I’m sorry I got lazy and stopped writing blog posts for quite some time – I will try to be more faithful in this task. A summary since the season, La Navidad. Patrick and I knew that presents were important because some of the monks had asked us about them. We did not want to only give presents to the monks we knew better, because we did not want to inadvertenly cause bad feelings between the monks. So we had to think of a gift that we could afford for all of the monks that they would appreciate. We thought about getting a gift for the entire community, but we ended up deciding to get them framed pictures of each one of them and us. So we spent about two weeks tracking down each monk for a picture – it all worked out well – they really appreciated their gift. I am also glad I got a small gift for Patrick and he got a small gift for me, because the monks did not have the resources to get gifts for everyone in their community, much less the volunteers.
Patrick returned back from the US on January 15th after leaving a few days after Christmas – Fr. Bernie discouraged him from going to the US, because Fr. Bernie wanted volunteers to not miss out on any cultural experiences here as well as to establish a precedent of the volunteer’s family coming to visit in Guate instead of the other way around. However, Fr. Bernie allowed this exception because it was for the wedding of one of his best friends (Kip Krueger). I did not go back to the US, but I had no problem with Patrick going and I did not mind staying in Guate – the holidays here were pretty fun. Although there were too many fireworks – I am glad no kids that I know hurt themselves. At any rate, the day Patrick returned we went to a celebration with Padre Antonio at the house of his cousin, Maria Poouh and that of her husband Alejandro. We found out that Alejandro was in the business of making cement blocks for building construction – this knowledge would help us later on.
We went to El Peten with Fr. Bernie and his friends one weekend near the end of January. We fished on Lake Itza and went to the Mayan ruins of Yax Ha – really cool – second in size to Tikal – but still very large and probably a little less touristy. 
Now back to work. We did work in between these fun events. The main project for January was distributing as best we could the donated clothing on a basis of most need. This task proved to be difficult because everyone could use some extra clothing, and it is not easy determining who has the most need. However, I was content that we gave a slight majority of the clothing to kids in the aldeas – they seemed like they could use the clothing a little more – as being away from city centers they had less access to a variety of clothing made cheaper by competition.
In November, my request to St. Ben’s campus ministry to be put on the list as a destination for the weekly monetary collection at the student Mass was granted. We received about $80 from this and Br. Paul bumped it up to $200 for a scholarship program. Just before school started in the end of January, Oscar Pop, an employee of Padre Bernie and a big help, was able to coordinate a plan with 11 qualified students from the aldeas of Rio Palmeras and Salvador Chitzol. These students had shown that they were willing to work hard and earn good grades, and with the commitment to continue doing so, Oscar, Alberto (another helpful employee of Padre Bernie), Patrick and I were able to purchase enough school supplies for the 11 students at a total cost of $220.66 – the extra money coming from the little that was left after the nutrition program. Luckily, the village school of Campur does not require students to pay a tuition, so all they needed were their school supplies. One mother of the students thanked us for the scholarships, saying that the reason she was not able to go to school was because her parents could not afford school supplies.
Our main work in February so far has been preparing the two new buildings here to host about 100 young women and men from the surrounding aldeas. We have been putting together the bunkbeds that St. John’s donated – which has proved to be quite the task. The beds were repainted first, and then we put carpeting on the bottoms of all of the feet for the beds so they would not scratch the tiled floors. We got used to using a hammer to coerce the bed parts together – luckily the metal of the beds was thick enough where we did no damage.
We have also been trying to work with the people of Yalchacti to plant peanuts and sorghum. So far this project idea has not been successful. Our co-worker Oscar Pop has tried to coordinate a plan for planting these crops – but explained to us that it is often not easy working with the community as a whole – due to “red tape” in community politics among the president, treasurer etc of two different community groups. We are thinking of trying the project out on a smaller scale to begin with – working with a family or two to start may have better results… We will see. I have been thinking more about a proverb of the PeaceCorps – “Do not offer a project for a community – let the community ask for its own project.” I think this philosophy definitely offers some important wisdom – if I project comes from the community itself – there will be much more participation and success. However, I also think that sometimes if a community has never heard of something that could benefit them, (such as a crop like sorghum that is hardier than corn – though corn does have higher yields in IDEAL conditions) how can they ask for it? I am still philosophizing about how to better work with communities on sustainable development projects…
The past couple of days I have helped with Padre Bernie’s project of building the new school in Rio Palmeras. Wednesday Feb. 24th we loaded a dump truck with 290 cement blocks from Alejandro Poouh’s home business (the business we had previously purchased blocks from had not been punctual with their availability of blocks and their prices were higher). The next day, Patrick and I each tossed about 225 shovel loads of sand into the back of the dump truck loaned to us by Padre Bernie’s friend Alan Cres – and this load also went to Rio Palmeras for the construction of the school. 
Our project for the end of February has been preparing the showers in the new buildings at the monastery for use. We bought shower curtains and asked the mechanics to make the curtain rods. Patrick and Padre Bernie also bought some hooks and towel racks that we have been installing.
We have Spanish class today with our teacher, Mirna. Lately we have been reading newspaper articles from the Prensa Libre for our homework. Patrick and I both think that this is a good assignment because not only do we build vocab and grammar, but we learn about what is going on in Guate. I read today that a high up in the police of Guatemala was arrested due to leading a clandestine group of police officers in drug trafficking. I’ve also been learning that there are some serious environmental concerns – gold companies from the US and Canada have caused significant environmental damage – and petroleum companies keep trying to drill in protected areas. Luckily the attempt by the Mexican company Tomza was denied drilling in a protected area near Puerto Barrios after they had already started. There is another issue right now with a different company – hopefully they are denied too – we’ll see. This picture is at Mirna’s house for a Christams dinner – the gringa is Raquel – she teaches at the language school, Oxford in zone 3. Her husband Mynor is hiding behind her. 
I am reading a really good book on the civil wars in Guatemala and the US sponsored coups that were meant to protect US companies in Guatemala, including the United Fruit Company and the railroad company in Central America. Thomas Melville does a wonderful job in “Through a Glass Darkly” of describing events from the perspective of Ron Hennessy – a Maryknoll priest who worked in Guatemala during a majority of the civil wars.
Well, that should do for now – I am somewhat caught up, and hope to write shorter more frequent posts now – primero Dios.
