I arrived with enthusiasm at the Organic Bubble, a Project I encountered through HelpX. I was originally interested because it involved contact with kids, eventually teaching English.

 Mauricio picked me up at the meeting point and we left towards a more secluded area as I jumped in the back of the pick up truck with two other kids. The first glimpse of the place does make a big impression: a hidden garden protected by a lushy vegetation. Inside, a simple one level concrete house has been fully personalized, decorated, imprinted by the Life passing through. I was offered my own room and got to know Gloria and Mauricio a little bit as they presented who things work around the place.

 There isn’t much structure, things are kept really simple and decisions are taken on the spot. Basically, The Organic Bubble is a personal initiative aiming at educating the young generation towards the Environment, their own future and Life as a whole. It’s a bit a mix between an education center and a reinsertion center.

As I was getting more aware of the structure, its potential and its needs, I started to be driven by the necessity to show this to the outside bubble. Thus I decided to create them a window into the world: a website.

If you don’t go through it all, I highly recommend you to read at least these two pages:

• The project – a general introduction
• Framing the picture – explaining the culture-socio-politico-religious background were we were working

Days were passing fast, a little bit repeating themselves if you ask me. I would go off on internet the mornings, come back for a late lunch and chill the afternoon during the high temperatures of the day.

Living in the bubble, with Mauricio and Gloria and listening stories from the kids was a bit like being inside one of those many documentaries I used to watch. Life is pretty raw here. Your naiveté could get easily blown away as you hear what is happening around you. Like I tried to introduce delicately in “Framing the Picture”, different values are attached to very different things … and human life is obviously suffering from it.

From my perspective, it was interesting to observe how different Belief Systems take you to different realities:

The interweaving beliefs coming from religious and cultural background were creating such unstable, unhealthy behavior that the only way people see to respond is through Violence. Violence as a natural aggressive aspect of creativity, thriving to reestablish more stable conditions. It s a way of communicating distance from power. When one feels powerless, he feels like disappearing, empty. It s like an empty soul calling for identity. Only once you reestablish your personal power you will be able to love yourself.

I m not even getting into the mass hammering of media influence over uneducated mind. Unable to make clear discernment, eating Beliefs as sweet candies, they grow towards the void. Knowledge is power (and not experience only), it makes no doubt for me.

This is what I see behind the more obvious pattern of the physical reality they are living in.

- I reckon carefulness for my dears readers too, as the exact same process is happening all throughout the world: minds are being torn apart from self definition, self discernment, personal power … Who can honestly say that he is only himself and not what the outside world pressures him to be, crystallizing into twisted smiles and crying hearts ? -

Back to the bubble. I enjoyed discovering the rich variety of plants and flowers around as much as going watching the every day storms sweeping the air and bending the trees. But quite honestly, I quickly started to feel a bit like in a cage.  At the house, you barely see the sky, not mentioning the sun. And if there is one thing sacred for me, is to always keep a view of what’s going on around and above. I need perspective, I need landscapes, I need mountains – quite a clash from my previous place in Lake Atitlan -. The afternoons were too hot; no energy to do anything plus that there isn’t any activity to do. My only drive remained to finish the website.

On top of that, I started to be more acquainted with the interesting character of Mauricio. I do have to talk about him since, to me, Mauricio IS the place. And if you don’t get his energy, you won’t be able to stay long at the place either. At 38 years old, he has been a famous Writer, a Christian Priest, a Mormon, a Hare Krishna, a drug addict among the few things I know of him. A great shape shifter. He recently realized that religions are just a wrong path and now curse any types of Belief System or authorities. We had some interesting discussions and all that I see are tremendous contradictory beliefs, giving him a blurry view of reality I m sure.

But, he has an enromous amount of energy, a hundred percent focused to help humanity: this project with the kids is how he expresses it. He also might be a good leader as kids here need fierce personality to be guided. In my opinion, he is just becoming what he resist: his own preach in his own church.

Mauricio is generous and dedicated. It’s just that he barely makes any concessions: you often have to leave the room, emotionally or physically.

Important: nothing or nobody is forever crystallized. DO not take my words as something permanent. At the rate at which he is moving, he will be different in two month, so will be the Bubble! Plus you don’t want to identify with me, your experience could be totally different as in many ways he is a very inspiring person too!

In her 60s, Gloria is a real sweetheart, the flower in the house. We connected very well. I only wish she would step in and bring her delicate feminine energy more often. Interestingly, she also went through a large variety of religion throughout her life but has found a good balance with herself. She is developing her skills in drawing using dots and fine lines to define her imagination.  Really cool.

In the end, I am glad of my bubble experience, proud to have given them a website and some inspirations. I am leaving because I lack fresh air and need more room for me, I just can’t give more than 4 hours  of my personal time right now.