By Sophie Purcell Our final day in Guatemala was a meaningful way to close out the experience. We traveled to the Xinka territory where we learned about the impacts of Canadian mining on local communities. Hearing directly about these realities made the issues feel much more personal and reinforced the [...]
By Amy Lam, Corey Culligan, and Tiara Ramsay Perez We started off our day with breakfast around 7:45 a.m., our final meal at IMAP. We packed our things and said our goodbyes to everyone before our driver Martin picked us up around 8:30 a.m. We took a different route back [...]
By Cali Cordeau and Nellie Campbell We started the morning with a really good breakfast, omelets, fruit, refried beans, fresh watermelon, and papaya juice. It felt like the kind of meal that sets the tone for a full day ahead. After breakfast, we had a 30-minute lesson on the Cosmovision [...]
By Katie Murphy and Sophie Purcell Today started early at the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (IMAP) with a sunrise swim in the lake. After that, we went back up for breakfast, which included pancakes, yogurt, fruit, and cantaloupe. Once everyone was together, we loaded into the truck and drove to Santiago. [...]
By Amy Lam and Claire Haussmann Today our first full day of adventures at the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (IMAP) commenced! Breakfast at 7:30 a.m. was a delicious combination of scrambled eggs, pancakes with honey, refried beans with blue corn tortillas, and papaya. After breakfast, BTS Guatemala Coordinator, Javier gave a [...]
By Corey Culligan and Tiara Ramsay Perez We started off with breakfast at 7 a.m. We had beans, tortillas, eggs, and fresh fruit. We packed up our stuff and we left Casa San Benito at 8 a.m. Martin picked us up with the van and we picked up Javier up [...]
By Cali Cordeau and Nellie Campbell After eating breakfast, we gathered to share our hopes, fears, and group norms, grounding ourselves before stepping into deeper conversations. We were joined by BTS Guatemala Coordinator, Javier and Ingrid, who guided us through the historical and political realities of Guatemala. Javier began by [...]
My service-learning experience with Breaking the Silence Network (BTS) began through a university course that I was in called Exploring Global Parallels. We were given a selection of service-learning opportunities and chose to do my placement with Breaking the Silence in the Mapping Resistance in Guatemala and the Maritimes project. [...]
My Service Learning experience with BTS has been truly incredible, and to say that I am sad it is coming to an end would be an understatement. From the very first session—meeting Laura and Indigo and learning the history of the network—I knew that I was very lucky to be [...]
In February, seven students and their faculty advisor, from St. Francis Xavier University (Antigonish, NS), travelled to Guatemala to gain a deeper understanding of the political climate, history, its respective effects, and current reparation efforts within the country. The group was facilitated by BTS and their coordinators, Lisa Rankin and [...]
