Reflections on Guatemala 2013
What surprised me the most in this trip?
Being my third time to Guatemala , I was unsure how much I
would remember as I returned. I was quite young the first two times that my
family traveled to Guatemala ,
so I was surprised at how many memories came back to me. There were numerous
moments where, sitting in the house, I couldn’t remember a place, but as we traveled
there, I suddenly remembered it completely, and a bunch of memories that took
place there would come flooding back so vividly, I’d have to take a minute and
catch my breath.
On the other hand, there were many things that I had
forgotten about, or had been oblivious to as a kid. The most prominent was the
gun presence. As a kid, I guess that I hadn’t been aware of just how many
guards and police were around and how substantial of arms they were carrying.
What aspect(s) of poverty in Guatemala
I’m not sure that this was the case in our past trips, but
this time around, I had a really hard time with the lack of education and
opportunity for formal education. Free schooling is provided up until grade 6,
but after that families are required to pay for everything (travel, enrollment,
supplies, uniforms, etc.) I already knew this, but it hit me again this trip.
As we took a tour of a “Diversificado” school (you could loosely compare this
to basic college level, but students can be the ages of our high school
students) which is only attended by the more fortunate Guatemalans, I realized
just how poor the education received by even those who are able to attend is.
At 17, you could become an elementary school teacher. Let me repeat that, at
17, after 12 years of school, you could be teaching kids up to grade six, in a
situation where many students won’t get any more education than what you
provide. Granted, there are plans to change this system soon and increase the
minimum education for teachers, but there are many other weaknesses in the
system that we, as a charitable organization, are unable to fix.
What do I wish people here could understand about Guatemala
The two things that I find myself saying to people here about
Guatemala
the most are these; they are happy,
and they don’t need us to convert them. The people in Guatemala are
very joyful. As Christians, we easily understand that money doesn’t buy
happiness here, but it’s harder to understand that those without an abundance
of wealth, as we have here, can still be happy. I don’t mean to lessen the
extremity of their poverty, but their lives are far from meaningless, and not
simply full of despair. Secondly, these trips are not mission trips in the
typical sense of spreading the Gospel. Although we are of course ever willing
to share our faith, and we constantly give all glory to God, there are many
Guatemalan Christians already who often end up teaching us more about life as a
Christian than we teach them. Our goals in these trips are more in following of
Jesus’ teachings to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and to defend widows and
orphans.
What do I wish the people of Guatemala
Besides the trite, Canada is a huge country, we don’t have
polar bears, and the States isn’t way better than Canada, I want the people we
work with in Guatemala to understand that life in Canada isn’t necessarily
better than that in Guatemala. Maybe they do know this, and the language
barrier is just keeping me from realizing this, but I want them to know that we
have problems in Canada
and the U.S as well. Many things are easier here, and we do live in luxury
compared to them, but I’m not convinced that’s better. Guatemala seems
to be doing better than us in so many areas: the importance of family, the
sense of community, the reliance on God, and I want them to know that we don’t
want to turn them into us.
What did I learn about myself this trip?
As odd as it sounds, the biggest thing I learned about
myself this trip was just how important abolition work is to me. I’ve gone
through many phases in my life where I work on a fundraiser campaign with my all
(anti-slavery, clean water, education scholarships,) and while I’m perfectly
happy with the work that I get done in those times, they’re usually just
phases. While in Guatemala ,
surrounded by so many needs, while my heart went out to them, and I did what I
could, my thoughts constantly returned to my abolition work through
International Justice Mission. As I would began to think about what more I
could do at home to help with our projects in Guatemala , my heart was still most
burdened with continuing to support IJM and other anti-slavery work, and I
couldn’t think of lessening that. Finding myself doing this, and spending more
and more time praying about it, it looks like my abolition work could be more
than just a phase which I never really expected.
What was the biggest culture shock entering Guatemala
In past trips, I’ve had a really hard time with the culture
shock of the immense poverty of so many in Guatemala , but this time, I found
it easier to move past the emotional to get to the work that needed to be done.
This time, the biggest culture shock or adjustment for me was the market and
grocery shopping. In Guatemala ,
there are markets in every town where you buy all of your food and household
items, and I spent a lot of time helping do the shopping while in Santiago
Atitlan. Everything about the market is so different from here that it’s hard
to even begin to explain or understand for that matter, but by the end of our
trip, I think I had it down pretty well.
What was the biggest culture shock returning home to Canada
Returning home has (so far) been easier for me this time
than in past years, and I think a big part of that is the experience of knowing
to expect a hard time when I get home. I, of course, have had a bit of a shock
adjusting back to the consumerism and wealth of Canada, and the entitlement issues
of so many people has hit me the hardest this time around. Outside of that, I’m
having to adjust back into the individualistic life style of North
America where we have less of a priority on community and family.
It hasn’t been too bad, but for the first week or two, my family really missed
each other after having spent all our time together before, and now having to
part ways for work and school. Plus, even though Bowser is a much closer community
than most, it still fails in comparison to Santiago . Finally, the weather has been a
huge adjustment despised by our whole family.
What was the most frustrating encounter?
By far, the most frustrating thing in Guatemala is
the language barrier. There are so many things that I want to tell people, and
so many question I want to ask them, but even though my Spanish is improving, I
still feel so lacking.
What was the most encouraging encounter?
As we checked on different programs that we’ve had running
in Guatemala ,
it was so encouraging to find many of them working well. Some projects were
going even better than I was aware, and it was awesome to see them making a
tangible impact.
What is your favourite project that CJIA supports?
This year, my favourite CJIA project is the scholarship
program. CJIA, through an “on the ground” organization called Sharing the Dream is currently
supporting 2 students through “Basico” (grades 7,8,9) and one student through “Diversificado”
who’s working towards becoming a Kindergarten teacher. While in Guatemala, we
got to meet with some of the board members of Sharing the Dream, and get to
know a bit more about how they choose the students who receive scholarships and
how they support the attending students through tutoring, supplies and general
assistance. I’m really excited about how Sharing the Dream works, and it’s
great to see more kids receiving a higher education.
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