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Published: August 20th 2012
Note: Anything highlighted in blue is a link to another website
– mostly the organizations I’m mentioning in this blog.
Last time I came to Guatemala I, like most tourists, headed out of Guatemala City within a couple of days and went to Xela, Antigua and Lago de Atitlán. I had no interest in this busy, dirty, polluted city. This time I came to Guatemala City because of a project called
Karen’s Soy Nutrition Project (KSNP), which I have been hearing about for two years. With nothing going on for me in the States, I decided it was a good idea to come see the good works down here. I tagged along with a friend, Chuck, who came here to work on the project.
Arrival The first night we arrived, we took a taxi to a pretty colonial hotel in Zone 1 called Hotel Spring. It has a beautiful courtyard and is close to shopping and two good vegetarian restaurants. It was a nice easy introduction to Guatemala City especially since Chuck knows this place and how to get around. The cool weather here is so wonderful compared to oppressive 100°F heat of Texas. I knew this was a good time
to come!
UPAVIM - United for a Better Life The next morning we had a good breakfast at the hotel and moved our stuff over to Colonia La Esperanza in Zone 12 (which isn’t listed in the Lonely Planet guide books). We are staying in the volunteer’s quarters at
UPAVIM (Unidas Para Vivir Mejor) which is a women’s association that offers many services and opportunities for employment to local women and families in the area. UPAVIM is connected to the project that my friends have been working on. They have a soy dairy that sells soy milk to KNSP.
Colonia La Esperanza (where UPAVIM is located) is a barrio built originally from shanties created out of scraps and whatever could be found. It's difficult to find on Google maps because I'm not sure this place officially exists. Slowly over the years, they have gotten electricity, water and sanitation, paved roads, and more substantial buildings. It’s not safe to walk at night and you have to be sure to watch your belongings all the time while you are on the streets and buses if you want to keep them. Poverty is everywhere here, but the people don’t want pity. They just need
help and services that are not provided by the government.
From our 4
th floor walk-up rooftop rooms at UPAVIM you can see a dump burning at night. On the other side of the roof there is a breathtaking view of a volcano – El Agua, behind that is Fuego, and to the left you can see Pacaya which I climbed last time I was in Guatemala. There is the sound of constant traffic and vendors in the streets calling “
tamales tamaaaaleees” or “
elote elote”. Latin music pours in from all sides. At night, firecrackers constantly crackle through the air in some celebration or another and some make a loud boom that sound like guns going off (scares the crap out me!) Now, on a Sunday morning, I can hear evangelical preachers spreading their message, a marching band and a crowd cheering at a nearby soccer field. The barrio is a dangerous, impoverished, and difficult place, but it is also teaming with life and people making the best of what they have.
Karen's Soy Nutrition Project http://www.plenty.org/pb27_1_guat.html The next morning, Chuck knocked on my door and told me I had to be ready in 15 minutes. Still
in my pajamas, I had to zoom around to get ready… not my forte. We caught a bus towards town and then took a taxi to the edge of Zones 3 and 7 to El Relleno Santiario de Ciudad Guatemala (Sanitary Landfill of Guatemala City).
The poverty here is astounding. This neighborhood is a squatters’ camp and the people have build their shanty homes on city landfill land. They eek out a living by rummaging through the trash to pick out materials for recycling. They are beginning to get running water and electricity in the area, but most of these people have neither and there is open sewage running through the unpaved lanes of the camp.
This is where KNSP is operates distributing locally made soymilk (from UPAVIM) and a soy protein cookie twice a week to over 400 children who live here. Groupo de Soya Santa Maria has a bakery in the church where they distribute the cookies and soymilk. There is an odd contrast of odors as you go from the overpowering reek of the dump into the wonderful aroma of the bakery. The children come in, stamp their hand, and get their choice of flavors
Children from the dump
They really were sweet kids...of soymilk and cookie.
The children are filthy but adorable as they come in with their friends and siblings. It’s heartbreaking to know that while some of them get to go to school, many of them from a young age will have to work along side their parents at home sorting and cleaning the recycling materials from the dump or taking care of their younger siblings.
How the project got started The project is implemented by Groupo de Soya Santa Maria, which is financially supported by
Plenty International, which is how my friends fit into the picture. – It takes a lot of people to make something like this work. The project started because my friends Karen and Tomas Heikkala, who were Plenty members, came to Guatemala City several years ago and saw this area. Karen later found out she had a brain tumor and before she passed away asked that Plenty do something for the kids at the Guatemala City dump. Tomas and Chuck and the rest of Plenty International have been working on the project ever since.
Back at UPAVIM UPAVIM runs a Montessori based school here in the same building where I am
staying. Tomorrow I will get a chance to observe and see if I could help out here for a while. This trip is just a peek for me. We’ll see what comes in the future.
Photos There are a bunch of photos waaaaaay down at the bottom of the page. Scroll down to the bottom of this page or double-click on the pictures to see more photos connected with this blog.
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Chris Kellogg
non-member comment
Great Trip
What a worthwhile vacation.