Valuing Laughter over Laptops

This last week has been full of really productive strides towards the new Just Apparel website and grant writing process. I created the Just Apparel shop so that consumers can purchase our items in the online marketplace, and uploaded all the photos and pricing. Right now we're just working through the kinks of how to make payments, last minute editing, and making sure that everything flows and is consistent in design throughout the website. I'm really happy with how it has come out so far, and really excited to show everyone the final product!

New website coming soon....!!

I've also been working on grant proposals this week, and have narrowed down the list to four grants that I think are worth applying. Finally, we did a second round of home visits this past week to pass out the last remaining pieces of fabric for the headband project. When we made the placemats and handbags, we actually had several long pieces of fabric leftover. At first, I wasn't sure what to do with the extra fabric. However, kind of like when you spend an hour looking for your glasses only to realize that they have been on your head the whole time, I soon realized that the fabric was the perfect size for the headbands that I use so frequently to hold back my hair while traveling! Part of the challenge this week was describing the concept to the women-- the headbands that I wear are obviously a Westernized fashion, so Dolores and I had a good deal of fun explaining how to even wear a headband or why one would be useful or desirable. We had several laughs when the women were trying the pieces of fabric on their heads! I am looking forward to see how they turn out!

This past weekend I decided to explore the last few towns around the lake that I hadn't spent any time in yet. I spent Saturday in Santa Cruz, which is another tiny but lovely town on the Eastern side of the lake. The village itself is quite a hike up the mountain, which took a good 30 minutes to climb up but offered exceptional views. I also had a great lunch at Isla Verde, an ecolodge and spa with all organic "slow food" and a  very tempting massage package.

Lunch at Isla Verde

View of the lake, looking down from Santa Cruz

I spent the night at La Iguana Perdida, a local hostel with communal BBQs and costume parties on Saturday nights that make for a very fun and friendly backpackers experience! I actually ran into Julia, the girl who I climbed the San Pedro volcano with a few weeks ago, and got to know some of her friends as well. Their wifi-free policy encouraged interaction and we really had a great night!

Poster explaining why WiFi isn't allowed at Iguana Perdida

On Sunday I hiked over to Jaibailito, which is about a 45 minute hike along the ridge overlooking the lake. It was a gorgeous hike, and when I got to town I decided to check out a restaurant called Club Ven Aca which offers an infinity pool and great pasta dishes! Super relaxing afternoon.

Relaxing at the infinity pool in Jaibalito

Only two weeks left in Santiago and one month of my trip left. Some days it feels like I have been gone for much longer than five weeks and four more weeks seems like an eternity, and some days I feel like I can't believe that this experience is already over half complete. I sure am grateful for technology to be able to keep in touch with my loved ones while I am away. However, it has also been kind of nice to log off the internet and fully log in to my surroundings, and by valuing "giggles over Google" I have met so many new wonderful friends along the way as well!

Buscando por Zen

"All this wandering around 'Our America with a capital A' has changed me more than I thought." 

The Motorcycle Diaries

After a long week of traveling last week, I was in the mood for some rest and relaxation, so I decided to check out San Marcos La Laguna for the weekend. My Lonely Planet guidebook had mentioned that it was "without a doubt the prettiest of the lakeside villages" as well as "a magnet for global seekers, who believe the place has a spiritual energy that's conducive to learning and practicing meditation, holistic therapies, massage, reiki and other spiritually oriented activities." On my boat ride over to San Marcos, I met a couple from Colorado who literally live only a few blocks away from my house in Denver, so I had a feeling that the universe and I were on the same wavelength even before I arrived.  

View of the lake, from the jungle

San Marcos is an incredibly serene and beautiful pueblo. The town is very quaint, with only one road that is actually accessible to cars. Most of the attractions are located on one of two small cobblestone paths that are perpendicular to the main road and parallel to each other. The jungle weaves through the small paths, and there are only handmade signs pointing you to your destination, so I was glad that I had time to find my bearings before the sun set and had packed my flashlight for the evening. I walked around the town for a while with two women from my boat ride, and ate a delicious veggie burger at Restaurante Fe. Note that vegetarians and vegans are very welcome here. Although it was available in some restaurants, I didn't eat meat the entire weekend because of the wide variety of delicious vegetarian options. For accommodations I chose La Paz, as I was drawn to the A-frame huts with bamboo thatched roofs-- rustic but relaxing.

La Paz hotel

Paths leading to the hotel

I had some time to get stuck in my new book, the Motorcycle Diaries (great movie, but really awesome book too!), and I also watched a movie at a neighboring hostel before calling it an early night on Saturday. On Sunday morning I opted to take a yoga class, as La Paz offers 90 minute classes each morning at 9 am. As I suspected from the town vibe, it was more mystical than other courses I'd taken, and involved meditation, introspection, a bit of massage, some chanting, and a gong. It was actually a really pleasurable way to start my morning!

Some of my yoga classmates mentioned taking a lucid dream course later that afternoon (who knows what that entails...) but I opted to seek my zen through a hike, so I walked over to the Cerro Tzankujil Area Protegida. It's a beautiful nature reserve, with about a 45 minute hike to the top of a hill overlooking the nearby lake and volcanoes. There was also an awesome cliff jump that must have been about 40 feet tall and beautiful swimming cove. I certainly couldn't resist jumping in the aqua-colored water after my hike. Although the jump was actually kind of painful (how do you say "wedgie" in Spanish?) it was exhilarating and the water was the perfect temperature. What a wonderful weekend!

Nature reserve

Relaxing after a swim

View from my hike

You can't tell here, but this is a 40 ft jump to the water!

Here's a video I made of San Marcos-- some really amazing panorama shots of the lake and the volcanoes! Enjoy!

El Otro Lado del Lago

Tomorrow, Dolores and I will begin in-home visits with all of the women in the cooperative. One of our tasks throughout the visits will be to update the bios of each of the women in Just Apparel. The information that is currently on the website is several years old, so it’s important that we have the most up-to-date information for when we launch the new website and online marketplace. Additionally, meeting the women at their homes allows me to have a more in-depth conversation with each woman about her own perceptions, ideas and insight for the Just Apparel project and helps to build a personal relationship with each woman as well.

With this task on my mind and with today being Father’s Day, I began to reflect upon the women in the cooperative and how their relationships with their own fathers (or the fathers of their children) may differ from my own relationship with my father. In scanning the biographies of the women, I realized that while most of the women in the Just Apparel cooperative aren’t much older than myself, many have already lost their fathers to military conflict, murder, kidnapping, disaster, or disease. Some of the women are taking care of children who were orphaned and never knew their father, and many take care of their own biological children without the help of the child’s father. Guatemalan way of life has a culture that I’ve observed to be more collectivist and family-oriented than the American standard. I can’t even fathom how these women have persisted without the support of their own fathers or father figures for their children.

Children at the Puerta Abierta Biblioteca making Father's day crowns

In an email exchange with my own father today, he suggested that I consider the works of German sociologist Max Weber during my time working in Santiago. I was familiar with Weber’s “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” and have read articles by Weber in my political economic development courses at school. It was really interesting to contemplate some of Weber’s ideas in the context of the differences in inherent worldviews between myself and my Guatemalan partners.

When traveling to Panajachel (Pana) this weekend, I met a Guatemalan girl who had lived her whole life in Pana yet she shrugged and seemed nonchalant when she mentioned that she had never been to Santiago. A trip across the lake costs about U.S. $3 and takes less than an hour by boat. At first, I was shocked. How could she not even be curious about what was on the other side of the lake? But upon further reflection, I realized that she and many of her Guatemalan peers are struggling each day to simply survive, so my American-bred “quest for adventure” isn’t something that would have ever crossed her mind. A desire to travel has never entered her cultural framework, and isn't a part of her perception of how she lives her life.

My dad articulated it nicely in his email: because of my American upbringing, relative wealth and extensive educational background, I have a “fundamentally different zeitgeist from virtually all of the people you are now interacting with”. But I guess this is one of the reasons why I’ve chosen to study International and Intercultural Communication. Experiencing cultural difference is so deeply fascinating because even while we are learning about others, we are simultaneously learning even more about ourselves.

Some photos from our weekend exploring Panajachel and San Pedro de la Laguna:

At the Santiago dock about to take off for Pana

On the boat ride

With my homestay housemates and friends at the Pana dock

A tuk tuk (3 wheel taxis that roam the towns) named Brittany!

Markets in Pana

Pool party at the Piscina de San Pedro

Best BBQ on the Laguna

$5 Lunch