A Rotary Travel Journal- Destination Guatemala
As with all journeys, there is the excitement of the initial planning and then the reality of all those things that need to be gone to “be ready”: immunizations, making reservations, coordinating plans with team members, getting lots of “OFF” for the jungle, paying bills ahead of time, asking neighbors to “water the tree” and, yes, deciding what to pack, one small suitcase and a carryon. On January 30th, we left SEA and flew to Houston’s International Airport. In planning, we decided to break the trip up into two separate days an arrive fresh…. No red eyes. So we spent the night in Houston and took a morning flight to San Salvador arriving on the 31st. Go move!! After immigration and customs, we were greeted by several local Rotarians and awaited the arrival of other Rotarians from the US.
We arrived in Salinitas in the last afternoon and settled into the tropical conference site.
That evening, we attended the conference opening and had lots of opportunities to meet new Rotarians from Central America and the United States. It was quite a rewarding experience.
On Friday and Saturday we had information sessions, time to visit about 15 Rotary project booths as seen below.
We were able to learn about projects from El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala ranging from pediatric heart surgery, youth leadership and school gym construction to village health, rural medical services, after-surgery care for children and eco-toilets. It was exciting and invigorating to see these wide range projects and level of commitment from our Central America Rotary colleagues. I also see the high level of involvement of Interact and Rotoract in this region’s Rotary clubs and projects. They are quite amazing people committed helping make life better for those in need through sustainable support and projects.
On Saturday morning, we met and participated in small group discussions organized by the six areas of focus (Water and sanitation, economic and community development, basic education and literacy, peace and conflict resolution, disease prevention and intervention and maternal and child health care . I participated in water and sanitation and basic education and literacy groups. These were very rich and creative conversations. Saturday afternoon, we learned more about Future Vision in a conference workshop (presented in Spanish). It was exciting because it helped “tone my ears” but almost creating “brain meltdown”. As part of this workshop, Candace Embling, Economic and Community Development Lead, The Rotary Foundation (TRF) provided an update on Future Vision and what has been learned from the pilot districts. We, District 5020, were one of those 100 pilot districts.
Saturday night we have a chance to enjoy a magical sunset, have great meal together and dance into the night.
Early Sunday morning (8:30 am) we loaded the van and headed up the coast into Guatemala and Retalulea our first stop at villages. This was our traveling van for the next 10, adventurous days as we visited a wide range of Rotary project sites.
Our Routing from Salinitas, El Salvador to Rio Dulce (Lake Izabel in the east) and back to Guatemala City (10 days)
Another volcano (Agua) from Escuintla, Guatemala
And so this is the end of our “beginning and first segment” of the journey. In the next segment or episode of our journey we will visit two microcredit projects villages near Retalhuleu, Guatemala (See bottom left of map). I hope you enjoy these brief snapshots of the journey and will “tune in” for the episodes to come: Retalhuleu and microcredit, Lake Atitlan, stoves, eco-toilets and washings stations, Wakami villages and necklace makers, the Rio Dulce villages: Cuarto Cayos, Aqua Caliente, Tablitas and Naciamento. Enjoy your commitment, involvement and support of our Rotary mission.