I will be leaving for Anchorage in one week. Then I will board the “red-eye-special” to the “lower forty-eight” and I will be on my way to México! For readers who are unfamiliar with Alaskeese, the “lower-forty-eight” is any part of the USA that is not Hawai´i or Alaska. We just lump the rest of the states together and call it the “lower-forty-eight.”
I will have two lay-overs in the states and I hope I survive the 5 stop-overs that it will take me to get from Bethel, Alaska to Tuxtla Guitierez, Chiapas, México. It seems like a long way off and I know I have work very hard everyday to make it happen!
I am excited to be writing a blog for my travels to Chiapas. I have been traveling there for three years now, at least once or twice a year and it is the experience in my life that gives it the most meaning. When I first went back to Chiapas in 2006, it felt like a magical homecoming. I wondered why I had stayed away so long.
Many people describe Chiapas as a place of extremes. It was in Chiapas that my eyes were first opened to the beauty of Indigenous languages; to the warm-hearted people who live in the mountains fiercely maintaining their culture, religious beliefs and their family; and to the disparity of wealth t
hat causes many Indigenous people to live in abject poverty.
Chiapas, to me, is the most heart-warming smile of a child; a generous offer of friendship and hospitality; at the same time, heart-wrenching sadness for the suffering a a people who never deserved what human-kind (the worst of it) has dished out in the form of racism, discrimination, warfare, and “olivido” the purposeful forgetting by a nation, a world and even the very Chiapañecos who call Chiapas home and are proud of the ethnic diversity.
If you are adventurous, willing, and even forgiving for my own shortcomings, I will take you along on this journey, one in which you must explore your own soul, but one that will lead you to a place in your heart where the life of a child was made better. For me, a better wor
ld can be found in the smile on a child´s face as they paint images from their life, as they read a book with pictures especially made to bring joy to children. I feel that if I can bring a little bit of a happy childhood to a child who has known too little joy, then my life has a purpose, however small and humble.
I am looking forward to hearing from you, my reading audience, especially those of you who are in support of increasing literacy among the children in Chiapas, which is the poorest state in México. In the midst of poverty, you will find a people rich in spirit who are truely appreciative for this gift of books.
e, on my way home to San Cristobal de Las Casas. I looked forward to walking the streets lined with colonial buildings and visiting markets and villages. I look forward to speaking Tsotsil again and seeing friends. I still need to get to the store in Anchorage and buy watercolor paints and papers for my painting workshop.
of the children. I have a short stop-over in Anchorage, where I will buy water colors and quality art paper, which is hard to find in México, at least in San Cristobal, my only urban stop-over before heading to the highlands. I am thinking that it is not so much about the books but interacting with the children. This trip I hope to write books with children. I hope you continue with me on this journey as I continue to learn, love, and listen along the path that keeps bringing me back to Chiapas.
