A large part of the attraction for us to reside at this lake is to work with and learn from the cacao shaman, his partner and the team of cacao wizards.
We have been attending two to three cacao healing ceremonies at the school each week. There can be anywhere from a dozen to upwards of forty or fifty people sitting and reclining on small cushions, scattered around the porch and gardens overlooking the lake and volcanoes. Each one sips cacao and delves into the depths of their hearts for healing and wisdom. At their own pace of course.
We have also really been enjoying assisting in the bagging of the liquid cacao paste. It used to be a once weekly event at the school of cacao's on-sight packing facility, but the demand has grown so great in recent months that it's now twice weekly. The beans are peeled by hand by a team of local Mayan women who are paid by the pound prior to peeling and quality control thinning. Sounds pretty fair! Next, some of the beans are packed whole. Others are ground into a thick paste by another team of local Mayan people. A team of six of us scoops several hundred pounds of cacao paste into bags. The bags are precisely weighed into one pound blocks. The bags are sealed and then laid out and pressed flat with wooden boards until they harden overnight. Then they are shipped worldwide. All of our hard work and love comes sealed inside at no extra charge.
At the same location, one morning each week, there is an acupuncture clinic. I just finished my second session. Acupuncture is so powerful and can be quite uncomfortable...but WOW IS IT EFFECTIVE. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone who needs some assistance with physical, emotional or energetic healing. This particular location is very serene. A gentle breeze flows through a covered porch with spots of sunshine peeking through the foliage. Something about the mixture of the neighborhood chickens happily clucking and the native tropical birdsong is so soothing. The woman across the bamboo fence makes a constant patty cake sound as she makes what sounds like hundreds of tortillas. The sounds of chanting, drumming and singing bowls creates a background sound for wellness. Tears mixed with huge grins create a feeling of wellness spreading from my head to my toes.
The word tears leads me into my next topic which is water.
We lucky individuals who have lived our lives solely in first world, developed and sanitary environments have no idea what it's truly like to go without water for extended periods of time. Even if the power is out or a water main breaks...darn that inconvenience...Bottled water to the rescue!!! This is not the case everywhere.
We have gotten an up close and personal taste of what it's like to try to live a week of life in rural Guatemala with a very limited water supply. For nearly a week, the block we were living on, as well as other areas of the community were without water. On occasion, a hose bib across the yard would yield a bit of the liquid gold. We each had one shower this week, courtesy of hostels in town where we paid to get clean. We hauled many pails of lake water up the hill to our little casa. We needed some for things like flushing modern toilets (which could and should be composting) and for heating up (using natural gas in a bottle that was piped out of the earth) to use for dish washing, hand washing and cleaning.
One afternoon we were sitting in the house in a women's circle. Two little Mayan girls came to the front door, so I went to say hello. They asked for water to wash their hands and faces after what they told me was a lunch of frijoles, or black beans. The little one, who looked about two years old, had a full beard of them. They normally come through the gate and help themselves to the hose bib. But today I brought them a small wash basin and a bar of soap since the pipes were dry. They lit up like I did as a kiddo on Christmas morning. They more or less had head-to-toe baths, including some hair "washing" right then and there. They included me in the celebration by splashing me with plenty of soapy bean water. They then asked me to climb up and pick them some limes from the big citrus tree. So I shook a branch and down two came. I offered them a snack and they were so excited. I finally told them I had to get back into the house. They said ok see you very soon. About 20 minutes later they came back to the house with three friends all toting empty water jugs. I explained that the only reason I could share water with them is that we had to haul it up from the lake in buckets. They soldiered on together in search of some agua.
We are still spoiled even here to be able to afford to purchase a large blue bottle of drinking water for about $3. That may not always be an option though. We must take any steps possible to conserve and clean up our planet's waters. It's all one big connected system and we each play a role. Like one little drop in a vast ocean of consciousness.
In closing, I would like to paint a picture of something that I witnessed that has stuck with me for days. We took a tiny taxi to the neighboring village to visit an organic permaculture inspired farm. We arrived midway up a mountain, where the proper road ended. We continued on foot from there to a bridge. I stopped and stared in complete awe of the Mayan women of all ages, from small girls to elegantly aged abuelas, in their colorful garments. Some were on their knees, washing clothing in the fresh mountain stream that came pouring from the jungle-covered mountain peaks. Others were hauling baskets of laundry piled high on top of their heads. I smiled and waved and they all stopped and gave a big grin and a Buenos Dias! They were so happy. To know nothing different than washing their clothing by hand in a fresh river in the beautiful sunshine was seemingly perfect. I wanted to join them and take some photos, but out of respect, I chose to just smile and carry on up the steep, washed out mountain trail.
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