Jean Mikle

Asbury Park (N.J.) Press

ASBURY PARK, N.J. — What could inspire a 63-year-old grandmother to paddle a kayak 2,500 miles on a yearlong trip from Maine to Guatemala?

For Deb Walters, the motivation came from her experiences with residents of a gritty neighborhood perched at the edge of a festering garbage dump in the heart of Guatemala City.

Nearly 10,000 people, including about 1,000 children, live alongside the dump, where they scavenge and recycle trash for a living, and sleep in huts made of scavenged metal, bits of cloth and plastic tarps. They are called guajeros, or recyclers.

Gangs thrive there, and there are frequent accidents, as people clamber on top of mounds of unstable garbage, which sometimes collapse.

Their plight — and the resilience they show in spite of incredible hardship — is the reason Walters, a retired scientist and former university professor from Troy, Maine, began her kayaking odyssey in mid-July, leaving from Yarmouth, Maine. This week, she stopped for several days at the Jersey Shore.

"These people, you would expect them to be downtrodden, but they are smiling, they are happy, they are thankful for every little thing," Walters said.

Walters is raising money for Safe Passage, a Maine-based charity that provides educational opportunities for about 600 children who live next to the garbage dump in Guatemala City, as well as social services for 100 mothers who also live in the impoverished neighborhood.

The charity was founded by Maine native Hanley Denning, a teacher who went to Guatemala to learn Spanish but was appalled by the plight of the guajeros. She sold her car and computer to raise money and opened a school that initially enrolled 46 of the poorest children. Denning was killed in a car accident in Guatemala in 2007, but Safe Passage has continued to grow, expanding its programs from education for children to support services for their mothers.

Walters first visited the garbage dump neighborhood nine years ago. Amazed by the resilience and spirit of the people there, she began visiting regularly, and eventually served as president of Safe Passage's board.

But she wanted to do more.

"I have a passion for the kids in the dump, and I have a passion for long-distance kayaking," said Walters, who has been leading kayaking adventures for years, and once paddled a kayak solo from through the Northwest Passage in the Arctic Sea to Hudson Bay.

She hopes to raise $150,000, which will help expand an early childhood education program at a school Safe Passage has built

Her yellow kayak is packed with supplies, including a week's worth of food, navigational charts, a compass and a radio to contact the Coast Guard and boaters. It's also outfitted with video cameras to record her journey.

She paddles an average of 15 miles a day and stops every night to sleep. While she has a tent and camping equipment on board, Walters so far has been able to stay with host families along the way. At each stop, she speaks to Rotary Clubs and other groups, explaining the reason for her journey and telling people the story of the guajeros.

Walters expects to arrive in Key West in April, and from there she will take a sailboat to Belize because armed attacks on small craft are possible in the waters off Mexico. After that, she will kayak across a barrier reef to arrive in Rio Dulce, Guatemala, before the start of the May rainy season.