Guatemala - Day 2 - First Day in Guatemala

Excerpt from Journal:

I am utterly exhausted, but trying to write because I want to capture how I’m feeling in the moment. I think the one word to sum up today would be stressed. But it’s a very different type of stress than what I’m used to dealing with. My mind is constantly processing what is being said because of the Spanish. I also feel like I have to stay at the top of my game and manage my attitude because I’m not here for me – I’m here for the kids.

Today I was really dehydrated and was getting a headache. I asked for water and they told us to get back on the bus, that we would get some. The Chapines started telling a story about an American girl who went to the dump and then started the Safe Passage Foundation. Sandra was pouring everyone water at the front of the bus so I tried to pass my water bottle up like the others were doing, but Chris told me to wait. My attitude instantly plummeted because I was uncomfortable. It didn’t help that we were sitting three to a seat and my ass was half hanging off of the bench for over an hour. My back hurt soooo bad by the time we got to where we were going. Plus, the bus was hot and all the windows were down to keep us cooled off - so the wind was blowing my hair around (which I hate). I was trying to get conversations started between the US and Guatemalan students, which took a lot of work.

Guatemala City Dump

We went to the garbage dump today, which was worse than I expected, but not much. Some of the sad things that I learned were that many children were killed there on accident because their mothers are working there.It contains many hazardous and bio hazardous wastes because they don’t try and address those things here – they don’t have the infrastructure. 

River Valley Slowly Being Filled

The saddest thing to me is that the place where the dump is located was chosen because it is a very deep valley in the middle of the city. It was where a very mighty river once formed (and now a desecrated and toxic one does). They just keep filling in more and more of the river valley. Que horrible! I’m trying to think of an equivalently sized valley as an example back home. I'm picturing the Nisqually River Valley as you wind around on the way up to Mount Rainier.

People Sorting Through Trash

The other strange thing was the juxtaposition of the cemetery and the dump. They almost fed into one another. The graves (not sure what the official name is for them) are similar in shape to those in cemeteries in New Orleans. These seemed to be much more varied. There were some where you could tell no one had visited in years and years – the stone all crumbling and the glass dirty and broken (even some of the big ones). Others looked more like a modern shrine. Some were absolutely beautiful.

This seems a very poor country overall. I haven’t seen much that would point me to where the money is, other than Guatemala City where they had modern office buildings. It is around 4 million people.

Our home stay family is WAY too nice. They make us all homemade food that take hours and don’t let us help. They are very gracious and I find myself saying “thank you” and “very good” way too much. I need to look up a lot more Spanish words but I’m so tired. I just set my alarm to 7:00am. It’s is 9:11pm and I am going to sleep.

Wishing my love a good night. I hope things are well with her and Ginger. Since it’s Saturday, I will miss falling asleep on the couch with her. Besos mi amor.

Thoughts on this entry:

What a complainer I am! Ok, so you're uncomfortable - get over it! I know I recorded what I was feeling this day because I was so surprised by my negative reaction, though. It's usually pretty hard to get me upset (unless you know how to push my buttons) and can keep a good attitude through more than the average person. For some reason, this tested me more than I expected.

Looking back, I'm also surprised that I was writing about my reaction before I even wrote about some of the bigger things that happened that day. Especially the fact that I said the saddest thing was the destruction of the river. Those who know me know that over the last year and a half, I've been making great strides in putting people before objects - even environmental objects like life giving river. In my exhaustion - this is what I recorded. Knowing that things (objects, feelings, relationships) only have the meaning that I assign them makes me realize I have some more work to do with where I place value.

Picturing the cemetery and the dump now, it's almost as if the dead had been laid to rest in just such a place so that it was easily only a matter of time until they slid into the filth slowly filling the river valley. So sad.

Guatemala - Day 1 - Still in the US

Excerpt from Journal:

Our flight has just left Seattle, on the way to Salt Lake City. We'll be laying over there and in LA on our way to Guatemala City. So far the trip has been great and even though I've been busy, I haven't been stressing at all. The kids all seem really great. I've tried to start learning their names and think I'm doing pretty well for only a couple hours into it. I took the light rail to the airport, which worked out great!

So far my lack of communication devices has not been too bad. Yes, it’s only been four hours. I know I’m addicted, though. 

Thoughts on this entry:

At this point in the journey I really had no idea what I had gotten myself into. The parts of the journal I didn't post here were endless prattle.

Been Back for Two Months

So I've been back from Guatemala for two months now and finally feel like I've processed everything (including my return to the US) enough to post my journals from my time there. Look for those posts coming soon!

7 Days In Guatemala

I've been in Guatemala for seven days now. It seems like it's either been 2 or 15, depending on how I think about it. I'll be blogging more detailed when I return and will refer to my journal entries I'm making every day. But since I have a few minutes, I thought I'd post an update.

My Spanish was worse than I thought when I arrived, but it's been getting better every day. In the mornings we go to work. I'm on the hospital work team, which means we travel from San Miguel Escobar to Antigua and spend a few hours talking with, playing with and interacting with patients. After siesta, we go to language school, also in Antigua, where everyone's Spanish is improving.

We've done some other things, as well. We went to a garbage dump, a cemetary, some churches for Semana Santa, a market where they demonstrated a traditional Mayan wedding, hung out in a few bars and a few other things here and there. Like I said, I'll go into more detail on these when I return.

Modern Communication

I'm on my way to the airport right now. This wil be my last post before I have no access to any communication devices for two weeks. I'm really afraid I'm going to have withdrawl. My phone is my: communication device for phone, text, 3 email addresses, facebook and any internet site. It also serves as my source of all knowledge, reminder, calculator, alarm clock, watch, flashlight, period tracker, starbucks finder, gps unit, address book, camera, photo album, source of news, weather alerts, game system, tv set and many other things I'm not remembering this second.

Usually, you can contact me on my normal number, google voice number, skype, live messenger, 3 email addresses, text, facebook, twitter, blogspot, linkedin and I'm sure some other. I'm almost overwhelmed by the lack of communication I will recieve. What will I do with myself? How will I feel knowledgable without my favorite device?

So far, in order to attempt to replace what I'm used to, I have packed the following items: journal, pens, book, flashlight, watch (with alarm), spanish-english dictionary, camera, video camera, printed all kinds of into I might need and told everyone I'll see you in two weeks w/ lots of pictures!

Gringos

T-2 days until departure. Something else came up for me in our preparations. It made me think about our society and the meaning we attach to words, like “Gringo”. While we are in Guatemala, we are going to be working with local high school students. We are supposed to call them chapines and they will call us gringos. I immediately was taken aback, as I had NEVER heard this term used in a positive way and most often heard it used in a negative way.

Having recently read the book Uprooting Racism: How WhitePeople Can Work for Racial Justice, I automatically think twice about anything that is said and make sure I speak up about it rather than brushing it under the rug. I immediately said, “I take offense to that. I don’t want to be called a gringo.” They informed me that it was very neutral in Guatemala and will be used in a neutral way. I was skeptical, but they repeated over and over that it doesn’t mean anything. When I got home that night, I talked to my girlfriend about it and she said she had mostly heard it used negatively as well.

I did some checking to see what the internets had to say about it. Here’s the link to Dictionary.com where many sources are referenced. Here’s the link to UrbanDictionary.com, usually reflects the way a word is used more accurately. This led us to a wider discussion of what other terms are used for someone from the USA (whether positive, neutral or negative). Here’s the list I found: bule, cracker, gub/gubba, gweilli, haole, honky, redneck, roundeye, seppo/septic, ugly, whitey, yank, ofay, peckwood, dink, merkin. If you’re anything like me, you’re familiar with some of these and not with others. Some are obviously meant to be offensive, and others are purely neutral.

I will go with the advice of my fellow-travelers and not take offense to the term while I am on this trip, but I am reserving the right to express my opposition in the future.

Water Usage

One of the things that has come up for me before I've even left the US is the issue of water usage. In one of our planning meetings, I asked about the rule of 2-3 minute showers. I was told that was very long for the Guatemalan people we will be staying with and that we shouldn't shower every day. I asked how it was possible to take that short of a shower. More than one person said it was possible.

On Saturday, I timed myself. I didn't overly rush but I also only washed 1/4 of my body thoroughly, 1/2 pretty well and 1/2 not at all. Time: 7:18. I don't know how I'm going to do this other than turning the water on and off. Next timing will measure only the amount of time the water is on.

But when I pressed the other people in our meeting about this, they started giving me facts about how scarce water is. I don't doubt that it is, in Guatemala, but it's not up here. Especially when I drive over about a billion gallons of it every day. My biggest issue at our last condo board meeting was that people were using too much water where I have to pay a portion (because we get one water bill for the whole building).

Aside from that fact, I started thinking about how I got to the point where I would take a hot, hour long shower on the weekend and not even blink. I think it's because over the years, I have structured my life around the environment and not around people. I only cared about the plants and animals that lived on this planet. I am a rabid recycler/composter and pretty good a energy saving (although that could be improved). I buy local when I have the option between two pretty equal products. We made sure we purchased a condo (not a house) with a walk score of more than 90 (our is 92). I thought that this one transgression could be overlooked because of all the other good things I do.*

All of that being said, I realized that my new-found insight that people matter (simply because I decide they do) has not been fully applied to my life. I say that people matter, I tell them how and why I care about them, I've been trying to do more to really demonstrate that through my action. However; I haven't really taken a look at why I perform every action that I do and re-evaluate some of the assumptions I've made in the past.

Taking all of this into account and trying to determine if and how I should change my behavior, I'm thinking about how my use of water would impact people in Guatemala. If I used less water, would they get more water? Of course not. So I need to think about the real impact of me using water, here in the PNW.

* Before anyone starts critiquing my footprint, yes, I know I could take the bus more often, stop buying from Amazon.com and become veg. :)

First Post

Hello everyone,

It's T-13 days until I leave for my trip to Guatemala with Global Visionaries. Those who know me, know I love to travel! I believe that the most important part of traveling is really experiencing another culture. Sure, it's also beautiful and there are amazing landmarks. That is part of what makes up the culture you are visiting, but there is so much more!

I am on a quest to become a more responsible traveler, both environmentally and culturally. The blogs I intend to post here will detail parts of my travel, but more importantly will reflect on what I'm taking away from the experience. I hope that people will comment on my posts and start discussions that challenge people. Challenges (whether from within or external) are the only way to really grow.

Thank you for reading!

- Being Travel

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.
  - G. K. Chesterton