Meeting Joyce Maynard in Guatemala
In 2001, I was living on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, where I launched PlanetOutreach, non-profit internet cafe, with financial help from the eBay Foundation (read my full story here). Naturally, I met several expats who frequented our cafe and many of them told me I needed to meet Joyce Maynard, an American author living in San Marcos La Laguna for 6 months while writing one of her novels. A friend lent me her latest novel, At Home in the World, and I devoured it. I was taken back by her honesty and humor and quickly read through the book, creating a clear picture of the author's life. One day, returning on a boat from Panajachel, I met a traveler who told me he was attending a Joyce Maynard writing workshop in San Marcos La Laguna. I let him know that I had heard much about her and that I wanted to meet her. This man invited me to return to her house as they were having a dinner party that evening. It was the perfect opportunity to meet this mystery author. This night was the first of many dinner parties and other events with Joyce, over the next several months.
A couple of years after we met, I became the American Director of the middle school in San Marcos La Laguna. Joyce Maynard recruited the help of the Larson Legacy Foundation to organize a basketball clinic in our village and invited Tom Newell, a professional basketball coach from Washington, to help coach the local Mayans. The Larson Legacy Foundation helped to financially host this event, providing basketballs, t-shirts and more for the local teams, in addition to night lights for the town's basketball court. It was a successful and memorable week, one I will never forget.
Joyce Maynard continues to lead writing workshops every year on the shores of Lake Atitlan. For anyone interested in writing and adventure, consider attending one of her workshops in Guatemala. Your life will never quite be the same as you see and experience a world vastly different than the North American way of life, while cultivating your writing skills.
In March 2008, the NY Times travel section covered Joyce Maynard's life in Guatemala, in an article I highly recommend, titled: "Guatemala as Muse and Base for a Writer". Read and enjoy.
Clinicas Maya: San Marcos La Laguna
(Source of images: ClinicasMaya.org)
Cindy Waterman, a midwife and nurse by training, moved to Guatemala in the late 1990's and settled into San Pedro La Laguna to fulfill a passion to help Mayan women struggling in poverty. Cindy made a decision to wear the traditional Mayan women clothing in order to bridge the differing cultures and establish connection with the local women. We met in 2001, when I moved to the same village to launch the internet cafe. Cindy's dream: to build a midwifery clinic for Mayan women on "this part of the Lake Atitlan", including the villlages of San Pedro, San Juan, San Pablo, San Marcos, and Tzunana.
Cindy moved to San Marcos La Laguna to run the Clinica Naturalista, a holistic medical clinic serving locals, travelers and expats. Through determination, hard work and sacrifice, Cindy has built a legacy for herself: today, a midwifery clinic is in full bloom. Cindy continues to work tirelessly tending to the needs of the sick and the poor and helping out with various medical clinics around Lake Atitlan. Thankfully, as a result of Cindy's training of local midwives, fewer mothers and babies die during child birth and people are getting treatment for their ailments. Indeed,the combination of Cindy's service, compassion, training and holistic and western medicine work together to make life better for the Mayan people.
I've partnered with Cindy to provide medical supplies to her clinic, every time I travel to Guatemala. Rotaries, churches, and friends have all given medical donations to me to help her clinic thrive. Gathering donations is always on the front of Cindy's mind, as well as donations and long-term, bilingual medical volunteers who can hit the ground running.
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