Semuc Champey

This weekend I took a bus trip up to Carcha to visit my dear friend Rachel in her home there and make the trip to Semuc Champey. Semuc is one of those places that I have always been told to go visit, but had never found a way to actually go. It's beautiful. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been to, and certainly a place I wish to return to sometime in the future. Semuc Champey is Q'eqchi for "where the river hides beneath the earth" as the River Cahabon goes under ground for 300 meters with beautiful pools above in tiers. We took a shuttle out to Semuc with a very friendly ayudante named Daniel, who claimed that my name was so much easier than American names like Amber, Ashley and Lindsay. He's the first person who has ever said anything of the sort :) Once we got there, Daniel took the other travelers, a mixture of Europeans and 2 Guatemalans, on the "tour" while Rachel and I got to go off and explore on our own. It is a bit of a trek to the pools from the entrance in which we took pictures, admired the cave like structures, and even saw a snake (ew!).

Where the river Cahabon disappears under ground for 300 meters

We spent most of our time in two of the pools, one that was deeper so we couldn't touch and I loved treading water and just swimming around, and another that was shallow as we laid out and allowed the sun to grace us with its presence. There weren't a lot of people there, but it was probably the most diverse place I've ever been in Guatemala. There were Europeans, Asians, Guatemalans, and indigenous...and at least two gringas. It was fun to hear the rich mixture of languages, and watch an Asian man talking in Spanish with a Guatemalan man, and then the sons of these two men speaking together in English while they played and searched for goggles.

Beautiful green/blue clear waters of Semuc Champey. And example of the pools above the underground river

The next part of our adventure occurred when we were taken to the caves of Lanquin. Rachel wasn't particularly interested in going in, and nor was I, so we opted to go down to the river and read and relax for a while. We weren't seated long before a bunch of Q'eqchi women and children flocked down to the river side. At first a few children took off their shirts and jumped in, others more teenage age jumped in with their clothes, then we even saw a few women take off their cortes and huipils and jump in in shorts and their tank tops that they wear underneath. One older woman apparently didn't like this idea, and took her shirt down to her waist to cover up there and went in without anything else. The women and children had a good time calling out to her and then looking at us to see our reactions. Definitely one of the best people watching places I've been to in Guatemala :)

Q'eqchi woman keeping watch over the children swimming

Stories come alive

The other day I was eating lunch with Vicky and Andrea, as usual, and the president of SEMILLA, Willi, came and sat down with us. Somehow Willi began to tell his story, his testimony, and I found myself drawn into his storytelling. He grew up in a department of Guatemala, at age 11 his father was tortured in front of the family and then taken and his body was never recovered. In his teen years he grew away from the church and began taking karate and boxing lessons. He was father to his younger siblings, and helped pay their way through school. He was seen as violent, and got into some bad activities with a bad crowd. He was not a model citizen. In his 20s he began to wonder if there truly was a God, and prayed that if God was real, that he would be made very present and help Willi through his difficulties. He went back to the Catholic church, met his wife, got married, and moved to Guatemala City for work. A year or so later they encountered the Mennonite Church in Guatemala City, he continued on to Seminary, including EMS, and is now president of the Anabaptist Seminary SEMILLA. He is the most kind hearted, soft spoken, gentle man I have met in Guatemala. He greets everyone of the workers in SEMILLA and knows a little bit about what is going on in their lives. I have seen only him being calm, patient, and loving to his co-workers, family and friends. He is the model of a person who has been changed by the power of God and the Holy Spirit.

As I sat listening to his story, I was forced to realize that he is also the story of so many that I have heard about in our CASAS activities. We go to a Forensic lab in Guate City where they take bodies that have been recovered from the massacres and assassinations of the Civil War of 30 years. There they analyze the bodies, attempt to recover DNA, and match families with their loved ones who most likely disappeared many years ago. We hear the history of Guatemala from Hector Castañeda about the events of the Civil War that ended in 1996 with the Peace Accords that haven't done much. We go to the National Cathedral in Zone 1 and see the pillars with lists of names from the different departments who disappeared or were murdered during the Civil War. We go to Panabaj and visit the Peace Park where they have graves from one of the massacres that happened just outside of Santiago Atitlan. These were all stories of unknown people, but hearing the story from the mouth of a man I highly respect and work closely with is another time altogether. It makes the stories come alive more than visiting any of these places ever has for me. Suddenly they aren't just stories, but the reality of Willi. It's heart breaking. May Guatemala never have to face that type of conflict and devastation ever again.