For Happier Endings

I often have exciting stories to share. Happy stories. Water coming from taps for the first time. Lives changing. Suffering turning to joy. So many stories of hearts opening to a new hope, sprouting, taking root and, with hard work, those hopes being realized as dreams are fulfilled.

I shared some of these on my birthday this year, finding myself perfectly between two worlds on my birthday - having just left a celebration with the community of Parrequena, home to 141 families who had just turned on taps a few weeks prior, and on my way to a new village called Talaxcoc, a land with no water.


We were welcomed in by the village and gathered with some of the 190 families under a tree. We asked if they might be willing to share some of their stories with us. A little lady named Dominga stood up. She had walked some 8km through the mountains from her home to come and tell us her story, the story of most families in the community: she walks some 2.5 hours round trip a few times a day down the mountain to the small river in the valley bed. Animals and families alike share the water for drinking, bathing, laundry - meaning there is a lot of muck and germs in the water. It's been getting worse in the recent generations as population growth in the closest town has meant more contamination from upstream sewage that feeds into the river. Her husband died many years ago, leaving her as a single mother with her two sons. Her sons have since started their own families, but need to leave their families for about 6 months of each year to work like slaves on sugarcane plantations to earn some meagre income. She is left with her daughters-in-law and grandchildren, who suffer and struggle to survive each day without water. 

But she is a tenacious one. (I should mention that she spoke in Spanish, which is very rare for indigenous women in rural areas. I was so used to needing a translation from K'iche', the local language, to Spanish, before translating into English for the rest of our group, that I looked expectantly at one of the men for a translation before one of the local staff whispered, uh... she spoke in Spanish. Oh right!). She hustles and bustles and makes the trek to get water for her family each day, multiple times. I woke up another morning at 5:30am and peeked into the mud-brick home where some women had gathered to make breakfast for us visitors, and there she was (again, 8km from her home), smiling and clapping out tortillas between her hands.

She invited us to her home and (not knowing then that it would be an 8km hike up and down through the mountains), we accepted her warm invitation (barely made it back before dark). She offered us what she could - a drink of boiled oats called mosh. She thanked us for visiting her humble home and showed us a little flat rock where she washed clothes and dishes with water she collected in jugs. She showed a little patch, maybe 2m x 2m, where she grew cilantro, herbs, and lettuces. She used the precious water she carried up from the river carefully, not wasting a drop, and used grey water from cooking or washing to water her garden. We promised that we would do everything we could to try to help her village to build a clean water system as soon as possible, by sharing her story and inviting all of our friends and family to give what they can to help buy all the cement, pipes, and materials they need. We hoped that soon, this 'washing station' would be complete with what she really needed most: water.

Dominga, her daughter-in-law, and grandson

Boiled oats drink... we all washed it down with a pepto bismol just in case

Dominga and her flourishing little garden of greens

We left with a promise to do everything we can do help her family get water soon

I received the very sad news this morning.... that Dominga passed away. According to the community leaders, she died after excessive diarrhea and vomiting. She wasn't able to get to a health clinic quickly due to the long distance to get there, and by the time she could, unfortunately, it was too late. Her diarrhea and vomiting was likely due to contaminated water.

I share in the sadness of the community to lose such a vibrant and hardworking friend, neighbour, mother, and grandmother. I feel so sad especially as she has fought so hard and so long to 'make it' as a single mother/grandmother for so many years. Though each day was difficult and exhausting, she had been doing so well given the circumstances. Water would have so soon reached her village, and it was just not soon enough to avoid this tragedy.

I am thankful for some of these photos, through which we can continue to treasure Dominga's warmth, her smile, her bravery and courage to speak about her suffering on behalf of all the women in her community, and her strength, resourcefulness, and perseverance in the midst of suffering to work hard and provide for her family.

Dominga and her namesake granddaughter, Dominga

We are, sadly, too late for Dominga.

But it reminds me again of the reality of why we do this - visiting these communities; organizing runs around the block; speaking to churches, schools, friends, family - whoever might have a listening ear and an open heart; speaking of not only compassion but justice in a world where we see people suffering and systematically caught in poverty in an age of economic abundance; speaking of doing 'right' starting with seeing people as they truly are... people of value, worthy of a life of dignity, people who are each really, very incredible people.

The Run is "for H2O"... but really it is for people. People like Dominga, whose joyful, courageous demeanor would not have given away the depths of the suffering and sorrows she shared about in words; whose life we knew had been marked by daily struggle but whose vulnerability we could not really fathom until her death shakes us to her true reality; who we wish could have experienced a life as hopeful, refreshing, and vibrant as her character.

This is why we do what we do...

When I left Dominga's village, I said, we have to go back to our homes, but this is not 'goodbye'. It is 'until we see you again to celebrate having clean, running water in your homes, we are together with you in this struggle, and we hope that day is coming soon'. 

There are still 190 families in the village of Talaxcoc.

I ask you to join me, in giving and fundraising, however you can, so that the stories of many others may have happier endings - in Talaxcoc, and also in the many other villages where there are Domingas, equally and uniquely precious, that we haven't yet met.

Join us for these happier endings...
- run/walk 5K or 10K the Run For H2O on Saturday June 16, 2018 in south Vancouver, the distance that Dominga hiked every day to get water
- donate: my.hope-international.com/rainbow2018  - each $100 will help 1 person (or $600 per family) get clean water for life, by adding it together with others' gifts to build a spring-fed gravity water system to serve the whole community
- join my fundraising team: my.hope-international.com/teampipes2018
- share this story and ask others to get involved

(all photos except the one under the tree, and Dominga making a tortilla, gratefully received courtesy of Michele Mateus Photography)

The "In-Between"



Around this time of the year, I’m always running around talking to people about the Run For H2O… I talk to a lot of friends, a lot of schools, a lot of churches. I love these invitations to share stories, because between the Run For H2O in June once a year,  there is so much more: so much sweat, so much work, so much celebration, so much JOY. So... this is some of that "in-between!"

Last year, together with some good friends and my dad, I visited a community called Xejuyup, a desert in the mountains. We heard their stories, walked with them to fetch water from a dirty stream, carried the heavy loads of water with them back to their homes.

We heard their plea, we are suffering; please, help us get access to water. We promised we would do everything in our power. 

And we did.  The 11 of us who heard those stories first-hand, 20 lead volunteers, 360 runners, and about 1,500 generous people… all of us together at the Run For H2O.

And out of the hearts and wallets of all these people came $77,000 for Guatemala! 

That was June 6, 2015. Then, in just 4 months, the community of Xejuyup had build a water system. Each of the 199 families in the community now has access to water in their homes, and their water jugs are now tied up at the back of the kitchen happily collecting dust. And they told us:
"The life and future of our children is right here in this water."

They treated us to tea, made from their new water, and said:
"My heart is beating so fast, because I am so happy that you are here with us.
We are so happy that you came to see our water with your own eyes." 

But even more than that happened. People were even more generous than we had imagined at the Run For H2O. As a result, not only Xejuyup (“Below the mountain”) but also another community Xoljuyup (“Among the mountains”) was able to build a water system too!

So all of the 61 families of this community now also have clean water in their homes, too! They are drinking water that is clean, healthy, and no longer getting sick from waterborne diseases.

The moms and children are brilliantly happy to be in their homes, rather than making the exhausting daily journeys to get water each day.

They are beyond overjoyed to be washing their clothes at home, rather than carrying them down to the river and carrying the heavy loads of wet laundry back home.

The kids are playing, giggling, and going to school.

They are now using their free time to garden, for more food and nutrition...

To sell in the now-vibrant village market...

To weave textiles and mats to earn an income.
Life is so, so different.

These men are celebrating 4 months of hard, hard labour, digging each inch of the few kilometers of trench into the mountain, from 3 small springs all the way into the village; carrying each pipe, each rock, each bag of sand, each sack of concrete on their backs. We are standing on many secrets of their work under this cement!



They have food to share, and water to wash the dishes, which means they are healthier, and proud to be able to be excellent hosts for us as we celebrated with them.



On our last night in Xoljuyup, we gathered for what I thought was an informal goodbye, but ended up being a 1.5hr gathering of thank-you’s from all of the leaders in the community. What we heard over and over from each person as they shared their own words and stories, was:
"We are so, so JOYFUL now.
And so, so THANKFUL.
Without you and your friends in Canada, we never would have realized this dream."

And this is why we run! And why we run around in a circle especially for the Run For H2O.

Because there are still families – women and children in particular – walking 5-10km each day to get water.

Because the water they can get from streams and posits in the mountains are shared by animals, muddied, and contaminated. And people – especially kids – are dying from diarrhea and waterborne illnesses every day.



Because we know that something better is possible, and we can be part of it.

So… would you?

Come be part of the Run For H2O again this year, run 5K or 10K just on June 4, 2016, even though we don’t need to travel that distance every day on our feet, with 15 pounds of water on our head, to survive. But we can, just for one day run/walk that 5 or 10K, give and invite others to, too! And there will be more stories, just like this, but for yet more families. And, it really is fun! Check out photos from last year's Run For H2O!



"We will tell the story of when water came to our community for generations and generations to come."



This really was one of the most profound things I heard in Xoljuyup – and I promised to share this with everyone back home. So for everyone who has been part of the Run For H2O... these thank-you's were for you. THANK YOU. Your gifts - and efforts to invite others to give - have been the beginning of new life and a new course of history, for whole communities, for all of forever.  

And I invite you too, this year, to be part of a new "in-between", and an "ever after", that is more significant, more joyful, more full of life than you and I will ever know.

Sign up at www.runforh2o.ca

Or, read a few more of my own thoughts and help me reach my goal of raising $5,000 to help many more families this year at my.hope-international.com/rainbow2016



Rugged beginnings

I like Guatemala.

Some things that are just the quirks of travel, still make me smile, like a trunk full of carrots.

A gift from the national staff in the capital city to the staff in the province where we work. May as well, since they were picking me up. :)

But long after the novelty of travel has worn off after many years of spending many months of the year around the world, I’m still happy to be here, to be working here.

Hearing the decades of history of communities in the storms of conflicts with the government and private companies.

I like these meetings a lot. Meetings about the current political crisis in Guatemala and the subsequent collapse of the medical system, and how we could possibly help respond by sending medicines and medical supplies to hospitals and clinics run by non-government organizations. Meetings about how we can continue to work with the wonderful staff we know in Guatemala, many of whom spent their childhoods collecting water from dirty rivers, and who now dedicate their lives to helping other communities access clean drinking water, sanitation, and health. Meetings with community leaders from remote villages being threatened to lose their lands and livelihoods to hydroelectric dam and mining projects, who never knew until recently that they stand a chance to keep their homes because of a thing called law and human rights. Long, seemingly boring, but insightfully captivating meetings.

Benito and Benedicto, from a community 12 hours away, deciding how to best spell out my name in their mother tongue after our meeting... after much deliberation, they decided on "Shokoq'aabm" :)

The simple beauties amid and within the complex challenges that people face here are sometimes hard to really appreciate. Life seems to be a struggle for everyone – be it the communities in need, our selfless staff, or the long-time friends here I call family. It's more rugged than quaint, more rough than pretty, and I think the fact that it is sooo cold in this mountainous province adds to that sentiment, so mere survival seems more a reality – at least for the cold blooded being that I am!

But I am happy to be here, to appreciate the people and the depth of stories rooted in decades of resistance and struggle befure, during, and after civil war – those that lived through three decades of armed conflict, fleeing their homes to forge an existence in the mountains, slipping silently from temporary homes to secretly planted patches of corn and beans so as not to be found all those years, until the armies left and they returned to rebuild their lives, and hope for more security for their children. Those children who, now grown, in the same courage, leave their village, one of the few times in their lives, to travel 12 hours to come meet with me, to speak for their fathers and their communities in hope of support to gain title over their land before it is lost to mining companies.  

To appreciate our simple staff, whose wealth of formal education and informal experience and knowledge you would never know, or the hundreds of villages they have befriended and humbly shared their expertise with; who, between available work, migrate to the south coast along with all the other men in their village, to be peasant migrant labourers cutting coffee and sugar cane on large plantations, their young children in tow.

To try to gather something of value to convey this rugged reality to people who don't know it, and to invite them to enter into these rugged stories, and to help make them something a little bit gentler, a little bit smoother, a little bit lighter and easier to hope and to work for better things.

Me; one of my heroes Luisa - Attorney in Land Conflicts, Legal Expert in Guatemalan law and indigenous peoples issues, tireless defender of human rights; community members from two communities facing threats to their land and livelihoods.

And so I am happy to be here. And happy that I know that these rugged beginnings are just the start of good, not simple, sometimes not pretty, but beautiful – things. 

30 Minutes of Shame/Fame

This really makes me cringe.

When I agreed to do this interview about the Run For H2O to be aired on national TV across Canada, I hadn’t quite thought through how it was actually going to work. Because it was in Chinese. Which I speak like a 5 year old, and only ever voluntarily use when I’m talking to my grandma or ordering dim sum.

I had zero vocabulary to talk about my work. Whether Guatemala is pronounced “Nguy-day-ma-lai” or “Ngah-day-ma-lai” in Cantonese, I still can’t get straight.

But I figured, if it means one person in Guatemala does not need to spend the rest of their life enslaved to the task of survival and carry, literally, the heavy and exhausting 4-6 hour daily burden of fetching dirty water from open sources that will inevitably bring sickness and death to their family....

... then I can memorize some Chinese. So I did. 

• In all its backwards-to-English grammar:  Worldwide – five – under – children – most – frequent – death – reason - diarrhea. 

• In the complexity of explaining why the local government is unable to resolve the problem of water in their country: Because actually, Guatemala has recently endured 36 years of devastating civil war, which was basically a government-sponsored genocide of the indigenous Mayan people. The government killed 200,000 indigenous people and thousands more were tortured and ‘disappeared’ during the war. Even though there is no longer active armed violence, and the war has been officially over since 1996, the indigenous people are still extremely and systematically marginalized, and any support that the government does provide is fairly nominal, if at all. It is these most vulnerable people that we are helping through the Run For H2O.

• In the simple but vocab-filled explanation of how there IS clean water already in Guatemala, just that the source of mountain springs where it is clean can be far away from the villages, and by the time it flows naturally to open creeks and streams where it can be collected, it is full of contaminants and  bacteria... but a water system that caps the spring at its source and use pipes and gravity to bring it down (“tempt” it down, in Chinese) to the village means clean water for life, and all it takes to do this for a whole community is nothing more than about $600 per household, or $100 for person to have clean water for life. 

• In its units of measure that counts by ten-thousands, which I could not for the life of me remember, until I scribbled down the sound “bat-man” beside $80,000 = “8 ten-thousands” on my script and then laughed out loud. “How much money have you raised so far through the Run For H2O?” “Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na BAT-MANNNNNN!”

It was meant to be all and well... until the TV host went completely off-script once the camera started rolling, asking me all sorts of interesting questions & leaving me fighting to keep a cheery smile while internally screaming at the TV host, what the heck!! I TOLD you I could only answer the secretly pre-arranged questions!!!   

Once it was over, I never mentioned it again except to my parents and my grandma, and never intended to -- everyone else who already knows me can (and does!) hear about Guatemala, my love for the people there, and the invitation to run and to give through the Run For H2O, thank you very much. No one needs to watch me bumble through it in my stuttery Chinese for kicks.

But then..... I got this email from a family after it aired: 

Hi... I saw your event from a TV program yesterday and my kids would like to send their social benefits cheques to support your event. We are living in Ontario. 

We got their $200 cheque in the mail that week. I was so touched. I don’t know what these kids have to give up. But it is certainly more than me (a little sleep and a lot more pride). And it made it all worth it. And I am so glad I did it – it is the least I can do. 

So, with that said... here it is. 30 minutes of ‘fame’ .. or really, just being human, together. 

And maybe you can help just 1 person get access to clean water - and with it, health, hope, and new life.

This 1-Minute Video is much better :)

Consider helping 1 person this year. $100. It’s not nothing, but it means everything. 

Make a gift at: my.hope-international.com/rainbow 

Join me to run & fundraise TOMORROW! www.runforh2o.ca

蔡思琳
Rainbow Choi
:) 

Guatemala on my heart :)

I've sent this to a few friends, without intention of writing a blog til after June 22.... but I thought after all, maybe I would write a little blog in case there are some friends I haven't sent a message to personally, who might have a special love for Guatemala/Central America, or who have been part of this journey with me! :) But don't feel pressured at all; just so you are in the in, and have the invitation along with others! :)

As you might or might not know...  I love Guatemala!! Ever since I stepped foot into that country in 2009, originally to learn Spanish after a year in Costa Rica doing an M.A. in Peace Education at the University For Peace, I fell in love with this place I immediately called “mi paraiso” - my paradise. (My first question when I arrived, was "How do you say paradise in Spanish?").  I don’t know if it’s the beauty and vibrancy of the colourful indigenous culture and landscapes, the particular friends I have made there, or the empathy and anger at the injustice against the indigenous population, but for some reason, Guatemala has a special place in my heart.

My first time in Guatemala, I saw both the beauty and the ugliness of the country, learned about the dark history first veiled by colourful attire. I met people face-to-face who have survived horrendous torture during the 36-year civil war (genocide); who lived and tasted death, and by grace, walked out on the side of life. I ended up staying in one village and developing a literacy-and-peace curriculum in a small community. :)

Last year, I had the chance to visit Guatemala again, this time, with my work. I was sooo thrilled to return, but had no idea before I arrived, the extent to which the visit would shape me again. I was welcomed with flair (and a whole outfit!) into a community in the mountains that had just received clean water for the first time ever.

I heard testimonies of women who recounted with tears the great suffering they endured each day for survival to fetch water, and the miracle they were now living with clean water in their homes. I was so smitten with the joy of sharing this with the community, I wrote two giddy blogs about the surprises and celebration of it all. 

I also had the chance to visit other communities, meeting families that, years after armed violence has settled, still walk the line each day between life and death in their destitute poverty and lack of access to basic needs for survival. I blogged about that too, first in cursing for the injustice, then something a little more constructive, a commitment to turn anger into hope. 

I will personally raise new funds for Guatemala. I don’t know how. But I will. I cannot walk away. The suffering in that community - and countless others just like it - is so, so UNNECESSARY. Apathy and inaction... aren't all so very far from deliberate malice. Poverty is unnecessary in this day and age. I will not walk away.

So I haven’t. Since September, I’ve been working with some friends who are putting together a 5KM or 10KM run, a “Run For H2O” in Vancouver (starting a few blocks from my house!) to raise compassion and funds to construct a clean water system for a Mayan community in Guatemala. Here’s a fun promo video we've made; I hope you’ll take 1.5 minutes to watch it! :) (click on the title on the top left, if it shows up cut off on your screen)

You might have noticed a few pictures here or there on Facebook; my little almost-2-year-old niece is braving the 5KM, and I've hosted a Guatemalan-themed BBQ (with cupcakes, of course!) to invite more friends into sharing our hopes and dreams for families in Guatemala.

It’s been quite the journey, but the day - this Saturday, June 22 - is finally almost here! We have more than 200 runners signed up for the event, who have raised just over $27,000. We’re not sure what the next 36 hours has in store, but we have high hopes! :)  

Would you consider joining me for this, in making a donation for Guatemala? You can donate directly here and see how your gift is helping reach my goal of raising $5,000 personally, or, if you would like to get a US tax receipt (instead of a Canadian one) you can donate on this page. (If you do donate on the US page, you can let me know how much you gave, and I can add it manually to my fundraising totals. :) )

No obligation at all, but if you'd like to be a part of this, I would love, love, love to have your support. I’ll be taking our Run For H2O leadership team to Guatemala in September to see the outcome of this year’s countless hours of preparation for the event, and to celebrate with the community the gift of clean water and brand new LIFE, made possible by the compassion and generosity of all our friends and family!

Thanks already for reading along and sharing this journey with me! 

Much love,

Rainbow