Getting Around

My mom left Guatemala on the first day of Semana Santa (March 29th), leaving my lonely and with no work for the week. Semana Santa, the week leading up to Easter, is a big deal in Guatemala, with most people taking the week off in order to go to the beach, Lake Atitlan, Antigua, or other tourist centers. I initially thought that I would stay in Pachalum to avoid the crowds on the buses, we were informed that it is truly one of the worst times to travel, but at the last minute I decided to go out of site to visit a fellow volunteer in the department of Sololá and it was a great decision.

My fellow volunteer, Brian, lives in a 95% indigenous site a 15 minute bus ride from the capital of Sololá. Brian lives in a small town and works in the middle schools there as a Youth Development volunteer. The first thing I noticed on the way to Brian’s site is how very very green everything is there. Sololá obviously does not have as many water shortage issues as Pachalum, where we are now in fire season and have yellow hillsides, and all the fields on the rolling hillsides are covered in green crops. Along with the amazing scenery, Brian’s site has very interesting practices as many of the indigenous people pray to Maximon, a popular saint of some sort who looks like a Spaniard.

Maximon hanging off the front of the church

Maximon is a saint that cofradías, brotherhoods, usually have a statue of and give offerings to (cigars, alcohol, candles of different colors to represent different prayers). The interesting thing in Brian’s site is that when we went to the town center and looked at the church, there was an effigy of Maximon hanging in front of the church, and the whole Maximon worship is not at all approved by the Catholic church. On Good Friday after mass, everyone cleared out of the church and the effigy of Maximon was dragged up onto the balcony and stripped of all clothing until only a bundle of twigs remained. This bundle was then dropped from the balcony and men from all over the village began fighting over it as they tried to tear it apart. The men dragged the bundle and fought for a good half-hour, pushing and shoving in an attempt to drag the bundle to the south and to the north. I found out after the fact that the men pertained to two different neighborhoods, so they were trying to get the bundle into their neighborhood in order to split up the bundle into small pieces for every man in the neighborhood to have good luck. While the men were fighting over the Maximon twigs, the procession of Jesus Christ and the banners from the church went around town with prayers, a really interesting juxtaposition to see – popular Catholicism versus officially sanctioned Catholicism.

On Saturday, Brian and I went to visit Panajachel, and it was more packed than I have ever seen. People were in the lake, national and international tourists were in all the stores, and I had a hard time bargaining with the vendors who were all ready to take advantage of the influx to charge higher prices.

In Sololá

Kids in Panajachel

On Sunday I returned to Pachalum in record time, despite it being considered one of the worst travel days of the year. I had a lot of luck getting onto buses, but I think another key to good travel experiences is heading out early before the masses wake up.

Back in site and with no more guests or visitors to distract me, I re-dedicated myself to my work and began planning for more serious projects. One of my biggest challenges as a volunteer has been collaborating with my counterpart and other people in the office, and I know that this is a struggle that I have to fight in order to make truly sustainable changes. One of Peace Corps’ three goals is to promote collaboration and a transfer technical abilities and skills to people who volunteers work with in order for them to continue the work long after the volunteer leaves. Unfortunately for me, sense of urgency and efficient usage of time is not really shared by others, so I often feel like I am not exploiting opportunities. Rather than despair, I had been doing more work on my own and looking for a variety of people to work with in order to spread out my energies and not be too overbearing on any one person. For April 7th, World Health Day, I collaborated with the Health Center doctor, who came on as a special guest on the radio program to discuss how to make changes in our lives to improve our health, and then with the Physical Therapist I went down to the elementary school to lead the kids through some exercises during their recess.

Dia de Salud in the Urbana

One of the more challenging projects I have been working on lately has been organizing events for the week of Earth Day. I have learned that everyone agrees that projects or events sound like a good idea, but when it comes time to showing up to meetings and helping plan, it is hard to count on people. The more I work on events, however, I figure out who is dependable and who to work with in the future.

On an ongoing basis I continue to work with three women’s groups, all concentrated in the northern part of Pachalum, the more moutainous and indigenous part of the municipality. In Cipres I, where I have a girls group, I have been working with Juanita teaching business basics and how to make earrings. Juanita, the técnica in the office, is from Cipres I, and that is why we decided to go back to the community to work there despite not having much success back in December. Once again, however, there is a lack of interest, so we are looking to finish up our work at the end of April after two and a half months to go on to another community where there is more desire to participate. In Cipres por el Campo the women’s group is strong as ever, with at least 10 women showing up to every meeting, and last Friday (April 9th) the Women’s Committee was officially sworn in by the mayor. The Women’s Committee is now an official group that represents the community and the hope is that the women will now be able to advocate for their needs with more success. In Cipres por el Campo we are working with the women to identify what their needs are, starting with defining integral development and then doing a SWOT analysis of the community, in order to collaboratively write up a project proposal for the mayor. My predecessor, Alejandra, worked with this women’s group and helped them write up a project proposal for Pilas, which we are still waiting for, but she did most of the writing on her own due to time constraints. Since I have a year and a half left to work with these women, I plan to walk them through the process so that they can follow up with more projects on their own.

Los Tunales is my newest community and it is the furthest removed from Pachalum, all the way on the top of a mountain. Los Tunales has around 50 families, all indigenous, with many women not even speaking Spanish. The community has no roads that are accesible by vehicle, so when we go once a week, we are left on the side of the road and have to run down the side of a mountain down to a stream and then back up the other side to the school. It is good exercise and simply stunning scenery.

Some kids in a tree in Los Tunales

In this community Juanita and I are doing the same charlas we are doing in Cipres por el Campo (Integral Development, SWOT Analysis, Needs Prioritization, making a project proposal) and it is amazing how different the experience is. In Cipres por el Campo there are only women in the meetings, and they are comfortable with each other and us, talking and interrupting us. In Los Tunales, both men and women have shown up to meetings, and the women all sit quietly while we talk and then one of the men translates what we have said and answers questions that we pose. It is possible that the women do not talk because of the men, but I suspect that they do not talk because it is difficult for them to express themselves in Spanish (they understand it but do not feel comfortable speaking it), so I am actually really thankful that we have the few men who do show up at the meetings because otherwise it would be a very tough crowd.

In Cipres por el Campo and Los Tunales the goal is to get organized groups to understand the system of getting projects (basically, getting money from the municipality) so their needs are acknowledged and hopefully met (a challenge given financial limitations). I am really excited to finally be doing something that is clearly in line with the Municipal Development program, and I have collaborated with the Planification Office and have their support to get these projects written up. Having Juanita to work with has also been a very positive experience. While I still write up most of the charlas on my own, all the materials I am drawing from are in English, we split up the presentations and she has gotten a lot better at speaking in front of groups and leading discussions.

With Juanita in Los Tunales

Along with work, I have also had some fun outside the office. On Thursdays I participate on the team for the municipality in the women’s championship for basketball. I am very excited to report that after my first game where I provided comic relief for the entire crowd (I made a basket but I also ran around completely confused for the majority of the game trying to figure out what zones are), I made a good showing in our second game. After some training with boys who play every weekend, I had a basic understanding of the rules, I guarded in my zone, had good hustle, and made a basket! The fact that I am a head taller than the other players probably explains my rebounding skills, and I am under no illusions that I am a going to the WNBA when I come back to the States, but at least I knew where the ball was going.

On Saturday April 10th I went to a surprise birthday party at one of the local pools for one of my friends, and on Sunday I went down to the river with a coworker and her family. I have now been down to the river twice since coming to Pachalum and I need to get myself invited to more outings since it is truly beautiful and there is no better way to beat the heat.

Meches´birthday party

With Emelin on the way to the river