Meet the Second Annual Jane Mintz Memorial Scholarship Student

Mariela Sahon Rosales dreams of being a social worker. “When I graduate from university, I hope to be able to give back to my community and help those who didn’t have the same opportunities that I did.” In her second year of studies at Mariano Galvez University in Sololá, it seems that one of her dreams is coming true. 

Growing up with three other siblings, Mariela has been the only one with the opportunity to pursue higher education. Neither one of her parents had the opportunity to go to school, nor know how to read or write. Mariela’s mother worked for over fifteen years with Maya Traditions in the Medicinal Plant Garden.

Mariela has three more years of university until she receives her degree. She spends the majority of her time helping her mother make tortillas to sell in their small tortilleria. She studies on Saturdays, with her favorite course being Participatory Research.  In her free time, Mariela enjoys listening to music and studying.  At only 20 years old, she carries herself as if she has years more of experience. 

She is extremely grateful to receive the second annual Jane Mintz Memorial Scholarship and wishes to thank all those who have supported her in her endeavors.

For the future, Mariela hopes “to be a humble person, to lead by example and to show the world not to discriminate against people by their race. Helping others and helping my community, that’s really the basis of everything I hope to accomplish.” 

Gracias and adios!!

Today is my last day in Panajachel. 

Exiting the airport a month ago, the scenery felt so random to me that I was almost surprised to find myself here of all places. Now I'm surprised to be leaving. 

I've settled in to the atmosphere and reluctantly realize I won't experience anything like it for some time.

These last few weeks I've been spending the majority of my time taking photos of Maya Tradition products for their catalogue. I spent some time in the garden as well, collecting seeds from dried pods, planting some aloe vera, and cutting lemon grass beside another volunteer. 

Collection of seeds

Roberto and Oseas snipping leaves to dry for tea

Lemon grass

I'm going to miss it here: the bright streets of tuctucs and tiendas and rubbernecking babies slung on mother's backs; alleyways busy with trotting puppy gangs, smells of kitchen smoke, crowing of roosters.... The only thing I will NOT miss are the chicken buses that fly around corners and toot clouds of black as they scrape past pedestrians. 

Thank you Maya Traditions for a marvelous time--I've met some amazing people and learned so much!

From Panajachel and towns around

Paradise Labyrinth

I’ve been working with Roberto in the medicinal plant garden of Maya Traditions. When I first saw the garden I was awed by its labyrinth of tiered beds that rose high and narrow above the town; it was like a paradise of crooked stairways and bamboo fences, divided by a stream and banana trees to shade.

View from the garden

This last week I had been weeding, planting and transplanting plants in the greenhouse (Ixbut, Echinacea, German Mint, White Mint, Apple Mint and others), snipping leaves of Valerian to be dried and made into teas, and painting signs for the garden. It was great to get my hands in the soil while two friendly and overgrown German Shepherds tried to lick the mosquito repellent off my arms.

Last weekend there had been a shampoo- and vicks-making workshop. These were made with natural ingredients, including Aloe Vera, Eucalyptus, and pine needles. It’s interesting to see the beginning stages of process to the product. I had a peek in the Maya Traditions product room and couldn’t resist buying some “Chill Out” tonic (which I definitely need) made with plants from the garden. It’s very cool to think these are made from the same Valerian plants I’d been snipping, and I hope to learn not only to care for the plants in the garden, but to continue to work with them toward medicinal form. 

Hola, Pana

I was terribly overwhelmed when I arrived Panajachel last week from California, only able to muster up a few Spanish words from my memory and with no idea of what to expect in the month of my visit. The next day though, helped to relax me significantly. Marcelle, who had tucked me in with my host family next door to her, delivered me and another fresh volunteer to the bus stop where we would be following some Maya Traditions members to a community a ways away. We would be assisting on a video project involving a group of students working toward local change.

(on a Chicken Bus; on our way to the first community)

Since I don´t speak Spanish, I mainly observed, absorbing so much new information. We traveled to another community afterward, where Marisol from Maya Traditions surveyed students on the Maya Traditions scholarship.  It was incredible to be able to explore local communities right off the bat, interact with the children there, and observe the way they lived. I spent my first few days taking a lot of video and photos. The children in the communities we visited loved the camera, giggling and almost climbing on me to see the screen; it was a great ice-breaker when I couldn´t communicate.

Only on the first day I felt much more at home and so much esteem for the people here, as the long drives allowed us exposure to neighboring towns and interaction with local commuters. It was inspiring to learn how things work.

People here — at Maya Traditions, my host family, and those I've met — have been so welcoming. It´s a relaxed and community-oriented environment. At this point I'm very open to what is to come, to exploring and learning about Mayan culture.

Ready, go. Volunteer Time.

Hey everyone. Me llamo Angeles and I am a student from the states volunteering with the Maya Traditions Foundation. Let me just share with you a bit about my first morning exploring the Guatemalan highlands.

Come 8 am, I was picked up in a tuk tuk, one of my favorite modes of transportation around here. 

 

Accompanied by the Health and Education Coordinator, Yenni, Donna Degennaro and her friend, we all hopped on to a packed chicken bus, as they say.

.and made our way to an aldea, or village, called Chirijox.

The students in this village are part of Donna Degennaros film project, Puentes Technologicos  which encourages community empowerment through training the youth in how to film and utilize cameras.

TAKE A LOOK! Totally worth the time. We need backers as well, so please do click.

http://unlockingsilenthistories.wordpress.com/+

Today, I was so impressed by the students. For children of thirteen to nineteen, these youth demonstrated such a vested interest in the project. We would present an idea or a question to them, and their instinct was to come together collectively, and then would propose to us an even better idea. So, go them. 

The project seeks to bring light to three basic goals. Identify the problems of the community, Investigate them, and pave a path to resolving them. The youth lead the charge.

One of the last questions of the film project of today was one the kids developed themselves. Why do you care to investigate the problems of your community. As I watched these kids speak about their desire to see their community prosper and overcome the issues that they face, my heart was just filled with encouragement. These are just kids that love to play soccer and basketball, and one day hope to be teachers and coaches... but they share something in common that those of us who dont hail from a disadvanted village in the mountains do not. Truly, they are an inspiration. They all share a mutual sense of responsibility for each other and the families in their community, even at such a young age.

I cannot help but think of what accomplishments of these students could come about when the energy for positive change is met with opportunity.

Latest organic garden upgrades

Working with the herbs..

In the last few weeks we have been working on a few projects in the Maya Traditions organic garden, one of which has involved replacing the covers we use for the plant and herb dryer. 

 

The main aim of this to ensure that our medicinal plants are more adequately protected during the drying process, and that ultimately the end product is of the highest possible quality. 

 












This means we're able to continue to offer teas and tintures are both 100% organic, and prepared using a natural, safe and secure production method.

From a more aesthetic point of view, we also recently recognised the need to replace the old wooden signs we use within the garden pointing out each of the different plants and herbs; a particularly useful tool for when we do our garden tours considering their both in English and Spanish. 

 Fortunately our designer Pamela was able to lend us a hand, bringing to the project her impressive painting and design skills. Then Roberto, our garden manager together with myself in the capacity as a MTF volunteer, helped finish these off by with the painting of some of the names and properties of the various plants. 

And a final word on this: while it might look easy, the painting was fairly pain staking and required great attention to detail.. A few pots of tea were required, but we got there in the end and our new signs look great with their purple backgrounds and floral motifs! 
 

Our education programs up close & personal

Educating to change lives..

Recently I've been spending a lot of time out and about in our local communities, seeing our scholarship recipients and their families with Marisol, one of my colleagues here at Maya Traditions.. It leaves you with some big impressions.

Maya Traditions has a long history of providing educational grants and scholarships to the children of the local women and co-operatives we work with, and I had been hoping to get involved in this in my volunteering time here. 

So, we started out in the beginning of last week travelling by boat, 'chicken bus' and shuttle to some of our more remote communities to see our scholarship recipients doing educational presentations to their communities on health and traditional medicine. 

First stop was Santiago, just over the lake from Pana, with an interactive talk that finished up by our scholarship kids giving out about four plants to each local family who attended, to grow in their backyards and use for medicinal purposes. Some kids were playing in the street as we walked out, I took a few photos, and as I did I thought about the power we have to change lives through education. What might become of them, if they were fortunate enough to be sponsored to study just like those we saw giving presentations?

Second stop was Chirijox, a tiny rural village high up in the mountains, where the poverty is ever-present. This time the kids' presentations focused more on diets rich in vegetables and fruits, but again picking up on the theme of traditional medicine derived from locally grown herbs and plants. 

I was struck by just how clever and motivated some of these kids are, and how much they wanted to better their own situations, and the lives of their local communities and families. 

I spoke to one girl, Carmen, whose just finished high school with the assistance of one of our grants. She talked about her hopes for the future, saying she'd love to go on and study agronomy at University, because she thought she could help her local village in improving their crops and cultivating new types of vegetables and cereals. For now though, she said it's not financially viable, so she'll probably have to work for a few years.. 

As we walked away and I saw two little kids from the village walking up the hill, one with a baby strapped to her back, I thought 'I really hope she gets that chance..'

More on education to come...