Patzokit School

At this Point in Time, Patzokit is My Baby. In Case I didn't mention this Before, I am Also a Volunteer. Probably the Only Steady One Around. Peace Corps & Mormon "Elders" Come & Go; Seeming to Leave not so much Trace as a Bird through the Sky or a Dream Upon Awakening. I Suppose to Give Them Their Due; They Accomplish what it is They Set Out to Do. But its still a Mystery to Me.

About a Year Ago, One of the Three Teachers, Geremias, Bought an Older 486 Compaq Desk Top from Me and Installed in His Rural Home. [Dirt Floor, Chickens under the Bed, etc] Since He is Studying Journalism by Distance Education, [Correspondence Courses] with USAC; I have Encouraged Him to Call on Me whenever I can, because, Quite Frankly, I'd like to See His Stuff on This Page.

Well, because of Mr. Itzep's Interest in Patzokit School for His Maya Children's Dance Group and School, I began to Visit the School, with the Result that We Planted Several Types of Donated Seeds in the Spring of 2000 and with Very Encouraging Results. I am putting the Finishing Touches on a Wooden Model of a LapTop so the Kids can Ckeck It Out without doing any Harm.

I Plan to Exchange the Desk Top for a LapTop, so that Geremias will be able to Carry It to School, [as well as Town for Printing] and Begin Teaching Introductory Computers. This is Exciting Stuff, Folks; and I'm Proud to in on the Ground Floor with a Clean Slate and No Overhead Breathing Down My Neck.

[sometimes Top Heavy Organization and Advanced Degrees can be a Hindrance to Experimentation]

We will be Setting Up a Simple Vivero / Nursery Operation Inside the School, as well as Their [now] Regular Garden, so the Students can Earn a Little Money for Theri Own Priorities. I will Return from Wild Land Fire Fighting in the Fall, We will Compare Notes and Plan Next Year's Advances.

Community-Wide Contacts

During My Thirty Three Month Sojourn among the Rural Highland Maya, I have Consistently Exerted Myself Towards making New Friends and New Contacts within the Community. Even though One might not Associate Sitting in the Hot Springs as a Social Activity, [and No Business is EVER discussed on the Palm Desert Fairways] it actually became My "In" with the Larger Community. Momostenango Municipality has a Population of Something on towards 125,000 Inhabitants, 95%+ Live Outside of Town Center, yet Make the Trek at least monthly in to the Hot Springs. After about Six Months, I Started Joining in the Clean-Up Crew Twice Monthly on Mondays. This Established Me as a Person of Substance [in the Maya Mind] and Meriting Comment and Friendship.

When I would Arrive, Ever After, and Some Rural Family Head would Inquire about "La Grin", I would Invariably Hear Someone Speak Up for Me, and Begin to Explain that i had Written a Phrase Book in "Dialecto" and that I was Working on Projects. Often this would Lead to Further Conversation, as I was Invited to Throw In My 2¢ Worth. I got to become a Rather Popular Bath Speaker, with a nerly "Set" Routine, in which I wold Touch on All the Bases I Felt had Touched Chords, Previously. I also had to Make It Absolutely Clear that I was Neither Missionary, nor Political; and Mentioning an Interest in Rural Education made it Abundantly Clear that I was Neither.

Funding to Extend Scope

Now Here is a Game for Experts : One Career Funding Professional on Visit to Xela told Me one Morning that "90% of All Funding is Not Based on Merit". Which is to Say that there are Deeper Waters Here than would at First Meet the Eye. Rather than Suspect some Friendly Hanky Panky, I began to develop some Real-Time Ideas about How These Massive Amounts of Money are Distributed and the Mechanics Behind the Machine.

Most Donors are in the Mega-Corporation Bracket, and those Relatively Few Individual Donors are All Looking for the Same Thing : Tax Reduction through Charitable Deductions.

Still, How Does this Grand Gravy Train Work, and Why Does NONE of the Money Ever Reach Those Deserving Recipients thatCould Not Only Benefit Their Communities, but Mankind, as well, by Contributing Their Skills and Ideas as Educated Particpants in the New World Order ?

No One Seems to care about this, as Long as there Exists Sufficient Mounds of Well-Documented Paper Work Couched in Suitably Bureaucratic Language and Formats that the IRS will Approve. What is Absolutely Unacceptable is a Legitimate Program that Spends 90% of its Energies and Funding on Projects and Communty Development and Fails to provide the 65%+ Documentation Time Required by the IRS.

We Now have a Local Funding Possibility; though since the Organization does not yet have E-Mail, I haven't Figured Out How to Maintain an Active Relationship from My Mountain Outpost Deep in the Forests of Southern AZ. We'll See How that Works Out.

In the MeanTime, I will Hack the OT and Scrape Everything I can Together on a Budget and Make a Bave Showing, Hoping on Hope that SOMEDAY, Our Modest Beginnings will Merit the Notice of a MonoLithic Foundation Hungry for Good Vibe Programs.

No Doctor Emergency Booklet

For the Past Year and a Half, I have been Studying the Hesperian Foundation's "Where There Is No Doctor" with a View Towards Writing a Concise Booklet called "When You're the Doctor"; which will cover Life Threatening Emergencies : Accidents, Infections and Severe Illnesses. The Precept behind this Booklet is to Place in the Hands of Those Community Health Workers Who will be the First Recourse and Response, a Manual that can be Quickly Understood and Referred under Emergency Stress Conditions.

Since this Individual may have Zero Previous Experience with Medical Matters, it is Important that This Manual be Clear and Simply Worded, because many Rural Maya, even when Literate BiLingual, are Minimally So. Although AMA Devotees Recoil in Horror at the Idea that an Untrained Individual take it upon Themselves to Treat an Injured or Ill Person; in an Emergency, often Several Hours from the Nearest Medical Facility and Trained Personnel, it is Crucial to Do what is Necessary to Transport the Patient Alive and in Good Condition. Even in Momostenango Town, there are only Now Discussions Regarding Emergency Transport and Disaster Management.

What will be Discussed will be Diagnosis and Differentiation between Life-Threatening and Benign Illnesses and Injuries, How to Treat using Injectable AntiBiotics, [and when Not to] and Most Importantly, How to Prepare Sterile Absorbents [when Boiling Water is Not Possible or Practical] using Alcohol and AntiBiotics Straight Out of the Capsules. The Alcohol Dries more Quickly than Water and the Cloth becomes Self-Sterilizing.

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Emergency Response Kit

The Companion Kit to this Booklet, "When You're the Doctor", will be a Medium-Sized soft-sided Zippered Lunch Box Containing an Essential Assortment of Absorbents, AntiBiotics, [Oral and Injectable + Injectable Epinephrine for Allergic Reactions] Adhesives, Sutures, Scalpels and Kutz-All Scissors. As an Interested Individual, I will be Resposible for Designing and Providing the First Examples of these Kits, but without Funding . . . Well.

New Contacts & Ideas from Rural Maya

This Fall when I Return from a [hopefully] Successful Season of Fire Fighting, with or without Actual Funding I Plan to Implement and Expansion of Contacts with a View Towards Including more Participants in Our Modest Programs. During the Evenings, when I am Resting After Work, I Plan to Complete the Basic English™ Series of from Five to Eight Booklets. These Forty Page Booklets are Cheap and Easy to Print and Bind, and Copying Cassettes on a Dual Recorder is only a matter of Flipping Tapes every So Often : with Serious Funding, Bulk Copy Services take this Program into the Next Phase.

As Always, I Feel that the Maya have More for Us than We have for Them, so My Humility is often Tempered by Their Reciprocal Interest, which makes Working In Service to Their Community a Pleasure. As I Mentioned in another Essay on Another Subject Somewhere Else, There is Little Gain in Trying to Hammer a Square Peg into a Round Hole. Obviously.

My Question is : Why Design the Peg in One Place, Under One Set of Conditions; then Transport It at Great Cost and Effort, only to Discover that it is the Wrong Size, Shape and Material ? Why Not do a Bit of Field Research, Ask the Recipients what They Think might Work, then Use Our much-Touted First World Expertise to Design an Appropriate Solution ?

And Since First World Designers Rarely can Survive Outside of Their Artificial Climate-Controlled Environments for more than a Few Days at a Time; I Propose to Continue My Work, Doing the Ground Work, Struggling with a Difficult Climate with Reticent People in the Place I Love.

Kermit Frazier - Editor