Guatemala 2013 - Part 2.....The Real Work

I learned a valuable lesson (okay, a few) in Guatemala.

Lesson #1
The first was that regardless of how much you know, the skills and experience you have, or the preparation you have put in, that often the most important quality or characteristic you can possess is your willingness to serve, your capacity for charity. Our group had doctors, dentists, gardeners, lawyers, business people, teachers, mothers, fathers, returned missionaries, children ranging in ages from 9 to 18, and college students. People that wouldn't have known each other under other circumstances, and people who left grateful for the the charity of former strangers who are now cherished friends. It was a fantastic group of people bound together by charity, kindness and a willingness to work.

Lesson #2

It's best to be prepared for anything when camping in a mosquito net on a cement floor in Guatemala. If you are afraid of large bugs, you should be prepared for large bugs, and figure out how to stifle your inclination to scream. If you really hate cold showers that feel like some form of military torture, you should be prepared to either abstain from showers altogether, shower in the rain, or endure like a navy seal. If you are afraid of stomach bugs, parasites, or other generally unsanitary conditions, you'd just better suck it up, eat what is served, and have large doses of Cipro and hand sanitizer at your disposal.  

Lesson #3

All the preparation in the world can't prepare you for people you have never met. I was supposed to teach business principles ranging from accounting to entrepreneurship to micro finance to various groups of villagers. I don't speak Spanish. Neither did most of the participants who still speak Q'echi', the local Mayan language. Obviously this presented a few obstacles in the delivery of information. I had excellent Spanish translators from our group, but we often had the feeling that much of what we were trying to communicate was lost in translation by the time it made it from my mouth, to the Spanish translator, to the Q'echi' translator, to the participants and back on through to me. It was tedious, tiring, frustrating and often fraught with confusion that stemmed far beyond the language barriers. 

Even though we explained early on that we were there to provide knowledge not money, many of the participants were definitely looking for money. The hardest part was winning them over to the idea that even if I gave them money, unless they gained the knowledge they needed to save and invest that money and run a business I would come back the next year and they would be no closer to financial independence. I'm not going to lie, I often felt guilty trying to persuade people who live on virtually nothing that they, too, could save a little. The guilt came from feeling like I have so much, and can't even say that I fully abide by the spend less than you make principle. 

In the picture below, there is a woman standing to my right. She was the only woman in this group, and when we first started talking she was one (of many) who wanted me to give her money to start her business. She was adamant that she was unable to start the business on her own. When we asked her what type of business she wanted to start, she explained she was trying to buy just one chicken. Heartbreaking and frustrating. This would pretty much capsulize my feelings. I could easily have bought her a chicken. Frustrating because she was also capable of saving enough to buy one chicken.  It might take her a while, but after we talked though her financial situation, we determined that she could do it in less than six months. By the end of the workshop, I like to believe that she believed she was capable of doing it. 

The most trying class was a group of around 60 women. They, like the woman above, also wanted money and it seemed like the first day was spent trying to deflect the issue of handing out money. Four hours in a very hot classroom, with 60 women staring with either angry or blank faces as the interpreter would talk for 15 or 20 minutes after I would speak for less than 5 minutes made for a mind blowing afternoon. I was sure that no one would come back, including myself, but the next day the room was just as packed, and we made some progress. 

Lesson #4

There is a very fine line between third world and first world poverty, and there are very few people who live on that fine line in between where money / things don't consume your life, either because you have or becuase you don't have. In the class of 60 women (below) we asked what is money and what would you do with it if you had more? One of the women very sincerely said no. Who am I to tell her otherwise? No one is the answer to that one.

 

 

 

We did make some progress,mostly measured by level of their engagement and my very favorite picture from the trip is the one below of this woman who had volunteered to participate in a role play exercise which took a lot of courage. She was so shy and timid, but her willingness said a lot about her wanting to learn. I love this picture becuase I can see her thinking, and she was so considerate and deliberate and wanted so much to make the right decisions even though it was just a game. 

Lesson #5
My life is pretty great. Always good to have a really solid reminder and. I figured I would come away grateful for the comforts of home, but I came away grateful for a few things I had never considered before. I came away most grateful for growing up in a home, a religion and a country that gave me the confidence to believe I can solve problems, and know who I am and what I am worth. It may not seem like much, but I left believing that it is sort of everything.

Guatemala 2013 - Part 1....Adios y Hola

I have this really wonderful, beautiful and smart friend who loves to do good in the world. Her enthusiasm is contagious. So when she asked me to come on a humanitarian expedition to Guatemala I said sure. She had been a couple of times and gushed regularly over how much it would change my life. In my mind I kept thinking, "I'm sure it will, but I'm sure I have a pretty good idea what I have agreed to, so changing my life is probably off the docket." I'm a wee bit skeptical about most things.

I'm not going to lie, there was a lot of preparation work involved, as part of what I had agreed to included developing the curriculum for the business development workshop. There were times when I didn't want to do it. There were times when I felt this was not my "baby", which made the late nights I spent working on it seem even later. In short, my attitude was lacking. Not because I didn't want to, but because while I felt I was doing good, I didn't yet feel it was my passion.

Down to the deadline, as things always go for me because I live to procrastinate, I was scrambling to mentally accept that I was headed to the 3rd world for a 10 day vacation sans kids (and a petrified BK). The BK had been asking me for a month if I was excited, I kept saying I hadn't really thought about it. In fact, it didn't really hit me until I was still trying to find permethrin (thank you Sports Authority - no thanks to Walmart, Target, and REI) to repel bugs, a mosquito net, and other various sundries with less than 2 hours to go before heading to the airport.

These are the sweet faces that I kissed goodbye. The Beaver Cleaver version of this story would read that I had such conflicting emotions about being away from my family for so long. The Real Me version was grateful to have some free time for reading and sleeping through the night without interruption - even if it was on a sleeping pad under a mosquito net on a cement floor. My favorite moment of a trip away is that moment when you get through security and find a seat waiting for your flight to leave. I am so utterly devoid of anxiety at that moment, that I wish I could bottle that calm and down it every afternoon at 4pm.

I arrived in Guatemala City around 6am local time, greeted by the radiant smile of my friend. After a late night that included a midnight connection in LAX (worst airport ever!), and a rather uncomfortable night's rest on a plane, it was a welcome relief to see her familiar face. After heading to the hotel and ditching my bags, I opted to spend the day in Antiqua with a couple of the other families. I should mention at this point that Family Humanitarian Experience is just that - an experience for families to do service together. One caveat of course is that the children be older than mine. This meant that I was traveling alone while others had their spouses and usually one but sometimes 3 or 4 kids with them. I should have assumed that only really amazing people vacation this way, so I shouldn't have been so initially closed off to meeting people, but that is my natural tendency. Going to Antigua with a bus full of people I didn't know was a major step for me. One that paid off handsomely.

Antigua is a beautiful town, not too far from Guatemala City and very touristy. This was actually my third visit, and since I usually forget most things, a lot of it seemed new. After the bus ride, I had become pretty comfortable with the families in our group and was having a great time getting to know these families who are now some of my favorite and most admired friends. We sat through a very boring tour of the jade museum (who knew / who cares) that also sold tasty chocolate which I just remembered is still in my fridge (not for long), a relatively interesting tour of an old monastery that crumbled during an earthquake and which is connected by underground tunnels (in which there are still human remains including bones of children - creepy) to the other monasteries in the city. We wandered the streets, ate a the local version of KFC, and bought souvenirs from the local kids who followed us around. We made it back just in time for a delicious dinner at the hotel and the orientation. One night of good, quiet sleep in a very nice hotel room before the real "vacation" began. Stay tuned....