Meet the Monster!

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=41385

“The Lake“ or “El Lago”, the famous Lago Atitlan, the bottomless lake that was formed 1,8 million years ago among volcanoes, the one that has given home to colorful Maya villages on its shores and has attracted visitors from all over the world, has a brand new sensation: Its Monster is out! It has come up to the surface, it is apparent even from space, it is showing its large, greenish stinky body to the world. It feeds on sewage, industrial waste and agricultural run off. And we have fed it well! In fact so well that it will be able to live off on the food we’ve given it for years. It is growing into all parts of the lake to express its gratitude for all the wonderful feeding and caring we have provided it with. Please come and visit, meet the Monster!

I visited Lago Atitlan the fourth time in November and saw that the lake is now experiencing a large bloom of a toxic cyanobacteria. The bacteria overgrowth is most likely caused by a combination of dumping of sewage, industrial and agricultural waste, deforestation and an unusually dry year. We were there right around the third week after the overgrowth of the bacteria had become apparent all over the lake. What we could see was large areas covered by the greenish, brownish algae-looking thing that smelled like sewage. On the shores women were no longer were washing clothes, but were trying to collect bacteria with big nets to “clean” the lake. By talking to many people, all we could hear was people blaming each other for causing the problem, one village blaming the other, locals blaming tourists for not caring about the lake, tourism industry holding the farmers responsible and vice versa, others blaming the government for not constructing sewage treatment systems, government officials blaming each other for stealing the aid money they received from other countries after 2006, when Hurricane Stan seriously hit the area and caused massive landslides and destroyed all existing waste water treatment systems and others blaming the aiding countries for giving out the money without establishing reconstruction programs. The traditional believes are different: people say that this is God punishing us for our sins for not praying enough, at least that’s what they are being told at the church and others say that the Monster of the Lake has woken up.
There is one thing they would all agree on, and that is that we are in big trouble! We have woken up the Monster and it will take decades to calm it down again, and we can only do that if we all get together and start working on it now by creating a water cleaning system, by not damping more organic and inorganic waste into the water, by paying extra tourism taxes, by using harmless fertilizers on the fields, by not stealing the aid money and by creating programs that educate people about environmental issues. I think that God would like that too and would change his ways and would stop punishing us.

Women washing clothes, themselves and their kids in the lake - March, 2009.

crossing the lake - April, 2009

crossing the lake - October, 2009

Cyanobacteria - October, 2009

Freestyle Dance and Yoga Workshop Flyer aka symbolic thinking in Guatemala

My wonderful yoga teacher, Rae Ishee and I are going to give our first workshop on December 9th at the Antigua Centre. So I made a colorful flyer, using Matisse's painting 'Dance II', both Rae and I loved it, but when she showed it to a few people they were shocked that she was going to teach a nude yoga and dance class ... I always learn: symbolic thinking is not our strength here in Antigua.

So we ended up using Picasso's 'Dance of Youth' painting:

... So just that you understand: we are going to dance in a circle around a flying blue dove that is carrying a leaf.

All are welcome at the workshop!

Clay and Hieroglyphs Workshop in San Mateo Ixtatan

During our visit to San Mateo Ixtatan, we offered to facilitate a workshop on clay and hieroglyphs with Alonso for middle school students. Throughout the workshop students learned about Maya hieroglyphs and techniques of working with clay. After Alonso gave an introduction on the Maya hieroglyphs, students drew the glyphs of their Maya names, first on paper and later on a piece of clay block. After this we started the big project, which was to make clay pots with lids for the black salt and draw the hieroglyph “K'ik' Atz'am” (black salt) on them. None of the students had worked with clay before, so we showed them how they can use the coil technique for building the pots, and by the time they were ready to do the decorations, we saw little pieces of art forming in their hands, some pots with cats and birds and rancheros were being born. Both the students and us have enjoyed the workshop very much; it was a wonderful experience to work together for a week and see the great progress of the group. Throughout the workshop we were only using materials that were available locally: we made the tools together with the students, used the local clay from the water filter workshop and fired the ceramic pieces in the kiln, used for the filters. We have been encouraging students to use the skills they had learned and continue their work with clay in the future. I am looking forward to the next visit when we will continue the workshop!

Starting the work with clay

The glyphs of the Maya names

Drawing the glyph of K'ik' Atz'am on the pot

With the students after taking the pieces to the kiln

School psychology service at the Yinhatil Nab’en

This was my third visit to San Mateo Ixtatán, having heard much about the students and the school and having experienced the local culture for a few weeks, and also speaking enough Spanish to feel comfortable to do so, I offered counseling hours for students and teachers in the afternoons. I thought that the stigma of seeing a psychologist or a counselor would hold people back, but to my surprise I did have some cases to see. The most important part of this work was that I realized that psychological support for both teachers and students is very much needed. San Mateo Ixtatán, being strongly affected by 36 years of civil war, is a place where the signs of trauma are very much present in the every-day life: depression, alcoholism and violence are the ones that are the most apparent. In order to address these issues we have started to develop a plan to offer school psychology services at the Yinhatil Nab’en School, with a friend, Saskia Schuitemaker, a community psychologist. The service will also include an orientation for the volunteer teachers and teambuilding sessions for the school staff throughout the year. We are hoping that this work will make a difference in the psychological well being of the students, the teachers and the community and will facilitate a more open communication, better cooperation and stronger connection between and among them.

Lecture Series on Maya Archeology

The last week of the school year we were honored by a visit of the archeologist and good friend, Alonso Mendez. Alonso has been working on archeological projects in Palenque since 1997 as a member of the Maya Exploration Center. His areas of expertise include archeo-astronomy, understanding of hieroglyphic texts and fine arts. Being a Tzeltal Maya himself and having been raised in the highlands of Chiapas, Alonso has brought to San Mateo Ixtatán an authentic knowledge, tradition and view on the Maya culture to share with the students, teachers and the community. During his weeklong visit he gave a lecture series on Maya Archeology to high school students and facilitated a clay and hieroglyph workshop with me for middle school students.
All high school students have participated in his fascinating lecture series that discussed the areas of:
1. History of the ancient Maya
2. History of discovering and understanding the Maya hieroglyphs
3. Maya calendars: The long-count and the short-count calendar and the Mayan mathematics
4. Maya astronomy
During the lectures, Alonso emphasized the importance of keeping alive the Maya traditions, the language, the art and the use of the calendars. It has been an important experience for him to be in San Mateo Ixtatán and learn about the Chuj Maya culture and community. He was very happy to see the spark in the eyes of some kids during his lectures. We are hoping that we can collaborate with him in the future for further projects!

Alonso starting the lecture

About San Mateo Ixtatán

Tree weeks after arriving in Guatemala I found myself bumping on a chicken bus on the unpaved road of San Mateo Ixtatan next to a woman named Beth Neville Evans, whom I accidentally met and immediately became friends with on my second day in Antigua. Things happen fast and easy when one is travelling on her own and is a psychologist and happy to work with people who have similar visions, ideas and fascinations as she does. Beth started a foundation www.ixtatan.org to support the development of San Mateo Ixtatan, a town 2540 meters above sea level in the Cuchumatanes mountain range, where the Chuj Maya people have lived since ancient times. I’ve been learning and supporting the work of Beth and the foundation ever since she has told me about their projects. In November I spent ten days in San Mateo and finally felt like I have done some good work up there. … so here is what happened:

Beth with friends at the cemetery on the Day of the dead.