These highland villages are the locales where Roots and Wings International (RWI) runs its scholars and tutoring programs. If you look at the dress of the students, you will see brightly woven outfits—again, influences of the Mayan and Spanish colonists.

“Undoubtedly the most colorfully costumed people in the Americas are the Highland Maya of Guatemala. While traditional native dress has disappeared in many parts of the world, Guatemala remains a place where a high percentage of the indigenous people still proudly wear their traditional dress called traje,” according to http://www.rutahsa.com/traje.html. Also, the website states another very interesting garment-related fact: “In Guatemala, Maya traje is village-specific or language-group related. Thus, with dozens of Indian towns and villages, and 21 different Mayan ethnolinguistic groups represented, the variety of indigenous costume is truly dazzling.” So each indigenous group in Guatemala has its own, you could say, color-coded clothing.

If you would like detailed information regarding the native dress of the various village groups in Guatemala, visit http://www.rutahsa.com/traje.html.

To see many of RWI students in traditional dress, visit our flckr picture site! You’ll notice some students in T-shirts while others, especially the young women, adorn the unique, traditional dress of their ancestors! It’s quite a gem to see old mix with new and traditional blend with modern!

Orange juice complemented with several tropical fruits also add choice to breakfast in this Central American country. If you visit Guatemala, you’ll most likely be drenched in several cups of their world-renowned coffee! Roots and Wings International, which helps educate rural Guatemalans, sells world-class Guatemalan coffee. What makes it so worthwhile is that $3 of every bag you purchase goes toward helping a rural Guatemalan youth attend college! For a link to purchasing Guatemalan coffee from the nonprofit, click here.

You may be wondering what Guatemalans chow down on during other meals of each day. Guatemalan fare is very similar to Mexican dishes, like corn, beans, rice, cheese and tortillas. Don’t be surprised to find cheesy nachos, tamales and enchiladas!

Here are some other meals prepared by Guatemalans, also from Guatemala Food and Drink:

Chile peppers stuffed with rice, cheese, meat and vegetables.

Chicken Pepian: Chicken in spicy pumpkin and sesame sauce.

Kak’ik: A traditional Mayan turkey soup, with spices like coriander, achiote, and chile peppers.

Snacks & Sides in Guatemala:

Spiced mango: Sliced green mango, seasoned with chili and lime. Sold from street carts.

Guacamole: Mashed avocados, mixed with lemon or lime juice and diced veggies like onion, tomato and garlic. Serves with chips, or as a topping to other Guatemalan foods.

Tortillas: Thin, flat corn cakes, a staple in Guatemala food.

Nachos: They include toppings like cheese, refried beans, avocado and peppers, and almost always include chips.

Elotes: Roast ears of corn with cheese, lime, chili and butter or mayonnaise.

Guatemala Desserts:

Tres Leches Cake (Pasel de Tres Leches): A cake soaked in three kinds of milk, including evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and cream.

Flan: A caramel custard.

Beverages in Guatemala:

Guatemala’s national beer is Gallo — gallo means rooster, and you’ll see the beer’s rooster head logo advertised all over Guatemala. Other Guatemala beers include Dorada, Sol and Victoria.

Limonada con soda: fresh-squeezed lemonade made fizzy with soda water. Licuados (fruit shakes) are also delicious.

All these Guatemalan foods sound so good that my mouth is watering! Except for the chicken served with the feet still hanging loose (a rarity), the foods seem like ordinary, delicious somethings to stuff into your mouth!

What makes these statistics more dismal is the fact that 42 percent of indigenous males cannot read or write, and 65 percent of rural women lack these same skills.

Maybe, you think there are not enough schools to cater to the rural population? Well, Guatemala has over 14 thousand primary schools for a little over 2 million primary school students. That’s about 140 students per school. Still, the number of schools matters little when most schools are overcrowded and have inadequate drinking water and sanitation.

RWI strives for better educational opportunities for the Guatemalan indigenous youth to bridge the gap between the indigenous population and the urban one. Right now, RWI has nearly 10 laptops in its computer lab in the Central American country. It’s a small step in the right direction. The nonprofit works to increase the number of available laptops through donation programs in effect. Plus, RWI offers tutoring and scholarships that many of the Guatemalan youth take advantage of, thereby proving the success of RWI’s efforts in this region.

Improving the lives of Guatemalan indigenous populations will take time, energy and financial resources. RWI is willing to undertake that feat. Step up to the challenge yourself and visit RWI to see how you can help turn a country around for the better.

Catarina Mercedes Guarchaj Guarchaj

How does Catarina’s success tie in to Roots and Wings International (RWI)?   Well, Catarina has been a RWI scholar since 2008. RWI continues to support the young student by funding the remaining portion of her tuition.

Catarina is an athletic, studious and successful student. Her spare time is filled with adrenalin-pumping activities, such as climbing volcanoes! She is also active in church activities.

RWI continues to support the efforts of all of our students financially and morally. Especially since RWI realizes the financial difficulties our students face, we congratulate each and every one of them even more on the effort and direction they put into their scholarly lives.

*Pedagogy is the study of teaching. Click here for more info on pedagogy.

Yet these Guatemalans have a chance at opportunity stemming from the presence of nonprofit organizations such as Roots and Wings International (RWI), which introduces possibilities for education. The radiant children’s faces still glow but they now have books for school to further their learning, donated computers with which to perform calculations and a support system to help them direct their lives in the right direction. These Guatemalan farmers and their children still smile–great big smiles–but now with RWI’s support system behind them to help improve the quality of their lives.

Guatemalan Nature

Guatemala has some beautiful children who display happy, smiling faces to those around them. But, Guatemala also has a breathtaking, natural aspect.

Cristobal Guarchaj, Roots and Wings International’s Guatemala Director took these candid shots of the landscape for our viewing pleasure. The natural, fertile landscapes, such as this hillside depiction, are an art form itself. Take a peek at the beauty of this land.

Here is a deep Guatemalan valley, lightly fogged over by clouds. Yet, a mist of sunlight dappled in rain hangs near the top.  At the bottom runs a bumbling brook.

Unbelievable mountainscape! It’s like heaven! I feel like I am standing above the clouds and looking down! Don’t you?

Thanks for joining in viewing this illustrious, breathtaking photo blog! Hopefully these photos will shed light on how captivating are Guatemala’s naturescapes!

Edwin had shown his finesse in his area of expertise via Smashing Magazine’s design contest.  His design was featured in the May 2009 edition. According to Smashing Magazine, “In May we announced the Typographic Layout Design Contest that aimed to collect beautiful typographic (X)HTML+CSS-based layouts….” You can catch Ed’s design by clicking on the following link: http://media1.smashingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/images/type-layouts/typo-today/

Check out Edwin’s photography portfolio. Certain expertly-positioned photographs really knock the wind out of you!

• The “Architecture and Cityscapes” photo category shows Atlanta burning under lightning-like lights. The lights are caught in movement, seemingly zooming down strangely barren highways. The oddness of this photo leaves the viewer with a strange sense of utter delight!
• “Digital Manipulation” is hauntingly romantic–very moving.
• And “Still Life” is movement and clarity wrapped up in an instant of helpless chaos–via the well-timed capture of a half-full, falling martini glass.

These photographs are well taken and deserve a second and third look. Edwin’s “smashing” portfolio can be found at http://population-2.com/.

Roots and Wings International (RWI) is experienced in taking a computer, refurbishing it and delivering it personally (at times) to its computer lab in Guatemala. Why? To offer impoverished youth the education that computers promise, thus increasing the quality of their lives. The selfless act of improving these coffee-grower’s lives economically is purely compassionate…and the results are enthralling to witness! And it all started with the vision of RWI founder, Erik Swanson.

I would personally love to behold the looks on the indigenous Guatemalan children’s faces once they see the far-reaching capabilities that computers have in this high-tech world. I bet it would be a rare glimpse of the stunted-though-comfortable past drifting away and the joyful, progressive present taking over more and more parts of the forgotten world. Wait–RWI did not forget about Guatemala and its people.  I stand corrected.  Kudos to RWI for the good work they are doing for the impoverished people of Guatemala.

http://astore.amazon.com/roowinint-20