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One day, Isaac receives a printing set.

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A message from our Yucatán children.

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The Science in the Villages Program inspires a young student to study science.

Technology is also in great demand to archive  stories in both Maya and Spanish,  to store photos including old photos that  have been scanned for history and to keep a digital record of recordings and video from each village.

Computers, scanners and even a digital microscope are in constant demand with  Proyecto Itzaes science programs. In Ixil, students are creating a digital herbarium of scanned plants that includes the plant name in Spanish, Maya and the scientific name as well as traditional ecological  and ethnobotanical knowledge supplied by elders.

This “real-work”  approach to technology is a very hands-on way to become proficient with programs and hardware as well as producing  tangible products.

WIFI in the villages! In late 2007 with a grant from the Foundation for Global Community, PI began an ambitious project to provide  wireless network to our villages. Working together with Solitech, towers have been installed with solar powered radio relays  and in March, 2009, Yahel Ben-David,  of the Airjaldi Organization will be flying to Yucatán to work with PI staff, Simón Clopton and local volunteer, Jorge Carlos Berny to get the much awaited wifi up and running.

In 2005, Rotary donated the technology for the studies, including computers, scanners, printers, cameras, recorders and supplies and members of the communities continue to contribute hours and hours of work interviewing , researching , and teaching in their own villages.

Middle and high school students from each community interview elders (grandparents, aunts, uncles and neighbors) and interviews are digitally recorded, transcribed and burned to CD to archive information. Old photos relating to family life, milpas, animals, and food are scanned and preserved to disk as well.

Sample questions include:

• When you were young, how did your family get their food?
• What were the ten most common foods that you ate.
• What were the most common liquids that you drank?
• Did your family have a garden, milpa, huerta etc?
• If so, what kinds of food did you grow?
• Did your family raise animals for food? If so, which animals did you have for food?
• Which did you eat more often, corn tortillas or bread?
• Did you drink refrescos? If so, how often?
• Did you drink Jamaica? Horchata? Jugo?
• Did you have desserts or sweet food very often? How often?
• Did you have candy for special occasions or every day?
• Which vegetables did you eat often?
• Which fruits did you eat often?
• Did your family hunt for food? Which animals?
• Did you eat cereals like avena? Did you have prepared cereal in a box?

Students then compared the foods traditionally eaten in their villages to their own diet and came to their own conclusion that foods eaten today are less nutritious and too high in sugars and empty calories. Older students and PI asesores share with children and families the importance of healthy diet and exercise in preventing type 11 diabetes.

In recent years, children and families in Proyecto Itzaes’ six other villages have also begun to record and archive oral histories. The goal of the oral histories project is twofold: for the young people of Yucatán to learn more about their own family and village history and to preserve Maya cultural heritage.

 The cultural preservation project involves the entire community. Young students, guided by a library specialist and archivist, interview the town’s elders. Using a digital tape recorder and camera, the students (primary and middle school age) ask a series of basic questions of grandparents, aunts and uncles, recording invaluable information about the town’s traditions, customs, myths and legends.

The children have also started to preserve old photographs by scanning them and saving copies of the images to compact discs.  PI students and volunteers are slowly transcribing the stories and using Adobe Photoshop to edit and save the photos they have taken. Completed stories with both the text and photo files are saved to compact discs and families each receive copies as well.

Help us fund our cultural preservation project

Proyecto Itzaes needs funds to expand this invaluable cultural history and to create a website of the stories, local legends and photos, in order to share Maya culture and history as a primary source. Funds are needed for essential technology, computers, scanners, cameras, digital recorders as well as funding for archiving and oral history workshops provided by a library/archive specialist.

Please help. Every donation makes a difference!

*Proyecto Itzaes in Chicxulub Puerto is now an independent, community sustained program led and funded by the people of Chicxulub Puerto.

Milpa agriculture is an integral part of Maya and Mexican culture and a healthy and sustainable healthy lifestyle. The three sisters: corn, beans, and squash have long been the dominant garden foods in Maya gardens, along with locally specialized cilantro, chives, and radishes and families are eager to revive their garden traditions.

In 2009 participating families will attend workshops to learn how to organically and sustainably increase food production on their ejido lands. Each will receive a Spanish language copy of John Jeavons’ book Cultivo Biointensivo de Alimentos.

In spring of 2008, students from Menlo School in Menlo Park, California traveled to Yucatan as youth mentors and worked side by side with PI asesores. Menlo School raised funds to provide beautiful books and bookcase libraries from Bring Me A Book for the villages of Cholul and Chicxulub Pueblo and inspired our youngest students; reading aloud to them, creating new stories, folding origami animals and much more.

PI mentors, local and international, spread their reading and learning to others and are essential role models for the younger children.

Jessica, an asesore from Ixil, now studying mathematics at the university summed up her experience by writing recently: Es por eso y mucho mas que estoy muy agradecida con el Proyecto Itzaes, pues creo que la labor que hacemos el enseñar a los niños del proyecto es tambien una gran ganancia para nosotro los asesores, ya qu es muy divertido y agradable.

However, for most of these young scholars, attending university is impossible because they cannot afford the bus fare to school of $2.00 per day. Proyecto Itzaes is thrilled to be able to provide funding to help six of our most dedicated asesores to attend college. Here are some of the stories of our scholarship recipients.

Javi, now studying law at La Universidad Autónima de Yucatán (UADY)

My name is Javi and I live in Chicxulub Puerto, Yucatan. I am 18 years old and in the 5th semester of Colegio Preparatorio (high school) in Progreso, Yucatan. I would like to extend a cordial greeting and ask you with all of my heart to help me with my studies which are each day more difficult to accomplish.

Originally I was from the state of Quintana Roo, but at the age of six, my grandmother died and because of that I came to Chicxulub Puerto with my mother and here it is very difficult to make enough money to afford an education. My mother has always worked to help for my school costs since I do not have a father. I said helps because I also work to pay my school costs every Saturday and Sunday and now this is more complicated because I have to pay bus fare transportation in order to go to school.

I like studying a lot and I also like to row. I am part of the rowing team for Yucatan in Progreso and it is a sport that I like so much, like studying, because it gives me an opportunity to improve myself.

I would like to study law, but in my town we do not have any universities. So it is difficult for me as all of the universities are located in Merida. What I earn in my job plus what my mother gives me, will only pay for my transportation and will not pay for my tuition at the university. For me all of this is very expensive but I am confident that someone in some place will help me.

For me, my mother is the best person in the whole world and ultimately I have to thank her for all of the strength that she has given to move our family forward and to overcome all of the obstacles of life. I would be most grateful for any support that you might give me to follow my dream and finish my studies-not just high school but the university. I say goodbye to you with respect and hope and much enthusiasm for your help and thank you for reading my petition. Thank you!

Words from another PI student now attending the university:

I am sixteen years old, and I am currently in my last year of preparatory school (high school) in the University Preparatory College of the State of Yucatan in Chicxulub Pueblo. I live in Ixil, Yucatan, in a house of ten people, including one elderly relative and two young children. We count on two weekly incomes of approximately 700 pesos (~70 USD). As my parents did not finish primary school, they cannot count on good work. This complicates my situation as a student.

It is because of this that I have a great deal of economic difficulty, as I have many costs such as tuition, transport, books, and uniforms, among others. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that my brother is also a student and that we have never counted on any type of help from the government. In truth, my dream is to continue studying, as I am a good student. I want to study some career related to advertising, or perhaps marketing or business administration. Unfortunately, given the situation in which I live, I see my goal further and further away, as every day is worse and worse.

I hope to receive some help as I wish to continue studying so I can succeed and help my family. Thank you for your attention and understanding.

Rodolfo Dirzo leading a discussion

Last week, Professor Rodolfo Dirzo (Stanford, UNAM) joined us in the village of Ixil, Yucatán, to talk about ecology and local biodiversity with a group of Proyecto Itzaes students and mentors from four of our villages. The following day, we explored ejido land surrounding Ixil, including the ruins of a small pyramid and participants learned methods for surveying the biodiversity of the vegetation. Plant specimens were gathered for each data point and scanned to add to the digital herbarium being created by Ixil students.

Don Ricardo Cutz provided Maya names and traditional uses for many of the plants we found in the field survey.

This two-day seminar was very much an exchange between Rodolfo, and local people (including elders) contributing traditional ecological knowledge, ecologists from Mérida as well as very young PI students.

Opportunities like this make a huge difference in the lives of PI students and their families and encourage teaching and learning across broad communities. Mil gracias to Rodolfo Dirzo for sharing with Proyecto Itzaes your knowledge, your time and your commitment to education!