Dream lived in Guatemala
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Kristen Douglas
Gazette staff
North Islander Linnet Mariciela Kerr was stuck in a routine when she decided to follow her dream — a dream that led her to owning a business in a developing country.
Kerr previously ran a massage therapy clinic in Port McNeill.
“When I turned 55 I had an urge to follow my dreams,” said Kerr. “Because I was willing and able, I started to look in to travelling.”
In 2004 she sold her house, gave away most of her belongings and left for Guatemala.
“I thought I’d go down to Guatemala for a few months and do Spanish Immersion and then come back and teach Spanish,” said Kerr. Kerr enrolled in a school in Quetzaltenango.
But Kerr thought her first night in Guatemala might be her last.
“The first night in Quetzaltenango I heard these incredibly loud booms and I thought a war had started, I was pinned to the bed,” said Kerr. “I honestly thought someone would break through the window and kill me.” Kerr awoke to discover the loud bangs were fireworks to celebrate a sixteenth birthday.
Three months into her journey Kerr was frustrated with her progress with Spanish. On her teacher’s recommendation, Kerr took a trip to the Lake Atitlan area.
Kerr says she was standing in a local art galleries wishing she could find a way to stay when the gallery owner told her of an American doctor who was selling his health food store.Kerr bought the business for $15,000 USD in January 2005.
“So there I was, in a Third World country, running a health food store,” said Kerr.
Her store sold cocoa, coffee, chocolate, vitamins, supplements, candles, and herbal medicines among other things.
“I tried to get as much local stuff as I could,” said Kerr. Things such as macadamia nut butter and anti-parasite remedies Kerr learned to make herself.
Kerr said she also sold single pills such as one aspirin or pre-natal vitamin to people who could not afford a whole bottle.
She also started selling clay pot water filters to teach the Guatemalans how to clean their drinking water after Hurricane Stan ravaged parts of the country in 2005.
Kerr said before Stan swept through she was renting a house on the river. Just two days after moving acrosstown, Hurricane Stan hit, sweeping her old home and five others into the river.
Now Kerr is back on the North Island again, with plans to move to Sointula.
Four and a half years after coming to Guatemala, Kerr sold her beloved store to a couple from Texas after receiving news from her daughter that she was pregnant.
“I thought I’d rather be closer now, to be more available to the kids and if I choose to travel again, I will,” said Kerr, who wanted to share her story as an inspiration to other women to follow their dreams.
“What I found, which I had forgotten, is ... every morning you can start again and when you’re in your routine you forget that,” said Kerr.
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