SO WHAT ARE WE DOING, ANYWAY???

Remember the Seinfeld episode where Jerry and George were talking at the restaurant about nothing? OK, so maybe that was every episode. But there was one in particular where they stopped in the middle of their dangling conversation and just asked "So what are we doing, anyway?" - it was a hilarious, and kinda sad if you think about it for a while, scene. George and Jerry both came to the conclusion that they really weren't doing anything that amounted to anything for anybody and that their lives were a series of non-accomplishments (that really sounds like it should be a word). We came to Coban this weekend for some hot-shower time and some faster-internet time and to buy some groceries. Yesterday, as the boys and I were in line for Dominoes Pizza, we were stuck in line behind a herd of Mormon missionaries, and the guy in front of us was quite enthusiastic and talkative. I, on the other hand, was grumpy and tired and really didn't want to talk to someone 15 years younger than me who went by the name "Elder".

But, among the 14,326 questions he asked me in the span of "15 minutes or less" was: "so what are you doing here anyway?" We've made some pretty broad statements on this blog about what we are doing: helping people, learning a culture, etc., but it occurred to me that there is a lot that we're doing that many people might not know about. Also, I've been asked several times by several different people what SPECIFIC things are going on and are being planned - not just for our yearlong stay here but for the 10-year Project Ulpan program. So, in no particular order, here is some discussion about what specifically is going on:

• Water Supply Projects - Most of you know that through the support of www.thelivingwaterproject.us and others, three clean water projects have been completed in two different communities. There are 15 more communities to go, and each of them have a need. This is special to me - not just because there is a distinct need for clean water in the Ulpan Valley (and about half the world), but because the simple act of having a water system gives something of a communal structure to communities who desperately need them.
• Education Projects - To say that education is lacking in the Valley is like saying that Hitler was a little moody. It's a problem with the teachers, who maybe show up a couple of days a week, with the system, which provides little oversight and little funding, with the families, who provide little encouragement and help, with the children, who don't take it seriously, and with the entire lifestyle, which doesn't have a mechanism for rewarding education. It's like an elaborate modern-day serfdom, where people just learn to subsist, and there's no value to learning math or history or reading. It's sad that my kids know more about Mayan history than any of the other 5,000 kids in the Valley. We're working with the schools and the parents, and even through home-schooling our kids we're hoping to set an example. We have a goal of starting three secondary schools this fall, and if that falls short, we'll try again next year. But the main hurdle is to provide a light at the end of the tunnel that shows a benefit to education.
• Economic Development Projects - These will hopefully become that light at the end of the tunnel. The last thing we want to do is train the best and brightest from the Ulpan Valley to the point that they can leave the Valley. Some will, and that's OK, but there needs to be a means and an opportunity for the hardest-working young people to stay close to home, to be (hopefully better) teachers in the schools and to work in areas that bring some income and jobs to their friends and families. We aren't completely sure what all these will look like. There are some microcredit (Google Mohammed Yunus for some inspiration here) programs beginning in the Valley, and more to come. Maybe the future is in aquaculture or commercial organic agriculture or in ecotourism or in manufacturing clothing. Who knows? There is opportunity for all these things in the Valley. And for anyone reading this and saying "I'm in business, not a doctor or engineer or preacher, so there's no use for me in the mission field" I want to point out that a sense of business is one of the greatest needs these folks have. A business sense is by default a long-term effort, and it forces people to look further down the road than perhaps what has been customary.
• Solar Power Projects - The Ulpan Valley has internet access but no electricity. In fact, you could legitimately say that any invention from between 1500 and 2010 is not common here. The nearest electrical grid is about an hour away, and it doesn't seem likely that the system will be expanded in the next several years. People can certainly survive without electricity, but it's really hard to pump water without it or hold night classes or run machinery or anything like that in its absence. We currently have solar panels in 7 communities, and people are using them to recharge cell phones at about $0.40 a pop. In each case, the "solar committee" consists of trusted women in the community and in each case they are repaying the cost of the solar system. It's a beginning stage of economic development and empowering women and things like that. Before the year is out, I predict that the sun will be powering lights in schools and at least one water pump.
• Libraries - What good is literacy if you have nothing to read? We are starting 8 libraries in different communities this year. Anyone who has a stash of books written in Qeqchi that just aren't selling at the yard sale, let me know. Actually, if anyone wants to get together a shipping container full of children's books (and bibles and books for grown ups), then we'll get in touch with Healing Hands International and send it here, along perhaps with a few boxes of Dino-egg Oatmeal for my kids.
• Bridges - There's something spiritual about building bridges. Here, it's literally life and death. there are two rivers bisecting the Ulpan Valley, and crossing each of them is "muy peligroso". It's amazing to watch a villager loaded down with 150 pounds of wood or corn crossing a 50-foot long bridge consisting of two logs. It's also disheartening. One project coming up this spring will be headed up by a team from Lipscomb University engineering students and will replace a particularly dangerous bridge used by 4 or 5 communities. I like the fact that we are viewed as bridge builders. As I write this, I'm looking at a bridge across a flooded river here in Coban, and this bridge is not only partially submerged, but has no hand rails. There's a good chance it won't last the day, leaving a few thousand people inconveniently stranded on the other side.
• Nutrition Projects - The people in the Ulpan Valley eat almost solely corn and black beans. you see a few chickens running around, and even the occasional cow or pig, but meat is a once-a-month treat for most people here. Traditionally, the Mayans grew squash, tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, and about a million other things, but there's very little diversity left now. Through our garden, we hope to re-introduce people to not only the fact that they CAN grow these things, but that they NEED to grow these things, and they need to EAT these things (and not trade them for candy).  We hope to couple this with some soil conservation projects and some projects with Heifer International for increasing food diversity and security.
• Soil Conservation - Deforestation is a real thing here. We always learned that it was the mean old paper companies and the mean old logging companies doing all the damage, and while I'm sure that's the case in some places, that's not the case here. The tropical rain forest is being cut down by machetes one tree at a time. This is partially due to the fact that families need to boil their water to drink it (something we hope to remedy in 15 other communities). It's not because they're bad people, and certainly not because they have no respect for nature. It results from land use and from some land ownership policies that are unfair. Traditionally, where they have practiced slash-and-burn, and on 45-degree slopes, the topsoil doesn't stick around for very long - again we see the problem of not looking too far down the road, and with a high infant mortality and short life span, you can understand that mindset. We have begun terracing our garden to keep the topsoil in place, and we will be teaching others to do the same. Re-planting the rain forest is a little beyond our scope, but at a minimum we hope to help make a transition from "subsistence farming" to "sustainable farming".  Between terracing slopes, composting waste, raising red worms (we have about 600 of them in buckets now, ready for our garden, and more in our composting bin, which isn't as gross as you might think), we have lots to learn and lots to teach.
• Latrines - In this area, many homes do not have a latrine.  They simply use the bathrooom outside the house or out in the cornfield or wherever.  Needless to say, the most basic of sanitation needs are present here.  A few months ago, as a pilot project, we worked with one of the poorer communities here to construct 4 or 5 basic pit-type latrines - in the hopes that they would catch on and more could be built.  We have now constructed over 400 of them in almost every community, and there is demand for more.  The good news is that this pilot program was a success, but the bad news is that it drained the "sanitation" budget in a hurry.  No matter - it's money well spent, even though we technically flushed it down the toilet.  Maybe in a couple of years there will be a "Phase 2" of this program, where more latrines are constructed and/or different types, such as composting latrines, are constructed.  One of the nicer aspects of this program was that the people all paid a nominal amount for the materials for their latrines, and supplied the majority of the labor for constructing them.  It really gave a literal "buy-in" to the project.
• Stoves - We have been invited for meals at several homes now, and that is always touching and always interesting.  As has been the tradition for a couple of thousand years, they cook indoors on an open fire on the floor, balancing logs on three specific stones that are passed down from mother to daughter.  What happens is that the whole house is almost always completely filled with smoke, and in a place with so much fresh air, it is unfortunate and sad that so many suffer from respiratory ailments.  Many kids cough constantly, and many older people have eyesight problems resulting from this practice.  We will be building some "pilot project" stoves in the near future, first at our place and then at some neighbors' homes, that still burn wood (but less of it) but most importantly funnel the smoke out of the house.  And if we can figure it out, we hope to incorporate those same three stones into the design.  But, the technical issues consist of block and mortar and simple things like that.  The larger issues are tradition and practice.  This is a good example of the competing goals of not changing a culture but changing health.  Josh Graves, "da preacher man" at Otter Creek, talks euphemistically about being "up in someone's kitchen", where you get up close and personal with them.  In this case, we actually are in someone's kitchen, and that will make this difficult.  Telling someone how to obtain their water is one thing - telling them how to cook is another.
• Medical and Dental - We have hosted some medical and dental clinics and plan on several more.  There are some people who need treatment and attention for what might currently be ailing them, but what excites me is the deliberate plan to educate people on a regular basis on some of those preventative measures that can improve health.  For example, there are very few tooth brushes in the Ulpan Valley.  We have visited schools and distributed tooth brushes and toothpaste to the kids there and showed them how to brush their teeth (our kids are the best teachers for this).  But, unless there is programmatic follow-up, all we've done is give the kids a novel break from whatever form of school they were having that day.  This fall, a team of dentists will be preparing a formal plan for this program, and hopefully over the next decade we can phase out the "clinics" part of things because of better education and practice.
• Personal - Kris Hatchell has a good saying: "it's about the people, not the projects".  That's hard to remember sometimes, but it's very true.  As is the case with most of us, we rarely remember specific things we did with people, but we remember how those people made us feel.  We didn't come here to just visit, but visiting is perhaps the most fun and the most rewarding and the most important.  In some ways, it's like marketing - where relationships are developed over time and those relationships are the precursor to projects.  If we can't be trusted to share some tortillas and coffee with someone, it is unlikely we will be trusted on any other matters either.  If we do this anywhere close to right, when we're done, the people here will say "we did this ourselves".

So, if any of you have actually made it this far in reading, I'm sure you're thinking that we've bitten off more than we should have.  That's probably true, but that's the side I want to err on.  Bear in mind that this is a long-term project that has already directly involved over 100 people and will probably involve several hundred more volunteers over time, so most of this will ultimately be accomplished by others.  And along the way, I'm sure that God will open some other doors and point us in a direction we haven't yet considered.  He unquestionably has the ability to "fix" everything here and everywhere, but I believe he enjoys working on projects with his kids, which is something to which I can relate.  I think he wants us to try different things, and if everything we try works perfectly, then we haven't tried nearly enough things.