Five weeks in Todos Santos

Disclaimer: I have written this like a diary entry so I apologise for any bad grammar or incorrect statements. And remember its only my opinion and my take on the subjects I discuss. 

TODOS SANTOS
When I think about it, I get a warm feeling inside thinking of the amazing family I stayed with, the children I thought and the friends I made there. The basic lifestyle was perfect for me. Bathing using water heated on the fire stove (although I did manage to get a couple of showers in), clothes washed by hand, toilet flushed with a bucket of water, turtle paced internet, etc. I stayed in a house made up of three families, four if you count the parents.
Antonietta got up at 7 and started working, preparing food, washing clothes, cleaning, selling food outside in the market, caring for her 2 year old son, 9 year old daughter and her oldest son who has severe cerebral palsy. I never saw her sit down. Her husband helped a bit.
Leche lives in a tiny village about an hour away from Todos Santos. It does not have any work for her so she worked from 6am to 9pm, 7 days a week, in my house helping prepare food and washing up. The money goes to her four children, the youngest of which is 15.
Papito Martinez, the granddad, gets up at 6am to open the families sweet shop, then his wife switches with him while he goes to work at his other job which is carpentry. He makes anything you want with wood. He has four men who work for him. He is 76 with a bad leg so he uses a walking stick. Last I saw him he was on the roof with a couple of his men putting new roofing on. His wife works equally as hard all day.
Alboro is in his mid twenties and very successful for a man of his age. He oversees about five different projects from health programs to farming programs to education programs. He is probably the only Guatemalan man I met in todos santos who would happily cook his own food and doesn’t believe that a woman’s place is in the kitchen and caring for the children.

Teaching at School (TRES CRUCES)
The class Linz and I worked most with were kids who were not sent to school when they were younger because they had to work and are only now going to school at 14, 15, 16. They spoke Mam as their first language and needed to learn Spanish so we thought basic Spanish, maths and English. As we didn’t have a set structure to follow, we mostly thought through games.
A student Juan 13, felt bullied in school so told his parents he didn’t want to go to school anymore. His parents only too happy to keep him at home to work on the farm called the teacher and told her Juan wouldn’t be going to school anymore. It was heartbreaking to be unable to do anything about it. Eventually with much pleading, Juan came back to school. I have never been so happy to see a student.
On my last day of school the children all came together to make lunch for me. Then they thanked me for my time spent with them and gave me hugs. It was really quite moving.
The whole experience of teaching at the school has led me to really question why an education is so vital. Take Juan for example, he is 13, not very book smart and has a lot of difficulty keeping up. At the end of the day he is probably just going to end up running his parents farm because he more than likely will not get a scholarship to go to college. And the question remains, what is the value of learning about the countries in the world when more than likely he will never need to know. He could be at home learning about how to run a farm so he can support his family.
I have a lot of thoughts for and against, I would be interested to know other peoples opinions.
And the other issue is; is what their learning in school really what they need to be educated about. Maze is the majority of what they farm here, year in year out, maybe they should be thought about sustainable farming methods. Antibiotics are sold here on the street like sweets, as are body building steroids. Pesticides which are lethal are bought in large quantities with English directions. I feel like education in these areas is so much more vital than learning one to ten in English.

School where I took Spanish classes (HISPANOMAYA)
The profits of the school go to sponsoring children in the area who can not go to school because their parents need them to work to put food on the table. In order to keep getting the scholarship money, the children must present their grade cards to the Spanish school. If their grades drop, they stop getting the money. As I was leaving the coordinator of the school came across a 12 year old girl working in a small restaurant morning till night. Her father had died years previously and she had to leave school and work to make money for the family. The coordinator is now trying to get her back into school by sponsoring her so the family still gets money but she can continue her education.
As for my Spanish classes I only studied two days a week so my Spanish didn’t really improve that much but on the other side it gave me time to experience everything else Guatemala has to offer like Hiking. I did quite a few hikes there as we were surrounded by mountains. Possibly my favourite thing about Todos Santos. I hiked to the highest point in central America, I went on a four hour hike that turned into a seven hour hike. I helped the Spanish school out by taking some of their tourist groups on hikes. It was fantastic.

Culture

BOYFRIENDS
I had a friend (and only a friend) who I hiked with quite a bit who was male. We hung out a lot as a result, in the house, in my room etc. I didn’t think anything about it. In my apartment in Ireland I have boys hang out in my room all the time. But one evening while we were in the kitchen, granny Martinez was insisting to Lydia (her daughter) that she take my friend outside to talk to him about his intentions and birds and the bees and such. Lydia told her she had no right, that I wasn’t her daughter and her reply was “if she’s living under my roof, she’s my responsibility”. In the end she didn’t get to talk to him.
The next day it was explained to me that boys should not be in your room unless they are your boyfriend and if they are your boyfriend they have to talk to the parents first so they can determine if he is appropriate or not. And of coarse there is no sex before marriage. I was shocked to hear all of this. I was so oblivious to it all.
This is one of a few occasions where I had no clue of the difference in culture and it is one of the reasons I am so glad I stayed with a family. I would not have had my eyes opened as much had I not stayed with them.

INFIDELITY
Obviously I was only in todos santos for five weeks so I can’t give a completely accurate picture of the culture but one thing that really hit home for me was the seemingly lesser value of women and the acceptability of infidelity in their community.
I heard many stories of men who had multiple women. A husband packing his bag in front of his wife and children, clearly getting ready to go spend the weekend with another woman. A husband who expected his wife to serve him, answer to him and mind his children but would not support her financially. Stories of men who up and left their wives for other women and it was accepted but when the abandoned wife went and got herself a boyfriend she was shamed, it was taboo.
I was hit on by married men while their wives were in the next room.
It just made me wander if the whole world is like this, the only difference being here it is more out in the open. By the end of the five weeks I was left with no faith in men whatsoever.
There were certainly a couple of guys who I really wanted to prove me wrong but in the end they didn’t. Life lessons in Guatemala

DANCE
We went to what we thought was a disco but of coarse it was todos santos. It was the whole town, adults, teenagers, children, babies, meringue music, salsa music and techno pop music. Everyone doing a square dance including teenagers and then us going crazy western techno dancing, we must have looked like lunatics. I was worried we had disgraced the family with our ‘different’ style of dancing but luckily we had not. I even danced with granny.

WHAT´S NEXT?
Quetzal trekkers www.quetzaltrekkers.com.
I´m in xela now. I am studying with a really great Spanish teacher here for the next month and working part time with the quetzaltrekkers. After one month i will be working full time with the Quetzaltrekkers for three months. This project is my dream project. I take clients on hikes, one day to six days in duration and all the money made in profit goes to a school (75% funded by QT) in the area and a orphanage(100% funded by QT) for the children to stay in who; have no family, live to far away to get to school everyday or come from abusive homes. Quetzaltrekkers also funds a health project. The work itself is going to be pretty full on. I will be working 9am to 9pm seven days a week. We also do fun things with the children like on Tuesday we cook dinner for them or they cook for us. Then on Wednesday we play football and some of them come over to do arts and crafts and such also. There are five guide volunteers there right now and I can already tell that we are going to get on really well. They are great people.

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