´stole´from Nelson Mandela, who ´stole´ it again from someone else. Anyhow it stays a beautiful device (motto, parole) for 2007. For those who can read Spanish please read it at Merli el Mag´s site because the translation he found, is even more beautiful and so is the photo. But for you:

¨Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerfull beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am i to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabuleus? Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God (or Madre Tierra ;-) . Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you.
We are born to make manifest the glory that is within us, like children do. And that glory is not in just some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.¨

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, inaugural speech 1994 Original text by: Marianne Williamson