My Nonprofit Reviews

Now is the time for confession--I am still seeking balance after this life-changing experience. I've experienced life-changing experiences before; nothing before like this. My husband Glen and I work at living a life which is aware of the plenty which those of us living in the US have by consuming less, 'living simply so that others may simply live.' Now again I am keenly aware of the accidents of birth.

Just living in that climate, up high in the 'cloud forest,' as our Costa Rican colleague called it, is challenging. Nothing ever really dries! In the centuries old traditions of the Mayan people, the weaving, is of cotton. The women (in the village of San Martin) make a length of beautiful fabric, then wear it as a skirt, wrapped around their bodies more than 1-1/2 times, tied tightly at the waistline with a doubled around sash woven of more heavy cotton. Very beautiful textiles. Always damp.

These people are so grateful for the assistance provided by Xela Aid that they do not question our motives at all. There is no bitterness or resentment, or begging for more. And they see Xela Aid volunteers 3 to 4 times per year, for the past 22 years. They see our willingness and respond and we see their willingness and respond. Reina seemed to want to find a place in my heart, or perhaps I wanted to find a place for her there. Both, and both have succeeded! It is a marvel I will reflect on for the rest of my life.

Now a few words about such a well-thought out and organized trip. It seems to be designed so that working people can take 6 days of their vacation time only, or 5 days and a sick day, easy to work into your schedule. The trip starts in beautiful Antigua, moves on to 4 days of organized yet flexible work with the people of San Martin, then ends in gorgeous Lake Atitlan.

The 4 days of work is divided into mornings and afternoons. The San Martin people cooked us hot delicious lunches each day--some with Asian influences, others more traditional corn tortillas (black and yellow corn), chicken, and beans. Always the beans! Each lunch was punctuated by a different salsa, from mild to hot, with very different ingredients. The work ranged from hard physical work of building a house, to distributing eco-water filters for improved hygiene, to teaching new sweets to cook and hopefully create a micro-business, to providing 'reading' glasses so the women can continue to sew, to art projects with the kids. That's what I organized, two art projects where we taught 22 10 year olds to tap holes into fresh eggs, blow out and preserve the egg, and paint the egg with colorful designs. Not one egg got broken during the tapping of the holes! Amazing. They have such skilled hand-eye coordination at very young ages. The second project, star weaving, which you may be more familiar with as Eyes of God (but we did not impose that name on them) or even sometimes as Dream Catchers, was a huge hit! Altogether over 40 kids aged 5 to 12 caught on to the weaving and started making their own designs the very first time! Both of these projects are sustainable, do not require resources they do not have, and can become artisan objects which could be sold. They did not wait to be taught—sometimes not long enough for the next step! They were eager to learn.

One of our young male colleagues worked on the construction project every day, morning and afternoon. Hard, dirty work. In what I learned to be his characteristically understated way, he said the work could be done much more effectively by machine, but this way of work gave him much to think about. Another, a woman gifted in many ways, taught the women to knit, an art they were not familiar with and which they learned eagerly. She was surrounded by up to 25 women daily, carrying their babies on their backs, with all the sounds and smells that many people and babies crowded into a damp room bring.

There is no religious talk. (Perhaps that is why the San Martin’s do not question our motives; we are there at their disposal.) There is sharing of thoughts and feelings in twice-daily 'check-ins.' From the very first time I realized that 'check-in' meant more than just seeing if you still had a pulse, I looked forward to learning what the others had felt and to lightening my burden while they listened. The founder and leader, Leslie Baer Dinkel, has a unique gift. She can speak of the pain and misery in an objective manner, and balance it out with humor, education, and sensitivity. I hope we had a fraction of the impact on these peoples' lives as they had on ours. Actually, I can be sure of that because Xela Aid has been around so long and yet approaches the work with fresh eyes and optimism each trip.

Not only Leslie, but everyone on this particular trip, had a sense of self and of wonder and of purpose which melded us into a very effective and congenial group. I have new old friends for life. Good leadership, Leslie!

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