So much to learn

Dona Esperanza and I left the office around 5pm and were walking to the bus stop when she passingly mentioned that her power went out after the storm on Thursday. It wouldn't be back on until the technition came on Monday, she explained. As the words "no hay luz" (literally, there is no light) were coming out of her mouth, the word "headlamp" instantly popped into my mind. This was me realizing that I had forgotten mine. "I forgot my flashlight" I told her, thinking maybe, just maybe she would tell me to go home and get it. "Don't worry," she responded, "we have candles." It hit me just then that I would be learning more this upcoming weekend then I initially realized.

I have recently starting working more with an organization called PIES de Occidente. Among other women's health programs, they work to train midwives in the surrounding towns - often up to 2 hours away. It was through PIES that I met Dona Esperanza, a midwife, somewhere in her 60s, who lives in a small town outside of a small town called San Martin. I asked Dona Esperanza if I could spend a weekend with her sometime, in hopes of seeing a birth. While I didn't see a birth (there are somethings you will never be able to predict) I did have a fascinating weekend for so many different reasons.

While I "did things" for most of Saturday, there was also lots of downtime. While I spent most of this time reading, or hiding from the rain, it was in this time that I also got to see how Dona Esperanza and her family live and had a little glimpse into what life is like in a small, small town. Lack of power, totally normal, especially during the rainy season, meant that we went to bed earlier, and ate dinner practically in the dark - so I did a lot of sleeping too.

Friday night I got the tour of Dona Esperanza's house. The actual house consists of 2 large rooms and a kitchen. One room was where I stayed, and the other is where she and her daughter sleep. The bathroom is close, but disconnected from the house. She showed me the medicinal plants that grow right around the house, the chicken coop (to sell when they get big), the pig (also to sell when it gets big), and the fields of potato and corn. I learned that many people buy various livestock when they are small to sell when they get big. I wasn't able to figure out how much money they actually make off of the animals. You would assume it was a fair amount for all the labor and food that goes into taking care of the animal. But I'm not sure.

Her sons and their wives live practically next door in this 6 house town that Dona Esperanza lives in. One son works in Xela, so he and his wife live there during the week. The other (who is married with 2 kids, one on the way) works the fields of potatoes, corn and beans. The beans are not for selling, they grow only enough to eat. She seemed very proud of all the land that her family has - or that all the land around her house was her family's. One daughter, who is 19, lives with Dona Esperanza. She just graduated from high school with a degree to be a secretary. She has yet to receive her papers from her school that certify her for work. Therefore, she takes care of the house (cooks, cleans, feeds the animals, shops, etc...) while Dona Esperanza is at work. Dona Esperanza's other two daughters are married, and live with their husbands in the large San Martin. Her other son spent 50,000 Quetzales (roughly $6,000) to go to the US two years ago.

At our candle-lit dinner the first night, I heard about the degeneration of the Guatemalan family. Dona Esperanza and her daughter believe (as apparently many other Guatemalans do) that Guatemalan youth are increasingly rebellious, not listening to their parents, doing their homework, lacking ambition, and greedy. They equate this to the large number of fathers who immigrate to the US and leave their children to be raised by their mothers. The mothers then have a hard time discipling their children and being a single parent, and the children get used to having money and just want to spend it on junk food and toys. When the fathers do return, it is too late for them to play a significant role in the upbringing of their children. Children claim they don't know that parent and it becomes difficult to discipline the children at all. So, fathers go to the US seeking a better life for their children, sending money home, wanting to save enough to build a nicer house, maybe buy some land. In turn, they get blamed for the increase in gangs, and rebellious, greedy teenagers.

Betty's (Dona Esperanza's daughter - the one who lives with her) church has a series of activities on Saturday for parent's and children that dealt with the loss of morals and values in Guatemalan society. Betty also shared with me that on Saturday morning she had gone to a youth conference at her church about abortion. She was aghast at how many illegal abortions occurred in Guatemala (roughly 600,000 - according to the video she saw). If that many happened in Guatemala, think of how many children were murdered worldwide, she stated. The following morning I learned more about her religious beliefs. She was Evangelical, while her mother Catholic. She was very active in her youth group and fascinated with religion. She had once been involved in the wrong crowds - those friends were now married, had illegitimate children, divorced, etc... Through the encouragement of her brothers and sisters, and the church, she now had a better group of friends. While her mother disapproved of her boyfriend, because he didn't finish high school and lacked profession, he was active in the church as well. It was important to her that they both have the same beliefs.

When the weather was nice Sunday morning, I sat outside for a while reading and observing. The wood stove (for long-cooking items such as beans and corn) was ready to go. Since they lived off the main road, vendors walked around going to houses announcing what they were selling. A fish seller, a bread truck and some leaves that Betty bought to wrap her tamalitos in. Although, before purchasing them she asked the 6 year old girl selling them, "who is selling these, your sister?" The girl nodded and Betty gave her the money. Dona Esperanza had worked already that morning (I'll get to that later), so after breakfast, Betty cleaned the house, swept, washed dishes, fed the animals, took a shower, and got dressed up (by my standards) to go into town and do the shopping.

I learned how to make tortillas that morning. Mine kept ripping in my hands, although I was able to get them relatively round. We stuffed them with refried beans and then fried them. I was pleased that I got to take care of the frying while Betty did the dishes. Made me feel like I was contributing in one way or another, seeing as I made one tortilla for every 4 Betty made. For breakfast we then ate rice, tortillas, empanadas (the stuffed, fried tortillas),

While we were cooking, a truck with a loud speaker drove by and made an announcement for a parent's meeting at the local school. I've recently become aware that communication, or reaching people to let them know that something is happening, is a challenge. This was a "duh" moment for me, (of course these people don't have internet, or the resources for teachers to copy meeting announcements and send them home) but I just hadn't thought the logistics through. So, in this case, a truck with a man that speaks over a loud speaker is the way people learn about meetings.

The complexity of culture was hard to ignore this weekend. How long would it take for me to feel like I had a grasp on the Guatemalan people? With all the different Mayan languages and cultural groups, was that even possible? The nuances of culture are endless, so how does one like me work effectively in these communities? These are the reasons there are so many development programs that miss the mark, I guess. There is much to reflect on and you all are reading my random initial thoughts. So, I got much more out of these 48 hours in San Martin then I had expected, and I didn't even mention all the prenatal checks and traditional post-birth steam baths...