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XELA PAGES GUATEMALAN NEWSLETTER http://www.xelapages.com/ Issue #10, Septembre 30, 1999 Current Subscriber - 722 ============================================== Copyright 1999 By Tom Lingenfelter -- Xela Pages NOTE: This Newsletter is sent to subscribers, friends, and business associates. This is NOT UCE or SPAM everyone on this list has contacted me in the past or subscribed to this newsletter. Xela Pages will NEVER provide its subscriber list to ANYONE. We respect
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Guatemala was fabulous; a whirlwind tour, to be sure, six days mixing business with pleasure. The people are absolutely delightful, but the chicken bus drivers are a whole other species! We took buses a lot, and were terrified every time! Our travels took us to Xela for two nights.... we stayed in a "cold water" hotel just up the hill from the square. During the day we traveled south to Coatepeque and met the people we were sent to find-what an experience that was! They prepared a meal for us that is a short story all by itself. And afterward, we got to ride in the back of the pickup, in driving rain, back to the bus stop. All the little kids along the way waved at us...we felt like movie stars or something. Next day we had to go to Cocales...and from there we went to Chichi, then to Pana, then home during a night run that made it perfectly clear why one should not travel at night. Bikes, pedestrians, and unlighted vehicles get no regard from drivers! We were in Chichi the night before market-I'll never forget it-the rain, the light, the incense from Santo Tomas, the color, the smells, the murmur of the language... I was pretty concerned about the trip after I read the consular advisories
and got the medical run-down from my doc, but the worst we suffered was
inconvenience.
Thanks again for your supportive reassurance. It calmed me a lot, and certainly made my husband feel better about my going without him! Best,
Lonely Planet Central America : On a Shoestring (3rd Ed)
Lonely Planet Guatemala, Belize & Yucatan LA Ruta Maya (3rd Ed)
Rough Guide to Guatemala by Rough Guides, Mark Whatmore
The Rough Guide to Guatemala and Belize (3rd Ed)
Fodor's Belize & Guatemala: The Complete Guide With Beaches, Maya
Ruins and Dive Sites (1st Ed)
To see all my recommendations goto:
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My name is Roy Holman, and I lived in Guatemala for 2 ½ years, from 1993 to 1995 or so. I first went down there for two reasons: to study Spanish and, as a member of a fact-finding delegation, to study the effects of U.S. Policy in the region. Well, after talking with numerous groups with quite varied perspectives (campesino groups, student groups, women's groups on one end, and the U.S. Embassy, the Guatemalan army spokes person, conservative business organizations, etc. on the other end), it became all too clear that our policies were, as Noam Chomsky calls it, "deterring democracy". To put it even more bluntly, we ("we" meaning our U.S. Government in response to those corporate and conservative forces whose power and wealth buys political influence) were doing everything possible to maintain a system where we could maintain access to cheap labor, weak environmental laws, and, generally, a culture of unimpeded business, "free" trade, and, more specifically - profits. So, I decided to stay down there, continuing my research and attempting to get the word out in the hope of influencing changes in U.S. Policy. It was so obviously "wrong" what we were doing (I thought we were supposed to support democracy and the pursuit of freedom?), that I had to do what I could. I wrote reports back to the states, worked on a couple refugee projects, made slide shows and videos, gave presentations, and, along with a Guatemalan friend, started a nonprofit Spanish school - which gave me access to students seeking alternative perspectives on what was going on in Central America. Anyway, I won't go into all the details it was a very rewarding and exciting experience, but also a bit dangerous. I haven't talked or wrote about these experiences for some time, and as I do it brings up lots of varied emotions. Guatemala is a magic land, with such a rich tapestry of culture, colors, land, people, fabrics and more, a land where rich and poor, jungles and mountains, city and village exist side by side. I started to wonder if I would ever leave. But I did. I finally decided to head home, and move from the "outer" peace work to the "inner" peace work. I began to notice that many of us who work for peace really enjoy very little true peace within. The outer work, or volunteer work, is like a distraction, even a shield that keeps us from seeing our own inner pain. We may even project our own inner rage, shame, and hate outward, and, for me the U.S. Government, C.I.A., and other agencies were easy and worthy targets. This is not to dismiss our volunteer work, or attempts to make our government's policies more just and honest. But I began to see the irony in working for peace while ignoring my inner turmoil. I believe it is important to be clear, to ask ourselves the true motive for our work. Are we, perhaps, coming from a position of guilt? Are we helping, or adding fuel to the fire? Are we working for peace, or against someone or something? When I returned from Guatemala to the states (Seattle), four years ago, I felt so guilty taking time to do personal healing work. A fellow activist even wrote me, saying, "How can you be so selfish, abandoning the cause and doing stuff just for yourself?" But I came to realize that the "inner" and "outer" works are really one and the same. I began to understand things from a Spiritual perspective, that, like Gandhi and King had said, we must come from love, in a true spirit of nonviolence, and to do this, I first had to deal with my own house, or body. And it was here that I came to find more fear, hate, anger, and rage than I ever acknowledged. Anyway, this is probably not the type of travelling story many of you like to read - or maybe it is? I will close by saying that the inner journey is even more rewarding and profound than the outer travels I suggest both! Since returning to the states, I have studied everything from hands-on energy healing to yoga to nutrition to clairvoyance training. I have been ordained as a minister in a Christian-base church that is so empowering and liberating - nothing like the suffocating form of Catholicism I grew up with, or the conservative, brainwashing form of Evangelism taking hold in many parts of Guatemala. Not only am I feeling more happy and whole, but also I feel myself becoming a healer of sorts, able to more freely share the gifts I was born with, and truly contribute to genuine peace. I still keep in touch with our Spanish school in Xela, and travel down there every year or so to visit my friends, to escape Seattle's rain and feel the wonderful Guatemala sun, enjoy the culture, swim in the beautiful Lake Atitlan, and munch some incredible corn tortillas. Let the journey continue, and peaceful travels to you all! Roy Holman - mailto:RoyMundo@aol.com ==============================================
We wanted to stay at La Posada de Don Rodrigo. A beatiful place to stay,
but the place was full. They treated us like guests of the Hotel and they
called another Hotel to be sure that we did not have to run around a city
that we did not know looking for a place to stay. Not far from them we
were sent to Hotel Dos Mundos. Not many rooms but they were comfortable,
clean with a small swimming pool and the price was right. For three days,
two rooms we paid around $100.00. I am talking the end of 1997.
We stopped at Sololá for a few minutes, mostly because the traffic jam due to the amount of buses and trucks blocking the small streets. Obviously made before the automobile was invented. We knew we had to switch roads at a point where four roads meet. We had to use our sense of direction, because the lack of road signs. We decided we had to go left. We were happy talking and again admiring every thing on our way. At that time almost all the roads had some kind of work done to add more lanes and resurface them. So we had delays, that we did not care for. We finally reach a point where the traffic was backed up for several kilometers. We had the chance to get out of the car and talk to other travelers. Vendors were out on the road selling fruit, soda, candy, nuts, etc. We got some fruit and roasted cashews and asked other drivers "How long to reach El Quiché?". "El Quiché?" they said, "this the way to Quetzaltenango!" Because there were no road signs we had wasted about one hour
and half going the wrong way! We turn around and when we reached the cross
roads, we ASKED the local people which way to Quiché, filled up
the tank, just in case, and went on our way.
Enrique Barrios mailto:mazat222@freewwweb.com
Xela Pages Guatemalan Newsletter is published online from Quetzaltenango,
Guatemala.
Have a great trip!!
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