Would you love to give 3 months of your life to make a difference to the world?
We need volunteers for a poor Mayan village.
Do you have a skill? If not could you learn one?
"It is not what is inside of you that matters but what you do with it that really counts."
Amigos de Australianos y Zelandeses Inc. is a non-government organization (NGO) that was the brain child of Mahiya Norton, who in 2004 travelled the world looking for somewhere to "give something back" to the world. Thanks to her daughter who was visiting Guatemala at the time, she stumbled across Lake Atitlan in the heart of Guatemala's volcanic highlands. It may be the most beautiful lake in the world, as deep as it used to be tall millions of years ago, but now its misty blue water ripples, reflecting the surviving cones.
She now travels between Australia and San Pedro across the lake from her work in San Pablo. San Pablo represents everything magical and tragic
about this country: a strong Mayan culture and staggering poverty. The little village of 8000 people of San Pablo is only a 10 minute boat ride from San Pedro but couldn't be more distant. While San Pedro is a thriving tourist village famous as being the cheapest place in the world to study spanish (US$55 for 20 hours of one-on-one lessons. See one of many Spanish schools for details:
www.casarosario.com), San Pablo has no restaurants, no hotels, few toilets, no running water in the majority of houses and with houses/floors made only of mudbrick.
Years after the Spaniards relocated Mayan tribes around the lake and mountains to confuse the dialects, to keep them divided and compliant, the locals live in isolation to the rest of the lake, to the rest of the world. They even refused the government's security and kicked the corrupt police out of the village, instead maintaining the Mayan law. They are grateful for help but very wary of outsiders.
Mahiya was drawn by the mighty cones' spiritual power and beauty, the peoples' gentle grace but ultimately by the overwhelming need of fellow humans. The majority of the population cook with little bits of wood directly on the mud floors, covered with a simple metal frame to hold their pot. They are surrounded by smoke and consequently there is a major issue with lung problems in the village
Carrying wood daily on their back or head, this is the only means of heating water or cooking their daily staple of tortillas and beans. There are no tables or chairs to be seen, the meals are eaten together as a family standing up or crouching down on the mudfloor, often in the single room of their house.
She took an interest in San Pablo because it was the poorest of the Atitlan
villages, the most isolated and the one place that hasn't found a way to keep up with its fellow villages. San Pablo remains a blip, a place people pass through to get to another place. Other villages are known for their crafts, textiles and market places but San Pablo remains separate. Unlike this typical market place in Guatemala, San Pablo is devoid of color other than through its vibrant peoples and traditional clothing.
