Although it was supposed to end Saturday, we had a great week!! I’m still stuck in Guatemala however…our plane tickets were generous donations from Delta Airlines and they are standby status…so I keep getting bumped!!! Oh well…fingers crossed again tomorrow…

We got sinks installed in all 4 clinic rooms, put in fluorescent lighting throughout the clinic, had a wooden carved display made for our CHILA quilt, and provided metal roofing for 18 families who contributed 20 dollars of their own money in order to participate…great week!!

Thanks to all who supported us in all ways…prayers, advice, donations and labor!!

Will Checking out Achiote

…intangibles were the theme of our latest visit to Chisec, Alta Verapaz in the dead of summer…the dry season…100 degrees every day…no construction to speak of, but building relationships and bridges that will turn out to be infinitely more important than getting the building built quickly…

…i had been in touch with all of you regarding CHILA inc.’s next move, contracts, agreements, visions and missions and the union of two completely different organizations that both stand to help improve each others chances at success in the future…Q’ana Tz’uul Taq’a, the Mayan Womens group partners of CHILA inc., have been around for almost 10 years…they’ve been doing their thing, having success at it, and their goals and means of achieving those goals have evolved with time to offer a functioning, visible, tangible benefit to the communities involved in the group…

Lunch Break in the Village

…after asking for advice from everyone i know, i decided to postpone the electric and water installation in favor of a rapport building trip where i focused on what activities the womens group are already participating in, their history, and how their vision fits into an overall improvement in community health…they impressed me immensely…

…we first visited San Isidro, a village about 2 hours north (but really only about 30 miles) of Chisec…a village that has 45 representatives in the overall Q’ana Tz’uul Taq’a group, based in Chisec…they told me about how they were trained in chicken vaccinations and husbandry, in order to raise chickens for both meat and eggs…they showed me the chicken houses and areas where they lived, and explained to me that the eggs and meat are mostly for family consumption, but they sell them too when money is short in the household…they spent their own money on materials and animals, and the trainings were subsidized by the group…i was impressed…

…they then took me to an example of a family “parcel” of land where they had fruits and vegetables, and other crops planted including cacao (chocolate), palm heart (edible), mango, corn, cardamom, pineapple, achiote (mayan paint), vanilla, avocado, and many many more including medicinal plants…they explained to me that they use most of these products in the household, but sell them when money is tight (sound familiar?)…they explained that to them, the key to health is family nutrition from household planting/harvesting, income generation, and use of traditional Mayan medicinal plants…i was impressed…

over and over and over again, the womens group expressed gratitude and amazement that we had traveled all the way to guatemala, all the way to chisec, and all the way to their houses in the villages to see their activities first-hand…

…later in the week, i met with the board of directors of the womens group, in the open air hallway of our almost finished clinic construction, and i explained what we do…i explained that we are students, that we raise funds with small activities and donations from family and friends, and that we want to help, as well, improve the health of the people of Chisec, Alta Verapaz…i showed them examples of some of our fundraisers (they loved the calendar), and told them that i was impressed with their work…

…in the end, we agreed that CHILA inc. is not a large, funding organization, and that we will help when we can with the sustainability of the womens group activities, but i could not promise a percentage or an amount at this time…we just don’t have the money…they were happy with that, and the general feeling was that of increased trust and appreciation for where each was coming from…

…future plans include finishing touches on the building — electricity, water, stucco, etc…and when that is done, a local Rotary Club here in Johnson City has agreed to help, to the best of their ability, secure a container shipment of medical supplies/equipment to the clinic…so on our next trip, we will hopefully finish the building!! then the medical equipment/container will be the next step, and from there, practicing medicine…

…the calendar sales were a success, we sold over 120 copies, but at the request of the administration we will not be continuing this fundraiser in the future…i can see where they are coming from, and agreed not to do it again…

…our next activity is on April 21st, a Wednesday, in Johnson City where we will have another benefit concert, this time with the Dirk Quinn Band from Philadelphia (http://www.dirkquinn.com/) (http://www.myspace.com/dirkquinnband) and DJ Naanstop (old hip-hop and good mixes)…should be a blast!!

thanks for all your support/advice/participation!!!

BGS

Village Visit - Household Gardens

Mr. October, 2010

We did it again.

Purchase your 2010 Men of Medicine Calendars and you’ll help a good cause, AND get a good laugh…they make great gifts!!

Order online at: http://site.chilainc.org/Contact.html using your credit card with PAYPAL
($15.00 EACH, $5.00 total SHIPPING FOR MAILED ORDERS)

or you can drop a check off with Sue Russell and give her your name, and we’ll deliver it to you

or you can mail checks, as always, to us at: Chila Inc, 1003 Buffalo St., Johnson City, TN 37604

Special thanks to our wonderful professional photographer, Amanda Shea, http://www.amandasheaphotography.com/

a few people have seeked me out and suggested that CHILA inc. avoid getting too involved in supporting the activities of the women’s group (Q’ana Tz’uul Taq’a) that we have partnered with on the ground in Chisec, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. i mentioned that when we went this past Christmas, they had prepared a contract, and among its items were a few important things regarding the funds that we are working to raise here in the U.S. with activities like our calendar sales, shirt sales, concert events, and online donations. the womens group wanted to make sure that their main mission/vision remains a part of our partnership, which includes cultivation of medicinal plants, farming, production of natural Mayan medicines, weekly consults with the Mayan medicine man, and continuing education relating to these activities. i wanted to consult with all of you before making any decisions because you all have played a role in getting us where we are today. i signed the contract, but only for 3 months, with a plan for re-negotiations in March when we return to install electric and water facilities in the clinic.

i believe that the partnership forged between CHILA inc. and Asociacion Q’ana Tz’uul Taq’a is a unique one, and although we have different missions, it is a valuable partnership that needs to be nurtured and is capable of achieving things we don’t often see with the numerous “non-profit” organizations and their often overlapping missions. empowering a local indigenous womens group and the promoting ideals that they have set forth as priorities, (priorities that i think are also inherently good) can only help CHILA inc. and our diverse goals for improving the health of the Q’eqchi people of Chisec. maintaining and encouraging the rich culture and history of the people, i believe, will help future patients take responsibility for their own health. we will certainly be basing our medical work on a western medical tradition, but working alongside a Mayan medicine model and helping empower local women leaders will only help our “credibility” and effectiveness in the region. the warnings i received from several people here in the U.S. were basically reminding us that we not give in to demands for money and maintenance of a paternalistic relationship with local Guatemalan organizations, because that philosophy of development never works.

basically, part of the money we raise may eventually go to help this womens group with their goals and activities, while the majority will still be directed towards furthering CHILA inc.’s goals with health in the area.

if you have anything to say on the matter, i’d love to hear it. thanks again for all your support and i hope to see you all at some point down in Chisec!

almost enough to call it a building! will hickerson, myself, my little brother kevin, scott rowland (santa claus), and pablo zuleta were the members of this trip’s team…

our first day in Chisec was filled with negotiations with the women’s group, (Q’ana Tz’uul Taq’a, a group dedicated to preservation and promotion of the ancient Mayan traditions regarding medical care)…they want to make sure that western medicine will truly be supplementary to what they are trying to accomplish and not replace/change their mission…

i assured them that would be the case. Ricardo, the local medicine man still comes once a week. he is becoming very popular in the area as patients are seeing results. he cannot, however (in the women’s own words) “cure everything”…neither can we…

imagine, for example, being an american doctor during a medical mission and trying to tackle a psychological problem in a Maya Q’eqchi patient (there are many…massacres and civil war only ended a little over 10 years ago)…

no, we can’t do that, but Ricardo can…he also recognizes local sicknesses better than we probably could, and knows herbs that work and have worked for thousands of years to cure them…

i signed the contract that we drafted up, but only on the condition that we’d re-negotiate in 3 months…some interesting things included in the contract were: the women’s group wants CHILA inc. to help fund activities involved in their mission (ie: Ricardo, the medicine man’s paycheck), they want to manage all construction funds (pay of local workers, purchase of materials), they want to ensure that Mayan medicine plays a major role in CHILA medical missions alongside the western model…

next trip is March, 2010, pretty soon…we’re broke, so back to the fundraising drawing board…calendar sales, concerts, donations, all of it…

we were given chickens and turkeys as a gesture from several communities (not affiliated with the womens group or our clinic construction work) reminding us that they’d like us to help them find roofing (corrugated metal) for their houses, and rainwater capture tanks…i have a meeting with Rotary Club of Johnson City next week, and continue to look for sponsors interested in helping in those areas…

we had a great time! that’s what our group is all about. we work hard, but laugh and play hard as well…CHILA inc…