Today I felt called to share some light about our incredible Lake Atitlán community 🌋✨in response to a friend who was posting about the “cultural appropriation” and “takers” of the Mayan culture, that he believes represent the masses here in the modern spiritual community of Lake Atitlan.
Although of course there is a part of this that is true, I know how epic this community really is, and thus I was called to respond and share that this is the minority*. I will repost here, tagging friends, and I’d love you to tag people who you know who are doing good projects here at Lake Atitlan as well.
Just yesterday there was a massive lake cleanup to try to capture the floating plastic island (all funded and operated by foreigners, while on the shores of a couple towns there were also local crews down good work.) Hand-in-hand 🤝
My friend Luke has been fundraising for a charity he has been a founding member of for around 10 years that provides 80 kids in poverty complete access to good schooling.
My friend Kanika has created Camino Canicas, now with many other supporters, which gives kids with very hard home-life, a safe place to go with uplifting activity and field trips and school supplies and all kinds of stuff, access almost every day for these kids for years now.
Jenna at Water4Life has lead this team of people cleaning rivers, providing 1,000’s and 1’000’s of water filters while educating communities all over Guatemala, also for years now.
We at Holy Wow Cacao give 10% to an alcohol and drug rehab center, fund 3 kids to go to a good school (including supplies and transport), have supported a skateboard/graffiti art program, volunteer often, donate to trash/safety/lighting programs for the neighborhood, give time and supplies to a monthly kids art/music/play program, donate to all the above mentioned programs, and so much more.
I know people giving meals every Wednesday in the center of town, while others like Sash have raised money for funerals and emergency medical expenses of locals in need, raising $5,000 in a mere few days, to help our friends that can’t afford what life has given them to come up with, like healing from a machete attack, a boiling water accident, or a tragic bus accident.
Diego Chiko-MandalAmor and Clint have organized countless lake cleanups, community kids days, and so much more!!!! I fact there is another this Saturday.
These are just a few accounts of the countless amazing efforts that is happening ALL OVER this lake. The “takers” mentioned in the other post are the vast minority* and a misunderstanding meant to bring the vibe down with more “bad news.” This was written by someone who doesn’t know the real story of what is going on here…
There’s so much beauty, generosity, and love happening all around this lake. Let’s celebrate that!
