Vivacious Volunteers

Maya Traditions welcomes enthusiastic new volunteer Natalia Robinson.

 Natalia hails from the beautiful northwest and is currently completing her bachelor’s degree at Evergreen State College in fiber arts. Natalia will be volunteering for us for four months during which time she hopes to learn from cooperative fiber arts communities supported by MTF; teach felting (one of her many passions); work in the garden with Molly, Nilvia, and Miguel. She also dreams of starting a botanical garden of plants traditionally used for dyeing. This project would combine her passions for farming, gardening and the fiber arts. Natalia has spent years working with various herbalists and has accumulated an extensive understanding and passion for herbal medicine, including a year in New Zealand studying both “English” and Maori herbal medicine.

She spent her first day working in the garden on Monday with Nilvia, Molly, Caroline and Miguel.

Segundo Gira

Hey folks!

We had our second official tour of the medicinal plant garden last Friday and it was a great success! Nine visitors of varying ages trailed behind Miguel, taking in the beautiful vista while learning about medicinal plants and their properties. Here’s to more successful tours to come! Join us every Friday from 2-4pm in the garden, located next to the volunteer bungalows on callejon los presidentes (the street right before Hotel Sol on Calle Cementerio).

Las Giras

Saludos! My name is Molly Laing and I am a student at Bennington College in Vermont where I am currently studying culture and health with the hopes that I will go on to get my masters in public health. Every year students at Bennington are required to complete a Field Work Term (FWT) internship. I am doing my FWT this year with Maya Tradtions, working primarily in the medicinal herb garden and with the public health program.

This past Friday we had our first tour of the garden open to the public. Public tours of the garden will be held every Friday from 2-4 pm. A new medicinal herb will be covered in-depth each Friday in addition to the general tour of the luscious garden and leafy inhabitants.

The tour begins at the base of the garden, which is located on the hillside next to the volunteer bungalows.  After a warm welcome and brief explanation of the program’s mission, vision and goals by Nilvia, visitors will begin their ascent into the garden where they will be met by Don Miguel, our gardener. Miguel will guide visitors through the garden, pausing to explain the uses and particularities of each organically grown herb. The tour will culminate with the explanation and sampling of the herb of the week (usually in tea form). While visitors sip on their tea they also bear witness to a breathtaking view of Lago Atitlan and all of the surrounding volcanos. Please join us every Friday from 2-4. For more information look for fliers located in the tiendas where the herbs are sold and in many hotels

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Hello, my name is Caroline Whitson and I’m from Edinburgh, Scotland and graduated from Glasgow University last summer with a degree in Zoology. However, I decided not to pursue a career in this field and ended up working in One World Shop a Fair Trade shop in Scotland. I worked there for a year and whilst there I was inspired to visit a country where I can see how Fair Trade affects people directly. That is what brought me to volunteering at Maya Traditions. I have wanted to come to Central America for a long time and I also wanted to learn Spanish. Volunteering at Maya Traditions seemed like a perfect place to do both these things and so I was very excited when it was all organized and I was ready to come.

I was also lucky enough to visit two of the communities on my first day here. I went with Dora who is from Guatemala and is in charge of the education project and Esti another volunteer. First we visited San Juan where we have a women’s weaving group. San Juan is a beautiful village across the lake from Panajachel and it was great to get to take a boat ride across the lake! The purpose of the visit was to check all the students who are part of the scholarship education program had passed a sufficient amount of subjects to continue with the scholarship the next school year which starts in January. It was really great to see more of the lake and meet the people that the foundation is helping. The next community we visited was Santa Clara which is not on the lake itself but a pick up truck ride away over a hill. Here we were visiting a women’s crocheting group.  The people here were also very friendly and I had great fun playing with the kids while the woman discussed important issues in the community. On my second day we had the staff Christmas party at a restaurant with a pool which was a 15 minute boat ride away from Panajachel. My first couple of days were a great introduction to volunteering here!! 

I was also lucky enough to have a 2 week holiday over Christmas and New Year and so explored some more of Guatemala. I visited Semuc Champey which is an area on the Cahabon river where natural limestone bridges occur, creating beautiful lagoons for swimming in. I then visited Tikal, ancient ruins of Maya city in the Jungle of Peten which was very stunning. However, my highlight of the holiday was definitely El Salvador, I didn’t intend on going here but am very glad that I did. The people were so friendly and with its beautiful beaches and pretty mountains there’s so much to see and do. I am now back in Panajachel and am looking forward to continuing with my work in marketing and visiting more of the communities over the next couple of months. I will also be adding to the online catalog so check out the website and have a look at our products. More will be added soon!