Bittersweet

Here we are. It's our last night at Lake Atitlán. For now. We feel strongly that we will return again someday. What an amazing place. We have made so many powerful connections with all kinds of people. 

I have been having so much fun learning Spanish at some lessons and also on my own, and especially practicing with the locals. Most of them are very patient and also have an interest in learning some English. Some of the Mayan people, who have their own native languages, have Spanish skills that are a few steps above mine, so we can chat just fine.  We have gotten to know a family of three ladies that walk around the village selling baskets of fruits that they carry on top of their heads. Huge piles of sandias (watermelons), papaya, mangos and piñas. They came around 8-9am and stopped at our front door and shouted "Hay sandia! Hay piña, papaya, mango!"  It was very loud and when they repeated it enough times it's hard to ignore, so we often purchased our fruit from them. They had quite a funny sense of humor. One day they saw us getting in our car (which we only did about 4 times in the 7 weeks) and they had their empty fruit baskets and were looking for a ride back to their village, which was on the way to where we were headed. We had a funny conversation with them and they giggled and waved as we drove by some of their friends on foot. 

Then the other day, I was sitting using my ancient laptop and my outdated iPhone at a hostel cafe. The three ladies came in and snuggled up around me and fondled the electronics. The oldest one looked close at my face and said something like  "WOW! You have mascara on!" I have rarely worn it since we have been on the road for four months, so it was funny that she was so observant. I thought about it and realized that she often saw me early in the morning in my yoga clothes with bed hair at our front door as I examined their papayas and pineapples.

We proceeded to have a very interesting conversation about the price of the luxuries that people like myself, privileged white folk, take for granted. The ladies here pay a tiny fraction of what we would for something like makeup, and get a product of way lesser quality. I told her that the mascara I was using was $150 quetzales ($30 CAN) for one tube, which is one reason that I use it sparingly. That's enough money to feed our family basic food here for about 5 days (at tourist prices) and for the locals more like a week of or two of food...or possibly even more! What a crazy world.

I thought that the fact that I have captured 8 scorpions in our house over 6 weeks was normal until I started telling people. Many of them said they have been here for months and had never seen a single one. They carry some powerful animal spirit messages which I have studied. Today, on our final day in this casa, I happened to find and capture a black widow spider hanging out on the kitchen counter. Here is a poor iPhone photo of her. They are a lot smaller than I imagined. I wanted a better picture...but it seemed a bit risky.

 We have truly been enamored by the tropical plants and birdsong here. The volcanoes and sunshine have a special place in our hearts, along with the spirit of cacao that is so strong here. We have participated in ingesting a whole lot of the special plant medicine over the last year but especially these last two months. 

Twice a week while we have been here we have dedicated an evening of helping to bag the freshly ground aromatic cacao paste into one-pound bricks. In exchange, we have attended healing ceremonies or taken some of the cacao home with us. Several nights we also exchanged the washing of a hundred or so rainbow cups used to drink cacao elixir at ceremonies. We have had so much fun with the cacao tribe here. It's so hard to leave the group, but we know that we all connect again through the love of cacao. 

I am currently reading the book called Naked Chocolate by David Wolfe and Shazzie. It's packed full of great info on cacao if you are curious. I bought the kindle version so it's on my iphone. So amazing. What will technology do next?!

We purchased some old-fashioned woven fabric from a women's weaving cooperative that is comprised of single mothers whom have more than three children to care for. We then asked a local Mayan woman (who knocked on our door wanting to sell us her weaving) to do some sewing work for us. We told her that we don't have a house anywhere so we have no use for woven tablecloths and curtains. She gave us a very skeptical look. It was the truth though. Weaving and sewing are her best skills and we heard from several sources in the community that any financial help we can give her through supporting her skills would be very much appreciated. She has her own children as well as several nieces and nephews to support (she told me 7 in total) and as is quite common here (and many parts of our world) she has a heap of challenges to meeting the needs of her family in regards to health and safety. 

Her teenaged niece came with her to our casa one evening and asked if she could borrow a dress of mine for her school play of Romeo y Julieta. I only had knee-length dresses, and she couldn't accept them as they weren't long enough. The ladies and girls here only wear the traditional güipil blouses and long corte skirts with wide, and usually intricate belts called fajas. Their outfits are beautifully hand embroidered with some beading on the belts and everything is very colorful. So she asked to borrow a white lace scarf of mine for her costume. I obliged. She was pretty excited to borrow such a unique item from a foreigner. 

Her cousin and aunt created some simple drawstring pouches for our special cacao bean medicine bags. We were under the assumption that they had a sewing machine to make them. It turns out they have made them all by hand. We will offer these for sale as a fundraiser at our upcoming cacao ceremonies. 

We have an awesome amount of pure cacao blocks and beans with us which have taken the place of the third human that had rode in our backseat on our way down from Mexico nearly two months ago (where did the time go??). We will be hosting cacao ceremonies starting now and heading north. Tomorrow we head to Xela / Quetzaltenango, which is the second largest city in Guatemala after the capital. Then we will cross back into Chiapas, Mexico. Excited for Chiapas!

One more tale:

One afternoon this week, I was walking back from the center of the village to our casa, which is just on the edge of town. There were hungover men strewn about on steps and benches and the smell of stale alcohol in the air.  There was garbage strewn all over between piles of dog poop from lots of food scraps being eaten by the dozens of street doggies. It was the aftermath of 10+ days of parties, booze and bombas from the annual feria of the pueblo. I was feeling a bit sad and a bit disgusted. Why do people abuse themselves and tour environment so terribly? Ugh. 

Just then, a small boy was approaching me in the distance. He was the only other person on the road. He looked at the most 6 or 7 years old, dressed in a bright blue soccer uniform. He smiled from the moment he saw me and then ran straight for me with his arms stretched out wide. I was amazed that I didn't know him at all but he clearly just wanted a big hug. That's all. Just a big hug. He was so happy to get a hug and a kiss on the head and thanked me with a huge toothy smile as he skipped away. Words can be messy and confusing, especially across cultural hurdles. Smiles, waves and hugs are universal no matter where I have been so far on the planet. I will not ever run short of love, so I will keep on spreading it along the heart trail. One hug at a time ...and one cacao bean at a time. 

Watermelon hearts? Yes please.