Fasting for Funds

"Meaning is a side effect of the transcendence that we experience through selfless acts of creative engagement and contribution." - David C. Korten, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community

Today is our first day back on solid food after a 7-day liquid fast. Ginger tea for breakfasts, fruit juices/smoothies for lunch and liquid veggie soups for supper. And water, of course. (Oh and a few liquid cacao ceremonies were sprinkled in too.) I will also start by saying that I can't remember a time in my life when I felt any healthier, happier and more vibrant!

We were inspired to participate in this local fundraiser by fasting and collecting donations from friends and family. The funds raised will all go toward an organization in San Marcos la Laguna called Konojel. Konojel means "all together" in the local Mayan language. The name really says it all. 

We went to Konojel this afternoon for a great tour of the facility, which is housed in a former school building. Climbing up the steep cobbled street, you would see this beautiful rainbow mural adorning the front of the center.   

We arrived at lunch time to see dozens of Mayan children (and some adults) enjoying fresh vegetarian meals, most of them with big smiles on their faces. 

A team of local Mayan women, some of them mothers of the children enjoying lunches, were working away in the bright kitchen preparing about 60 meals of rice, potatoes, eggs and salad. Some children take meals home with them to share with their hungry siblings. About 400 meals are prepared each week to feed the 60 people in this community who are determined to be in the greatest need of nutritional support. Ages of the participants range from infant to elderly. This community has one of the higher  levels of malnutrition around Lake Atitlán, and Guatemala as a country ranks in the top five in the world. Many of the people here are much smaller than average Mayans and the children appear to be much younger than they are because of this. The adults are often in the opposite situation, some smaller but appearing much older than they are from poor nutrition and chronic dehydration. In this community, most families spend the bulk of their income purchasing firewood (or collecting it by hand from the mountain forests) to make tortillas and on the corn to make tortillas with. They don't have the means to grow fresh fruits and vegetables themselves and can't afford the prices at the local mercados. Sadly, they also rely on cheap, packaged snack foods that are stomach fillers, but void of any real useful ingredients. This has also led to the modern issue of lots of litter. Foil chip bags and plastic pop bottles line the rain gutters. 

We were taken out back of the main building to one of their five community garden plots that have been cooperatively built by local volunteers and permaculture students. A medicinal herb spiral grows lush and green next to two rocket stoves and a traditional plancha stove, which is much less fuel efficient and much higher in smoke pollution. The implementation of the rocket stoves has cut the consumption of firewood dramatically. Deforestation and smoke pollution, as well as respiratory troubles are common environmental and health concerns in this region. The other wonderful contraptions on the property are a solar oven and a solar dehydrator. Both solar designs are used to support Sabor del Sol, or Taste of the Sun, which is a retail food branch of Konojel. The ladies create sun-kissed snack foods such as seasoned squash seeds, banana chips, sun-dried tomatoes and beef jerky. They also bake vegan cookies in their solar oven. Yum. 

We learned that many of the local people don't have access to fresh, clean drinking water. So instead they put a pot of water on the already hot wood stove and boil it, add instant coffee and some panela, raw cane sugar. Every member of the family has this as their "hydration" for the day. It was confirmed when I went to sit with some of the children who were coloring at a table. They were telling me the names of each color of crayon. Instead of the typical word for brown, moreno, they call anything from beige to dark brown "cafe". Everything close to brown in color is coffee. 

The children snapped quite a few photos of the staff and of other children with my old trusty iPhone. The group has a handful of tablets that the kids use to learn about new and exciting things. Today they learned about animals, volcanoes and inequality. Seems quite appropriate. After lunchtime each day, the children "pay back" to the community by staying to learn. They have made agreements with Konojel that they will promise to stay and broaden their education through art, songs, games and participating in the production of veggies and medicinal herbs in the community gardens. I was asked not to use photos of the children, so I have tried to capture their essence in a few of these images. 

The staff is so dedicated to the people and projects that are developing each year. It's so inspiring. The Mayan staff are paid for their skills and many receive basic work skills training for a month and then are placed in stable, long-term jobs in the community. The foreign staff are mostly volunteers, with just a couple of staff getting small stipends for their time and knowledge. 

At the wrap-up party for the week-long fast, the organizers (and myself) were brought to tears by the hard work and generosity of the fasters, volunteers and donors who have helped to fund another year of healthy meals for these people who are greatly in need. Their ultimate goal is to empower local people to grow their own backyard garden plots and to help people to take their health back into to their own hands. 

Most of us can't imagine what it might be like to live a life of malnourishment. Chronic digestive trouble, hair loss, stunted growth and premature aging to name a few side effects. These people do not currently have the means to help themselves. In time, with the support of a global community, we can make little changes into huge ones

If you feel that you can open your heart to helping out, just click on the link below to donate whatever you can spare. All together we will make the world a brighter and healthier place to be.

http://www.razoo.com/story/Kristin-Allan-Fundraising-For-Konojel-1-Week-For-1-Year-Fasting-For-Funds-2?referral_code=share

www.konojel.org

Note: donation collections will remain open through May 22, 2015. Thank you!