Rosie Wilde and Marina Gurvich pitch in with the potato harvest. All photos by Jason Sangster. © CARE 2001.

The AYCC member is heading to the Air Force Academy in the fall, but today, she and her fellow students are potato farmers in Solola. Bent over rows of fresh dirt, they're planting potatoes for Antonio Panjoj Palax. For two years, Palax has used CARE loans to purchase his potato seeds.

The PROMESA credit program has made it easier for him to maintain the farmland that was his father's before him -- and to increase his yield significantly. Since joining the program, the income generated by his potato crops has nearly doubled.

The program will remain in place through 2006, with the intention of not only helping Guatemalan farmers like Palax to increase their yields, but also of teaching them how to better conserve land, rotate crops and use environmentally-sound organic methods of farming.

Currently, Palax's farming methods are 75 percent organic. "It's progress," says CARE field representative Juanito Pich.

AYCC students are greeted by one of the farmers they'll be working with.

For the AYCC members, seeing the program in action is nothing short of rewarding.

"I've gardened before, but never like this -- so hands-on," says 17-year-old Lauren Thompson, who helped plant cabbage seeds in a CARE-sponsored greenhouse, before joining in the potato fun. "They're so patient in teaching us their work ethic and the process of farming," she says.

The process isn't particularly difficult; just tedious, the students learn. The potatoes must be planted fifteen centimeters apart and can't be disturbed by the moves of careless American feet.

Underscoring that point, CARE-Atlanta representative and fearless trip translator Elie Perez warns her troops: "Remember, people are going to eat these, so be careful! Don't start dancing around, or you'll mess up their crop!"

Whole families help with the potato harvest.

It is tempting to dance around on this warm June morning. The Solala landscape is breathtaking. Hilly and lush, the potato fields look like a scene right out of a postcard. And the mood throughout the planting period is playful.

We've all just come from a big breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit. And the ten AYCC members are still flying high from the bonding experience they shared last night in the thermal baths at the St. Regis Hotel.

"The group has come together surprisingly in the last few days," says committee member Meredith Schisler. "All of us sitting around and talking in the hot springs last night was enough to make us feel a lot closer."

The bonding is evident as students run to help one another with the potatoes and play with the village children who have gathered to watch them plant.

AYCC members get to know the community of Maria Tecun.

A Polaroid camera belonging to AYCC organizer Mia "Mama Mia" Redd proves to be the hit of the field. The local children huddle excitedly as they pose for new photos that magically develop before their eyes. The polaroid pictures serve as small tokens of appreciation we leave with our farming hosts as we set off for the next stop of the day: lunch.

Over Chinese food, committee members compare notes on all that they've seen -- and on all the dirt that's gathering under their fingernails.

"I think the AYCC students truly appreciate this opportunity to travel to another country," says Scarlet Pressley-Brown of Delta Air Lines. "They realize this is an incredible learning opportunity. And they realize how fortunate they are, because the people they've met today might never have the chance to visit other countries."

After a leisurely meal, it's off to Maria Tecun, the site of another CARE project.

The drive to the project is an event in and of itself. "Oohs" and "ahhs" in the vans turn to sighs, moans and even an occasional groan of motion sickness as we climb higher and higher through the mountains to Maria Tecun on narrow roads intended, it would seem, for one lane of traffic, not two.

Cows, sheep, and goats dot the lush hillside, as does the occasional local woman walking with piles of produce atop her head. It is a breathtaking rural setting, to say the least.

At the site, we are led to a small building that's been transformed into a nutrition training center; headquarters of a PROMESA project that kicked off in January of this year.

Charles Ford, Anneke Strachan and Tom Seamans proudly display the fruits of their labor.

It is here, we are told, that local men and women gather to learn more about nutritional practices that will benefit their communities. There are CARE-sponsored cooking classes designed to help people make nutritious meals, and lessons designed to teach young mothers about both breastfeeding and weaning their children.

The goal, project organizers say, is to make the lush land in the area as productive as possible and the people as healthy as possible. In short, the aim is to return the community to the stability and productivity it boasted in years gone by.

In the 1970s, we are told, the farmers in the region were well organized. They worked together and enjoyed the fruits of their labor. But Guatemala's civil war changed the dynamics and, in turn, the stability of the community considerably.

Today, CARE is working to reestablish a sense of community in the area. In addition to the nutrition program, we are shown the potato project the locals have had in place since the start of the year. And now our AYCC members are seasoned potato professionals. This time around, they're asked to harvest, not plant!

"All work and no play..." The AYCC students relax at the end of a great day of CARE project visits.

"Just separate the potatoes from the stem. There should be about six to a plant," instructs CARE Guatemala staffer Eileen Rivera.

Twenty minutes later, a row of potatoes has been harvested and the Atlanta students have turned their attention to their dirty hands, and to the dozens and dozens of village children that have gathered to watch them in fascination.

"It's so funny -- it's like they think we're celebrities!" marvels Lauren. "But to us, they're the celebrities. We're the ones learning from them."

CARE photographer Jason Sangster comes up with an ideal toy to amuse the children: a bag full of balloons. As the balloons are distributed to the children, peels of laughter erupt.

And the laughter spreads to the AYCC members looking on in this lush, mountainous landscape. The cameras come out and the "oohs" and "ahhs" continue, this time amidst a few yawns. It's time to head back to the hotel.

Rosie Wilde bids farewell to some new friends.

Another mountainous drive on little narrow roads and more talks in vans about the development projects we've seen, about the lush landscape and about the souvenir shopping that waits when we arrive back at the St. Regis Hotel.

As day turns to night, the conversations move from vans to the dinner table to the Internet chat room. But it has been a busy day and it's not long before most are heading off to sleep … and potato-filled dreams.

This journal entry was written by Mary Pflum. She is a free-lance writer accompanying the AYCC in Guatemala.