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Published: March 19th 2006
Cerro Cristalino
The Virgin Mary watches over the town of San Juan.I'm still here in San Juan La Laguna and I'm getting to see more and more each day how good we really have it back home. So many of us take things for granted, but being here has opened my eyes and made me thankful for what I have and also motivated to help out where I can. I can't put into words the hardships that I am witnessing. The town of San Juan is a lot better off than some of it's neighboring communities. Each day during driver training, I pass through all of the towns surrounding San Juan. The streets are full of young children who are living in poverty-stricken conditions with the likes that I've never seen. I'm sure there are many places in world with similar or worse conditions and it really makes me sad. Every child I see in San Pablo is covered with dirt and worn out clothing, their playground is the trash covered street, but that doesn't stop them from greeting me with a big smile and an "Hola".
Now that I've been in San Juan for over a week, most of the locals have seen me out in front of the firehouse
and are comfortable with me interacting with the children. Jeremy is too hard for the locals to pronounce so I go by Jeremias (Hair-ra-me-us). Although, most know me as el bombero grande del Estados Unidos (The big firefighter from the U.S.) and the firefighters just call me Rambo. I got the name because it's their favorite movie and I've been doing imitations with my knife and bandana for their entertainment. It's quite funny being the biggest person in town. The locals are always staring and a lot of the kids will touch me and run off giggling. I've been able to play in some soccer games with the kids on the basketball court beside the firehouse. The oldest kid was probably 10 years old, so I put a whipping on them. I also played a basketball game against some local girls. Mom, you would've been so proud! I was undefeated after 3 games and I even stuffed this middle school girl so hard they had to carry her off of the court (I kid, I kid!) Seriously though, the kids in the area are really sweet and I can tell I make a big impression when I go out of
my way to spend some time with them. There is nothing better to me than to see a glowing smile on a kid's face.
On Friday, Joann had a team of eye doctors and volunteers that set up an eye clinic in San Pablo. I drove four locals from San Juan over to the clinic in the bomberos 4-Runner. I assisted the team in setting up for the day. The clinic had several stations where patients would have their vision tested, pupils sized, a doctors examination, and finally where they received their first pair of glasses. There were people lined down the street and up to the door and each one exited later with a great big smile on their face and a clearer look at the world. In my last few weeks here in Guatemala, I have had the pleasure of meeting so many different people that are devoting their time and effort to helping those that are less fortunate. I have gotten to see God working through people all around me and it sure is a great site to see.
The San Juan Fire Department is made up of some really great people with whom I
have become good friends. They have all excepted me in as part of the team. There is one guy (Abel) in particular that has gone out of his way to welcome me into the community. Abel is 24 with a wife (Maria), two kids (Maria & Adelena), mother and father, his grandmother, and three siblings, all living together. His family had me over for dinner one night and welcomed me in with open arms. They helped me understand more of what it's like to live in Guatemala. For example, I've already seen more of their country in one month than they have in their entire lives. Abel has never been out of the country and has only visited Guatemala City, Antigua, and Chichi a few times. On one occasion he did travel an hour and a half South and saw the ocean. This was all hard for me to understand. They explained to me that they can't make enough money to travel through Guatemala and let alone travel outside of their country. Abel informed me that he made 300Q per week at his construction job which is roughly $150 a month in the U.S., which was so hard for me
to grasp. Now you wonder why so many Latin Americans try to get into the U.S. to work. Your average Guatemalteco in San Juan could make enough money for the year in just one month in the U.S.. A dream of Abel's is to one day see the U.S., but getting a passport and visa is very difficult and saving the money to go is even harder. After dinner, the family presented me with a Morral (hand woven shoulder bag). Maria had woven the bag for me using all natural materials from local plants. Each color in the bag was a different type of plant and no dyes had been added. The gift meant so much to me and I was so grateful. They all invited me to come over for lunch on Sunday, which is the one day of the week the family has meat with their meal. This is because they can only afford to buy one chicken per week and they offered to share it with me (Wow, what do you say to that?). Next, Abel took me down to the church to watch the town's weekly spiritual procession through the streets. A crowd of people carrying
The Streets of San Pablo
Note the open canals for sewege on either side of the street. candles paraded down the streets carrying a large cross and statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
Saturday, Abel and I hiked up to Cerro Cristalino where a cross and the Virgin Mary watches over the town. Next, we made our way down to the lake front where he showed me where the 52 families who lost their homes are presently living. There was shack after shack lined all the way up the hill, which was provided by US AID and a group from Europe. On our way down, I ran into an older couple (Greg and Brenda) from Canada who I had met at the Bible study in Panajachel the week before. They invited me to meet up later for food and conversation. That night over dinner, I had a great discussion with them about the history of Guatemala, religion, and travel. They are attempting to raise money to buy a large number of Macadamia trees in order to plant along the hill sides of San Juan. These trees will provide a root system along the slopes to help prevent future mudslides and at the same time bring in some revenue for the town. While in San Pedro,
Road to San Pablo
If you notice, half of the road is missing due to Hurricane Stan. The roads all through the area look this way. It's great for driver training! I have also run into a group of Peace Corps volunteers who are here studying the soils and looking for suitable crops and ground cover to provide the same results as my Canadian friends. The Peace Corp volunteers had all worked on a two year project with the Peace Corps in Latin America and are now on crisis management duty. The Peace Corps group is working with The Solar Foundation which is headed up by Elizabeth, a very connected lady in the town. Elizabeth also teaches English classes to some of the local kids and Richard and I stopped by one night and sang some American music. Rich plays the guitar, so he stops by ever so often. All of the students had the words to the music and were so cute mispronouncing their way through the songs. Wednesday night they were all watching a movie (Good Will Hunting) at the home of one of the students and I was invited to participate...and you know I wouldn't miss a movie.
Well, I went over to Abel's house for lunch Sunday and I brought them a brand new cooking pot (family size) as a gift, because I had noticed that
Results of Hurricane Stan
52 Families are packed into small shacks along the shore in San Juan. the one they had was old at too small, and I also bought Abel a straw cowboy hat. After our meal, the girls showed me their mini stereo, which is their one big luxury. I actually found a Nirvana CD that was Abel's bothers and boy did we rock out. I gathered up some pretend instruments and the girls and I formed a band (they loved it...almost as much as I did). Now I have to come over and practice with them later in the week.
Back at the station, a 22 year old girl was rushed in who had fallen and struck her head on the street curb. She had one of the worst head wounds I'd seen. There was a jagged 3 inch long gash and you could see down to the girls skull. She was soaked in blood and pieces of skin were in her hair. I assisted our nurse, handing him instruments and gauze as he soaked up the blood and injected medication (a form of Novocain) into the girls scalp, which is very tough skin. Next, I watched closely as he proceeded to stitch and tuck loose skin back into the wound. The girl
received 13 large stitches in her head and was a trooper the entire time (a bit woozy though). I must say it was pretty freakin' cool and quite educational at the same time.
Through out the past week I have been organizing and recording inventory and setting up the station for a Doctor's clinic we are hosting on Tuesday. People were lined up at the front door at 7:30am and I got them started on paperwork. We had 3 doctors (one that spoke Spanish) and Richard to translate in the other room, Marta and Miguel for assistance, and me to take everyone’s blood pressure and pulse before they were seen. Boy, what an exhausting morning. I ended up checking around 40 patients, and one of the young kids freaked out when the "Giant White Man" touched him with the stethoscope, and he proceeded to kicked me in the head. All together, the morning was a huge benefit for the town and very good practice for me.
The following day was the same song and dance, except I'm now training most of the guys on the manual shift which is extremely difficult with my small range of vocabulary. That
Abel and His Wife Maria
Maria is weaving a Morral. night was a small bonfire party at the lake's edge to say farewell to a local French lady who was headed back home. Just before the festivities began, the crew was called to an emergency in San Pedro and they needed someone who spoke English along because the call involved an extranjero (foreigner), so Rich and I hopped on. The call involved a European man who was drunk, and obviously on some drugs, and had attacked someone with a machete. The local police had thrown him into a dark, dirty stairwell and locked him up there for 12 hours without food or drink. Some of his friends had called us because they were afraid he was going to die. On scene, Rich talked with the police and Joel (the nurse) and I tended to the man. We had to wear headlamps because it was so dark in the stairwell. I must say that I've never seen someone so messed up in my life. The man was unable to speak, had puke and urine all over, was trembling and rocking back and forth. The guy had actually scratched his legs so much that he had worn a hole through his pants.
Making the Band
Teaching the girls how to rock out to some Nirvana. I will never forget the look in his eyes. There was some obvious mental damage. There was nothing we could do for him there. We had checked his vitals and recommended immediate transport to a hospital, but the police refused to let him go because of his crimes. The police said that they would transport him themselves and we were asked to leave. The man's friends were extremely upset and begged for us to take the guy, but the police refused and we had to leave. Two hours later, the department was called because the man had died and they wanted an official confirmation of death. This was a big reminder for me that I'm in a Third World Country.
The last few days in San Juan, I continued to train the guys on the stick shift which is quite the task to be done on roads such as these. On many occasions we have stalled out in the middle of the road while other vehicles laid on their horns and waved their hands about. Not to mention the numerous hills throughout the area that we rolled backwards on, nearly smashing into the vehicle behind us. Hey, well at
least these stressful situations have improved my Spanish. After training on Thursday, I attended a meeting in San Pedro with three of our guys, The head man in San Pedro (we'll just call him the mayor), and numerous other big wigs in the two neighboring communities. The meeting was to discuss a new emergency substation in San Pedro and I was there to stand in for Richard who was out of town again. It was hilarious! I sat there for two hours straight while they all rambled on and everyone except for our guys thought I spoke Spanish, until the mayor addressed me and I had no clue what he said. I then explained that I had just started studying Spanish and I was here helping the firefighters with training. The mayor took a moment to thank me for all that I was doing and shook my hand. That sure made me feel good.
The following night, Abel's family made me dinner again and I had another jam session with the girls. I taught them a couple of dance moves this time and had them repeating "rock and roll" over and over again with a cute little trill in
A Packed House
This was the first clinic the firehouse had every held. their R's. Back at the station, the guys all came over to have a couple of drinks and a toast to my leaving. I ran down and bought a deck of cards so we could all play, but to my dismay, not one of the guys had ever played poker. You thought teaching guys to drive was difficult, try explaining all of the rules of poker in Spanish. Finally, after the guys picked it up, we played with paper money till late and I didn't even win (I taught them too well).
For my final day in San Juan I played a game of soccer with the local kids, assisted Joel with cleaning up a girl's cut and giving her a penicillin shot, and did a tour of San Juan with one of the guys (Eliseo) in the department. On our tour he took me by the Asociaciòn de Comadronas, which is a local group of women who grow and make natural medicines, soaps, etc. out of plants. The association is supported by the Solar Foundation. Next, we went by a couple of local Mayan Art galleries (inside their house) where I got to meet some traditional Mayan artists
and see their work. Later, I headed over to San Pedro to have my leather & bone necklace that I broke fixed by the guy who made it. While I was waiting on the repairs, I stopped off at the Puac families (My homestay family in San Pedro) household and said goodbye to everyone. Tulita was sick, but she was still able to crack a smile when she saw me.
Well, that about wraps up my last week in San Juan La Laguna. Next I'm headed to Xela to stay with Dennis and Doris and help out at the Vine International warehouse. I will miss San Juan and the friends I made here at the Fire Department. I won't miss the freezing cold water of the station's dungeon-like shower or the toilet that sits behind a see-through curtain. All of the guys have asked me when will I return and I couldn't give them an answer, but I'm sure it will be before too long. I just want to thank all of you back home who write and put a smile on my face everyday. It really means a lot! You all take care, and I'm out!
Rock and Roll, Baby!!!
After a week of training, I believe I have created a Rock Star!
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Josh Yarbrough
non-member comment
Taking things for granted
Isn't it amazing how much others don't have and that alot of people whine over the smallest things here. I know a couple of people who would never survive in the places you are visiting. How little we know or choose to know about the rest of the world. You haven't made one of your famous runs in the soccer games, have you?