Volcanoes pass by through the car window in the distance and the air temperature cools as we climb in elevation along a section of Guatemala's main highway. We turn off the road in front of a decorative passenger bus barreling around a corner with cargo strapped to the top. As our bodies toss and turn along the windy dirt road, we rise above lush green fields of vegetables with men and women working in them with hoes, rakes and baskets. We pass by greenhouses, stray dogs, barbed wire fences, children with machetes on bicycles and men in large straw hats walking home in the afternoon sun. Shelters with tin roofs to store crops and small adobe houses with iron barred windows surrounded by cement block walls brightly painted the colors of Guatemala's three main political parties dot the landscape as we enter a small Mayan aldea not even on the map.
I have been driving for over an hour with 3 members of a local grass roots organization called "Women In Action" that empowers rural community leaders through helping them organize themselves and their communities to discuss local problems and solutions. This group of women and a few men work with small groups of community leaders in the rural highlands of Guatemala, empowering community health and agriculture promoters. They help facilitate discussions and hands on activities to teach these promotores how to organically grow nutritious cash crops (such as fruits and vegetables we take for granted as normal choices in our daily diets) to strengthen the health of their community, land and the local economy. They teach and supply micro-credit loans so farmers can grow crops to support their large families or Artisans can create products to sell. These leaders are continuing to develop training in local plant medicine and preventative health, malnutrition programs and teaching children values such as respect, honesty and responsibility vital to spiritual well-being and a healthy culture.
I am learning so much from my Guatemalan friends here, wether they have come to see me as their doctor or have invited me into their life in other ways. As I spend time listening and visiting with them in their homes and communities, I am not only learning about their culture and beliefs or the struggles of the poor, but I experience the value of time spent in conversation and collaboration, exchanging ideas and honoring everyone's knowledge. In the United States, we can place a higher value on independence and getting "things" done. We can feel so responsible to accomplish something ourself, meet quotas or live up to someone else's expectations. It can squelch the power of cooperation, creativity and acceptance of the aspects that make us unique but stronger as a whole. It is an honor to parter with these Guatemalans and together work towards the roots of health and vitality-- mind, body, spirit and ecosystem -- of individuals, families, communities and the world.
I am learning so much from my Guatemalan friends here, wether they have come to see me as their doctor or have invited me into their life in other ways. As I spend time listening and visiting with them in their homes and communities, I am not only learning about their culture and beliefs or the struggles of the poor, but I experience the value of time spent in conversation and collaboration, exchanging ideas and honoring everyone's knowledge. In the United States, we can place a higher value on independence and getting "things" done. We can feel so responsible to accomplish something ourself, meet quotas or live up to someone else's expectations. It can squelch the power of cooperation, creativity and acceptance of the aspects that make us unique but stronger as a whole. It is an honor to parter with these Guatemalans and together work towards the roots of health and vitality-- mind, body, spirit and ecosystem -- of individuals, families, communities and the world.