Girlfriend Getaways

PIF adventures are appealing to active women who embrace new, exciting adventures! All tours are designed to empower women and enrich lives. Every experience provides a physical challenge that encourages women to push themselves and support each other throughout the process. Every adventure taps into a woman's maternal instincts, pulling at her heart strings in a variety of ways.

This fall a group of six female Sojourners shared an adventure in Guatemala hiking, biking, kayaking and building energy efficient stoves for Mayan families outside of Antigua. Not only did volunteering provide an opportunity to bond with one another, we also connected with indigenous women who welcomed us into their homes. We learned to make tortillas, live simplistically, and embraced their children as if we were an extension of the family. The experience proved that though we may live worlds apart geographically, girls will be girls no matter where you travel.

Whether it's hiking at Lake Atitlan or building stoves for families, the bonding that occurs between women while traveling creates friendships that last a lifetime!

Contact PLAY it Forward Adventures at www.pifadventures.com to schedule your next girlfriend getaway!

Lake Atitlan - "The place where the rainbow gets its color"

Lake Atitlan in Guatemala is one of the most spectacular bodies of water on the planet with equally spectacular origins. Born of volcanic activity about 85,000 years ago, the lake that became Atitlan was initially a giant, circular "bowl", or caldera, that formed when the region's surface collapsed from an expulsion of magma from beneath the earth's crust. Over time, the caldera filled with water and became the lake the Mayans call "Atitlan", meaning "place where the rainbow gets its color".

It is Central America's deepest lake, plummeting nearly 10,000 feet below the surface in spots, and its shining waters are ringed with smaller volcanoes. Several Mayan archeological sites have been found around the lake, and many villages still proudly carry on Mayan traditions in their artwork and wares.

We'll enjoy the beautiful scenery of the lake and its surroundings as we kayak, hike to San Marcos, swing in hammocks and do yoga on the patio at La Casa del Mundo or Vulcano lodge.

Things To Get Used To

Sojourner, Matt Russell, shares some of the things he had to get used to after returning from 11 days in Guatemala.

http://athousandmillions.blogspot.com/2008/11/things-to-get-used-to.html

Give the Gift of NEED

For anyone who needs a holiday gift idea this holiday season, I recently came across a great one. NEED magazine has put together a holiday gift pack that contains nine issues of the magazine for only $54 - that's one third less than the cover price! The recipient would receive five back issues for the holiday as well as a subscription for one year starting in February. I think NEED magazine, with its beautiful photography and inspiring stories, would make the perfect gift for anyone on your list.

If you want to know more about the magazines or purchase a gift pack, visit www.needmagazine.com.

Energy Efficient Stove Building in Guatemala

Collaborating with Global Visions International provided a great opportunity for cultural exchange last month. The second PLAY it Forward team built 3 stoves for indigenous Mayan families over the course of 2.5 days. This was the shortest service project GVI had ever done and we pulled it off without a hitch. The purpose of the stoves was not to replace existing methods, but to provide more efficient, healthier ways of cooking. They are built high enough that children cannot reach the burner, wood consumption is reduced by 70%, and each has a chimney directing smoke outside of the home.

Our group was comprised of five women and one young man, two tour guides and a tour leader. The first home we were assigned housed 30+ people. We built two stoves for this extended family and enjoyed the community of women that would congregate each morning to make hundreds of tortillas. They treated us like an extension of their family and their children were not shy to show their affections.

The second home we were assigned housed one family with three daughters. The littlest one, five year old Maria, made for a wonderful assistant. Cesar was our local foreman and everyone raved about their experience working along side him.

The experience proved to be a success not only in providing efficiency in cooking, but also in the cultural exchange experience we ALL got. The families were hospitable and grateful and just as happy to share 2.5 days with us as we were with them. Many tears were shed on the day of our parting.

Guatemalan Artist Extraordinaire, Andrea Marmol Juarez

There is a great cafe in Antigua called Cafe NoSe which supports local painter by displaying artwork on their walls. I recently stopped in one morning to check things out and was immediately drawn to a black and white painting on a blood red canvas. I've always had an affinity for feet since I feel bare feet and shoes can tell a lot about a person's journey. This particular painting caught my eye because the subject was a child's feet in lace-less shoes with both toes cut out of the front. I had to have that painting! And I had to meet that artist!

I took down the artists name, Andrea Marmol Juarez, and contacted her immediately. I returned to Cafe NoSe later that afternoon to meet an exquisite young artists eager to share her story and her art with me. We perched ourselves at the bar where she talked and I listened.

Andrea is a 20 year old native of Antigua who uses her paintings to support herself and provide financial assistance to her mother and father. Attending art school in Nicaragua, Andrea's family had doubts about her creative endeavor and hoped she'd rather become an attorney or business professional. Once her art began selling, they became very supportive and proud of her artistic talents and now encourage her to continue. With the recent loss of her fathers job, Andrea's mother was forced to go back to work. To help support her family, Andrea began contributing finacially with the proceeds from her art.

The inspiration behind each piece is her fascination with people and their individual personalities. Her paintings are inspired by a photograph, but altered to capture the essense of each person. The shading and techniques she uses make it difficult to tell the painting from the photograph. Andrea told me more than once that all photographs do not make good paintings and she needs to "feel inspired" by the subject in order to paint them.

Thomas, the child whose feet I adored, was a small child from Panajachel whose feet had outgrown his shoes. His mother cut the toes out in the hopes of getting a few more miles out of them.

I didn't buy the painting that day we met. I went back to my hotel room contimplating what I would regret more, buying or NOT buying that painting. When I mentioned it to my parents over the phone, they insisted I buy the painting and they'd give it to me as a Christmas gift. It was the perfect gift since it would give and give and give again... to me, to Andrea and to her parents.

For more information about Andrea Marmol Juarez, to purchase her art, or to have a custom portait painted, contact PLAY it Forward Adventures at 651.493.8817 or jodi@pifadventures.com.

Just a Guide?

The role and responsibility of a Tour Guide is often misunderstood if someone doesn't understand the value behind a good leader.

At PLAY it Forward Adventures, a guide is not just a person who shows you the sites. Local guides and PIF Tour Leaders inevitably serve as teachers, doctors, travel agents, psychologists and friends while traveling with Sojourners in the field. When you break down all qualities necessary to prvoide good service during adventure vacations, you realize that few people in the world are capable of filling such a role. Not only do they need to know the history and culture of their country, lead an active lifestyle, be certified in Wilderness First Response, but they also need to be committed to a lifestyle of absence; absence from their own life in exchange for educating and guiding others through a memorable and safe vacation experience.

The guides PIF employs are passionate about their jobs and are lifelong students themselves. They give up days, and even weeks, of their own lives to lead our Sojourners through their country, educating them on everything from history to vegetation.

The level of experience and qualifications of tour guides differs greatly from tour operator to tour operator. PLAY it Forward Adventures prides itself on safety. We encourage all adventure travelers to research the experience level of tour guides and leaders before putting your life in their hands on your next vacation getaway.

Safe travels!

NEED Magazine blogs about PLAY it Forward Adventures

NEED Magazine blogs about PLAY it Forward's adventure in Guatemala:

http://www.needmagazine.com/blog/2008/11/04/biking-hiking-and-building-homes/#more-131

Intro to Guatemala from the seat of a bike

Matt Russell, a PLAY it Forward Sojourner on the Guatemala adventure last week, shares his experience on Day 1.

An introduction to Guatemala from the seat of a bike.

http://athousandmillions.blogspot.com/2008/11/pedals-up.html

“Sojourners” – What’s in a name?

The third day into the first PLAY it Forward trip to Guatemala, I asked my group to think of a name I could call the travelers so could stop calling them “travelers”, “participants” and “adventurers.” Just when I thought no one was listening, Nathan Worrell told me after dinner he’d come up with a name as soon as I put out the request... SOJOURNERS.

The definition of Sojourn is “a temporary stay” or “to live in a place temporarily.”

Whether traveling or living in a place temporarily or living your every day life, every moment of life is temporary and passes in an instant. Life is a sojourn.

I asked Nathan to write a blog about how the name for PIF travelers popped so quickly into his mind after breakfast that early morning. To read his explanation, click http://web.me.com/kcn8/N8Blog/Philos/Entries/2008/10/28_Sojourn.html.

And to every Sojourner out there, PIF hopes to share a temporary experience with you soon.

A Sojourner Shares His Guatemalan Journey

Sojourner Nathan Worrell shares his journey in Guatemala October 17-26, 2008.

http://web.me.com/kcn8/Guatemala/Intro.html

“Giving with Gratitude” – Volunteering in Guatemala Part III

The intention of our last day of volunteering was to “give with gratitude”. A 24 year old male Sojourner later reported that the gratitude he’d felt all day came back to him threefold as the family expressed their immense gratitude for us being there to build their home.

The 88 year old grandfather supervised the job site and lent a helping hand by climbing trees to retrieve fruit, hacking branches with his machete and clapping his hands excitedly cheering us on.

The female head of household expressed her gratitude, with tears in her eyes, explaining that her children would now have a private bedroom opening up more space for the family as a whole. We were offered water, coke and crackers to help us refuel as the first sunny day wore on. The children peered in the window holes to sneak peaks, watch progress and dream of furnishing their first private bedroom.

On day two the team put on the finishing touches and then uprooted trees and bushes from the family garden. Watching people take turns to hack at roots with a giant machete was fantastic! We all gathered inside the home for a prayer and to present the family with donation items, a token of our gratitude for allowing us to be there.

For those of us living in first world countries, it’s often mistaken that tangible items improve our quality of life. On this day, being grateful for the abundance we are blessed with reminded us that the intangible is oftentimes much more satisfying. For this Guatemalan family who has never known abundance, a new home was a luxury and a necessity. The value for the PLAY it Forward team was much less intangible. We took away an enriching experience, a lifetime of memories and new set of values that money can’t buy.

“Team Work” – Volunteering in Guatemala Part II

Drills, saws, hammers , laughs and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. These were the sounds of team work last week on the San Juan del Obispo construction site in Guatemala.

The first ever PLAY it Forward construction team, comprised of eleven Sojourners, three volunteer foreman, two tour guides and one tour leader, banded together to give one family a three bedroom home and give themselves a new perspective on life.

The intention of this day was to “work as a team”. It was apparent the Sojourners took this to heart as they helped each other, taught each other, assisted each other, teased each other and ultimately shared responsibility.

One hour at a time the walls went up, the roof went on, doors and windows were installed and finishing touches were made. The end result was a beautiful home that the family could not resist moving into immediately following our departure on day one. When we returned on day two, we found the wood pile moved and the unfinished home furnished with beds, stuffed animals and other personal possessions turning this empty house into a home. The family’s actions indicated to the team that the family excitedly worked into the evening celebrating the new addition to their lives.

It’s amazing what a small group of well intentioned individuals can accomplish in just 1.5 days. The lesson learned during this project was that it wasn’t about any one individual or our individual contributions to the project. No matter how much or how little any one person contributed to the actual construction of the home, we built it as a team. In the end it was about working together to improve quality of life for someone else, someone we didn’t even know.

Looking around the construction site those two days invoked a lot of emotion. I was very proud of everyone involved… words couldn’t describe the feeling of connectedness we felt to one another. We went into the project as a team of Sojourners, and came out of it as a family.

“Community” – Volunteering in Guatemala Part I

Only in Guatemala will you find a Fireline of motivated volunteers the ideal way to transport 20+ wall panels up a rural mountainside. In preparation for home construction last week, the PLAY it Forward Sojourners got a unique opportunity to be part of a community Fireline comprised of 40+ global volunteers.

The day started with a trek up the mountainside with small panels where we were able to catch a glimpse of what we had in store. The foreman divided the volunteers into teams of two, each assigned a post approximately 100 from one another. To my surprise, several teams were requesting the steepest, most difficult sections of the hill!

The Fireline volunteers ranged in age from 16-60 and were from all parts of the world: the United States, Guatemala, Australia, Germany, Holland, Sweden and France. For this brief moment in time, this unique group of individuals banded together with one common goal, to get construction materials up a mountain for a family they’d never met.

When the Fireline began, large wall panels and aluminum roofing sheets were passed up the mountainside, one team to the next. Little by little, everyone working together, all the materials arrived at their final destination on the family’s land. In the midst of the activity we were passed by local men and women carrying 100 lb bags of concrete up the same mountainside supported only by a strap around the forehead. It gave us a new appreciation for the manual labor locals are forced to endure just to survive the everyday demands of their life. In only three hours time, our team of volunteers had accomplished what would have taken a smaller group days, or maybe weeks, to accomplish.

The definition of community is “a unified body of individuals”. The Fireline was a perfect example of just how effective a community can be.