Reflections.. post one-year mark in Guatemala

---

Hola! I am learning more than ever that everything has its time and its place.. Yes I realize I have not written a blog in quite some time, and for several factors I am realizing. Arriving in Guatemala almost a year and a half ago, I remember being sparked with motivation after a memorable event happened, and it affected me and stuck with me for some time after. I remember the first year of service when I would be excited to write a blog because of something that had happened that truly changed me and I felt the major effect it had on me knowing that I could never view the world the same. I really enjoyed sitting down and reflecting about my new experiences and my new reality here in Guatemala, but i could not for the life of me make myself sit down and write the last few months. Perhaps I was not feeling inspired by any grand events that changed me dramatically. But that is not true, it is just over a slower period of time that I am growing and changing, the rate of growth has slowed down as I am becoming more accustomed to the culture, the people, and the overall way of life including food, transportation, and daily interactions.

Our perspectives are continually changing, evolving and developing naturally overtime with each experience in our life. Our reality(s), our consciousness is an experience. With the people we meet and encounter, the conversations and activities that are shared, we change and learn to relate more with others around us and also with ourselves. My reality changed a lot in the beginning from living with 3 different host families within the first 7 months, to having my very first puppy who ate my books and teared off my community map from the wall and ate it, to never feeling the same level of health (physical, mental and emotional I may add) that I had in the states... This has definitely been what I think is the most challenging experience I have confronted in my life; Especially because it is not just one area of my life that is changing very dramatically and rapidly.

Having to learn and use 2 new languages for one makes things difficult when I was struggling to realize what was going on. I was constantly adjusting to very different living conditions such as a lack of clean water and many days a lack of water entirely thus repeatedly getting sick every couple of weeks, a change in diet with a lack of access to fresh fruits of vegetables and variety in foods, and having to clean constantly because I basically lived in either dirt and dust or lots of mud depending if it was the rainy season. Living with last family in my village of 5 younger brothers, 2 sisters, 2 cows, roosters, chickens, turkeys, too many pigs, 2 dogs, and my puppy, I really got to see and experience how the people in my village live. I sunk into a few of these living habits having lived in this village such as not bathing regularly, not eating a healthy diet, becoming somewhat malnourished due to being sick, and being late to almost everything just like everyone else. But now after having moved to the center of our municipio, or the casco urbano as they call it, in mid-july, I have changed and things are so much better as far as my physical, emotional and mental health. I am more motivated to work and am finally able to focus on projects, and have a more clear purpose when I go to the villages during the day to work, visit or play with the kids and my puppy.

As I mentioned just before, I moved to the main part of my town where the municipial building is (Mayor), more options available for fresh fruits and vegetables, I have access to buy purified water and have not gotten sick since moving 2 months ago. I am working in more of the villages that are part of my muni (5 villages, one big town) and will be continuing giving preventative health educational talks and activities in the schools and in women’s groups.

I am in the beginning stages of stove and latrine projects for the families with the most need, continuing with the bottle kitchen made of eco-ladrilllos (plastic bottles full of trash) at one of the schools where the mom’s make a daily snack for the kids. Also we are hoping to start a water project to get water to the houses in the village or even possibly consisting of a community pila (a pila is a washing station for the women. This would help those without water in the houses who have no other option but to wash in the rivers thus contaminating the one of the villages little sources of water. After living in the village for a year, I personally experienced the lack of water and lack of drinkable water and there are many illnesses for this reason. I am that much more motivated to help this community prevent further sickness, and I learned that a 14 year old girl died from having worms because the water is contaminated with bacteria and amebas.

I have also been realizing more and more why nutrition is extremely important. I can tell you several reasons for having graduated with a bachelors degree in nutrition, but the personal experiences of living amongst malnourished people and being affected myself with it do not compare. Consistently having bacterial infections and worms is a major cause of malnutrition, as well as a lack of nutritional knowledge and limited access to nutritional foods. Those in my village, as well as several places all over Guatemala and the world, suffer from all 3 causes of malnutrition. I am starting to create a series of nutritional education such as through games, stories with pictures, cooking classes, herb gardens and other activities. We are using non-formal education meaning it has to be basic, dynamic, and easy. Many women I work with never went to school thus do not know how to read and write, nor feel comfortable holding a pen so we always bring stamp pads for signing with a thumb print. My womens’ groups we teach with and use the same materials and activites that I also use to teach kids in the schools. I am finding this area of work is something I really enjoy and am passionate about.. the dynamic teaching (perhaps that is why I was a fitness instructor, too?? haha)!

I am learning how to love in Guatemala, and what love truly means and what love entails. I learned to love a family that was not my own, more than once! I can truly say I first felt love and confianza with my first host family outside of Antigua during training, and am now called an hermana. I cannot express how amazing it is to have 2 more sisters, a brother, a mom and a grandma to share experiences with here in Guatemala. Then moving to my village a year ago July, I had to learn to adapt to have grown up with 2 similar aged sisters to going to living with 5 younger host-brothers with poor spanish thus hard to communicate, and who lived without boundries as far as cleanliness, noise, or time. I learned to love my youngest host brothers as if they were truly my little brothers. We exchanged learning languages of Spanish, Kiche, and Engish almost daily.

We bonded by doing various arts and crafts like molding clay, drawing and painting. Side note about one of my favorite pass-times that has become medicinal for me. I think I really discovered the power of art and what it means to me during my time here in Guatemala. I found it as being a tool to express my feelings of frustration, stress, lonliness, and fear. For I had never felt feelings as strong as these during my life prior to Peace Corps. Being able to create something that either reflected these feelings or to remind me of how much I love being creative and making art; it was an activity I learned to rely on to get me through my service, especially those very lonely, difficult days. Art was also a bonding experience with my host brothers and other kids and teenagers in the village, especially since it could break through the language and cultural barriers. I found myself almost always carrying around markers and paper not only to pass my own time of waiting for groups and meetings to start or for buses/pick-ups to come, but also to start activities with the kids who usually always answered “ko-tuj’’ which means nothing in Kiche, when I asked what they were doing. This is definitely a discovered passion of mine.. arts and crafts with the kids!


With the projects underway I have a more clear vision and focus to my second year, and not having the struggles of learning the language and how to work with people in this country is less surprising. Yes I am still surprised even after a year and a half because it still is a challenge. Living and working will always be different than working in America where there are set hours and punctuality, and overall there are less determining factors of the success of work I feel. Villages and towns, especially those with extensive agriculture have a top priority of planting/caring/harvesting for the corn, daily chores such as hand washing dishes and laundry, gathering and cutting firewood, taking care and feeding the animals, attending church, preparing for and partaking in festive reunions such as weddings, birthdays, or a death in the community. When an outsider comes in and tries to work to create change, it is a great challenge to motivate the people to accept and realize why something is important and why something needs to change. A few examples are trash management and recycling, using a latrine instead of contaminating the soil and rivers, and eating more fruits and vegetables and other nutrient rich foods.

I have realized that work here simply just takes longer. Especially in the midst of the daily lives as most work and chores entail a sense of survival such as gathering water from the stream, hand washing everything, gathering and cutting firewood, then preparing the fire to then cook the food three times a day. I have been cancelled on by my groups of women, teenagers and kids numerous times because in the villages it is everyone who is involved in working together to survive. The strong gender roles serve their purpose, and everyone works in some type of daily manner. Twice a year I see everyone in the family working together for the corn harvest and planting, since it is fields and fields that make up my village, and all by hand they must be picked. Living between the cornfields I saw how beautiful the process of the corn is, and the unity of the families working together with the hard labor it entails, then to enjoy each others company as they all sit down together eating their hand picked and hand prepared tortillas and tomalitos with every meal.

I learned from the Guatemalans how to how to love what you eat, how to love and be proud of where you are from, how to love and be proud of the clothes you wear, how to love and how to be proud of our family and family name, how to love and care for your friends. The confianza is one of the most rewarding feelings once it is gained and carried out; the relationships are real and dynamic. It is beautiful. Life is beautiful.

How great that each day is a new adventure. There is mystery to explore, interesting people to meet, intriguing ideas that come and many opportunities awaiting...

---