The past two weeks have been a whirlwind, and I wish I would´ve taken the time to write about it all! More to come on my final full week at Long Way Home, but this week I decided to take some time to travel to Honduras to visit Sam and Morgan in El Progreso and check out their work. My time here has been SO DIFFERENT from Guatemala, and I can´t help but compare the two places constantly. I´ve speaking far more spanish here than I was in Comalap because everyone that they work with speaks Spanish. It´s been great though because I´ve already been able to expand my vocabulary just from being here for several days! El Progreso is very urban and fairly western to an extent but still with the normalities of a Central American town (markets, town square, street food). Surviving in the sweltering heat has been my biggest challenge considering the temperature is moderate in Comalapa and we only wear pants and tshirts there as well. My one pair of shorts hasn´t gotten me very far this week thus far! There were two volunteers here from the US, and while obnoxious, at least they opened up the opportunity for Sam and Morgan to not be stuck in the office all week. We´ve been working on painting murals in their new office space, mostly. Outside of that work, they had planned for us to visit some of the local public and private schools. This fascinated me the most because after working with a school and learning about the lack of long term compulsory education in Guatemala, I was eager to be able to compare the systerms. Interestingly, the most of the teachers throughout the country have been on strike because the government has been refusing to pay them appropriately, and students have not been in school for several days now. We still had the chance to drive around and at least see the buildings and learn a bit about the structure. The number of students attending each school is so unreal that they are split into 4 attendance sessions, morning, midday, evening, and weekends. I just couldn´t imagine having my child walk these dangerous streets coming home from school at night because that´s when they were required to attend. However, one seemingly positive difference is that there are public colegios, and while I am not sure if or what fees families are required to pay for attendance, that is better than most students ending school after 6th grade. We also visited an orphanage, which for me was a first. Playing with the kids was fun but it was sad to see the true reality of the situation, considering they probably see people come and go all the time and know that they can´t establish any worthwhile connections with anyone, really. There were also some behavioral issues that went completely unaddressed by the staff there. I´m not sure I would ever be able to handle working in an orphanage, but still it was great to hear that these children were still being provided with the same educational opportunities as others.
While my time here has been short and has gone by extremely fast, I have learned so much from just observing and from the many long conversations I´ve had with Sam and Morgan about, well, pretty much everything. The golpe, the government here and the outrageous US influence in the country, and the social issues that have come from "a nation of followers", as it has been put to me from several people. I will journey back to Guatemala on Sunday to pick up some stuff in Comalapa and get in one more day of work before heading back to DC on Tuesday! I´m definitely not ready to return. Or if I am, I am ready to take everything that I´ve learned this summer and let it have a lasting impact on my decisions to come.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
EDUCATION.
(Thursday).
Since returning from the lake Monday, this week has been full of very cerebral activity. Most of the time sheets for 2009 had not been entered, and we needed to put them into the new database, so we spent two days slaving away entering data. The director’s family was still here for several days this week, and on Tuesday his mother, who is a textiles goddess, wanted to learn how to do the traditional back-loom weaving. So Abi and I spent much of the day with her and her teacher translating since she doesn’t speak a word of Spanish (and her instructor doesn’t speak a word of English). That night was there despidida, and the food and company was absolutely incredible. They spoiled us over the past week with delicious foods and treats from the states! Yesterday, they went to the school in Cojol to present several suitcases full of supplies and other items they brought from the states, including athletic jerseys for the sports teams.
Today, we went back to the school to continue our environmental lessons with the 6th grade classes. We had them think about and discuss possible environmental changes that they would like to see in Comalapa over the next 5 years, then each class voted and settled on an over-arching project that they will work on for the next several weeks. The first class chose Reforestation as their project, and will be preparing information to present to the Municipalidad and potentially media outlets. The other class chose reducing the amount of trash on the streets, and will be creating a video including interviews and photos, and also preparing a play for other schools that will talk about the issues and how to solve them. Hopefully they will be able to learn a bit about some multi-media tools in the process. What incredible minds these kids have!
Today during class, I asked Rebecca how many of these students would actually progress to the next level of education. She said probably about 1 in 8, mostly because of monetary reasons. I found out the other day in discussion that after 6th grade, students have to pay to attend colegio including paying for their textbooks. Due to this fact, many students do not move on past the 6th grade (approximately 12 years old). At that point, they are old enough to work and bring money to their family. In the states this would be a travesty, unheard of, for a student to not move on after the 6th grade! But Rebecca reminded me that for the time that these kids are in school, they are learning incredibly practical skills (useful math, sewing, how to work with wood and tools, some weaving) along with the normal primary education goals. Who’s to say that the education they are receiving up until 6th grade is any less valuable than those who move on to continue their education? The professions that these students will be filling working in town and on farms are equally as important as those that the students who move on to become doctors. There’s this idea in the states that the level of education you’ve received determines your worth, but I definitely believe that experience can get you just as far in life. Maybe in the states we should focus less on forcing people into the highest levels of education possible and more on bettering the primary education system so that our students actually have something to grow from. I met a woman last weekend who is a kindergarten teacher in Harlem. The first thing I said in response was, “Wow! Those kids must be tough!” Due to no fault of their own of course. But we both agreed that there is an entire generation of children in the US that is being slighted by the crumbling education system. So while we pride ourselves in providing, free compulsory education for all kids in the US, which looks great on a paper, in reality, the education US kids are receiving pales in comparison to what kids are learning here, in many aspects. We still have much to learn ourselves.
Since returning from the lake Monday, this week has been full of very cerebral activity. Most of the time sheets for 2009 had not been entered, and we needed to put them into the new database, so we spent two days slaving away entering data. The director’s family was still here for several days this week, and on Tuesday his mother, who is a textiles goddess, wanted to learn how to do the traditional back-loom weaving. So Abi and I spent much of the day with her and her teacher translating since she doesn’t speak a word of Spanish (and her instructor doesn’t speak a word of English). That night was there despidida, and the food and company was absolutely incredible. They spoiled us over the past week with delicious foods and treats from the states! Yesterday, they went to the school in Cojol to present several suitcases full of supplies and other items they brought from the states, including athletic jerseys for the sports teams.
Today, we went back to the school to continue our environmental lessons with the 6th grade classes. We had them think about and discuss possible environmental changes that they would like to see in Comalapa over the next 5 years, then each class voted and settled on an over-arching project that they will work on for the next several weeks. The first class chose Reforestation as their project, and will be preparing information to present to the Municipalidad and potentially media outlets. The other class chose reducing the amount of trash on the streets, and will be creating a video including interviews and photos, and also preparing a play for other schools that will talk about the issues and how to solve them. Hopefully they will be able to learn a bit about some multi-media tools in the process. What incredible minds these kids have!
Today during class, I asked Rebecca how many of these students would actually progress to the next level of education. She said probably about 1 in 8, mostly because of monetary reasons. I found out the other day in discussion that after 6th grade, students have to pay to attend colegio including paying for their textbooks. Due to this fact, many students do not move on past the 6th grade (approximately 12 years old). At that point, they are old enough to work and bring money to their family. In the states this would be a travesty, unheard of, for a student to not move on after the 6th grade! But Rebecca reminded me that for the time that these kids are in school, they are learning incredibly practical skills (useful math, sewing, how to work with wood and tools, some weaving) along with the normal primary education goals. Who’s to say that the education they are receiving up until 6th grade is any less valuable than those who move on to continue their education? The professions that these students will be filling working in town and on farms are equally as important as those that the students who move on to become doctors. There’s this idea in the states that the level of education you’ve received determines your worth, but I definitely believe that experience can get you just as far in life. Maybe in the states we should focus less on forcing people into the highest levels of education possible and more on bettering the primary education system so that our students actually have something to grow from. I met a woman last weekend who is a kindergarten teacher in Harlem. The first thing I said in response was, “Wow! Those kids must be tough!” Due to no fault of their own of course. But we both agreed that there is an entire generation of children in the US that is being slighted by the crumbling education system. So while we pride ourselves in providing, free compulsory education for all kids in the US, which looks great on a paper, in reality, the education US kids are receiving pales in comparison to what kids are learning here, in many aspects. We still have much to learn ourselves.
Friday, July 16, 2010
TOURISTS.
(Weekend)
This past weekend I had the chance to travel again and head to Lake Atitlan. The director of the organization’s family came from the states to visit for a week, and aside from treating us like family all week and feeding us, they gave us a free, and greatly appreciated, ride to the lake! The sight of the lake was absolutely breathtaking as we came around the mountains and descended into Panajachel. However, once we unloaded from the micro, I knew I was definitely in for an experience. One of the nice things about Comalapa is that even though we are “outsiders”, we are not hassled or ever really bothered unless we address someone and ask them for help. In tourist town, the minute you step out of a vehicle you are immediately approached and hassled by everyone to buy this and buy that. Tourists are literally walking money signs.
Lake Atitlan is literally a lake created by a collapsed volcanic dome, and is surrounded by three beautiful volcanoes. The most efficient way to travel from one town to another around the lake is by boat, so we wandered around Pana and tried to find the public dock so as not to get ripped off by the private boats. Our first night we spent in San Marcos…this place was RIDICULOUS. It was supposed to be good for swimming, and since most everyone (aside from myself of course) had the desire to swim in the lake, it seemed like the most likely first choice. This town was literally an implanted hippie paradise, and while I have nothing against hippies and paradise, this was not the Guatemala I was looking to spend time in; all there was were meditation and massage retreats and a really cool view. After a night in San Marcos, we hopped on another boat and headed to San Pedro, a town on another part of the lake. While San Pedro had a bit more going on, it was still overrun with tourists and aggressive street vendors. We watched the game (GO SPAIN!!), wandered around and met quite the array of interesting people. One night was definitely enough, and we headed back to Pana Monday morning to catch up with the family and head back to Comalapa.
Overall, while I didn’t particularly enjoy this tourist experience, it was a good learning experience, talking to people, observing people, understanding what brought them to these places. I talked to a man at La Piscina yesterday who is just there, in San Pedro, just for the sake of being there. He built a house, courted this wild woman who owns a restaurant/bar in town and is just living. We talked about how we’ve both moved a lot (his father was a diplomat), but he just decided to settle in San Pedro and see how it goes. Another guy we met was from Iowa, and he came to San Pedro just to get out of the US, have some fun and see some new culture. I had a hard time taking this guy seriously, and found myself being terribly judgmental! He was drunk, completely unaware of how loud he was, and had a far from modest appearance, to say the least. He talked about how the locals always beg, asking for money and whatnot. What has tourism done to these communities? That was the question I kept asking myself the entire weekend. Obviously this totally contrived western tourist culture exists everywhere, but I had never realized how severely it takes away from the real traditions of the region and how as tourists we are barely learning anything about these places that we claim to go for “cultural experiences.” Honestly, the only Guatemalans I saw in this entire area were the ones who were working in the service jobs. I’m sure that my sentiments were coming from having been in Comalapa for a month and a half now, where the culture and daily life is so rich and so purely Guatemalan, and where most Guatemalans seem to be so proud of everything they have, no matter how little. Are the Guatemalans working in these tourists happy with this idea of having to live their lives providing services to ungrateful extranjeros? Or is it just a means of getting by?
What we saw last weekend was not the real Guatemala – no pilas, no traditional foods, very little Spanish (even the locals knew enough English to harass you). It makes me wonder what the progression of these regions was like, how they become tourist icons. While I understand that I am essentially a tourist in this country too, I came with the understanding that I would need to humble myself to truly be able to absorb what life here is really about. I feel that as volunteers, and not just simply tourists, we are here representing something bigger than ourselves. We really are not unattached by any means, because when we come into an environment like the ones we were in this weekend and someone asks us what we are doing in the country, everything they’ve seen up until that moment is a reflection of what it means for us to be volunteers here. We are working for and with a community to meet its needs and learn, but that will not matter in the end if all someone sees is a volunteer carrying on in public and acting like a fool. Essentially, that is why I think it is so important for us to be able to get out to meet other extranjeros and see what others are doing here.
This past weekend I had the chance to travel again and head to Lake Atitlan. The director of the organization’s family came from the states to visit for a week, and aside from treating us like family all week and feeding us, they gave us a free, and greatly appreciated, ride to the lake! The sight of the lake was absolutely breathtaking as we came around the mountains and descended into Panajachel. However, once we unloaded from the micro, I knew I was definitely in for an experience. One of the nice things about Comalapa is that even though we are “outsiders”, we are not hassled or ever really bothered unless we address someone and ask them for help. In tourist town, the minute you step out of a vehicle you are immediately approached and hassled by everyone to buy this and buy that. Tourists are literally walking money signs.
Lake Atitlan is literally a lake created by a collapsed volcanic dome, and is surrounded by three beautiful volcanoes. The most efficient way to travel from one town to another around the lake is by boat, so we wandered around Pana and tried to find the public dock so as not to get ripped off by the private boats. Our first night we spent in San Marcos…this place was RIDICULOUS. It was supposed to be good for swimming, and since most everyone (aside from myself of course) had the desire to swim in the lake, it seemed like the most likely first choice. This town was literally an implanted hippie paradise, and while I have nothing against hippies and paradise, this was not the Guatemala I was looking to spend time in; all there was were meditation and massage retreats and a really cool view. After a night in San Marcos, we hopped on another boat and headed to San Pedro, a town on another part of the lake. While San Pedro had a bit more going on, it was still overrun with tourists and aggressive street vendors. We watched the game (GO SPAIN!!), wandered around and met quite the array of interesting people. One night was definitely enough, and we headed back to Pana Monday morning to catch up with the family and head back to Comalapa.
Overall, while I didn’t particularly enjoy this tourist experience, it was a good learning experience, talking to people, observing people, understanding what brought them to these places. I talked to a man at La Piscina yesterday who is just there, in San Pedro, just for the sake of being there. He built a house, courted this wild woman who owns a restaurant/bar in town and is just living. We talked about how we’ve both moved a lot (his father was a diplomat), but he just decided to settle in San Pedro and see how it goes. Another guy we met was from Iowa, and he came to San Pedro just to get out of the US, have some fun and see some new culture. I had a hard time taking this guy seriously, and found myself being terribly judgmental! He was drunk, completely unaware of how loud he was, and had a far from modest appearance, to say the least. He talked about how the locals always beg, asking for money and whatnot. What has tourism done to these communities? That was the question I kept asking myself the entire weekend. Obviously this totally contrived western tourist culture exists everywhere, but I had never realized how severely it takes away from the real traditions of the region and how as tourists we are barely learning anything about these places that we claim to go for “cultural experiences.” Honestly, the only Guatemalans I saw in this entire area were the ones who were working in the service jobs. I’m sure that my sentiments were coming from having been in Comalapa for a month and a half now, where the culture and daily life is so rich and so purely Guatemalan, and where most Guatemalans seem to be so proud of everything they have, no matter how little. Are the Guatemalans working in these tourists happy with this idea of having to live their lives providing services to ungrateful extranjeros? Or is it just a means of getting by?
What we saw last weekend was not the real Guatemala – no pilas, no traditional foods, very little Spanish (even the locals knew enough English to harass you). It makes me wonder what the progression of these regions was like, how they become tourist icons. While I understand that I am essentially a tourist in this country too, I came with the understanding that I would need to humble myself to truly be able to absorb what life here is really about. I feel that as volunteers, and not just simply tourists, we are here representing something bigger than ourselves. We really are not unattached by any means, because when we come into an environment like the ones we were in this weekend and someone asks us what we are doing in the country, everything they’ve seen up until that moment is a reflection of what it means for us to be volunteers here. We are working for and with a community to meet its needs and learn, but that will not matter in the end if all someone sees is a volunteer carrying on in public and acting like a fool. Essentially, that is why I think it is so important for us to be able to get out to meet other extranjeros and see what others are doing here.
Friday, July 9, 2010
COMMUNITY.
(Weekend)
FINALLY made it to Antigua this weekend! But before that, Friday night we had all the volunteers over to our new home for dinner with our host family. We made fajitas for them and they were DELICIOUS. Blanca, my host mother, loves carne so much so she was definitely in heaven, and with the guacamole and drinks abound, everyone was having a good time. By the end of the night Blanca had everyone dancing to Los Conejos, and even though she had to get up the next morning at 4:00AM to head to the markets, we were all in good spirits by the end of the night.
We arose around 6:00AM to catch the camioneta (which is now conveniently outside my front door) and headed to Antigua. Once we arrived, we found a great place to have breakfast and of course watch the Germany vs. Argentina match. What a depressing and embarrassing loss for Argentina! I was really rooting for them, but that was just ugly. Then we went off to the pacas for some clothing shopping. To no avail, I was unable to find a real raincoat (the one I brought is only acting as a windbreaker – LAME in the middle of the RAINY SEASON, thanks jacket). But while Rebecca was shopping, at one moment she put her bag between her feet and in a second it was gone! It contained her ATM card, wallet and flash drive, and she was devastated by the loss. But it just shows that it only takes one single moment to slip up and have everything disappear. We lent her some more money for the day, grabbed some papusas for lunch, watched some of the next game, bargained for some gifts, and then spontaneously decided to stay the night instead of heading home. We stayed in Hostel Holistico for 60Q, took some HOT showers AND got free breakfast in the morning! It was my first hot shower since the night I left home over 4 weeks ago! Incredible. Rose the next morning to a beautiful sight of the Volcan Agua, got a bagel and had an interesting conversation with a Jewish man from Cleveland who sells Passover “Hagatas” (obviously at the bagel shop, haha), then headed back to Comalapa. Antigua was such a fascinating city because it has such rich architecture but a calm atmosphere for being a city. There were sooo many tourists there! I was talking with someone from Comalapa, and he said that they refer to Antigua as “Gringo-landia” because there are very few Guatemaltecas and sooooo many gringos! I did miss the inexpensive and conservative lifestyle of Comalapa and was definitely ready to return. It was funny though because most places we went, people automatically assumed that I was not from the states and didn’t speak English. They were often surprised when I responded in English, but I would explain where my families are from to ease any confusion.
(Tuesday)
Today I went to Guate with Donal to retrieve Karen from the airport! I was nervous at first because I hadn’t been to Guate since I arrived over a month ago and I was simply going by myself, well kind of, with Donal and would be speaking Spanish the entire time with him. We had great conversation though on our drive! I told him about school, work, family and my time in Comalapa so far, and we talked about fast-food favorites and Michael Jackson (obviously…he had the CD playing!), and he told me about his family and what it’s like working in Guatemala. He told me about the minimum wage here, and how it’s so hard to find work outside of being a campesino where you only make 40Q a week (approx $5), and part of the reason that he bought a car was so that he could do work in areas outside of Comalapa to make money for wife and two young children. He made the comparison to US minimum wages because he read an article in the paper here about how minimum wage in the US $7.50/hr, whereas you don’t even make the equivalent of that much one week here! He said it’s no wonder so many people want to leave to work in the states. I told him conditions are barely any better there but the money IS so good, comparatively speaking. I told him that most kids leave home when they head off to college, and he said that barely anyone attends university here because it is too difficult to work and study at the same time. Needless to say, it was definitely an enlightening conversation and so interesting based on all that happened last week with the workers on my thoughts on their pay situation.
Since last week, I’ve had many thought-provoking conservations about what it means to live in a community and be considered a community-based organization. The work that we are doing here is incredible in the sense that it is highlighting the needs of the community and providing specific resources (the park, building the school, building the water tanks, environmental awareness programs in the schools). But I’ve been struggling with this idea of whether or not we are truly integrated into this community. Most of the volunteers and staff all live at the park, and aside from coming into town for food or the market, there is not a whole lot of regular interaction with the community. Rebecca lives in town, and does a truly incredible job of reaching out and making connections and friends and honestly breathing the same air and life of the people in this community. But I feel like there is a serious disconnect with the rest of the organization in a way. Spending all day at the park building a rock bench for the soccer field is a useful task, but not necessarily the best way to connect with the community on any level. Abi and I were having a discussion last week about really playing to the emotions of the volunteers that pass through here and making them truly question how they could change their life to help the people of this community and the many others that have similar needs. But I feel as though it is so easy to come here for a week and simply feel like an extra pair of hands. Hell, I’ve been here for 5 weeks now, and there are many times where I often just feel like an extra pair of hands. It’s a difficult balance, and I wonder if this is a feeling that resonates through volunteers with most development organizations, or if there is just something about the way day-to-day operations around here are done that creates that feeling. While I have learned a lot in my time here so far (through learning new skills and asking a LOT of questions) and came with very few expectations, I do often wonder about what more potential this experience could be or could have been for me. I am also becoming curious about operations of other development and non-profit organization functioning in Central America, and what their approaches and true underlying motivations are. It certainly seems to me that these underlying motivations are far deeper and more abstract than they initially appear to be.
(Thursday)
I finally had the opportunity to volunteer in one of the local schools, Cojol Huyu, and it was quite the experience. We had prepared the lesson plan several weeks ago, but with the fair one week and just simply not having school another week, we started our Environmental Awareness/continued English Lessons Wednesday. We worked with two fourth grade classes, one 5th grade class, and two 6th grade classes. For the 4th and 5th grade classes, we taught them about the Food Chain (producers, consumers, herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, etc) and then had them begin making their own food chain mobiles. With the 6th grade classes we had them do a survey around their school to find out how environmentally conscience their practices are. After we had them discuss projects that we could implement in the community of Comalapa to make people more environmentally aware. The students we sooo disciplined and respectful and were even receptive to my broken, but steadily improving Spanish. I was so nervous about working with them because my Spanish is not nearly as good as Rebecca or Abi, but I was still able to be helpful. A little more about what school is like here: it seems chaotic, but what elementary school doesn’t when you are first there. There are about 25 students in each class, and they have class for only 5 hours a day. While this school in Cojol only has morning classes, some schools in the area are so large that half the students come in the morning for 5 hours, and half the students come in the afternoon. Some of the instructors looked SO young, but they were eager to learn English phrases as well. Students in Cojol have been stuffing the trash bottles for AGES, and this past month one of the classes brought 300 trash bottles to the park! Incredible. Today we went to the largest school in the area, Rafael Alvarez, to talk to the Director about starting a bottling stuffing contest among the 4th, 5th and 6th grade classes there. Between those grades, there are 300 hundred students and 12 classes. He seemed eager for us to start the project, so next week Rebecca will return to speak in more detail with the instructors to explain the process and the competition. We will be making posters to hang in each classroom to make everything as simple as possible for the students. Hopefully they will be receptive to the challenge, because it would be great to have that many more people in Comalapa stuffing trash bottles instead of throwing it on the ground or burning it!
In other news, I finally got in touch with Sam in Honduras, and we have mostly confirmed our plans to meet up at the end of July! He’s been working with OYE, Organization for Youth Empowerment, in Progreso, Honduras, since mid-May. Sam will hopefully be coming to check out LWH for a few days, and then I plan to travel back to Honduras with him to spend a couple of days there learning about his organization before heading back to the states! It will most certainly be nice to see some familiar faces (Morgan is there too!), share our experiences, and just hang out in Central America with a great friend for a few days at the end of my journey! I now just need to talk to the LWH about leaving roughly a week earlier than anticipated. I figure it shouldn’t make too much a difference because there are a ton of new volunteers coming in at the end of July, and since I’m not an intern and have no real commitment to anyone but myself, I should be able to leave as I please. The only thing I feel weird about but entitled to is asking to get my money back for the two weeks that was/will not be here for. I came a week late at the beginning of the summer because of unforeseen circumstances (you know, tropical storms, volcanoes, the usual), and if I leave a week early that’s another week I shouldn’t necessarily be paying for. While I know that this experience is not about the money, $150 US dollars can definitely get me a long way when I get home and have NOTHING, especially since I literally gave everything to be here to work for them this summer. Not to mention, I feel that will have definitely put in a lot of time and energy into the organization…needless to say, I just hope they don’t get all awkward about the money situation.
(Friday)
After thinking long and hard, I think I've decided that I am only going to request money back for the one week that I wasn't here at the beginning of the summer. However, I am going to specifically request that the remaining $75 go to Rebecca's education projects. There is so much potential there and the students are SO receptive to her passion and what she is trying to do for them. I was talking to her yesterday about her funding, and she got $50 total for this Environmental Awareness month-long project with the schools. While $50 can get you way farther here than in the states, it's still not much. Anyway, I will talk to her today and see what she says.
I'm sooo glad it's Friday! I haven't been feeling %100 this week, so our trip to Lake Atitlan this weekend should be amazing!
FINALLY made it to Antigua this weekend! But before that, Friday night we had all the volunteers over to our new home for dinner with our host family. We made fajitas for them and they were DELICIOUS. Blanca, my host mother, loves carne so much so she was definitely in heaven, and with the guacamole and drinks abound, everyone was having a good time. By the end of the night Blanca had everyone dancing to Los Conejos, and even though she had to get up the next morning at 4:00AM to head to the markets, we were all in good spirits by the end of the night.
We arose around 6:00AM to catch the camioneta (which is now conveniently outside my front door) and headed to Antigua. Once we arrived, we found a great place to have breakfast and of course watch the Germany vs. Argentina match. What a depressing and embarrassing loss for Argentina! I was really rooting for them, but that was just ugly. Then we went off to the pacas for some clothing shopping. To no avail, I was unable to find a real raincoat (the one I brought is only acting as a windbreaker – LAME in the middle of the RAINY SEASON, thanks jacket). But while Rebecca was shopping, at one moment she put her bag between her feet and in a second it was gone! It contained her ATM card, wallet and flash drive, and she was devastated by the loss. But it just shows that it only takes one single moment to slip up and have everything disappear. We lent her some more money for the day, grabbed some papusas for lunch, watched some of the next game, bargained for some gifts, and then spontaneously decided to stay the night instead of heading home. We stayed in Hostel Holistico for 60Q, took some HOT showers AND got free breakfast in the morning! It was my first hot shower since the night I left home over 4 weeks ago! Incredible. Rose the next morning to a beautiful sight of the Volcan Agua, got a bagel and had an interesting conversation with a Jewish man from Cleveland who sells Passover “Hagatas” (obviously at the bagel shop, haha), then headed back to Comalapa. Antigua was such a fascinating city because it has such rich architecture but a calm atmosphere for being a city. There were sooo many tourists there! I was talking with someone from Comalapa, and he said that they refer to Antigua as “Gringo-landia” because there are very few Guatemaltecas and sooooo many gringos! I did miss the inexpensive and conservative lifestyle of Comalapa and was definitely ready to return. It was funny though because most places we went, people automatically assumed that I was not from the states and didn’t speak English. They were often surprised when I responded in English, but I would explain where my families are from to ease any confusion.
(Tuesday)
Today I went to Guate with Donal to retrieve Karen from the airport! I was nervous at first because I hadn’t been to Guate since I arrived over a month ago and I was simply going by myself, well kind of, with Donal and would be speaking Spanish the entire time with him. We had great conversation though on our drive! I told him about school, work, family and my time in Comalapa so far, and we talked about fast-food favorites and Michael Jackson (obviously…he had the CD playing!), and he told me about his family and what it’s like working in Guatemala. He told me about the minimum wage here, and how it’s so hard to find work outside of being a campesino where you only make 40Q a week (approx $5), and part of the reason that he bought a car was so that he could do work in areas outside of Comalapa to make money for wife and two young children. He made the comparison to US minimum wages because he read an article in the paper here about how minimum wage in the US $7.50/hr, whereas you don’t even make the equivalent of that much one week here! He said it’s no wonder so many people want to leave to work in the states. I told him conditions are barely any better there but the money IS so good, comparatively speaking. I told him that most kids leave home when they head off to college, and he said that barely anyone attends university here because it is too difficult to work and study at the same time. Needless to say, it was definitely an enlightening conversation and so interesting based on all that happened last week with the workers on my thoughts on their pay situation.
Since last week, I’ve had many thought-provoking conservations about what it means to live in a community and be considered a community-based organization. The work that we are doing here is incredible in the sense that it is highlighting the needs of the community and providing specific resources (the park, building the school, building the water tanks, environmental awareness programs in the schools). But I’ve been struggling with this idea of whether or not we are truly integrated into this community. Most of the volunteers and staff all live at the park, and aside from coming into town for food or the market, there is not a whole lot of regular interaction with the community. Rebecca lives in town, and does a truly incredible job of reaching out and making connections and friends and honestly breathing the same air and life of the people in this community. But I feel like there is a serious disconnect with the rest of the organization in a way. Spending all day at the park building a rock bench for the soccer field is a useful task, but not necessarily the best way to connect with the community on any level. Abi and I were having a discussion last week about really playing to the emotions of the volunteers that pass through here and making them truly question how they could change their life to help the people of this community and the many others that have similar needs. But I feel as though it is so easy to come here for a week and simply feel like an extra pair of hands. Hell, I’ve been here for 5 weeks now, and there are many times where I often just feel like an extra pair of hands. It’s a difficult balance, and I wonder if this is a feeling that resonates through volunteers with most development organizations, or if there is just something about the way day-to-day operations around here are done that creates that feeling. While I have learned a lot in my time here so far (through learning new skills and asking a LOT of questions) and came with very few expectations, I do often wonder about what more potential this experience could be or could have been for me. I am also becoming curious about operations of other development and non-profit organization functioning in Central America, and what their approaches and true underlying motivations are. It certainly seems to me that these underlying motivations are far deeper and more abstract than they initially appear to be.
(Thursday)
I finally had the opportunity to volunteer in one of the local schools, Cojol Huyu, and it was quite the experience. We had prepared the lesson plan several weeks ago, but with the fair one week and just simply not having school another week, we started our Environmental Awareness/continued English Lessons Wednesday. We worked with two fourth grade classes, one 5th grade class, and two 6th grade classes. For the 4th and 5th grade classes, we taught them about the Food Chain (producers, consumers, herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, etc) and then had them begin making their own food chain mobiles. With the 6th grade classes we had them do a survey around their school to find out how environmentally conscience their practices are. After we had them discuss projects that we could implement in the community of Comalapa to make people more environmentally aware. The students we sooo disciplined and respectful and were even receptive to my broken, but steadily improving Spanish. I was so nervous about working with them because my Spanish is not nearly as good as Rebecca or Abi, but I was still able to be helpful. A little more about what school is like here: it seems chaotic, but what elementary school doesn’t when you are first there. There are about 25 students in each class, and they have class for only 5 hours a day. While this school in Cojol only has morning classes, some schools in the area are so large that half the students come in the morning for 5 hours, and half the students come in the afternoon. Some of the instructors looked SO young, but they were eager to learn English phrases as well. Students in Cojol have been stuffing the trash bottles for AGES, and this past month one of the classes brought 300 trash bottles to the park! Incredible. Today we went to the largest school in the area, Rafael Alvarez, to talk to the Director about starting a bottling stuffing contest among the 4th, 5th and 6th grade classes there. Between those grades, there are 300 hundred students and 12 classes. He seemed eager for us to start the project, so next week Rebecca will return to speak in more detail with the instructors to explain the process and the competition. We will be making posters to hang in each classroom to make everything as simple as possible for the students. Hopefully they will be receptive to the challenge, because it would be great to have that many more people in Comalapa stuffing trash bottles instead of throwing it on the ground or burning it!
In other news, I finally got in touch with Sam in Honduras, and we have mostly confirmed our plans to meet up at the end of July! He’s been working with OYE, Organization for Youth Empowerment, in Progreso, Honduras, since mid-May. Sam will hopefully be coming to check out LWH for a few days, and then I plan to travel back to Honduras with him to spend a couple of days there learning about his organization before heading back to the states! It will most certainly be nice to see some familiar faces (Morgan is there too!), share our experiences, and just hang out in Central America with a great friend for a few days at the end of my journey! I now just need to talk to the LWH about leaving roughly a week earlier than anticipated. I figure it shouldn’t make too much a difference because there are a ton of new volunteers coming in at the end of July, and since I’m not an intern and have no real commitment to anyone but myself, I should be able to leave as I please. The only thing I feel weird about but entitled to is asking to get my money back for the two weeks that was/will not be here for. I came a week late at the beginning of the summer because of unforeseen circumstances (you know, tropical storms, volcanoes, the usual), and if I leave a week early that’s another week I shouldn’t necessarily be paying for. While I know that this experience is not about the money, $150 US dollars can definitely get me a long way when I get home and have NOTHING, especially since I literally gave everything to be here to work for them this summer. Not to mention, I feel that will have definitely put in a lot of time and energy into the organization…needless to say, I just hope they don’t get all awkward about the money situation.
(Friday)
After thinking long and hard, I think I've decided that I am only going to request money back for the one week that I wasn't here at the beginning of the summer. However, I am going to specifically request that the remaining $75 go to Rebecca's education projects. There is so much potential there and the students are SO receptive to her passion and what she is trying to do for them. I was talking to her yesterday about her funding, and she got $50 total for this Environmental Awareness month-long project with the schools. While $50 can get you way farther here than in the states, it's still not much. Anyway, I will talk to her today and see what she says.
I'm sooo glad it's Friday! I haven't been feeling %100 this week, so our trip to Lake Atitlan this weekend should be amazing!
Friday, July 2, 2010
JULIO.
(Thursday)
First, I should thank my mom for graciously sending me a care package via someone who arrived here yesterday! I finally got my peanut butter and new socks among other things, and I couldn’t have been more happy. I am almost at the end of my fourth week, and all of the dirt covering pretty much everything I own is seemingly permanent. I miss taking REAL showers (I have yet to have a showerhead spray water on me) and I strangely have persevered a singular pair of socks that are only when I am in my bed – my efforts to keep some part of my life clean.
Today was a tumultuous day for the organization. While I am only versed in what I heard from others, I am still trying to formulate my opinions on the situation. Guatemalan labor laws dictate that all workers must be paid minimum wage (somewhere between 40 and 50Q a week?), in addition to a 250Q bonus each month and 6 weeks vacation throughout the year, not including holidays (mind you, workers get 3 week days off for the fair). However, it is a struggle for an organization like this to maintain local employees at those standards with the little money that they have. Instead of some of those benefits, the organization pays the workers well and provides them with other needs (money, food, they all received new work boots last week). Apparently, the workers came together as a union and contacted the Ministry of Labor to file a claim that they have not been receiving appropriate benefits. The Ministry arrived today and all hell kind of broke loose. The workers are demanding that they receive all the money that has not been granted to them for this year and back pay from the time each of them began working with the organization. I do think the claim is valid. I say this only because I imagined what this situation would be like if I were in their shoes in my own country, needing to feed a family and myself. Although I understand the financial difficulties of an organization, it is a worker’s right to be awarded an appropriate amount for their work, and an employer’s duty to do so. At the same time, there is a perception that because it is an American organization that it is made out of money. This fact is obviously not true, as non-profits struggle everyday to find enough funds for materials, staff and other random operational costs. I’m not sure how it will all play out, but I will most certainly be interested to see the results of this new, and fairly sizeable battle.
I moved into my homestay yesterday, and so far it has been an adventure. Blanca and Emiliano are my host parents, and Yani, who is 12 and loves Michael Jackson and Argentina, is my host brother. Tonight when we came home, they were cooking dinner, and Blanca brought out photo albums and tried to feed me different types of meat she was making (“me encanta carne,” she says), and Yani told me about school, and Emiliano and I talked about futbol and school and my family…and needless to say, although I only understand about half of what they were saying, I will be most certainly speaking a lot of Spanish around here.
I finally received the Engineers’ Report from Earthship, so I plan on sifting through that over the next several days. I had an interesting talk with one of the volunteers this morning (she is a WOOFer! so jealous), and we were talking about our perceptions of the management of the program and the development of these massive building projects. It was a good talk because I found myself asking all of these questions as far as wanting to see the feasibility of these methods being used in different environments, and wondering about how these operations would flow with different organization and management styles, and how these grand engineering decisions were made without a formal engineer on staff. I’ve finally gotten past the shock and awe stage of my time here and can start digging deeper.
(Friday).
This morning the organization had a meeting in Chimaltenango with the Ministry of Labour. They explained the situation, showed some of the organization's video, and essentially were able to escape fines and having to pay the workers their backpay. The workers also have to sign a document agreeing to cede their money and continue working under the current wages. In one sense, this is great for the organization because they won't be bankrupt from having to pay all of those funds, but on the other hand it's terribly unfortunate that the workers are having to essentially give in or lose their job. The Labour laws of this country should've have been assessed prior to hiring so much staff (both Guatemalan staff and US staff), and should've been acknowledged from the start. Just because this is an American organization operating in another country doesn't mean that the workers don't deserve the rights afforded to them by their own country.
First, I should thank my mom for graciously sending me a care package via someone who arrived here yesterday! I finally got my peanut butter and new socks among other things, and I couldn’t have been more happy. I am almost at the end of my fourth week, and all of the dirt covering pretty much everything I own is seemingly permanent. I miss taking REAL showers (I have yet to have a showerhead spray water on me) and I strangely have persevered a singular pair of socks that are only when I am in my bed – my efforts to keep some part of my life clean.
Today was a tumultuous day for the organization. While I am only versed in what I heard from others, I am still trying to formulate my opinions on the situation. Guatemalan labor laws dictate that all workers must be paid minimum wage (somewhere between 40 and 50Q a week?), in addition to a 250Q bonus each month and 6 weeks vacation throughout the year, not including holidays (mind you, workers get 3 week days off for the fair). However, it is a struggle for an organization like this to maintain local employees at those standards with the little money that they have. Instead of some of those benefits, the organization pays the workers well and provides them with other needs (money, food, they all received new work boots last week). Apparently, the workers came together as a union and contacted the Ministry of Labor to file a claim that they have not been receiving appropriate benefits. The Ministry arrived today and all hell kind of broke loose. The workers are demanding that they receive all the money that has not been granted to them for this year and back pay from the time each of them began working with the organization. I do think the claim is valid. I say this only because I imagined what this situation would be like if I were in their shoes in my own country, needing to feed a family and myself. Although I understand the financial difficulties of an organization, it is a worker’s right to be awarded an appropriate amount for their work, and an employer’s duty to do so. At the same time, there is a perception that because it is an American organization that it is made out of money. This fact is obviously not true, as non-profits struggle everyday to find enough funds for materials, staff and other random operational costs. I’m not sure how it will all play out, but I will most certainly be interested to see the results of this new, and fairly sizeable battle.
I moved into my homestay yesterday, and so far it has been an adventure. Blanca and Emiliano are my host parents, and Yani, who is 12 and loves Michael Jackson and Argentina, is my host brother. Tonight when we came home, they were cooking dinner, and Blanca brought out photo albums and tried to feed me different types of meat she was making (“me encanta carne,” she says), and Yani told me about school, and Emiliano and I talked about futbol and school and my family…and needless to say, although I only understand about half of what they were saying, I will be most certainly speaking a lot of Spanish around here.
I finally received the Engineers’ Report from Earthship, so I plan on sifting through that over the next several days. I had an interesting talk with one of the volunteers this morning (she is a WOOFer! so jealous), and we were talking about our perceptions of the management of the program and the development of these massive building projects. It was a good talk because I found myself asking all of these questions as far as wanting to see the feasibility of these methods being used in different environments, and wondering about how these operations would flow with different organization and management styles, and how these grand engineering decisions were made without a formal engineer on staff. I’ve finally gotten past the shock and awe stage of my time here and can start digging deeper.
(Friday).
This morning the organization had a meeting in Chimaltenango with the Ministry of Labour. They explained the situation, showed some of the organization's video, and essentially were able to escape fines and having to pay the workers their backpay. The workers also have to sign a document agreeing to cede their money and continue working under the current wages. In one sense, this is great for the organization because they won't be bankrupt from having to pay all of those funds, but on the other hand it's terribly unfortunate that the workers are having to essentially give in or lose their job. The Labour laws of this country should've have been assessed prior to hiring so much staff (both Guatemalan staff and US staff), and should've been acknowledged from the start. Just because this is an American organization operating in another country doesn't mean that the workers don't deserve the rights afforded to them by their own country.
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