Nuevo Horizonte- Peten, Guatemala!!!

Hello Everyone!

So This past week we had March Break so Ashley, Mina, Mark, Mariah and I went to Nuevo Horizonte (New Horizon), an ex-guerrilla community. It is a co-operative/intentional community. After the signing of the peace treaty on December 26th 1996, the guerrilla forces were 'de-mobilized' and forced to hand in their weapons, clothes and equipment. The Red Cross and the UN peacekeepers oversaw this process and gave out new clothes to the now ex-guerrillas. They were then given a plot of land where they could built houses and build a community. The government of the time gave them this land, but they had to start repaying the cost of the land within two years if they wanted to get the land title. Unfortunately the land costs 3.3million Quetzals (or $400,000) which is a very large amount in Guatemalan terms. They have since renegotiated the terms of the debt, and have only started paying back the interest on the land. This community is located about half an hour from the towns of Santa Elena and Flores in the department of Peten (Most northern department of guatemala). Flores is very touristy and most tourists that visit Tikal (Most famous Mayan Ruins in Guatemala), stay in Flores. So this community has started several now self sustaining projects in order to help themselves, and to pay back the debt. They have 1. Egg-laying hens, 2. Milk Cows, 3. Cows for eating, 4. Chickens for eating, 5. Reforestation with Pine Trees (who knew they could grow down here :)), 6. Tourism, 7.Commercialization (selling eggs, meat, etc. at markets, 8. Tilapia farm (type of fish). All these projects employ members of the community on 15 day rotations, and are self-sustaining. As of now they have started paying back the interest on the land but it is very slow going.
This community has a counsel that is elected and they rotate ever so often, and help with the more difficult issues. So the community lives on these basic principles that they want to live with dignity. Dignity to them means access to good education, health care, a home, food, and cooperation. These were values that they were fighting for throughout the 36 year long civil war. Our tour guides name was Wilson and he joined the guerrilla forces when he was about 10 years old. Most of the community members we were able to talk with joined at a very young age. Many were forced to join due to the fact that the military had threatened their family or town, or perhaps the military was simply after them and they were forced to disappear. We met this man who had been the bazooka trained guy in his troop of guerrilla. He told us this story where his group of about 50 people were being cornered by the military and they one chance to get out. He fired the bazooka off 10 times and they managed to get out. But he didn't have time to put in his earplugs so he was deaf for three months, and now he's about 30% deaf. We had to talk fairly loudly around him, but he is sooooo hardcore. The last day we were in this community he asked us if we wanted some coconuts... and we said yes and so we went to his house. He sat us down in his backyard where he had this huge coconut tree, and he just started climbing this tree. He made a ladder type thing with this rope as he went up, it was crazy! Then he got his son to tie a machete and he pulled it up and hacked off like 16 coconuts! Then he just slide down the tree. . . without a rope! We got to drink coconut milk (juice?) straight from the coconut... and then he cut them open so we could eat the inside white part! I usually don't like coconuts that much, but these were delicious!!!
I had SOOOO much fun helping out with the egg-laying hens! Chickens are soooo funny! They are pretty much harmless because their beaks are cut so they don't pick at each other and hurt each other. They have 1500 egg laying chickens, and they are in this big big open cage type thing. They have these small wooden shelf type things where the chickens can hop into and lay their eggs. We collected about 400 that morning that I went. It was so much fun, you just walk in there and move the chickens carefully and grab their eggs. Sometimes they would peck at my bracelets or shoelaces just to see if it was food, they are sooo funny. They also have part of this jungle that they have put under protection, and they have set up these intense swings in the middle of the jungle! We also got to see some howler monkey's! We saw this huge tree as well, and they told us all about the medicinal and nutritious properties of all the plants and trees. It was so interesting but so exhausting because we ended up walking for about 5 hours! They also have the tilapia farm on a Laguna where they own 2km of water. After our walk through the jungle we ended up at the Laguna and saw a beautiful sunset! We also became good friends with a girl named Reyna who is 15 and in her last year of high school. We got together with her one night and helped her with her english homework. Another really great part of my week was the hotel type place that we stayed at. It was basically three rooms, with a very open living room type thing, with wooden benches and tables. They also had 4 hammocks under a thatched roof made with palm leaves. These hammocks were amazing especially after lunch when we were soooo tired because of the heat. It was 35-40 degrees celcius in the sun during the day, it was ridiculous! But amazing! And it rained almost every day, like torrential downpour it was so great to sleep to! Also we had to sleep with bed nets because I suppose that this area is a malaria zone, but I don't have malaria so I guess it's okay! :) Oh something else that was really interesting was that most of the people that were in the guerrilla had code names for safety and most of these people still use them. The women whom I helped with the egg laying hens for example used the code name 'La Negra' (aka. The black), and another used Pablo .... just a regular name but not his real one. It is an interesting phenomenon, most of them mostly answer to their code names. Well all in all it was a wonderful trip except for the bus ride home which took 10 hours. . . .instead of 8. . . or 7.... but we made it home alive and then enjoyed a delicious veggie domino's pizza! :) Hope everyone is doing well . . . I only have two months left.... time flies when you're having fun right .... :) LOVE <3