Semana Santa in Central America

This being my first Holy week (Semana Santa) since living in Guatemala, instead of taking off for a vacation, I decided to stay in my site and see what the hubub was all about. I’d always heard that Semana Santa in Latin America is a sight to see, but the activities that I experienced last week far surpassed my expectations.

Guatemala, being traditionally very Catholic, celebrates Semana Santa on a scale quite possibly bigger than Christmas. My landlady’s whole family came into town for the week and stayed in the extra beds at my place, effectively turning the place from an ever-quiet respite to a carnival, complete with loads of food and indoor soccer (see below). They also brought with them the Priest from their local parish who was delightful and taught me lots about the significance of different Semana Santa events.

Among those events were plays in which people from my town acted out the whole passion of Christ from the last supper until the resurrection, including a real live crucifixion (don’t worry; they tied, not nailed his hands to the cross). The whole thing was really quite amazing and experiencing it alongside my neighbors was something I’ll never forget.

On Saturday night the whole town gathered on the basketball court to remember the women who went to Jesus´ tomb to mourn with a candlelight service. There was a short reading from the Bible and then we began lighting our candles. The flame started with the priest in the middle and then was passed person to person until it reached the outer limits of the circle. It was a beautiful ending to my first Semana Santa.

A Visit, a Birthday, and a Reminder

Please excuse the lack of posts in the last month or so. My calendar has been filled with Peace Corps events that, unfortunately have left me with little time to write. However, the madness is beginning to slow down and I want to take a few minutes to reflect on the last month.

I typically try to fill my blog with upbeat anecdotes and snapshots of my life here. However, I have to admit, I haven´t always given a full picture of what my life has been like. So I´m going to level with you- it´s often really challenging. I spend most days in an office where I often don´t feel understood and although my Spanish level has gotten much better lots of things are still lost in translation. Then there´s the cultural differences which often still catch me off guard and leave me a little baffled.

As a result of all of these challenges I spent a good amount of time in the last month really evaluating my reasons for being in the Peace Corps and living in this community. There were days when I felt like the impact that I can have here is so minimal compared to what I could be doing living in a community in the US.

My mom and grandma came for a visit in the midst of all of this and got to hear about all of my struggles and challenges (if you see either of them...give them a hug for being such good listeners). We spent 5 days in my town, during which time we celebrated my 24th birthday. It was an amazing time, and I was so blessed by all of the people in my town who invited us over for a meal, or a snack, or coffee and shared with me how much they appreciated that I am living and working in their town. It was a definite turning point for me when I realized that the true impact of the PC experience often is the friendships you make. So even though I don´t expect the challenges to disappear, I am going to go back into my work with new eyes and motivation.

A Development Conundrum

Here’s one for all of my friends who are doing and/or studying development…

Guatemala has a long history of development agencies, missions, and various government projects trying to better the lives of the people living here. Unfortunately in the past that has often meant simply giving things- houses, wells, toothbrushes, schools, Bibles, etc. As a result many people have become so accustomed to having things given to them that they expect that model of development and aren’t interested in any other kind.

I ran into this issue this past week when visiting a community. An international development agency is interested in doing some clean water projects in my municipality, which is one of the poorest in the whole country. They approached the Municipal Planning Office with the requirements, and we in turn, went to present them to the communities. One specific community we went to is one of our poorest, with incredibly high malnutrition and child mortality rates. The women in the community have to walk for over a mile up and down a really steep ravine to retrieve dirty water which they use for cooking, bathing, and drinking, causing all kinds of sickness. The proposed project would pipe clean water from a nearby spring directly into the community.

The requirements of the project say that there needs to be a counter on each water spigot to insure that the spring is not being over-taxed and that everyone in the community gets a fair share of the water. The project also requires that a town committee be formed to be in charge of the maintenance and repair of the tubes and faucets and that each family pay a yearly 12 Quetzales ( $1.50…not much, even by Guatemalan standards) to the town committee, that they will in turn use only to repair broken pipes.

The co-workers I went to the community with feel that this is a culturally appropriate and fair system and are excited to see the project happen in a community that needs it so desperately. However, as we sat in the town meeting listening to the people talk after we presented the project, we realized that they saw it differently. They said that they are not interested in a project a) in which they have to pay a yearly fee, and b) in which their water consumption will be monitored. Basically, the meeting ended with them saying, that they didn’t think the project requirements were fair and they weren’t interested in the project. We convinced them to allow the engineer to return again and talk to them, and we’re hoping that they’ll have time to consider what they might be missing out on and will change their minds.

So here’s the conundrum that I keep rolling around in my head… this community desperately needs water but because in the past NGOs and other groups have just given things the community feels that to be expected to pay when they are already very poor is unfair. Maybe the NGO should just drop the requirements and give them the project anyway? After all, it will improve their lives, won’t it? But then, if we just give them the project doesn’t that reinforce this bad system of getting without having to give in return? Isn’t that disempowering? Maybe the community won’t take care of the water system as well because they don’t have their own money invested in it? So maybe they shouldn’t get the project? But kids are dying and living with horrible diarrhea as a result of the bad water they’re drinking. The fields are dried up because of lack of rain and people are going hungry because they can’t possibly carry enough water to keep their fields producing.

I just simply don’t know the answer. This development stuff seemed much simpler in a classroom.

Cultural Mishaps

Though I feel I’m fairly well integrated into my community by now and generally get what’s going on culturally, there are always moments when things come up and surprise me, as happened in the following story…

I was taking a walk through town when I noticed one of the kids I play soccer with crying outside her house. I stopped to ask her what was wrong and she informed me that her grandma had died. Not knowing what to say to her, especially since I’m unfamiliar with the customs surrounding deaths here, I just sat with her a while. After a while, she grabbed my hand and informed me that we were going to see the body. It actually wasn’t as strange as I thought it would be. The family was all there, and seemed glad that I would care enough to come in. So again, I just sat a while to show that I was concerned for them.

Later on in the afternoon I went to visit a friend for our weekly coffee and telenovella (if you don’t know that is, Wikipedia it, I cannot describe). We talked briefly about the death of my neighbor and my friend told me that she didn’t want to go view the body because her husband has the same infirmity and she’s afraid that he’ll die too if she goes there. I mentioned casually that I had been to visit the family, not thinking anything of it, and she immediately pushed me over to the pila (sink) and dunked my head in the water!!! She then instructed me to wash my face and hair while she watched! Whoa.

Apparently there is a lingering traditional belief that if you view a dead body you can carry death around with you. We had a good laugh about it later, probably when she saw the shocked look on my face and realized I had no idea what was going on.

Here’s to clean faces and learning new things!

Carnival

In the US I vaguely remember Catholic friends of mine celebrating Fat Tuesday, the day before lent begins, as a day to eat sweets before committing themselves to giving them up for the 40 days of lent. Guatemala participates in the tradition, but in Latin American style- Carnival.

To be honest, I had completely forgotten that lent was approaching so quickly, and when I saw the first handfuls of pica-pica (confetti), I thought it was a birthday. The tradition for carnival here is for all of the kids to go crazy covering each other in confetti, face-paint, eggs (real or confetti filled), flour, and anything else they can find to throw at each other.

I was walking home from work on Monday (mind you, a day before carnival), minding my own business, when I started to hear a bit of a ruckus behind me. When I tuned my ears in I realized that they were yelling “Agarra la Carlota” which translated means “get Charlotte!” I turned to see a pack of my neighbors charging up the street towards me. Fight or flight kicked in and I took off running, which in hind sight was probably a bad idea. I think they just got more excited that someone was actually playing their game! I’m about twice their height and probably would’ve outrun them if half of them hadn’t peeled off (you’ve got to give ´em credit…that’s pretty clever) and gone down an alley to trap me on the other side. At this point the whole town had come out of their houses to see what the ruckus was and were laughing their pants off at the site of me being chased by their naughty children. And then they caught me. I arrived home about 20 minutes later, my hair filled with pica-pica and laughing my pants off. I’m still picking the confetti out of my hair, but I’ll count it as a successful cultural integration moment.

The Mayan Calendar

As a part of my Mayan language classes I`ve been learning snippets of Mayan culture (mostly so my brain won`t explode from too many Mam words) and this week I got to learn all about the Mayan calendar.

The Mayan calendar has 2o symbols and is completely different from the Western calendar that most countries follow. Each symbol signifies one day and once the 20 days are cycled through, it begins again with the first day. Though the population of Guatemala generally follows the Western calendar now, may people still conslut the Mayan calendar to guide them.

For example, day 6 is Asmaq or forgiveness. Children who are born on this day are said to have extra capacity for forgiving others. Also, if you have wronged someone and would like to ask their forgiveness, you would wait until this day to have the most favor when approaching them.

Here`s a photo of some of the symbols (I`ve been painting them to keep my fingers in something artistic)...

The Daily Grind

I knew this would happen eventually. In fact, I’m pretty impressed that I’ve made it 6 months already with never a gap of more than 10 days between blogs, but alas, I’ve finally dropped the ball. The truth is life feels pretty normal at this point. The days blur together and the weeks pass quickly as my life here in Guatemala becomes more settled. But that’s not an excuse! I still want to keep you updated on my life and the goings-on here. So let me begin what may be a string of very mundane blogs about my daily existence with a description of what a typical day looks like for me…

I usually wake up to the sound of the neighbor’s chickens and turkeys before my alarm rings. It’s actually become a comforting ritual and allows me time to wipe the sleep out of my eyes and enjoy the stillness before my day begins. Most mornings I throw on a jacket and go for a walk in the hills surrounding my town which helps to remind me that even though I’m in an office most of the day, my town is beautiful and can actually be quite tranquil when all of the street dogs and insane 6 year olds (who are STILL ringing my doorbell at all hours) are still sleeping.

Work starts at 8 after I’ve eaten my breakfast and (maybe) bathed. Typically the morning in my office passes in a mixture of sitting, chatting, more sitting, or me trying to convince my counterparts to help on some sort of project. I leave the office for lunch at 12 (because they insisted that Americans eat lunch at 12 and I might get sick if I don’t stick to my “normal” schedule). The afternoon passes just like the morning, only if I’m lucky someone in the Forestry or Planning offices will be going to a community and I can tag along to see the sights and practice speaking Mam, the local Mayan language, which I am attempting to learn.

Work ends at 4 and I usually use the remaining daylight to play with kids in the park or visit a friend in town. These are my favorite parts of the day…sitting with Doña Mary and joking about whatever cultural mistakes I’ve made during the day, or playing with Alejandra and Maria Victoria (see Christmas cookie pictures).

I make dinner in the evening and write some letters, read a book, or watch a movie and retire at the ridiculously early hour of 9:00. I’m not sure if it’s the effort of thinking and speaking in a different language all day that wears me out, but I have no trouble sleeping 9 or sometimes even 10 hours a night!

I hope that helps you picture what my Guatemalan Peace Corps experience is like at present. The newness has worn off, but I like that living life in a small Guatemalan town feels normal.