Guatemala, A Belated Introduction

Greetings from The Land of Eternal Spring, and I hope 2012 is getting off to a good start for you. In reviewing previous blog entries, I realize I have not shared much about this country, far and away the most ecologically & culturally diverse land I know.

Conveniently, as per this blog entry, my current work for CEDEPCA involves revising our 20 page introduction of the country, which we disseminate to the U.S. and Canadian delegation groups we host. So in that vein, I share a slice of this with you, albeit in a more subjective fashion here.

First, I may not be an authority on Latin America. Far from it! But here’s a slice of context from which I compare Guatemala:

I’ve been blessed to visit [or rather, I have exploited my carbon footprint by flying to..! (Offset yours here)] eight Latin American countries, beginning with Honduras in 1995. I’ve climbed Machu Picchu, canoed in the Amazon, stood in Cuba’s Plaza of the Revolution, met with Honduras’ exploited Chiquita Banana workers and Osh’Kosh B’Gosh sweatshop laborers, visited torture cells found in the basement of Anastasio Samoza’s former mansion, and I’ve gone swimming in Lake Nicaragua, where the world’s lone species of freshwater shark is found. Lucky, indeed, I have been. Generous support, an adventurous spirit, and the liberty of being single (still, argh!) all make for possibilities outside the Big Box!

Perhaps the combined uniqueness of those countries matches Guatemala’s, but no one of those matches what follows. Here goes:

Flowing through Guatemala, about the size of Tennessee, are over 100 rivers; 1,000 species of orchids; three tectonic plate fault lines; coasts on both the Atlantic and the Pacific (with their respective hurricane seasons, unfortunately); 37 volcanoes with 3 currently active; fourteen distinct ecological regions, from coastal mangroves .... to cloud forests at 8,000 feet above sea level ..... to the rain forest surrounding Tikal, a 2,500 year old site of Mayan temples; Guatemala City, the largest capitol in Central America; a majority Mayan indigenous population, consisting of 23 distinct ethnic groups, each with their own distinct language; and, last, as per this list, a resurging practice of Mayan spirituality that reaches back long before the now predominant Catholic and Protestant churches arrived on the scene in the 16^th and 19^th Centuries.

What else? The list goes on, but your time does not; so, I’ll wrap up.

It’s called the Land of Eternal Spring because flora is ALWAYS growing. Cut a limb off a tree, stick it in the ground, and watch it sprout! Amidst such abundance, one wonders why a clear majority of children here are undernourished. But that’s for another blog entry. J

Thanks so much for reading. And if you have a moment, I’d love to hear from you via the comment section below or at ajenkins@cedepca.org.

Blessings & Peace,

alan

Ps. I forgot to include a theological element! How about this: God writes the Gospel, not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars. -Martin Luther, 1483-1546.

Or …

Our present ecological crisis, the biggest single practical threat to our human existence in the middle to long term, has, religious people would say, a great deal to do with our failure to think of the world as existing in relation to the mystery of God, not just as a huge warehouse of stuff to be used for our convenience. -Rowan Williams, current Archbishop of Canterbury.