I can see myself ideally working for a small business – either existing or a start-up – in the field of sustainable agriculture/energy. I’ve read about people harvesting prairie grasses and processing them into pellets for fuel. I want to do something along these lines. Perhaps with the variation of producing methane gas or grass-based biofuels. How do I get there? Many ideas. I could go to grad-school, but I’m not sure what I’d study, and I’m not sure if I have the funds for that now, and definitely would want to be careful on this sort of investment. I could talk to small businesses already in this field and ask them what sort of training is necessary to work in such a business. I could take a few classes that I find as hobbies but also pertain to this sort of business. I have always wanted to take a welding class – that would definitely help cut the cost down on construction and installation of a methane digester. I could take a GIS course and hopefully get a job working for a green business of some sort, and with earnings from that I could invest in land or capital that would help me get started on the biofuel business. More thoughts to come…

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So, I could see myself being a scientist and making my contribution to sustainable fuels by cultivating yeasts and bacteria that break down cellulose into ethanol, methane, etc. That is my long-term goal. However, in the short term I am struggling a bit. I don’t know if it would be better to go into considerable debt and just get the degree for becoming a scientist for biofuels, or to get some other training in the short-term that could directly or indirectly contribute to this goal, such as GIS, welding, computer programming, etc. I just got off the phone with Nick Grewe, and he mentioned there are several professors studying biofuels at the University of Minnesota at the moment who may be good to study under – even one researching the processes of mushrooms that break down cellulose and how that could be used to make biofuels that are even more economical and ecological and cellulosic ethanol.

They lacked a few odds and ends, such as the board in front to keep the eggs from falling out, but it was a big step. While working on the project we had a nice surprise – as I was lifting up a board, I saw something duck and hide. Inspecting more closely, I found out it was a big, black scorpion. I told Oscar and Alberto. Oscar said it was a threat to have it in our work space, so he took a pole and smooshed it. Alacran – puchica!

During these three days, Oscar and I also distributed a bunch of school supplies that my mom was able to fit in her suitcase when she came to visit during Semana Santa. Among the things she included some jump ropes, which the kids had never tried before – jump roping was a challenge for them but they had a good time and were pretty good considering they had never heard of the activity before.

I just got back from another three day jaunt in Yalchacti, where we finished the last detail in the chicken nests – placing the small board on front of the nest so the eggs do not fall out. We also continued the work of hanging the chicken wire around the whole chicken coop so that the chickens don’t get out and other creatures don’t get in. We still have to install the gutters which will fill the chicken’s water tanks when it rains – so I’ll probably end up making one more three day hitch out there. Siriaco, a father of a family in Yalchacti, helped us out quite a bit. He hosted us for all of our meals (we payed him of course, but even with the money it’s a big job) and he also lent a hand as we were finishing up the nest boxes and hanging the chicken wire.

We gave Siriaco some of the Moringa tree seeds that my mom brought down when she came to visit, and he showed us that they are growing well. He started them out in plastic bags, and now has them transplanted in various places around his home. Patrick’s mom brought down more Moringa tree seeds. We gave most of these seeds to Hermano Nikolas and Hermano Alejandro of the monastery because they are both accomplished agronomists. We hope that they will be able to start nurseries for the seeds and be able to give more seeds to the people in the villages, since the fruits of the tree (including the leaves) are so jam packed full of nutrients. The leaves have more vitamin C than oranges, more vitamin A than carrots, more calcium than milk, and more protein than yoghurt, according to the presentation on the website, Trees for Life International: http://www.treesforlife.org/our-work/our-initiatives/moringa/moringa-resources – If we could incorporate this tree into the agriculture of the people in the villages, it could work wonders for the health and nutrition of the people there.

That’s the idea with the chicken coop too – we hope that the school will be able to use the eggs in their nutrition program, and that any excess eggs could be sold to buy other foods for the school nutrition program. We were thinking that in exchange for volunteer help from people in the villages, the people could take a few eggs home with them as compensation for their help. This does not take any funding or anything from the nutrition program, because the eggs are still going to the kids and their families. Siriaco and his family definitely deserve to take some of the first eggs home after the chickens arrive.

Another thing we have been thinking about is the fact that with so many farmers in the villages around Coban – it is amazing that no one cans their own food. I tried finding canning jars and lids in Coban to purchase for a demonstration on how to can, but I was not able to find any at all. After talking with Fr. Bernie’s friend Dr. Toriviarti, we found out that canning jars were a big thing but slowly lost their popularity. The Dr. was able to locate some canning jars for me, but said they were really expensive (another reason why people probably don’t can) but said that if I got some regular jars, I could seal them with a certain canning sealer he is aware of, and apparently this is a lot cheaper for saving food. There are so many fruits here, and I see in the market everyday fruits going bad that did not sell, I think it would just make good business sense to somehow be able to preserve and sell the fruit, instead of always selling it fresh and inevitably having some of it go bad. We’ll keep you posted on this project as well.

We went to a Mayan museum in Coban the next day located in Zone 3 I think on 5a or 6a Calle. That was pretty interesting – they have quite a bit of artifacts – and we found out that some of the major artifacts are in other countries – one of the largest being a stone with Mayan pictographs in a Boston museum. My mom had to leave earlier than my cousin – so we drove my mom back to the airport and Jennifer and I went up to Xelaju for Easter. Besides processions – there was not much going on. We only had Saturday evening and Sunday morning there, so we only got a glimpse. I tried connecting with the study abroad students – but they were all on vacation in Honduras. The procession on Easter was amazing, I was inspired by the people’s faith, culture, and spirit all seeming to provide energy to continue the journey for sustainable development, social justice, and care for creation.

Jennifer and I then went to Panajachel and Lake Atlitlan at midday on Easter. We enjoyed beautiful views of the Lake (which hopefully they are trying to clean up from the sewage etc that hotels and houses are still contaminating the lake with) but we did not swim. The government supposedly has a waste water treatment system being installed – stay tuned.

We randomly ran into one of my friends from St. John’s – Drew Madson – so we ended up hanging out with Drew. At dinner that night we had bets on how many kids would try to sell us souvenirs – there are many nice souvenirs here and I like to support the kids in earning some money. Sometimes though, the kids can be a little pushy. Jennifer bought a nice leather purse hand made by a local artisan with porcupine quill work – reminiscent of the quill work of the Ojibwe in Minnesota. The next day Jennifer and I went to Santa Catalina – the next town over, and I bought a few cloth belts that the women were weaving with hand looms. Drew was going to go to San Lucas Toliman across the Lake to help with the mission there, but decided to come back with me to Coban to see Semuc Champey and to catch up with Molly Roske, a Bennie who happened to be in Coban for her work as a Peace Corps Volunteer. We stayed at the Earth Lodge in Antigua where we also met up with Patrick who was coming back from his grandpa’s funeral in the US. The Earth Lodge is a pretty nice and affordable gringo hang out, but it is a little ways outside of the city. Jennifer caught a ride from the Earth Lodge guys to the airport the next day, and Drew, Patrick, and I returned back to Coban. Patrick and I had to get back to work after a decent amount of time off for Holy Week – so Drew went to Semuc solo – but we still had a good time for the two evenings he was here.

It worked out though. We met Jennifer in Antigua at the hotel (I reserved at least a month in advance) Santa Lucia Numero 3. I was glad that they had a garage in which to park Fr. Bernie’s truck. We found a traditional dinner that was very good. The next day we climbed the volcano, Pacaya, with a friend of Fr. Bernie’s we met at the wedding of Carlos Estrada’s son. Carlos is a very close friend of Fr. Bernie. Alejandro de la Riva is the friend of Fr. Bernie we met at the wedding, where he was showing us on a cell phone youtube videos he had taken of himself on the volcano. There was one scene where there was a wide river of lava, into which he threw a large rock, and then used the rock as a stepping stone to cross the river of lava. We agreed that we would not do anything that daring when my mom and cousin went on the trip. We had a great time, we got to see the lava flowing well, and we even cooked chorizos over a hot spot up there.

After seeing the lava close enough and hearing volcanic gases blowing out of the mountain like air out of a whale, we had to head back so we could make it to the Biotopo de Quetzal in Purulha, Baja Verapaz that same night. Alejandro and his daughter, Mariale, were hoping we could stay until dusk so we could see more of the contrast in the lava’s glow versus the evening, but it was glowing pretty brightly even during the day time.

Near Purulha, we stayed at the Ram Tzul hotel, which was pretty much all made of bamboo, so that was cool. We left fairly early the next morning in search of Quetzales, Guatemala’s national bird. The 4 km hike was beautiful. We wanted to see the waterfall Chilasco, but did not have enough time. However, there was a waterfall in the Biotopo as well, so it worked out. We did not end up seeing a Quetzal, which made me appreciate even more seeing one in Costa Rica some years back. I did now realize how rare it is to see a Quetzal.

We have been busy hosting lately…Another group came down to visit from St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Edina. For several of them, this was their second, third, or fourth time coming. St. Patrick’s has been supporting the monastery financially, prayerfully, and actively for about 10 years now. They were here for about 5 days. Hermano Pablo came with them from Blue Cloud Abbey – I think Pablo was in the Coban monastery for 20 years before being called back to Blue Cloud – he still knows about half the people in Coban.

This is a picture of us playing soccer on an indoor court – what is called here a cancha sintetica. I’m the one who looks like he’s about to fall over backwards, but I don’t recall doing so. Alberto (employee of Fr. Bernie) organized our first game on the indoor court about a month ago – and we had a blast and have been reserving the court every Saturday since. One of the people from St. Patrick’s played with us this past week – Kevin Smith – who will graduate from the U of M soon. He also left us a fun card game called dominion.

Patrick left back to the states last night on short notice. He bought a plane ticket around 6 pm and left Coban around 8 pm for a flight from Guatemala City leaving the next morning. His grandpa is in the hospital and Patrick wanted to make sure he could visit him in case anything happened. He called me this morning and said he caught his plane okay, so that was good to hear.

My dad’s passport was delayed in coming, so unfortunately he will not be able to come and visit this Saturday, but my mom is still coming and my cousin is already here in Antigua. I will leave early on Saturday to pick my mom up at the airport, and then we’ll begin seeing the sights.

Here are some more recent pictures of the sorghum we planted in front of the new buildings at the monastery. The birds started eating some of the grains, so you can kind of see in the background of this picture a paper bag over one of the grain heads. An idea we have is to grow sorghum for chicken feed in the aldeas. The chicken coops are under construction, and soon there will be about 700 laying hens in Yalchacti and in Salvador Chitzol. The first season of chicken feed has been donated luckily, but we will need to be prepared for the second season. Sorghum is good chicken feed (and eaten in many countries by humans too) – it has a lot of protein when it is not overcooked and especially when not cooked at all. It has lower yields than corn in ideal soil conditions and climate – so we are not thinking of replacing the corn here with sorghum – we do not want to compete with the people’s food supply. Sorghum’s strength is that it is more hardy than corn because it can withstand periods of a lot of water and periods of little water. We may be able to avoid competing with the staple crop corn by planting sorghum in corn’s off season when it is drier. This will eventually add to the people’s food supply because turning grain into eggs is a good deal.

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Another good agricultural/nutritional deal that Fr. Bernie is looking into is what is sometimes referred to as the tree of life, but more commonly known by its scientific name, Moringa Oleifera. The leaves of this tree contain seven time the vitamin C as oranges, four times the vitamin A as carrots, four times the calcium as milk, three times the potassium as bananas, and two times the protein of yoghurt, according to the document, “Moringa Presentation (Genera)” posted by the organization, Trees for Life International (www.treesforlife.org). Fr. Bernie ordered some seeds from California and shipped them overnight to my mom, so she can bring them down with her when she comes to visit.

Yeah nutrition, health, and trees!

Here is a picture of one of our favorite views on our way to work in the aldeas near Cubilguitz.
The view is best early in the morning when the sun is coming up and the fog is still rising up out of the valley.

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Another beautiful place on the way to Cubilguitz is known as Las Cataratas – you’ll recognize this photo.

My parents and my cousin are coming at the end of March – close to the time of Semana Santa – so I had to book a hotel in Antigua early for their arrival. I called the hotel via skype last week, and luckily got the last two double rooms. I am trying to think of an itinerary for their one week stay. My wish list follows: Go straight to Antigua upon arrival, and check out the city a little before eating dinner – and venturing out a little but not too much after dinner (would not even think about venturing out in Guatemala City after dinner). Check out a museum in Antigua a bit the next morning – then head back across Guatemala City the next day to check out the volcano, Pacaya. After hiking the volcano – head up to Coban and stay with the monks. Visit the aldeas with my family where I have been working and hopefully attend a Mass there; then explore one of the rainforest tours between Coban and Cubilguitz. Then make a day trip down to Baja Verapaz to view Central America’s largest waterfall (Chilasco) and some cultural things there. Take a hike into the cloud forest to attempt a glimpse of a Quetzal. We’ll see how things work out…

Here is a picture of the sorghum we planted in front of the new buildings at the monastery. I am hoping that some of the people in the villages might be interested in trying out a small crop of sorghum to add to their crop biodiversity. Sorghum has its strengths and weaknesses like any other crop – I think it would have its place in the villages sometime around the dry season, because it is a hardy crop that does not need much water. We have been thinking about the possiblity of cultivating sorghum to supply the chicken feed with the new chicken coops we have been helping prepare. This picture was taken in December (and we planted in October) when sorghum is still relatively young, it looks a lot like corn. However, I’ll have to go out and take a more recent picture – because the grain heads have popped out on all of the stalks – and it looks like an oversized wheat plant without the little hair-like structure on the grains. This is one of the projects I was thinking about when I mused in the last post about how can people ask for a project they have never heard of. Another such project I have been musing on is that of canning food. I know I took for granted being able to purchase canning supplies when I was in the US – but I have been trying to purchase mason jars etc here for over a month. I thought I had a bit of a lead when I brought a picture of a mason jar to a store that sells glass drinking cups to see if they could order mason jars with the metal lids. They said I could come back the following week to see if they were able to order them. It would be easy enough for my parents to bring some mason lids (I really need the lids, there are jars here, but no lids) – but I would not want a food preservation/farm-added-value-products project to be dependent on such type of imports. I will keep up my quest of finding a retailer who can find mason jar lids… My motivation for this is that many of the people in the villages are poor farmers, and the prices of food are so low here that they often can not make good earnings on selling simply their products, or farm commodities. If they were able to process the food they grow themselves a little before selling it, they would be able to get a better price for their products and hopefully make a step out of poverty. It’s one development idea among many – we’ll see how it pans out…

That’s all for now folks.

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.

The Benedictine monastery we are staying in has daily Mass in Coban. However, we have been travelling about 1.5 hours one way north of Coban to villages known as Rio Palmeras and Yalchacti to teach English to the students enrolled in schools there. They are fast learners – we have already taught them how to conjugate several verbs and put together different sentences in the present tense. In Yalchacti, less student speak Spanish than in Rio Palmeras – the native language Qeqchi is many of the students’ first language. In the villages the people celebrate Mass about 3 times per year, because they only have one priest who speaks Qeqchi (from the monastery – Padre Pedro) for 75 villages. However – they do gather each Sunday – and two other days during the week to celebrate the Word of God. A brother who speaks Qeqchi from the Benedictine monastery will be ordained a priest in November, so hopefully people in the villages will be able to celebrate Mass more often. We have planted sorghum on the monastery grounds as a test crop to see how it will grow in this climate – and it may be a good back up crop if there is a drought in the area (there have been a few droughts in certain regions of Guatemala). Tomorrow we are going to help put the finishing touches on a chicken coup that will house about 750 laying hens. The eggs will go to improve the nutrition program at the schools (often the students’ best meal of the day). That is a snapshot of what we are up to – I’ll give you another update as things move along.