Awhile back, I was walking around one of my favorite urban lakes in Minneapolis with a good friend and she told me about an amazing program in Guatemala being run by two local non-profits, the Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry and the Community Cloud Forest Conservation. Through a unique partnership, they have been offering transformative intergenerational travel trips to a remote part of Guatemala where families, couples and solo travelers alike can work side by side the local community and do good. The trip brings travelers to the highlands of Guatemala for an intercultural and educational opportunity to work with the Community Cloud Forest Conservation on projects in education and agroecology.

As a strong supporter of sustainable travel, I was instantly intrigued and had the chance to meet with both Tricia Hall of the Community Cloud Forest Conservation and Mary Peterson of the Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry to learn more about their work and the trips to Guatemala. Tricia, a family doctor, humanitarian and mother of three, has been leading the trips to Guatemala since 2013 and I asked her to share a bit more about her inspiring work.

Tell me a bit about yourself. Where did you grow up and what were your hobbies when you were a child?

I grew up in Minneapolis and have always loved the lakes and parks of this area.  We spent time in Minneapolis, but we also traveled to distant places.  My parents are both social workers and we grew up with a strong sense of social justice, both locally and abroad.  From an early age, I loved to travel and learn about new and different cultures.

Where did you go to school and what did you study?

I went to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan for undergrad and then to Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine for medical school.  I have always loved literature and so my undergraduate degree was in English, which I did alongside my pre-med science classes.  I enjoyed the variety and have never regretted having both of these areas of study.

Why did you decide to become a doctor and what is your area of expertise?

I started to think about medicine in my high school anatomy class when we dissected a cat and I found it so interesting, particularly all of the muscles. Concurrently, I was starting to do service trips with my church.  I knew that I wanted to work in some aspect of service and that muscles were cool, so there you have it!  I decided on the specialty of Family Medicine because I loved the interactions with the whole family at the various stages of life.

Tricia and her daughter in Guatemala. Photo credit: Tricia Hall

How did you first get involved with the Community Cloud Forest Conservation (CCFC)?

We first visited Community Cloud Forest Conservation in 2013 when our daughter was just 18 months and our sons were 7 and 10.  I wanted to see what my cousin Tara (CCFC co-director with Rob Cahill) and her family had been doing in Guatemala and I was immediately hooked on the beautiful area, but more importantly I was compelled by the beautiful people and the mission of CCFC.

Tell me more about the CCFC. What is their mission and how are they making an impact with the people they work with in Guatemala.

CCFC’s mission is to alleviate poverty and protect forests in the Highlands of Guatemala. These two objectives, although not obvious synergistic goals to most residents of the United States, definitely go hand in hand.  The Q’eqchi’ Maya people of this region of Guatemala live in and by the land.  As the land is deforested, their lives are denuded as well.  Through education, reforestation, sustainable development, leadership scholarships, and ecological improvements to agriculture, CCFC is fulfilling its mission from the ground up. As kids learn about conservation, as young women are empowered to stay in school and fulfill their dreams, and as people from remote, rural villages are partners in collaboration, the physical landscape of the cloud forest improves and the personal landscape of the communities thrives.

Kids from the US and kids from the a village school making friendship bracelets together. Photo credit: Tricia Hall

Young women in a leadership training session at CCFC’s ecology center. Photo credit: Tricia Hall

Beautiful faces, learning, growing. Photo credit: Tricia Hall

CCFC is located in Alta Verapaz in the Central Highlands of Guatemala, a mountainous region which is largely indigenous and suffers from extreme poverty. The vast majority of the people in these communities are subsistence farmers, farming corn and beans on the steep sides of the mountains.  Although corn is an important part of their diet and also the Mayan culture, when corn is grown as a monocrop, both the land and the nutrition of the people suffer. CCFC is working to increase agricultural diversity, often using ancient Mayan and native cloud forest heirloom crops to decrease deforestation and to dramatically improve nutrition.

What is your role with CCFC?

I feel very blessed to be able to work alongside the directors, staff and volunteers at CCFC and to bring a focus on community health.  I have been working with Guatemalan nurses and nursing students over the past three years to assess the health needs and successes of the communities, identify areas for improvement, and develop initiatives to improve the health of the people in the communities.

CCFC in partnership with Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry, offers a unique intergenerational trip each year to see the work in Guatemala. How was the partnership formed?

We have been supporters of Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry for many years and I served on the board until recently and so I knew about LPGM’s partnerships with organizations around the world, building relationships, breaking down barriers, and partnering in the essential areas of need.  A collaboration between LPGM and CCFC seemed like a great fit for both organizations.  We started with a pilot travel experience and have continued to grow the partnership; because of this partnership, dozens of individuals and congregations around the United States have been able to travel to and work alongside CCFC in Guatemala, expanding the worldviews and potential of people both in Guatemala and here in the US.

Making dinner is fun! Photo credit: Tricia Hall

Peeling cacao beans to be made into chocolate. Photo credit: Tricia Hall

Cacao beans. Photo credit: Tricia Hall

Picking cloud forest native naranjilla fruit to be made into tasty jam. Photo credit: Tricia Hall

Weeding and planting with friends. Photo credit: Tricia Hall

The mission of the trip is to:

• Experience and learn from a different culture,
• Work alongside CCFC on projects that are ongoing in education and agro-ecology
• Shareour lives and God’s love with each other and with those we meet in Guatemala.

When we arrive in Guatemala City, we get an introduction to Guatemalan culture and then we head to the mountains!  We spend 4 days partnering with a group of children from a local village school, learning and experiencing together, and at the end of the week, we accompany them to their village, often with trees or other native products to plant. Throughout the week, we are hiking, cave-exploring, making native cloud-forest products, learning about coffee-production, playing soccer, and packing in as much learning and fun as we can. At the end of the trip, we spend a day “adventuring,” either in a natural waterpark or on a volcano.

Group photo of US travelers along with the village school children and teachers that we partnered with for the week. Photo credit: Tricia Hall

How does this experience change you?

This summer will be my 6^thyear bringing a group to CCFC and I never tire of witnessing the beautiful connections that occur on these trips. To see a 7-year-old US girl from the city and a Q’eqchi’ Maya girl from a remote village walking together, smiling, communicating through hand gestures, and learning about themselves, each other and the world around them—it just doesn’t get any better than that!

Want to learn more about the upcoming summer trips?