Day 6: We got up early and climbed aboard the vans for our next destination, to Lake Atitlan, with a few side trips thrown in. Our first stop was a chicken ranch, called Casa Nueva. This is a business that was set up a few years ago to help fund a program to treat men and women with drug and alcohol addiction, the one of the only such programs focused on helping rural Mayans in Guatemala.

Casa Nueva chicken ranch

Eggs from the ranch

We listened to some of the staff workers there as they described the program. Alcoholism and drug addiction is a serious problem among the Mayans, for a number of reasons, including their poverty and the terrible emotional price they are still paying for the devastating civil war that began in the sixties and intensified in the eighties and nineties. The chicken ranch does not provide sufficient funds to pay for the program, and the balance of the expenses is paid by contributions from the church and aid agencies such as RWF.

At the time of our visit, there were 21 people in the program, ten living there, and eleven visiting. The staff leader told us that the program had a 30% success rate, which, I’m told, is pretty good.

Some of the staff of the Casa Nueva chicken ranch

Shortly after to our stay at Casa Nueva, we stopped off in a town to visit a Mayan shaman named Juan. I didn’t know what to expect from this, and was envisioning something pretty exotic. This turned out not to be the case at all. Juan, dressed in Western clothes, greeted us courteously and took us to the roof of the building for what he called a blessing ceremony. I had an instant good feeling about the man; his compassion, non-judgmental openness, his dignity and calmness were apparent from the first moment. Several other shamans joined in on the ceremony that Juan led. One of the shamans was a woman.

The Mayan shaman Juan

Some of the Mayans there began preparing for the blessing ceremony. Small chocolate cakes were piled on a metal platter, and the different colored candles were laid on top of the cakes. Each color, according to the Juan, had its own significance: red symbolized the east and the rising sun, black symbolized the west, night, recovery, energy, white was for the north and the wisdom of the elders, yellow was for the south, harmony, justice, peace, green was for the heart of the earth and blue was for the heart of the sky.

After everything was stacked up on the plate, each of us was given two candles of our own. The candles on the plate were lit, and the ritual began. The shamans went around the circle blessing each one of us, and after each blessing, the person blessed would lay his or her candles on the fire to burn with the rest. And that was it: very simple, very moving.

Lighting the fire for the blessing ceremony

After the ceremony, we all went back downstairs. We thanked the shamans for the ceremony, and Juan showed us the computer and printer that RWF had given him last year to help him do his work. RWF has been supporting this group of Shamans for a few years, helping them record their oral history. I learned that this is part of the RWF philosophy, to work in solidarity with other oppressed minorities around the world.

The computer and printer given by Rainbow World Fund

Our group and the Mayans

This experience was one of the high points of the trip for me. I was very moved by it.

Late that afternoon, we arrived at San Lucas Toliman, a small town on the side of Lake Atitlan, a truly beautiful, tranquil lake surrounded by dormant volcanoes. The hotel we were staying at was pleasant and quiet, with very lush, green grounds, and wonderful views of the lake. It had been a busy day, and I pretty much just went to my room and crashed.

The town of San Lucas Toliman

The hotel grounds

A view of Lake Atitlan from the hotel