Mortal Beasts & Deities
Joyous purveyors of Earnest Frivolity, Felicitous Discord and Controlled Mayhem

We’re back and it was a resounding success!

Here’s my report, with pictures and a few observations!

Our troupe of costumed stilt dancers spent almost a month traveling in rural Central America loaded down by more than 300 pounds of donated books (most in Spanish, some in English as well). We carried our stilts and costumes strapped to our heavy book laden backpacks. We worked, performed and played in homes, libraries, schools and village squares to re-stock libraries, establish new libraries and to promote libraries, basic literacy and the simple joy of reading.

The tour team volunteers representing the Mortal Beasts & Deities (mortalbeastsanddeities.com) were Mark Alexander (troupe leader and veteran stilt performer), Dan Hammond (veteran stilt performer), Jeff Hammond (veteran stilt performer).

Representing the Rural Literacy Project (ruralliteracyproject.org) were Sue O’Riley (tour leader and new stilt performer), and Zoe Doucette (new stilt performer).

Not actually with us on this tour but providing invaluable help to get us there were Louise Lindenmeyr and Eliot Osborn and Project Troubador (projecttroubador.org).

Wherever we went we met scores of wonderfully open and sincere people and shared countless stories and observations about each other’s lives and cultures.
Our primary purpose for being there was to give new books, preach the virtues of literacy and offer some inspiration to learn to read. It now seems clear to me that through the inevitable cultural exchange occurring at every turn, what we learned about each other’s lives and about ourselves through living and talking together turned out to be just as important and valuable as the literacy mission and all the books.

While I want to give you a feel for everything we did and all we discovered on this tour, it’s so overwhelming to think about it all that I’ll just divide the report chronologically into the areas we traveled and write just a few reflections and observations.

Williamstown, Massachusetts

Zoe’s first stilt lesson. Mark Alexander photo

Not officially, but certainly in some ways, our tour actually began in Williamstown, Massachusetts. One snowy December day we met there as a team for the first time, to sort, alphabetize, list, wrap and weigh lots of books, and then lots more books. Also, since we had unanimously agreed that all five of us needed to perform in the stilt skits we would be sharing in Guatemala and Belize, Sue and Zoe of RLP had to learn how to manage stilts. Zoe had her first stilt lesson all bundled up against the Williamstown cold on one December day. Her lesson was cut short by an inundating snow storm. Sue had suffered severe frost bite when lost skiing on Mt Greylock a few days prior. The frostbite was ugly and painful, but luckily there was no need to amputate. Although toes really are not needed to stilt walk, we decided to give them time to heal by postponing her first stilt lesson until we arrived in Central America. Fortunately the mother daughter team of Sue and Zoe are quite athletic and fiercely driven by our mission (and brave too), so they both ended up taking to stilt walking very quickly.

Antigua, Guatemala

Dan, Zoe and Jeff in colonial Antigua. Mark Alexander photo

Our first stop was Antigua, a small touristy city. We didn’t actually have any schools or libraries on our itinerary there, but Antigua was the perfect place to immerse ourselves in the Spanish language and to get a feel for Guatemala’s colonial history. We spent time securing specifics with numerous contacts for the tour ahead, researching some of the indigenous Mayan languages still prevalent to the north, and we prepared for our skits. And Sue finally had her first stilt lesson.

Volcano erupting behind our Antigua hotel. Mark Alexander photo

We also witnessed a volcano eruption. The first day we were there we saw smoke, but then one night we actually saw and felt a gushing explosion of lava! None of the locals seemed concerned so we assumed the city was at a safe distance, but those same volcanoes have caused massive damage in Antigua in the past, as evidenced by the fact that Antigua is no longer Guatemala’s capitol, the government having moved away hundreds of years ago because of the repeated carnage of the eruptions. But we continued on, glad to have witnessed and survived nature’s wrath.

One afternoon we put on our stilts to practice our skits in Antigua’s central park. We got a wonderfully warm and welcoming reception from the beggars and shoe shine kids and the working families selling indigenous goods. Some tourists, too.

Mark stilt dancing with Antigua police. Zoe Doucette photo

But we never did get to practice our skits in Antigua before the Antiguan police shut us down. They told us unequivocally that stilts were dangerous and that we were not allowed to perform on stilts anywhere in the city. So we took off our stilts and simply read to the youngsters in the park. Later on we learned that a couple months prior, one performer had been put in jail for a weekend, just for playing a guitar and singing in that very same park in Antigua. In retrospect, despite the stated view that stilts were not safe (which I suppose was based on their fear of the unknown), in fact I think Antigua is really trying to maintain an antique colonial atmosphere for the tourists, and they thought our stilts and that musician didn’t match the ambiance of their cobblestone streets and ancient colonial era architecture. This was the first time I’ve ever been shut down in my long experience with stilt dance performance and I’m very glad to report that the cold reception we got from the police in Antigua wasn’t repeated anywhere else on our tour.

In Antigua we visited the beautifully appointed home of a seemingly wealthy American ex-patriot couple living there (relatives of members of our team). Later the same day we visited the rough and crude but serviceable home of a very poor local family that runs a Spanish language school and also feeds any stray children who happen to show up at meal times (friends of Jim Britt of Lakeville). Visiting these two homes, representing opposite ends of the privilege spectrum, certainly provided a thought provoking contrast.

From Antigua we also took literacy promotion performance day trips down to Guatemala City.

Guatemala City, Guatemala

There are thousands of impoverished families who live and work and die at the Guatemala City Dump. The role of these people at the dump, their job essentially, is to provide a very dangerous and inefficient form of recycling. They rush to the backs of the private contractor’s garbage trucks loaded with garbage from all over Guatemala City. They’re dumping rubbish and all manner of toxic and dangerous waste, and the dump families are actually scavenging through it before it actually gets out of the trucks. As the trucks dump on and around them, these dump people sift through the piles searching for anything they can collect that has any value at all, even small value, that they then resell to unethical middle men who reap most of the profit. They collect returnable bottles, aluminum, iron, paper, building materials, plastics and other stuff. The city, the people who own the dump, and the recycle dealers have encouraged this tradition of dangerous and unhealthy family industry for more than 60 years, with people working from birth (on mother’s backs) to old age. Life spans are generally short, and I heard stories of family members being crushed and buried under the trash with no one making an effort to save them. Fortunately few of them actually live in the dump anymore, the result of recent legislation heading in the right direction, but the city still provides no services to help these families improve their sad plight: No schools, no financial assistance, no building codes and no heath care, and where we saw them now living, in crowded tar paper barrios surrounding the dump, conditions are not much better.

Families and workers of all ages scavenge, live and die at the Guatemala City Dump. Mark Alexander photo

For the last 11 years Safe Passage (safepassage.org), a non-governmental organization (NGO) from Maine, has been working at the dump trying to help these families. Safe Passage established and operates a preschool, an elementary school, and a high school, all surrounding the dump and serving the dump families. They have organized a variety of programs such as a women’s literacy group and soon, a men’s literacy group. One objective as they graduate more and more students out of their school programs is to entice these people back to help run Safe Passage. Meanwhile, they have many success stories to celebrate and their programs continue to grow.

An appreciative audience at the Safe Passage Preschool next to the Guatemala City Dump. Safe Passage volunteer Liz photo

Lisa, a Safe Passage volunteer, took us on a tour of the dump and the Safe Passage facilities. We visited the elementary school, the high school, and the preschool. We had our first performance of our stilt skit from the Tikki Tikki Tembo book at the Safe Passage preschool, using this performance as a rehearsal. In the end it really didn’t matter that our performance was so rough hewn…. to them it was magic and they loved us! Afterwards as we played amongst them on our stilts, with very little coaxing we got the kids to repeat the story’s refrain ‘Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo Chari Bari Ruchi Pip Peri Pembo!’. I hope these youngsters find other life choices when they get older…. options more numerous if they learn to read.

Sue shares an empowering found object jewelry making lesson with Safe Passage women’s group. Mark Alexander photo

We left some Spanish language copies of Tikki Tikki Tembo and other books in the school library, then moved on to visit another Safe Passage program. Safe Passage has provided these people with hope and a safe haven, and school programs for people of all ages to learn to read. The women who go to the Safe Passage Woman’s Literacy Group are learning to read and also learning how to support their families without working at the dangerous dump. One way they’ve been doing this is through making jewelry that they can sell on the streets and in shops. Sue shared her hobby with several of the program’s women… making jewelry with recycled materials.

Zoe and a young girl of the dump playing at Safe Passage. Mark Alexander photo

Meanwhile Dan and Jeff tried to repair a long list of problems with a bunch of ancient donated computers, while Zoe and I played with the women’s children who were enjoying an apparently rare afternoon out of the dump.

Working with the dump people reminds me of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which states that basic needs, such as food shelter and safety, must be addressed first, before true learning can occur. The poverty all over Guatemala really hits me hard, especially in Guatemala City. Makes me realize that while I am one of the poorest in my neighborhood, finding food shelter and safety is so much easier for me than for so many in Guatemala, especially these people of the dump. Indeed, I am very rich by their standards.

Solola, Guatemala

After Antigua and Guatemala City we traveled to Solola, a small city surrounded by a farming district.

Our bus into Solola was met by Sara Jablowski, a young Peace Corp volunteer from Buffalo who is working on a project to teach the Solola area farmers how to use composting and to wean themselves off chemical fertilizers. Sara, along with a group of local young men who Sue had worked with previously, acted as our guides on this leg.

Of all the places we spent time in Central America, Solola was probably the smelliest and dirtiest, with the notable exception of course of the Guatemala City dump which of course smelled like a dump. Everywhere we go there are open sewer trenches, litter and trash lining every street and everyone burns (or rather smolders) whatever trash they do happen to collect. Also, all the vehicles burn either leaded gasoline or diesel, and there are a lot of them too, and none of them have any pollution control devices whatsoever. There is an unhealthy stench everywhere. One day in the future hopefully this will be addressed, but there seems to be little hurry with legislation or controls, and I noticed no volunteer effort to clean up the streets or the air.

In Solola we were impressed that the majority of people were still wearing native textiles. We learned that, like the Scottish who can link family and village identity to the colors and patterns of their tartans, so can the Guatemalans with their beautiful textiles and clothing styles.

Farming families wearing indigenous dress on Solola market day. Mark Alexander photo

Everyday textiles worn by fellow chicken truck passengers above Solola. Mark Alexander photo.

We took day trips up through the very rural farms on the hills above Solola, where the air was cleaner because there were fewer vehicles. One morning we hiked up through the fields and woods to reach a little elementary school. Even Solola is high altitude, so this hike up the steep mountain carrying heavy packs full of books and stilts was quite a test for me, but we all made it, and no one complained. Happily, that was true for the whole trip. Travel conditions did get tough several times, but not one team member ever whined.

Our team and guides hike past corn and coffee fields with stilts and books, way up a hill to a little school outside Solola. Mark Alexander photo

After only a few moments to catch our breath after the steep mountain climb, we were expected to perform our stilt skit. A couple hundred students formed a huge semi-circle around us within the ubiquitous cement and iron walls topped with razor wire that defined the school yard, and we did our Tikki Tikki Tembo skit for them.

I know Sara got some video of this performance that I hope to post on the website soon, but alas, being part of the show means, as usual, that I don’t get to take any pictures to share. It was a much better skit with more resolved action than the one we had done in Guatemala City, but it obviously still needed work. However, these kids and their teachers loved the show.

Many of the people in this area of Guatemala speak the official language, Spanish. But most of them don’t. Our guides each spoke one of the various Mayan dialects prevalent there, so they translated Tikki Tikki Tembo for us, and also translated many of the interchanges we had while we were around Solola.

The children and staff at the school were so overjoyed that we even went there, and that we gave them lots of much needed books and school supplies to replenish the library that RLP had established on a previous trip, that they rewarded us with a series of delightful indigenous dances by students wearing beaming faces and colorful native costumes.

At about noontime school was let out and each child shook our hands or did high fives, or sang the Tikki Tikki Tembo refrain on their way through the school’s gates. They always get out of school early to get home to work on their family farms. After the last student had left, the staff unveiled a surprise feast for us. It was the most delicious chicken stew, thickened with maize flour and served with several sticks of soft maize steamed in palm leaves. These corn things (wish I could remember what they called them) were used as forks and spoons, since eating utensils and even napkins were unavailable. After having just touched every student’s grubby hand, there was no running water to wash up in before eating with our fingers. Thank goodness we each carried anti-bacterial hand wash lotion, because I thought it was about the tastiest meal I had ever had.

Students at the school above Solola present us beautiful indigenous dances in thanks for our stilt skits and books. Mark Alexander photo

Then down the hill we stopped in for an afternoon visit with Sara’s host family. They were welcoming and gracious hosts, and took time to explain the intricacies of drying corn, raising chickens, corn and coffee on the side of a steep hill. While Sara is working in the Peace Corps she rents a little room there that looked primitive but comfortable, and she shares many if not most meals with them. There was definite warmth surrounding them that indicated that the extended family has adopted her as one of their own.

Maize drying as Jeff Sara Sue and Dan chat with Sara’s host mother in their home. Mark Alexander photo

We donned stilts and played with Sara’s family in their courtyard, but soon I was wandering into neighboring dooryards to play as well. By the look on their faces I’d guess these women had never imagined anything like a tall person walking on stilts!

Mark on stilts above the neighbors above Solola. Zoe Doucette photo

Then it was time to head back to Solola. While that morning we had ridden a chicken bus out to the start of the track that runs up to the school, on the way back we flagged down a chicken truck. There are lots of these trucks around Solola. The one below is similar to the one we rode in that afternoon. I estimate the payload of our team and an equal number of locals with produce, all packed like sardines in the bed of the ramshackle truck, had seriously overloaded the springs…. by at least three times! The rear suspension was bottomed out, but not to worry, the truck crunched and screamed high speed over the bumpy mountain roads and careened around the steep mountain cliffs and down into Solola like Mario Andretti. But it was pretty exhilarating so I’d probably do it again! The founder of the Safe Passage program we had visited days earlier met an early death in a Guatemala traffic accident, and several times while we were touring the country, local newspaper headlines told of chicken bus and chicken truck crashes with multiple fatalities, so I’ve concluded that while malaria and Montezuma’s revenge did pose a hazard, probably transportation was actually the most dangerous part of our trip.

An example of one of the overloaded chicken trucks we occasionally traveled in. Mark Alexander photo

On another afternoon we played on stilts in the Solola city park. It was market day, so there were lots of people in from the surrounding countryside, mostly dressed in their indigenous clothing. We drew a crowd three deep just by walking into the park with our stilts on our backs! When we finally got up on our stilts the audience around us had grown to a huge circle about 10 deep, reminding me of the crowds in the photo of Eliot playing guitar in that very same park on a Project Troubador trip to Solola many years ago. We were well received in their rather reserved but warm way. Many little ones giggled and chased the bubbles I blew, and some of the braver ones were even willing to dance with us, and even though outward displays of emotion is not generally in their repertoire, I did catch sight of hundreds of guarded smiles. Again, I saw some video Sara had taken of our shenanigans that afternoon, and if I can get a copy of it soon I hope to post it on the website.

Panajachel, Guatemala

Some mixed architecture of funky downtown Panajachel. Mark Alexander photo.

Panajachel on beautiful Lake Atitilan was our next stop, a funky place popular with ex-pat gringos, Australians and Europeans. We met some people I could talk to there, including Victoria, a fun friend of MB&D stilt dancer Maya.

In Panajachel we worked on sprucing up our Tikki Tikki Tembo skit, but our team seemed to hit the skids. Everyone was sick and needed some down time. I’m as surprised as anyone that I was the only team member who never got sick.

We stayed in a little hotel up the hill from the lake, and I befriended Marvin, the 7 year old adopted son of our hosts. He was a delight, very smart, and spoke more English than I speak Spanish, but that isn’t saying much. In any event, sitting down on the curb with him and drawing animals and reading Tikki Tikki Tembo and other stories together, we got along fine.

Dan juggling on stilts on the shores of Lake Atitilan. Mark Alexander photo.

We had planned to do our Tikki Tikki Tembo skit on the Pana lakefront, but with two of us needing to sleep off illness near the toilets, the three remaining decided to just stroll along the lake on stilts. With abundant cobblestones and uneven concrete stairways, the terrain in Panajachel was quite complicated for stilt walking, which led to Sue having her very first fall. Sue’s fall was a relief on at least two levels…. one being that she suffered no injuries and didn’t injure any pedestrians, and the other being that after her fall, her fear of falling again is henceforth diminished. While Dan and Sue juggled, a talent I envy, I danced and played chase games and hide and seek with a bunch of young local tuffs. We had a great time. There are now a few folks who will certainly remember us in Panajachel.

Sue on stilts juggling by beautiful Lake Atitilan with Dan and volcanoes in the background. Mark Alexander photo

It was nice to rest up in Panajachel, but our mission was to promote literacy so we needed to move on. After a couple days everyone was feeling a bit better, so we packed up our books and stilts and we traveled back to Antigua, where we caught an overnight bus to Flores in northern Guatemala, and from Flores we traveled to the little town of San Andres on the northern side of Lake Peten, where our literacy promotion work was desperately needed.

San Andres, Guatemala

Spanish speaking students at a school in San Andres loved hearing Mark read Tikki Tikki in English. Dan Hammond photo.

In San Andres we met up with Sue’s old friend Mateo, an American ex-patriot who runs an NGO called Volunteer Peten. Volunteer Peten operates several programs in San Andres, including a high school, a nature preserve with a large restored tropical rainforest and ancient Mayan tombs, a small farm, and a community library which Sue took a large part in building in 2004. The San Andres Library is dedicated to the memory of RLP member and mutual friend Rachel Jerman of Williamstown who had shockingly died suddenly around that time.

Sue and Zoe’s homestay in San Andres. Mark Alexander photo

Dan knocks on Zoe’s door in San Andres. Mark Alexander photo

We thoroughly enjoyed our home stays in San Andres. Sue and Zoe stayed in a cluster of stucco walled and thatch roofed houses near the edge of Lake Peten.

Grandmother with grand daughters in San Andreas. Mark Alexander photo.

Their host family was a delight. The granddaughters of that house were very proud to have first-hand knowledge of us when we arrived to perform Tikki Tikki Tembo at their schools.

Sue working in bed in San Andreas. Mark Alexander photo.

Most of us found that sleeping in our own hammocks was the best bet partly because hammocks benefit more from cool evening breezes, and hammocks provide a bed if there wasn’t one, but mostly so the bedbugs wouldn’t bite.

This is a classic picture of Sue working on her computer. I was suffering withdrawal from mine. I did get to use computers in internet café’s once in a while, but I was limited by the expense and also, with my ADD, the internet cafes were hardly conducive to corresponding. Regardless, there were few computers and no internet connection at all in San Andreas.

Dan discovering an orchid that smelled like rotting flesh in San Andreas. Mark Alexander photo.

Unlike most families we saw, this family’s courtyard was filled with specimen flowers and an abundance of well kept pets. Look at the size of these orchid blossoms! But man, did this one stink!

Dan and Jeff and I stayed at Alicia’s home up the hill from Sue and Zoe. Alicia’s house is cinderblock and corrugated steel, comfortable although very primitive. Like many homes we saw in Guatemala, at this homestay much of the living space was under makeshift roofs and open on the sides, surrounded by similar houses occupied by her extended family. Alicia’s house was always loud and swarming with children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

Maize grinding is the cottage business next door in San Andreas. Mark Alexander photo.

Alicia’s son and daughter-in-law’s family lived above us. They ran a small business grinding all the neighborhood’s corn, and selling abundant bananas they grew in the yard. At least 15 – 20 times a day they’d hand crank to start up the big loud diesel motor and grind away for 5 to 10 minutes. I went up to explore, and found it amazing that all the children running around had all their fingers and arms…. There were no belt guards on the machine, and the box that received the corn looked like a meat grinder, and it didn’t have any guards either. Between this small cottage business and farming, and the money Alicia’s son had earned illegally working as a dairy farm hand in the states for three years, they had made a nice house and a self-supporting home for themselves.

Mustachioed grandsons and Mark in San Andreas. Dan Hammond photo.

When we were actually at the homes where we stayed, when not out working or performing, we would read and play with the ever-present children. Guatemalan men generally don’t grow much facial hair, or at least I saw almost none while I was there, so my mustache made me stand out from the crowds as much as my stilts did. I heard comments about it every day, and the grandchildren and other kids of all ages simply loved playing with the fake mustaches I brought from Miami on a last minute whim.

Mark and Alicia with mustaches in San Andreas. Dan Hammond photo.

Dan shares Tikki Tikki with one of the grandsons in San Andreas who was very excited to show us he could read. Mark Alexander photo

Tom turkey ruffling his feathers to impress his hens, in the kitchen in San Andreas. Mark Alexander photo.

Alicia was a fantastic cook! The corn tortillas and fried bananas she served at each meal were grown by her or by her children or friends. Most of the meat could be seen the days prior running through the kitchen in the form of pigs, geese, turkeys and chickens.

Boar running up into the kitchen in San Andreas. Mark Alexander photo.

Sue and Dan teaching English and sharing stories in San Andreas elementary school. Mark Alexander photo.

We did a lot of work in San Andreas. We left about 80 pounds of books and school supplies at the San Andreas Library. Also, almost every morning we visited classrooms in the elementary school, and at the end of our stay we presented them a fine version of our Tikki Tikki Tembo skit and left them a bunch of books to establish that school’s own library. Most of our time there was spent at that school where we were frequently put on the spot to present lessons. We had to make up these lessons on the fly, which ended up usually being centered on either reading for pleasure or learning English. We found very little structure at that school, with dozens of unaccompanied children racing in and out of classrooms and around the school yard all the time. The teachers left us to our own devices to gain and keep the student’s attention. There were always some who did manage to buckle down and listen and hopefully get something from our lessons, but it was a challenge for us and for them. One boisterous bunch of boys invented a very fast dustpan surfing game on the concrete apron that serves as the main hallway of the school. Imagine the sound a steel dustpan sliding across concrete would make! And even though it was a very loud game, and one boy ended up bleeding from it, two teachers and even the principal walked right by them without a word to them about it.

A stilt performance at a high school in San Andreas to build the joy of reading. Mark Alexander photo.

At the local high school we decided we didn’t want to present Tikki Tikki Tembo as planned because we got the feeling these older kids wouldn’t enjoy that children’s story. One member of the team even heard a muttering in Spanish about damned Yankees…. So we just danced and played for them, and while that age group is often aloof to things like we had to offer, many seemed to enjoy our playfulness and they rewarded us afterwards with coconuts harvested from the trees that grow around the basketball court in the school yard. One male student grabbed a machete and whacked one open for each of us, and after we’d drunk all the coconut milk, he whacked it again to give us the coconut meat. Delicious! And think about this…. in these post-Columbine days students in the US would never get access to a machete in school.

Language was a big issue for me. I felt bad being the only member of the team with no Spanish language skills. Blame it on our American school systems or I don’t care… you can blame it solely on me. Preparing for the tour I did indeed worry a lot about it and I listened to lots of Spanish tapes, but the fact is I never studied Spanish and my learning styles have always failed me in this type of memory challenge. Much like math skills, languages elude me. All the French I studied in college always seemed to escape me right before the tests and final exams, as did the math stuff. I always did pretty well in school, but to get passing grades in the math and foreign language courses required for my undergraduate degree and graduate work I relied more on charm than on my memory skills. Ha! Charming huh?

For this tour in Central America I prefaced almost all my talk with some sort of sincere apology for not knowing how to speak their language. I really did not want anyone to be insulted and for the most part I’m relieved that I was successful preventing any feelings of disrespect.

I did learn some Spanish over almost four weeks immersed in it in Central America (most of them in Guatemala, but it certainly was a relief to spend the last week in Belize, a mostly English speaking country). However, in Guatemala I relied heavily on my tour team to serve as my translators and I want to thank all of them for taking me under their wings.

Dan was an especially good translator for me, not only because of his exceptional conversational Spanish skills, but also because he never threw me to the wolves in a sink or swim fashion. He always quickly jumped in to help me with the basics of navigating a Spanish language country in a guilt free and respectful way, but mostly I appreciated his translation work because he seemed to genuinely relish translating ideas and he didn’t get hung up in his own translating so much that he was unable to translate the more complex and more interesting exchanges and thoughts in a timely way so I was able to keep up and contribute. Thanks Dan.

Dan and Jeff working on Spanish translation of Mark’s book on building stilts and learning how to stilt walk. Mark Alexander photo.

Sometime last year I wrote and illustrated a booklet on how to build your own stilts and how to teach yourself how to stilt walk. I brought a draft of it along thinking I could share it in Central America, and San Andreas was the first place where I did. But first I had to redo some of the drawings and add in a section on how to make Hand Stilts. I also enlisted the wonderfully willing and capable help of Dan and Jeff to translate my book into Spanish. When we were finished with the translation and edits I had it copied and bound in a local office supply store. I also spent a couple afternoons in the woodshop in the Volunteer Peten Park making two pairs of hand stilts, preparing for when I was scheduled to present a lesson to the whole Volunteer Peten High School on the history of stilts and my involvement with them. Stilts have been used historically for work, play and religious ceremonies, and there is evidence that stilts were used by ancient cultures from every continent, with the obvious exception of Antarctica because the penguin culture never felt they needed stilts.

Mark giving his talk on the history of stilt walking to the Volunteer Peten High School in the San Andreas Library, with Dan’s help translating. Zoe Doucette photo.

After school we gave hand stilt lessons in front of the library, and we presented two copies of my stilt book, and the two pairs of hand stilts to the San Andreas Library. Pretty cool that at the San Andreas Library now you can sign out a pair of hand stilts and also a book on how to make them! I rationalized that into our mission by reasoning that any visit to the library is a step towards possibly being sucked into a book! Besides, I think to so obviously enjoy our stilt dancing in Central America without sharing the fun with the people living there could be considered rude and maybe even unethical.

Jeff teaching village youngsters how to use hand stilts at the San Andreas Library. Mark Alexander photo.

San Andreas youngsters learning how to use hand stilts at the Library. Mark Alexander photo.

Dan and Carlitos and his dog crossing the one of the common open sewer trenches, heading down to the lake to go swimming. Mark Alexander photo.

It wasn’t all fun and games about literacy. Sometimes it was just fun and games and cultural exchange. One afternoon we took a bunch of kids to the lake for a swim. Lake Peten at San Andreas is warm and beautifully crystal clear water, although probably not for long since in San Andreas, like most of Guatemala, there is no municipal sewage treatment or even private septic systems!

A swimming expedition to Lake Peten with children from our San Andreas homestays. Mark Alexander photo.

Drawing of me titled ‘Marco’ by Alexis, by one of the homestay grandchildren. Mark Alexander photo.

At the end of our stay in San Andreas we had a party with our two host families. Music and dancing on stilts (and terra firma dancing too) and lots of chat and laughter! One day I want to go back to see my new friends in San Andreas!

Zoe playing and singing at our Goodbye San Andreas party. Mark Alexander photo.

Then bright and early the next morning we packed up our books and stilts and left San Andreas. On Koosh’s wooden boat we chugged across the lake to Flores. From Flores some of us took a day to tour Tikal, and the rest of us rested up for our long bus ride to Belize the next day.

The team leaving San Andreas on Koosh’s wooden boat. Mark Alexander photo.

Tikal, Guatemala

Jeffrey and I made our first trip to Tikal. Dan had been there once before so he served as our tour guide as Sue and Zoe stayed in Flores. Tikal is a wonderful place full of impressive spirituality, history, art and nature. However, my understanding of what I saw there couldn’t possibly add any more to what you can find in the dozens of books about Tikal and Mayan history that are already available. So go to any library and/or google Tikal and then take the trip there to explore it yourself. Of course to spend a day exploring the Mayan ruins in Tikal in their various stages of restoration is to wander through the amazingly thick jungle of the tropical rainforest. Amongst the sometimes dangerous spines and poisons in the dense forest of beautiful and often gigantic trees, palms and vines, we saw and heard howler monkeys, spider monkeys, rat sized bats, amazing arachnids, a very well organized and quite long parade of industrious leaf cutter ants, thousands of birds, a mammal about the size of a small dog that looked like an anteater, and more varieties of hummingbirds than I even knew existed, including one about the size of a bumble bee.. Interestingly, we did not see one mosquito in Tikal nor on the whole trip, which I hear is quite unusual.

View of Mayan Temples I and II, as seen over the rainforest canopy and through the mist from the top of Temple IV at Tikal. Mark Alexander photo

An enormous Mayan mask at Tikal. Mark Alexander photo

A Mayan temple at Tikal. Mark Alexander photo

Trees and vines in the tropical rainforest at Tikal. Mark Alexander photo

Caye Caulker, Belize

As we disembarked from the water taxi that left us on the island of Caye Caulker, we walked off the wharf and saw our marching orders: ‘Caye Caulker. Go Slow!’ Being a rather touristy Caribbean island that was primarily populated by English speakers, that seemed to be just what we should do. But while we did a fair amount of going slow, we were there on a mission to promote literacy and the joy of reading. We certainly did spend a lot of time being busy with that too.

This small mosaic sign took up most of the only sidewalk on the island: ‘Caye Caulker. Go Slow’. Mark Alexander photo.

We worked at the Caye Caulker Library many afternoons, and it served as our home base for our stay there. Sometimes we just sat with children and adults in the library and read some of the books some of you helped us take there for them. On one occasion we took a break from Tikki Tikki Tembo and prepared and performed a nature trivia skit for youngsters based on one of those books, called Está Creciendo Huevo, which roughly translates to What Is In This Egg? For this skit we drew eggs that would crack open to reveal the baby animal inside. Cute.

Performing a skit from a book we book we left at the Caye Caulker Library.

Performing skit ESTA CRECIENDO HUEVO (what’s in the egg?) at the Caye Caulker Library.

Wishing to avoid problems with the police on Caye Caulker similar to those we had had in Antigua, early on I went to introduce myself and the team at the police station, and also to let them know about our mission promoting literacy. Police Constable Williams was overjoyed, laughing that we had ‘made his day!’ He assured me we could stilt around anywhere, anytime, but it turns out there were 30 relatively new female Belizean Police officers who were all scheduled for a paid day of rest and relaxation on Caye Caulker that week… and he was perplexed as to how to entertain them! Would we mind helping him with stilt dancing to entertain them? Of course and we would! At the cookout I danced with one police woman who was celebrating having just won a coveted door prize of a night’s stay with food and drink for two at some fancy Caribbean resort hotel. As we danced she invited me to go with her, and I can assure you it would have been fun, but sadly this fit into the arena of not always getting to do what we want.

Mark dancing with a Belizian policewoman on R&R in Caye Caulker. Belize Police photo.

We spent three mornings performing our Tikki Tikki Tembo skit at the Caye Caulker Roman Catholic Elementary School. By the time we were finished there we had performed it for well over 300 students, so after a few days we began to be treated as minor celebrities everywhere we went. Whether we were on our stilts or not, the children would see us going by, and they’d run out to greet us and start singing Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo Chari Bari Ruchi Pip Peri Pembo ! Even some of the adults and parents working around the streets would sing it, having heard it sung incessantly all week by their children.

Jeff sharing Tikki Tikki Tembo with two young girls who had enjoyed our skit at their school in Caye Caulker the previous morning. Mark Alexander photo.

Mark and Sue stilt dancing and presenting the History of Stilts for the Caye Caulker High School. Zoe Doucette photo.

Sometimes Jeffrey had to stay back. One afternoon on Caye Caulker Jeff stayed on the beach working on a research project for his biology class at school . On other days he lost working time with us staying back to read ‘Tale of Two Cities,’ an assignment for another class. He had to take 4 weeks off of high school to come with us, and part of that deal was that he had to do some school work while he was on tour, but in my humble opinion it would have been just as educational, maybe even more so, just by working on our mission unfettered as a member of our team and then reporting back to his school about what he had learned from the experience.

So the day Jeff spent doing biology research, the rest of us headed to the local high school called Ocean Academy. The picture above shows about 30 high school students, almost every high school student on Caye Caulker. Many teens don’t get to go to high school because the only high school there is small, and tuition and transportation to the mainland high schools is very expensive. We learned that another high school was being built and good news was it was expected to open next year, That will effectively expand availability and enrollment for more high school students, but more school opportunities will still be needed.

At Ocean Academy, with the help of Sue, Zoe and Dan, I presented my history of stilting and made a big fuss about leaving my stilt booklet at the library. Sue had found a local carpenter willing to make a pair of hand stilts for the library, and we followed up my talk with hand stilt lessons that afternoon at the library.

On Caye Caulker we found that most people could read, but that few people read for pleasure. So we decided that the pleasure of reading and the use of the library would be our adjusted mission. Everywhere we went we encouraged people to go to the library, to get the stilt book or to read Tikki Tikki Tembo or one of the other titles we left there. We worked on a skit that involved book traveling and experiencing life and the world from an armchair. Essentially we’d each take turns reading a favorite book passage and then on our stilts we’d act out the action and emotions found there. For all the thought that went into this idea, it never happened on this tour, but we might use it in the future.

Jeff walking on water, or rather, in water, at Caye Caulker. Mark Alexander photo.

Remembering that we were ordered to do so, we also spent some time just going slow. I greeted every day watching the sunrise out over the reef, and most sunsets were spent with tourists and the locals at a place called the split that served a great rum punch. It was at the split that Jeff, Dan and I swam with our stilts. I had always wondered what that would be like, and it turns out the stilts make your legs float!

We also spent a day snorkeling on the barrier reef, although we left our stilts home for that. Caye Caulker is protected from the open Caribbean by one of the largest coral reefs in the world. Amongst the splendid coral we swam with a couple dozen sting rays and an enormous green moray eel, and thousands of colorful tropical fish. I also got my first sunburn in years while out there.

Mark diving off a pier at Caye Caulker. Dan Hammond photo.

Mark all wet with stilts in the warm Caribbean waters of Caye Caulker. Dan Hammond photo.

It was certainly a successful trip, but unfortunately we did not get to do everything we wanted to do. We were supposed to take a boat trip out to Gayles Point on the lagoon in Belize to look up the Belize Drumming School and a few friends of my friends Cristen and David Rich (ex-Peace Corps living in Lakeville). But we ran out of money and time.

We were also supposed to spend more time with Chocolate Heredia the world renowned manatee expert, but finances and his schedule prevented much time with him. Thanks to two RLP mules Erin and Molly who flew into Belize with their maximum allowable baggage crammed with another couple hundred pounds of books, we did leave Chocolate many books to establish a marine ecology library at his little stand on the beach, and Sue and Zoe stayed on Caye Caulker an extra couple weeks to work with him.

It was such a rewarding tour. So many people in Central America seemed to appreciate and take our message to heart. We made countless friends and experienced many amazing things for the first time.

Thanks to the families who hosted us in their homes, and the many people who guided and helped us along the way.

Thanks to the other tour team members Sue, Zoe, Dan and Jeff for everything, but especially for your perseverance, forgiveness and pleasant productivity.

Thanks to Project Troubador (projecttroubador.org) for help with advance financing and planning for this tour.

Thanks to Dick Hermann of Oblong Books and Music (oblongbooks.com) for many books that we left in libraries and schools to be enjoyed by Guatemalans and Belizeans.

Thanks to all the generous benefactors from each of our team’s communities for your financial support. When we told our hosts that you helped send us they obviously appreciated our message more, and took our work there more seriously.

Sadly, our fund raising was not completed before this tour began, so if you haven’t donated, please consider doing so now. Click on the donation slip below to enlarge it. Please print it out and include it with your tax deductible donation.

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