Colonialism and Volcanoes in Antigua, Guatemala

If you ever find yourself spending a lengthy amount of time in rural Guatemala and feel that some sort of transition would be helpful before the complete culture shock of returning to the fast-paced North American atmosphere, then Antigua is your destination. With streetscapes that reminisce of Ann Arbor in Spring time, and just as many swanky bars and blond-headed patrons that inhabit them, I was not surprised at all to find a menu that consisted of chai lattes and nutella crepes. The colonial influences in the once capital of Guate are well preserved and the cobble stone streets have wreaked havoc on my foot dragging tendencies since the moment I arrived. Yet all of this dwarfs in comparison to the fact that a mere hour outside of the city you are able to get as close as your skins heat shield will permit to flowing streams of active lava at Volcano Pacaya. Yes, Im serious, there is lava flowing from the crater of this volcano and we climbed up mounds of volcanic rock to stand next to brilliant orange streams of molten earth. A picture would be so much better right now. Sorry. Next stop, Zacapa followed by Copan...Oscars family, the black Christ, and Mayan ruins. More to come.

Only 3 Weeks Left

I realized that my time here has nearly expired and after 2 and a half months I got to know 2 different places quite well. The only thing is, there is much more to learn and more friends to visit. So for the next 2-3 weeks, I am going to become super-cliche, super-tourist with camera flung over my shoulder and Nalgene clipped to my hip, and try to make a grand circle of Guatemala, starting here at the Lake and leaving me exhausted and broke at my plane come May 4th. Here´s the list of destinations:
Coban (Mayan ruins)
Semuc Champey (supposedly the ´most beautiful´ place in Guatemala)
Rabynal (the cheapest place to eat in Central America...another piece of objective info ;)
Tikal, El Mirador (Mayan ruins)
La Finca Ixobel (great place to chill in a hammock)
Rio Dulce, Livingston (beautiful and new culture...Garifuna)
Copan (more ruins and beach)
Zacapa (my cousin Michelle´s friends)
Guatemala City (Academy of Mayan Languages and airport)

See ya´ll soon. I´ve got lots of good pics to share.

McDONALD’S USA AND ITS PRODUCE SUPPLIERS TO WORK WITH THE COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS

ATLANTA – The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), and McDonald’s USA, working with McDonald’s produce suppliers, today announced plans to work together to address wages and working conditions for the farmworkers who pick Florida tomatoes.

Beginning in the 2007 growing season, McDonald’s USA, through its produce suppliers, will pay an additional penny per pound for Florida tomatoes supplied to its U.S. restaurants. The increase will be paid directly to farmworkers harvesting tomatoes purchased by McDonald’s.

The CIW and McDonald’s produce suppliers will work together to develop a new code of conduct for Florida tomato growers as well as increase farmworker participation in monitoring supplier compliance. Farmworkers will also participate in investigating worker complaints and dispute resolution. Additionally, the CIW and McDonald’s produce suppliers will work together toward developing and implementing a credible third-party verification system.

“I welcome McDonald’s commitment to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to improve the lives of the workers who supply their 13,000 U.S. restaurants with tomatoes,” said former United States President and founder of the Carter Center, Jimmy Carter. “This is a clear and welcome example of positive industry partnership. It demonstrates also McDonald’s leadership in social responsibility and CIW’s importance as a voice for farmworker rights. I encourage others to now follow the lead of McDonald’s and Taco Bell to achieve the much needed change throughout the entire Florida-based tomato industry.” Representatives from the Carter Center, based in Atlanta, helped facilitate the agreement with the Coalition and McDonald’s.

“Two years ago, our agreement with Yum Brands marked the first step toward a distant dream of ensuring human rights for workers in Florida’s fields,” said Lucas Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. “Today, with McDonald’s, we have taken another major step toward a world where we as farmworkers can enjoy a fair wage and humane working conditions in exchange for the hard and essential work we do every day. We are not thereyet, but we are getting there, and today’s agreement should send a strongmessage to the rest of the restaurant and supermarket industry that it isnow time to stand behind the food they sell from the field to the table.”

“We have always respected the CIW’s commitment to enhancing conditions for the workers,” said J.C. Gonzalez-Mendez, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Management, McDonald’s USA. “We’ve made progress with our suppliers through our existing Florida tomato grower standards, which hold the growers accountable to standards higher than the industry, but that was only the beginning. We believe more needs to be done. McDonald’s produce suppliers are required to purchase tomatoes only from those growers that have adopted our standards.”

To foster further improvements throughout the tomato industry, the CIW and McDonald’s produce suppliers, with McDonald’s support, will also work together toward the development of a third-party mechanism that would carry out similar monitoring and investigative functions at the industry level. The third-party mechanism will be developed in such a way as to be expandable to include the participation of other willing members of the foodservice and retail food industry that buy Florida tomatoes.

CIW has ended its two-year campaign against McDonald’s and pledged to work with the company and its suppliers to drive systemic and sustainable changes in the Florida tomato industry.

http://ciw-online.org/CIW_McDonald's_Release.html

The First Rain!

Yesterday was the first real rain of the season here at IMAP, ending six months of extreme dryness. This microclimate around the lake and all the various bioregions throughout the country will soon transform into a lush paradise capable of bountiful harvests. Then, just as abruptly as it started, the celestial tap will be shut off for another six months, and the hard working farmers of Mesoamerica will return to more labor intensive irrigation methods. Only 12 hours after this humbling and equivocal downpour, our many varieties of flowers and vegetables, from the orchids to the coffee, have livened their proud stances in the gardens in a way that the daily offerings of the hose could not provide. The sprouting plants, Calendula and White Mans Footprint, stand with a small but sturdy frame like that of their Guatemalan counterparts, and leaves that rest on their haunches like the limbs of an onlooking farmer surveying his plot after a hard days work.

पॉप वुह ऎंड थे बाइबल/तोराह...

The Christiano-Judeo world share the first half of the Bible and one interesting perspective about their surroundings. The Mayans that inhabited the majority of Central America share the foundations of the Pop Vuh, which is by rough comparison the Mayan Bible/Torah. These ancient scripts both lay out a sacred relationship of people and the land that has helped me to understand a little more about the current state of affairs in parts of the world where these foundations guide policy decisions.

The beginning of the Bible/Torah repeatedly describes the land as a possession of man, which God has given to them in one form or another. God is also depicted as creating man before the rest of his creatures, which are made for man's sake. (by my interpretation)

Abraham "On that day, God made a covenant with Abraham, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river the Euphrates. The land of the Kenites, Kenizites, Kadmonites; the Chitties, Perizites, Refaim; the Emorites, Canaanites, Gigashites and Yevusites." (Genesis 15:18-21)

Isaac "To you and your descendants I give this land." (Genesis 26:3)

The LORD God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him." So the LORD God formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man. (Genesis 2:18-20)
Jacob "The ground upon which you are lying I give to you and your descendants." (Genesis 28:13)

Moses "I made a pact with them to give them the land of Canaan.” (Exodus 6:4)


The Pop Vuh is constructed in two parts - the written word and the living word (people), and it is not complete without both. The writing compliments what I have learned during my time here; the Mayans that follow the Pop Vuh teach and believe that humans are but another element of the Earth. That amongst the most sacred elements are the seed, water, insect, and sun. That it is not possible to own the land. And that our interactions with it must be treated the same as if we were interacting with a family member or another part of life we could not live without.