Jay West Coast
Witness to the Thickness
So, it seems the clubhouse is the quiet place where we can tell stories of our minor little daily adventures. I figured I'd share one of mine just for shits and giggles.
I got an email this week from the CIA. No, really, I did. But that's another story.
So, as many of you know I am working on a project here in Guatemala to design a training center and headquarters for a growing organization that distributes wheelchairs to needy children in Central America, as well as other humanitarian efforts. They very often entertain groups of volunteers, hence the training center.
Well, yesterday they were assigned to deliver 45lb packs of food and medicine to a remote Mayan village inaccessible by road. However, two guys of the ten-person group fell ill Monday night, and so I was volunteered to take the day off work and take their place.
I didn't know that I was volunteering to take BOTH their packs on an hour-long hike through the mountains of Central America. Needless to say, by the time I got to the village I was exhausted, hungry and thirsty. I expected the village to be poor, but i was truly astonished. Walking through the village, the "walls" of each hut were made of sticks and bits of tin, and the floors were dirt. The women were so thin, it made my little FA eyes hurt. Yet, the people were warm and happy. One woman fetched me water, and a man climbed a fruit tree to cut me some strange fruits I had never seen before--I hadn't mentioned thirst or hunger, yet they were already so willing to give.
They spoke Cachikel, a Mayan dialect full of esses and flipped-tongued consonants. They wore beautiful traditional Mayan skirts and shirts of purples, greens, and reds. And their smiles were white. Whiter than my burnt-ass skin.
They invited me into their two-room homes as I dropped of the bags of food for the families. It was excellent to sit down and exchange a few words in Spanish to get to understand how they lived (and yes, there were architectural questions too). Sitting in a person's home, its easy to see how very human we all are, and how much we are all the same. We're all family.
Needless to say, hiking back through the mountains, my pack was lighter, and my soul was heavier. We live in a world where the distribution of food--of wealth, for that matter--leaves this village to be merely symbolic of millions of destitute villages all over the world. Great people left behind. A family will live for a month on the $15 worth of food left behind in each pack. As I hiked back with my two emptied packs, I pondered a Ghandi quote: "there's enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed." Damn socialist.
(I'm not trying to convert anyone, or preach, I just wanted to share my little inner thoughts.)
But, today, I woke up feeling good...maybe it was all that exercise. But despite decades of civil war, oppression and poverty, these people are still so loving and good. If that can happen, I thought, we live in a wonderful world. How can *I* be depressed or angry, if they aren't?
Yes, the world ought change for the better. But you know what? It's a pretty damn good one right now.
So, that was my yesterday.
Any thoughts?
I got an email this week from the CIA. No, really, I did. But that's another story.
So, as many of you know I am working on a project here in Guatemala to design a training center and headquarters for a growing organization that distributes wheelchairs to needy children in Central America, as well as other humanitarian efforts. They very often entertain groups of volunteers, hence the training center.
Well, yesterday they were assigned to deliver 45lb packs of food and medicine to a remote Mayan village inaccessible by road. However, two guys of the ten-person group fell ill Monday night, and so I was volunteered to take the day off work and take their place.
I didn't know that I was volunteering to take BOTH their packs on an hour-long hike through the mountains of Central America. Needless to say, by the time I got to the village I was exhausted, hungry and thirsty. I expected the village to be poor, but i was truly astonished. Walking through the village, the "walls" of each hut were made of sticks and bits of tin, and the floors were dirt. The women were so thin, it made my little FA eyes hurt. Yet, the people were warm and happy. One woman fetched me water, and a man climbed a fruit tree to cut me some strange fruits I had never seen before--I hadn't mentioned thirst or hunger, yet they were already so willing to give.
They spoke Cachikel, a Mayan dialect full of esses and flipped-tongued consonants. They wore beautiful traditional Mayan skirts and shirts of purples, greens, and reds. And their smiles were white. Whiter than my burnt-ass skin.
They invited me into their two-room homes as I dropped of the bags of food for the families. It was excellent to sit down and exchange a few words in Spanish to get to understand how they lived (and yes, there were architectural questions too). Sitting in a person's home, its easy to see how very human we all are, and how much we are all the same. We're all family.
Needless to say, hiking back through the mountains, my pack was lighter, and my soul was heavier. We live in a world where the distribution of food--of wealth, for that matter--leaves this village to be merely symbolic of millions of destitute villages all over the world. Great people left behind. A family will live for a month on the $15 worth of food left behind in each pack. As I hiked back with my two emptied packs, I pondered a Ghandi quote: "there's enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed." Damn socialist.
(I'm not trying to convert anyone, or preach, I just wanted to share my little inner thoughts.)
But, today, I woke up feeling good...maybe it was all that exercise. But despite decades of civil war, oppression and poverty, these people are still so loving and good. If that can happen, I thought, we live in a wonderful world. How can *I* be depressed or angry, if they aren't?
Yes, the world ought change for the better. But you know what? It's a pretty damn good one right now.
So, that was my yesterday.
Any thoughts?
