Lucky Stars

Life is good. Can somebody send me one of those T-shirts that say that? (haha, kidding… better if you can find it in Spanish!)
Since I moved to Totonicapán 3 weeks ago, I have felt much more “in my element” than I have yet in this country, and I feel pretty satisfied with life. Firstly, my work in the park has picked up speed: I have officially become a guide capable of taking groups on our Sendero (trail/path) and giving our environmental ed curriculum at the various stations (although talking ecological concepts while using non-formal methods of participatory learning, and maintaining group safety in the forest, all in Spanish, is still kind of kicking my butt). This happened last weekend, when 300 Guatemalans belonging to the Church of Latter Day Saints (i.e. the Mormons) showed up and wanted the schpiel on the trail in groups of 50. We had Luís (1 of our 2 Guatemalan guides) and Kate (the current volunteer) available the give it. And me, who had never even done a practice run, although I had tagged along before to listen to the others give the talks. But hey, might as well jump in! And although for many of the reasons described above I felt awkward and nervous, in some strange way I felt like I was back on my home turf! Here I was, setting off with another group of visitors to a protected wilderness area, to tell them all about the ecology of this area, do some fun activities with them, and hope they’ve learned something when we’re finished. It wasn’t perfect, but it went well and, more importantly, everybody had fun and probably learned something.
And speaking of jumping in, last week was also Promotion Week – meaning Yovani and Luís and I drove around for 2 whole days visiting school after school to advertise my park’s environmental education program (which we call the Sendero Ecológico). We’d drive up, walk in and ask where the Director’s office (i.e. principal) was, and give a schpiel about the Sendero, how it benefits both the kids and the teachers to come and have us talk natural science and ecology with the students, how we tailor it to age groups, it fits within the national education curriculum, etc. Then the Director or Directora usually hems and haws, might sound excited, might talk about how the Parent Association probably won’t approve such and excursion, depends on the person. But after a few of these visits, Yovani turned to me as we were getting out of the car at yet another school, hands me the binder and says, “Your turn!” Ah… what? “Yovani, you sure you want the gringa with her so-so Spanish being the first impression these Directors get of the quality of our park??” But I knew he was right, so I did the talking at the next school, and hey – the Directora really liked the sound of our project! I think she’ll organize a student visit for sure.
So far I haven’t really gotten a feel for potential projects of my own yet, but I’m not really suppose to yet either. And for now, Kate has several projects in process, so I’ve been learning a lot just from hopping in on those. For instance, Kate has been working on a Master’s Thesis study of the endemic birds of the Totonicapán area, and I’ve been tagging along many of the mornings when she goes out to her points in the forest to listen for bird calls, record sightings, vegetation, etc. This is a great way for me to learn all the local bird species, as there are about 94 that Kate has recorded in this area and at least 27 of them are endemic to the altiplano of Guatemala. Why does this region have so many bird species? Because the community of Totonicapán is famous in Guatemala for its communal forest, and therefore birds have habitat here. For centuries the people in this area have collectively owned and sustainably used a huge expanse of humid montane coniferous forest. There are over 16,000 hectares of communal forest, plus 4,000 more of “parcialidades” which are private parcels owned by extended family groups (everyone with the last name “Tash”, for instance). If you’ve ever visited Guatemala, you’ll know that deforestation is pretty high, especially in non-tourist areas, so the mere existence of miles and miles and miles of intact, ancient forest is astonishing. This is another reason environmental education with the schools in this area is so important: if the next generation is to care for and justly manage the resources in this communal forest, they need to start understanding why the forest’s existence is so important. Not just for ecological purposes, but for their own livelihoods and their children’s future. That said, another of Kate’s projects that just finished up last week was a training course for local young people in concepts and practices of Resource Conservation and Tourism Guiding. It was so cool to watch and listen to these young Guatemalans get so excited learning about the local species, brainstorm ways they can improve trash management in their family’s zones of the communal forest, master simple phrases in English for the day tourists come, etc. Because one addition incentive for keeping the forest intact is that it could seriously provide some tourism income – and of course, that won’t happen overnight, but the youths understand that they’d need to put in some infrastructure and advertising legwork before foreigners are going to just fall out of the sky. That was really a neat project to get to help out with, and I hope to continue working with these newly-trained guides in the future.
And every day when I leave the park to walk home, I walk through some of that communal forest and thank the powers that be for sending me here, where on that walk home I listen to the wind in the enormous, ancient pines, hear the crunch of needles under my feet, and breathe deep as that wonderful pine scent fills my lungs. And when I get home our puppy Ginger (they let me name her, even though the name Ginger is hard for them to say) greets me romping and chewing my pant leg, and all three of my young host siblings are usually doing homework but look up excitedly and expect a story from me as I walk in the door. I chat with my host mom Emiliana and her mom Abuelita Paulina as we get dinner ready, and I must say I’ve missed quite a few phone calls in the evenings as post-dinner chatting, especially with my host dad once he gets home later, has been keeping us all up sitting around the kitchen table till about 10 or 10:30 every night. But that’s not a complaint, really – I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am thanking my lucky stars.