Saturday August 7, 2010: An 8 Hour Boat Ride

Last night we had dinner at an amazing Uruguayan restaurant! I’m not sure what Uruguayan food is, but it tasted like really good steak and some other red stuff. It was so good! We liked it so much, we all decided to go back as a group for a typical breakfast. In Guatemala, a typical breakfast consists of eggs, black beans, plantains, tortillas, and ours came with bacon! During this trip, which is sponsored by the field school (they’re paying the bill), we all have to eat at the same place on one check. It’s hard enough to decide what I want to eat, let alone get 14 other women to agree on a place. Thankfully, we all love the Uruguayan place, so we’re headed back for breakfast tomorrow too!

After breakfast, we all followed a man to his boat for a journey around the lake. The plan: Santa Catalina, Something Atitlan, San Pedro, then Panajachel again. Santa Catalina was cute and we stopped at a weaving coop where the kids and their parents make things to sell and raise money for their school. Everyone bought a lot of stuff, for charity of course! Then we visited some church, then a local family in their house to show us what it looks like. They didn’t have beds, clean water, a fridge, or proper floors, but they did have a TV and some chickens. The family is Mayan and they live the way their ancestors live, however I have a feeling their ancestors didn’t watch TV. All in all, it was interesting to learn more about their lives and meet a really family unit who lives in the village.

Next we headed to something something Atitlan. I don’t remember the name. But I did see another church. Not that I don’t like churches, but I wanted to see the town and I got annoyed that our guide was so excited about spending all our time in a church. One interesting thing did happen though. As we stood around the guide outside the church and he was saying something about it in really fast Spanish, a young lady dressed in Mayan dress of the town came up and gave him a big hug from behind. She must’ve been about 18 and she had Down’s Syndrome. She’s the first indigenous person I’ve seen with it. Next, she came and gave all of us a big hug each. Then she settled on our coordinator Ellen, called her “Mi major amiga” (my best friend) grabbed her arm and accompanied us on our tour of the church. She was so excited to be in the middle of our group and I was more thrilled to have her nearby too!

As far as the subject of this young lady goes, here might be a good place to address some beliefs of the Mayan culture. First, there’s many different tribes, 22 I believe, so customs and beliefs are unique to each tribe, just like the pattern of their weaving and dress. Over 50% are malnourished, medical care is hard to come by, and the lifestyle is based on traditions passed down through the generations. It’s not uncommon for families to have a couple of children die. Many believe that disabilities are a punishment from God so they get embarrassed and don’t bring the kids out of their house. This is why I was surprised and excited to see this young lady come up to us and hang out for the tour. 

Friday, August 6, 2010: Journey to Atitlan

We left at 8:30 am for a much needed Gero group vacation for the weekend. After loading into 2 camionetas (or vans) we headed out to Lago de Atitlan for a little getaway. Atitlan is a famous, amazingly beautiful lake set between 3 volcanoes, with towns of different Mayan tribes surrounding the lake. Many of these towns are only accessible by boat or on foot, hiking through the steep hills and cliffs. The lake is also a spiritual retreat for people of many religions like Catholics, Mormons, and Muslims.

During the 2 hour ride, we encountered quite a few mudslides and places where the road was washed away, leaving a small patch to cross with a view straight down the edge of a cliff where the rest of the road once was. I’m not a fan of heights or crazy road trips, so I was a little nervous. The driver seemed to know what he was doing though, so I was able to remain calm.

We arrived in Panajachel after a ride down the side of a very steep hill. Immediately the place just felt calm and serene. Something about being near the water mellows people out. Our group leader told us we had to triple up in rooms, so I decided to stay with Joy and Nicki, people I haven’t yet mentioned. Joy is from New Mexico, she’s in her last year of OT, and she’s done some crazy jobs in her life like working on an Alaskan fishing boat (who does that?!). Nicki is an OT student at St. Louis University, super sweet and one of the youngest girls in our group… 21 I think.

After lunch and getting settled in our room, Joy, Nicki, and I went out to see the strip of stores and market stalls along the main road. This man saw us admiring his ashtrays made of Coke cans, so he started talking to us, trying to sell us something. We immediately noticed he was wasted, so I asked him if he knew of a good bar in the area. He reached in his pocket to offer us a drink of his ethanol-flavored liquor, when it slipped out of his hand and shattered on the floor. We took that as our cue to run, so we left him looking so sad that he couldn’t finish whatever he was drinking. I’m sure that was for the best because it didn’t look like he needed it!

Thursday, August 5, 2010: Dinner with the Director

Once a week Gelya, our program director, hosts a Mix and Match Dinner at her house with students and faculty from each of the components. Tonight it was my turn along with 2 other gero students, a pediatric OT, the Med Anthro professor and her student, along with 2 women visitors from the Human Rights Foundation, based out of Washington DC.

The ladies from WA DC were so interesting because their purpose is advocating for human rights here in Guatemala by changing US foreign policy to affect change. They talked about femininicide here in Guatemala; the brutal killing of women that goes on here and that often goes unprosecuted. They also talked about the US policies that are intended to assist people, but often just enable a corrupt system to function and often unintentionally support corruption even more. There’s so many things going on here and people come in with good intentions, but intention isn’t everything and moves need to be made carefully here because the situation is so complicated.

So we got to talking about our experiences here, how our thoughts and experiences in Guatemala have changed us, and how we will look at things differently. It’s interesting to see the differences in people’s values, past times, work conditions, and child care… among other things here. Although life here is incredibly simple, people work hard to have the tiniest amount of possessions. It’s not uncommon to hear about people working 7 or 8 days a week (here they say there’s 8 days in a week, but don’t ask me what the 8^th day is), and the simplest of tasks in the US is incredibly time consuming here. For example, washing clothes. No one has a dryer, and only the rich have washers, so most things are done by hand. Dishes- no dishwashers, and food is so complicated to cook here so there’s piles of dishes all the time. Anyway, my point is all this is to say that what we value is the US is so different from what people value here. I still don’t entirely understand how everything gets done, but I will say that my fiancé is not marrying a true Guatemalan woman because I will never do as much at these women do.

Thursday, August 5, 2010: Early Morning at Casa Maria and Spanish

We left for Casa Maria extra early this morning to see what happens during the shift change. The gero practice group planned to catch workers during the overlapping time in order to conduct what is known as a case conference. This entails picking out a patient that they either have difficulty with or simply want to understand more, and we’d assist by talking about things that might help that particular person, and hopefully this assistance will in turn assist other patients.

Well, when we got there at 6:45 am, the nurses were busy as usual and they told us we’d have to wait until 9am when they had more time. Instead of waiting around, we asked if we could help them do some of their tasks, which turned into all 15 of us in the gero group feeding patients and serving breakfast. It was a lot of fun- way more interesting than sitting on damp couches in the lobby (don’t ask why they’re damp because the answer is gross).

When the staff finished their tasks, we all gathered in the lobby area and Sue, the OT supervisor of our group, told them how much she admired their work and how great all the employees were. Then we asked them if there’s anything we could offer, or that they thought would be interesting to know about. They responded: techniques for handling aggressive patients, and how to lift someone without hurting yourself. Sue was great about turning the conversation into a positive one by encouraging the staff to tell us how they handled the situations, then she told them again what a fantastic job they were doing despite having questions. She went on to encourage all of us to share techniques that we’ve learned and all in all, everyone was able to share so much. We learned from them, they learned from us…. It was just so great!!!

My last day of Spanish was today as well! I was a little sad but welcomed having one more thing crossed off the list here in Guatemala. Our Spanish school offers trips that the teachers are free to join in on, so I invited Jessica, my professora, to Aguas Calientes, a town 20 minutes out of Antigua where they are known for weaving patterns that show up on both sides of the cloth. The school took us to a weaving cooperative and the women there gave us a demonstration on how their weaving works, what the patterns mean, and then they had a demonstration of a typical wedding ceremony. It was really fun and cute to watch, and the things these women made were unbelievably beautiful. Jessica and I had a great time there, and it was the perfect ending to my time in Spanish school.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010: Integrative Seminar and Transiciones

Wednesdays are integrative seminar days. They’re long, interesting, sad, and can be a bit boring. Josie was our facilitator today as Gelya was a bit preoccupied with some secret meeting. We talked about a man who had dementia which turned out to be just an infection. Then we discussed what happens when Americans think they know just how to help, but end up wasting money. For example, in our case study, an NGO bought a bunch of people mattresses to assist them after Hurricane Agatha. They didn’t buy bed frames though, in an effort to buy more mattresses for more people. But in the shelter where these people were staying, the ground was soaked, so all the mattresses got molding and were moldy and unusable after one week. So the family again had nowhere to sleep, and much of their small temporary shack was taken up by a moldy mattress. The moral of this story- if you’re going to help, don’t cut corners and make things worse.

We talk a lot about what people who come here to help are really accomplishing. One speaker made a joke that is really true. She said: “Every time I hear about people coming down here to build churches, I have to laugh. The last thing Guatemala needs is more unskilled labor.” It makes you think about all the missionaries here…. There’s a lot of them! But, are they really helping out here? Or are they taking away jobs from other people? Wouldn’t it be better to pay some of the guys here to build the church instead of buying plane tickets so some American can feel good about himself? There’s so many guys here looking for work! Sorry, but now that I’m here, a lot of things we do seems really backwards.

Anyway, after lunch, we headed to the Trancisiones Wheelchair Factory here in Antigua. The abbreviated backstory goes like this: A special ed teacher from the US took a tour of Hermano Pedro, the local hospital, and met a man in a wheelchair who needed surgery for bedsores. He arranged for the man to get an operation in the US. The man stayed in the US and studied graphic design, then came back to Guatemala and paid for his friends to get surgery in the US. This group of guys, all in wheelchairs, started a wheelchair factory in Antigua that makes wheelchairs out of stainless steel and bike parts so any wheelchair can be fixed in any town in Guatemala. Now they provide wheelchairs to tons of people here, and they teach people in wheelchairs skills in this factory so they can go out and start their own factories or work elsewhere. Really cool! My professor Kim will love this, so I took lots of pictures for her!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010: A New Room

I spent the morning trying to catch up on field notes, sending emails, and planning the next couple of weeks as we wind down. When I arrived home, I noticed that the family here had cleaned my room and the furniture was moved completely around. My dresser was on the opposite wall, with the bed and desk moved too. It’s a nice change, but a little unexpected. I know that my room is clean now, but it’s a little odd to see all my belongings in a different area.

For Spanish class, I talked more to Jessica about the speaker from last Wednesday. The speaker said something to the effect that people here are malnourished because they just like to eat rice and beans all the time. This made me a little angry because many people here have so little, so it’s hard to believe that they only want to eat rice and beans. I explained this to my Spanish teacher and she said it is actually a little true. She said for many people here, corn is a major part of their diet, and a big study just showed that when people consume corn, their bodies absorb fewer nutrients from other foods.

Many people start feeding their babies corn tortillas at 3 or 4 months of age and the mothers stop nursing so the babies are malnourished and many of them die. Between 7 months to 2 years of age, kids eat coffee and bread for breakfast, and few fruits are given because of the belief that kids will be parasites from them. I’m not sure how true all of this is, but it’s still interesting to hear. I should also mention that my Spanish teacher has attended 8 years at the university level so she’s not a completely unreliable source. Nevertheless, the info is so different from our US customs that it would be interesting to look into more.

One more thing… There’s something here called the Canicula. It’s a period of a week in the rainy season without rain. We are not in it, but it’s supposed to happen sometime soon and we’ve all been waiting for it to happen. My feet are constantly soggy, whether I wear shoes or not, and there’s maybe been 3 days in the past month without rain for at least part of the day… 2 of them were this weekend (for most of the day). After a long winter in New Jersey, I was so looking forward to a beautiful summer, which this is definitely turning out to be. However, I do wish that the Canicula would start sometime soon because I love wearing dry clothes!

Monday, August 2, 2010: Casa Maria and Spanish

When we arrived at Casa Maria today, we found out that 2 people had passed away over the weekend. One of them was a man who was overly friendly with the ladies and I feel a little guilty that I have spent most of my time trying to keep an arm’s length or more away from him. I don’t recognize the name of the other man, but it’s very sad nevertheless. I’m curious as to what people were told about their passing, and since most are unable to leave the facility, I wonder if they got a chance to say their goodbyes.

The atmosphere was livelier today, and I watched several interesting interactions in the back room. One man was playing ball with the OT practice group and it’s the most I’ve seen him interact with anyone. Other residents were painting crosses and a group of men were talking while sanding some wood. This was so different from the regular arrangement around the perimeter of the courtyard, and the residents seemed to enjoy themselves, smiling and happy, showing off their artwork. It was a dramatic shift from the norm, in a great way.

Afterward, we interviewed a man more in depth and started listening to his story about how he came to live in Casa Maria. It was really sad, like a soap opera, with so many twists and turns to it. I’ve been reading the book by Rigoberta Menchu, a Mayan woman who learned Spanish so she could tell her story and then she won the Nobel Peace Prize. I’m halfway through the book, and I wish I would have read it sooner because it tells a lot about what people go through here. It’s not really Rigoberta’s story, but a narrative about her people.

Anyway, the man I interviewed today, his story was a striking parallel to her story told in the book. It went from words in a book to suddenly becoming real, and it’s terrifying that anyone could live a life like that. An example I can give is about working on the coffee farms (or fincas) here, or at least in the past. Hundreds of people live on the finca, sleeping on the floor of a covered patio with no walls, with animals and children, no bathrooms, and very little food. They stay here for months, work incredibly hard for fractions of a dollar for a long day of exhausting work. Their kids die on these fincas from malnutrition or illnesses, and then the people are docked pay for the burial expense, then may be asked to leave if they miss work to mourn their dead child. This is what is said in the Rigoberta Menchu book, and it’s not the far off from this man’s story. It’s sad to hear, but I’m glad he shared it with us.

On a lighter note- I returned to Spanish class with my teacher Jessica, and we went over something else in Spanish. She’s teaching me parts of grammar and told me that I say things that long way, which is sort of correct, but that I sound funny. So we went over pronouns or something of the sort. I never really know what to call them, but it helps shorten my sentences and I can understand more of what people say to me so I guess that’s a good thing.