El Dia de Arbol

Planting some trees at the Guarderia for El Dia del Arbol 

She is pumped about El Dia del Arbol

That one on the left going to give birth any day now!

The Foolishness of Volunteerism

Hola y gracias por visitar mi blog.

A series of small events started to wear on me little bit by the end of the week (a day-long fever, a mouse infestation, broken shower, power outage).

On a more significant note, I had a couple unwelcomed moments of feeling overwhelmed with the great need around me. While there are countless moments of joy here, there are other times when the complex social and economic issues of this country leave me feeling disenchanted.   I have noticed that there is a difference between traveling to the developing world and staying here long enough to see the good, the bad, and the ugly. My modest 3 month stay so far puts me somewhere between a traveling-gringa-tourist and a long-termer. I have been here long enough to see how foolish volunteer work can be. That quote I posted early on during my trip by Lila Watson has never been so relevant:

“If you have come here to help, you are wasting your time; but if you are here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

For me, I think real change come from relationships. As I look back on the past 90 days, the relationships I have built with the kids at the Guarderia have had quite an impact on me. I can assure you that after all of my “public health talks,” field trips around town, tutoring sessions, safe stove projects, gringa-sounding ideas for change,  etc., the only impactful thing that I may have done is tried to entered in to their world and love them. Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, poet, and social activist wrote “A Letter to a Young Activist.”  His wise words give me hope.

“Do not depend on the hope of results. When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on, you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the truth of the work itself. And there, too, a great deal has to be gone through, as gradually you struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. The range tends to narrow down but it gets much more real. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything.”

-adios

Carrie

Something Different

Hola a todos,

Life has been a whirlwind of wonderful things.

This past week I decided to change things up a bit by going to Antigua for a week to volunteer at Casa Jackson (casajackson.org/). Before getting there, I enjoyed another weekend with good friends and good food at Lake Atitlan. Apparently, I wasn’t in the picture-taking mood, so I have no photos to share. We passed our time in the typical Atitlan manner: blissful boat rides, tasty lake-side eats, and a leisurely afternoon of kayaking along the pueblo of San Pedro.

Before we knew it was time for some of us to head onward to Antigua while the rest headed back to Xela. Four chicken bus transfers later, Brittany and I (and our backpacks which were carelessly flung on the roof) successfully made it to our destination. We stayed with a friendly Guatemalan couple, Esperanza and Jose, in their beautiful home, complete with a patio filled with tropical plants, a great rooftop view of the city, and real shower (love those). Esperanza’s cooking was top notch and I even got some recipes for my future life as “a person that may actually cook some.” Antigua is a remarkable little town. Very historic. Very beautiful. Very Gringo. We did a little sight-seeing and indulged in some of our favorite American-tastes-like-home snacks like bagels and cheesecake.

                 During our week, Brittany, who is a friend I met at Pop Wuj, and I volunteered at Casa Jackson, a recovery center for malnourished children. There were 13 cuties there, all with their own personality quirks. Their ages ranged from 2 months to 4 years. Malnutrition is a major issue in Guatemala, and especially for infants, it can have irreversible consequences. All of the toddlers are developmentally delayed in terms of motor skills, language, and cognitive skills as a direct result of malnutrition. As heartbreaking as their reason for being at Casa Jackson is, it is a sunshiny-kind-of-place staffed with nurses, a nutritionist, and doctor, with volunteers as well. The kids stay until they are100% healthy again. Also, Casa Jackson focuses a lot of time and energy on prevention, through providing mobile clinics to communities with limited access to health care, educating families on ways to attain a nutritional diet with modest resources, and working with the families to combat the underlying problems of malnourishment. My shift work consisted of changing diapers, feeding the babies, changing their clothes, playing with them, giggling a lot, doing laundry, disinfecting and cleaning the floors, etc.  I walked away from the experience with a lot of thoughts and questions. The worldwide issue of hunger became much more real when you are holding a 12 pound 3-year-old girl. People (in this case little people) can grab hold of your heart in a much more transformative way than statistics ever could.

I said my farewells, with hopes of returning soon and hopped on a chicken bus for Xela. I learned firsthand why they are called chicken buses that day. It is not because there are actual chickens on the bus (which there actually were), it is because it can get so packed inside that you feel a chicken smashed together with tons of other chicken. Fortunately I have no issues with claustrophobia because sitting four to a seat with another kid asleep on my lap, zipping around sharp mountain turns on a school bus older than me is no task for the fainted-hearted.

The end of my weekend was spent remembering how much of love Xela weather (comfortable dry Xela > hot humid Antigua), playing soccer with my host brother and his friends, playing (and losing) at Scrabble with Jenny, and countless humorous talked with my 85 year old abuelito.

It is back to work this week with all sorts of activities going on at the Guarderia.

Stay tuned!

Carrie

Antigua

Antigua Host fam's house

Inside a church ruin (Earthquakes were not very nice to Antigua)

Brittany and Aneesh

uh...

Casa Jackson

Alberto!

Alison

Little Jonaton

Scrabble (Es-crab-lay)

Hola familia y amigos,

I am writing from a new place. An opportunity arose for me to move in with a different host family and I decided to go for it. It is a great change because this family is very warm and welcoming. Getting to know them has been the highlight of the week. Last night we played Scrabble (in Spanish) and Rummikube together. Also the location is better because now it is just a short walk to Pop Wuj….as well as four ice cream shops on my block!

Guarderia

 I spent every day this week at the Guarderia. On Monday, I taught another yoga class to the older kids. I made this class a bit harder with different poses. They are already asking when our next class will be, so I think that’s a good sign. Also, in honor of Earth Day last Friday, I led an environmental chat. We talked about some of the environmental issues in Guatemala such as deforestation and water pollution and some of the ways we can reduce our environmental impact such as “The Three R’s” (Reducir, Reusar, y Reciclar). As a follow up, we did a campus clean up the next day all around the Guarderia separating out the recyclable materials to take to the recycling center in town. Carmen, Amy, and I are working on finding a way to make recycling a long term habit at the Guarderia. The week ended with a puzzle-making frenzy on Friday. Amy discovered long ago that the kids have an affinity for puzzles, or in Spanish rompecabezas (which translates to head-breakers). A couple puzzle donation drives later, the Guarderia is fully-stocked with loads of puzzles ranging from 10 pieces to 500 pieces. The kids can’t get enough of them. I have enjoyed getting to know the kids and the ladies that work at the Guarderia of the past few months. I have gotten to know one of the older girls, Yolanda, especially well. She is studying to be a bilingual secretary and is very mature and driven in her studies. The other day, just for fun, she wanted to learn the names of all of the countries in the world in Spanish and in English. It was a learning experience for both of us!

Other fun happenings this week including a couple yoga classes at the Yoga House downtown, a 3-on-3 soccer game with some Pop Wuj students, and a big “breakfast for dinner” feast at Pop Wuj.

Adios,

Carrie

yes that's a pig. Had to take a picture.

Preparing our feast at Pop Wuj

Some of my favorite people

Safe Stove Project

Me with two grandkids of Dona Juana, Yakira and Coco

Dona Juana and her new stove

Her old stove

the whole family came to see!

PS Here's the link to Voces de Cambio...they are so cool! http://www.vocesdecambio.org/

Semana Santa

Hola a todos!

During the beginning of this week I was still in recovery mode from being sick. Ironically, the medicine made me sicker than the parasites, but by Wednesday I was back to 100%. This week has been Semana Santa (Holy Week), a holiday observed by all Guatemalans. The week was full of religious processions, special food for the occasion like dulce de garbanzo, and lots of family time. Central Park was always filled with people and vendors and when my timing was right, I caught a few processions, complete with musicians, incense, and men in purple robes carrying large wooden statues.

Guarderia

There was no school during Semana Santa, so Amy, the coordinator, decided to make Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday field trip days with the jovenes (13 of the oldest kids) at the Guarderia. On Monday, we headed to COPAVIC, a glass factory in Cantel where they make decorative chalices, margarita glasses, vases, etc. out of recycled glass, which are shipped all over the world. We got to see the glass blowers at work, using hollow metal rods to pull out molten glass from big brick ovens and then blowing it into something as intricate as a wine glass. Tuesday, we collaborated with Voces de Cambio, a local nonprofit that teaches photography classes to adolescent girls as part of their self esteem/women empowerment program. Three young women who had participated in their program taught our group the basics of photography, as well as led some team building activities. Afterwards, we headed to the park to let the kids try out their skills with their new disposable cameras. Next week, we are going to get them developed and have a little exhibition at Pop Wuj. On Wednesday, the kids got to experience yet another first, a trip to Las Piscinas (the pools) in the beautiful agricultural community of Alomolonga. For most of them, it was their first time in water. Fortunately, the pools were shallow and no one had to know how to swim. I attempted to teach them some of the basics of swimming and floating. As an extra treat we took them out for pizza and ice cream as nice way to end the week. Along with everything else, the Guarderia was closed Thurs and Fri.

Stoves
Thursday was an ad-hoc stove building day. We completed the third and final stage of Dona Juana’s new stove. Since I did the initial interview, heard her story and met her family, and helped purchase the supplies, this stove seemed extra special to me.  After a long morning of putting on the finishing touches, she served us big bowls spaghetti as a way of saying thanks. Next week, the volunteers start a completely new stove project with 10 families in another rural community.

Pues, es todo por ahora,

¡Tenga un buen día y Feliz Pascua! (Easter)

Carrie

COPAVIC glass factory

a finished piece

Veronica posing proudly after doing some glass blowing herself

In the park with their photography teachers

At the pools in Almolonga

ice cream in the park