Turning Over A New Leaf

I am so excited to tell you all that I will now be living in Chimaltenango and working with a women's co-operative called Corazon de Mujeres (the heart of the women). Chimaltenango is about 45 minutes from Antigua by bus and it is one of the biggest cities in Guatemala. The women in the Corazon de Mujeres group weave hand-made scarves, purses, clothing, etc., to help support their families. These women are hard-working, welcoming, and brave. Each of these women suffered from the violence that happened during the war in Guatemala and a part of what they do is share their stories with groups that come to visit them.

Over the next nine months, I will be living and working with the women of the Corazon de Mujeres. I will be teaching the women English, and tutoring the children after school, but I am certain that I will learn more from them than I could possibly teach. I hope to record their stories and translate them for CEDEPCA, another organization that I will be working with. CEDEPCA stands for Centro Evangelico de Estudios Pastorales en Centro America (Evangelical Center of Pastoral Studies in Central America). Cedepca is a training center that provides safe, accepting, creative spaces where women and men from many different Christian traditions can deepen their faith while they strengthen their ability to confront the key issues facing their communities.Cedepca seeks to form thoughtful, compassionate disciples of Jesus Christ whose world is big enough to include all God’s children and who care for all of God’s creation.Cedepca offers people the tools to eradicate violence and injustice in their world, especially violence against women and children.

This past week, I was lucky enough to spend time learning about Cedepca in Guatemala City and I can't wait to spend one week out of every month in Guatemala City working with Cedepca. The people who work for Cedepca are people I really look up to and hope to be like some day. They are making such a difference here in Guatemala and in other Central American countries and I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to work and learn with them.

Lessons Learned in the Guat: Part 3

Lesson 10: Everyone Poops

I used to be the type of person who gets rather embarrassed when the topic of bodily functions comes up. However, I've learned to get over it. The bathroom at my new host family's house has a sheet over the door and the toilet doesn't flush (think outhouse). When the wind is blowing, it's not uncommon to catch a glimpse of a person in the bathroom doing his or her business. Two months ago this would have mortified me, but today I am just glad we have a toilet. I still find it a bit embarrassing that everyone in the house can hear the goings-on in the bathroom, but I'm pretty much over it.  After all, everyone poops right? I don't know why it took coming to Guatemala for me to realize that, but it's an important lesson, especially now that I'm bound to be caught in the act.

Lesson 11: Lesbiana is not the Spanish word for Lesbian(at least not in the Guat)

"Hola, me llamo Lesbiana,"(Hi, my name is Lesbiana) is something I hear on a pretty regular basis, believe it or not. The first time someone introduced herself as Lesbiana I almost burst out laughing. I thought I had heard her wrong, but after asking for her name again I was certain that Lesbiana was, in fact, her name. Lesbia is also a popular name for girls here, in case you were wondering.



Lesson 12: It's O.K. To Ask For Help

As some of you know, I am now living with a new host family and have a new placement. I lived in Comalapa for three weeks and was miserable the entire time. At first my host family seemed to be making an effort to get to know me, but after the first couple of days they seemed to lose interest. I would try to spend time with them and they would suggest that I spend time in my room until the next meal. I was shadowing at the school, which was great, but my actual job description kept changing and that really stressed me out. One day I was told I would be teaching two times a week, and the next I was told I would be teaching six times for week for 8 hours per day. At first I was told I would have one class, and later I was told that I would have three or four classes. I really wouldn't have minded spending most of my time teaching, but my start date kept being pushed back and I really hated being in the dark about my job. I ate one meal a day with my host dad (if I was lucky) and I ate the rest of my meals alone in silence. I love alone time, but having only alone time for three weeks straight made me feel extremely lonely and sad. I'm not going to go into detail recounting everything my host family did to isolate me, but I will say that at times I felt like they did it on purpose. One day, after eating at a table outside while the rest of the family ate together in the kitchen, I realized that I needed a change. I called Marcia, the director of the YAV program in Guatemala, and told her what had been going on. To my immense relief, she promised to find me a new host family as soon as possible, and within two days I moved out.