Pictures: Antigua, GuatemalaHi everyone,
Sorry for the long time between blog posts, things are getting crazy trying to finish up classes and such. And secondly, sorry again because this post is going to be really long, there is lots to tell! :)
FIRST. Drumroll please.
On Monday, July 20th, I will be leaving with Jenna and Ben, my two closest friends here from Goshen, to NEBAJ, a small village located in the Guatemalan department of QUICHE for service! (Or Community Learning as CASAS calls it) I am SOOO excited about this placement. Here is a little background:
Place: Nebaj, Quiché
Organization: Comité Q'Nail
Job Description: Work in a youth center founded by Ixil (pronounced Isheel) youth, help to coordinate and participate in educational and cultural activities with Ixil children and youth, help out teaching English classes or computer or math tutoring, can get involved in other activities at institution: HIV/AIDS, library, etc. (Ben and I are hoping to start or participate in something sports oriented. :) )
Highlights from CASAS and my Guatemalan guide book:
- I will not be living in a host family, but at the institution. I thought about this for awhile, and wondered how the experience would be without an indigenous Mayan host family, but then decided that the job description and location interested me the most. Not to mention I was thrilled that Jenna and Ben also wanted to go.
- Located in Northwestern Guatemala, high in the mountains
- One of the most beautiful places in Guatemala
- The Ixil villages in Quiché, including Nebaj, were the hardest hit by the recent Guatemalan civil war and violence
- The first language spoken in this area is Ixil, the second is Spanish
- A very low tourist area, the local Ixil women wear some of the most beautiful and traditional Mayan clothing in Guatemala
- An 82 foot waterfall is nearby, and I hope to visit it
- The town consists of white, adobe buildings and cobblestone streets, and there are no streets signs
There you have it! I will leave by public bus (called chicken buses in Guatemala because you can transport poultry as well) on July 20th with Ben and Jenna. We will return to CASAS August 13th and I will fly back to the States on August 15th. One month from today!
Now a little update on my week:
My one my good friends here from Goshen is named Jenna. Jenna was leaving with a fantastic family, but unfortunately the day after Free Travel she learned that her family had to move out of their house because they could not pay the rent and were struggling to find money. (Both parents are without jobs). Jenna stayed at CASAS for almost a week before things were finalized that she could come stay with me and my host family. I guess our moms know each other through a Bible study group, so my parents offered to have her come stay with us (which really surprised me). SO, for the last 2 weeks here in Guatemala City I have had a roommate! It's really nice having her around, since I don't interact much with my family, especially when they're not around. My host mom actually just got a job at a restaurant last week and works 4-10 pm everyday, so now no one is home until either my host dad or sister get back from work, between 8-9 pm. Nicely put, I am slightly frustrated and slightly burnt out with my host family situation and am looking forward to something new. Yay!
Last week went well, I successfully finished my final project on soccer, though our Canadian professor grades quite hardly. Apparently A's are a rare commodity in Cananda, something I have had a hard time adjusting to. :) But, that's another story. Last Tuesday afternoon, July 7th, we visited an organization working with gang prevention around Guatemala City. They organize various activities and educational programs, including inside local prisons, trying to educate at-risk youth about the danger associated with gangs. A random fact: if you belong to a gang in Guatemala (most gangs have come down from Los Angeles, including the MS-13 and MS-18), the average life expectancy is 24 or a life in prison. It was another fascinating and eye-opening experience. The rest of the week we had free afternoons to finish our final projects, and my presentation was on Friday. One highlight from my project on Guatemalan soccer: The professional league here (equal to MLS) is called the National League (Liga Nacional), and there are three divisions below this, similar to minor leagues in the States. At the end of each year (there are 2 seasons in a year), the worst team by point ranking goes down to the First Division, and the best team in the First Division goes up to the National League, this structure works in the same way for the rest of the divisions. Crazy, huh? So technically, if you are in the Third Division and win (a lot) you could be in the National League in 3 years. So, the teams are always changing, which is something I wasn't used to with sports in the States.
Weekend:
I had a great weekend. Friday night Jenna went to see her own host family, who is staying in a very small house with Jenna's grandma, aunt, and uncle, so I had the house to myself. I did homework and watched the Gold Cup (a CONCACAF soccer tournament). Saturday Jenna, me, and another Goshen CASAS student Trish, took public chicken buses to Antigua! Both Jenna and Trish had been there before with families and Spanish classes, and I was thrilled to finally get to go. It was a beautiful day, all the volcanoes surrounding the small city were clear and shining. We spent some time in the markets there, and I finally found some things that I loved for myself, I was so excited: a beautiful duffel bag, a ceramic mug made by a kind Guatemalan named Francisco, and a woven fleece jacket/hoodie type thing. I also finished gift shopping and we enjoyed wandering around and looking at the overwhelming number of things. We had lunch in a great restaurant off of the Central Park, then walked around looking at other stores and places, then had ice cream in the Park, which has lots of trees and a fountain, in the center of the Palace and Cathedral, and then headed back to the buses to go back to Guatemala City. Jenna and I arrived back at the house, exhausted and proud to have travelled all by ourselves, and watched the US/Haiti Gold Cup game with my host dad (no comment, though Holden's goal was amazing). Sunday I went with Trish, Jenna, and her family to the Mega Frater in San Cristobal, the local mega church. The church was massive and beautiful, complete with 2 schools, fields, and like 10-story parking garage on the campus. The church is built for 12,000 people, but I estimate only 5 or 6 thousand were there on Sunday. I really enjoyed the live worship band and singing, and they have simultaneous translation into Engligh on headsets so we could follow along, though I could understand most of the service. Sermon: Wife and Husband are equal, though Wife must recognize her place below Husband and serve and assist him with anything he needs. Jenna then went back with her family for the day and I hung out with my host dad again (great) and did homework.
Monday afternoon we finished our afternoon classes, which was Peace, Justice, and Violence for me. I really enjoyed reading our textbooks/readers, but didn't feel like I got a whole lot of classtime, but that's okay. Yesterday we had a busy afternoon - we first went to a center that supports migrants heading to or coming from the US or other countries. They provide food and a place to stay for usually up to three nights, and will assist migrants with educational, health, and legal services. We even got to talk with 3 migrants who were staying there currently - 2 had been recently deported from Mexico and 1 from Houston, Texas after having lived there for 20 years. Their stories, coupled with the reading we have done on Guatemalan migration for our Intro class, were definitely hard to hear. The journey, pain, and horror that migrants experience, especially women, on the path to try to find another/better life is unbelievable. I won't go into details now. After that we visited the Anthropologists Forensic of Guatemala, who is working at exhuming mass graves throughout the country from the all too recent civil war in Guatemala that left over 200,000 people, mostly indigenous, either dead or "missing". The organization goes to villages, finds, and carefully exhumes the bones of these murdered, sends them back to the lab in Guatemala City with any evidence (clothing, for example) found in the mass grave, and there professionals attempt to put bodies together, identify the dead, and analyze what happened there, treating each place as a crime scene. This is textbook definition of meticulous work, but they have been able to identify hundreds of bodies and send these remains back to the Mayan villages where families can perform a proper burial and finally have more closure to what happened to them. (A proper burial in the Mayan tradition is extremely important, and there is also an active bond between the living and dead that is nurtured by visiting a grave site, thus a lot of the pain inflicted on the Maya was the creation of these mass graves, or the taking of bodies, so that the Maya could not properly bury their dead). Needless to say, this organization does amazing work. We got to see parts of these bodies (skeletons), but weren't told too much about them. We also got to see the "evidence room" where there are hundreds of cardboard boxes waiting to be processed. Each box contained 1-3 bodies. There was an entire section that had come from Nebaj, Quiche. I don't have time to go into more detail, but both of these places were amazing and their work truly inspirational.
Tomorrow is my Spanish final, then in the afternoon we are visiting the US embassy, which should be pretty interesting. Friday morning we have Spanish group presentations with our classes (each class performs something using all the grammar we've learned to the entire Seminary. Oh boy.) Friday afternoon we wrap up our Intro class and finish final project presentations, Saturday is open, and Sunday I'll leave my host family and spend the afternoon and evening in CASAS hanging out with the group and doing service orientation. I'll write another closing post then, and that might be the last you'll here from me until I return to CASAS in August. I'm not sure if we'll have time or find internet in Nebaj or not. I leave for service on Monday.
Anyways, I'm still doing well and learning a lot, so I can't ask for too much more. :) I hope everyone is doing well! Thanks so much for all your support and prayers. Until Sunday!
Much love,
Rachel
Sorry for the long time between blog posts, things are getting crazy trying to finish up classes and such. And secondly, sorry again because this post is going to be really long, there is lots to tell! :)
FIRST. Drumroll please.
On Monday, July 20th, I will be leaving with Jenna and Ben, my two closest friends here from Goshen, to NEBAJ, a small village located in the Guatemalan department of QUICHE for service! (Or Community Learning as CASAS calls it) I am SOOO excited about this placement. Here is a little background:
Place: Nebaj, Quiché
Organization: Comité Q'Nail
Job Description: Work in a youth center founded by Ixil (pronounced Isheel) youth, help to coordinate and participate in educational and cultural activities with Ixil children and youth, help out teaching English classes or computer or math tutoring, can get involved in other activities at institution: HIV/AIDS, library, etc. (Ben and I are hoping to start or participate in something sports oriented. :) )
Highlights from CASAS and my Guatemalan guide book:
- I will not be living in a host family, but at the institution. I thought about this for awhile, and wondered how the experience would be without an indigenous Mayan host family, but then decided that the job description and location interested me the most. Not to mention I was thrilled that Jenna and Ben also wanted to go.
- Located in Northwestern Guatemala, high in the mountains
- One of the most beautiful places in Guatemala
- The Ixil villages in Quiché, including Nebaj, were the hardest hit by the recent Guatemalan civil war and violence
- The first language spoken in this area is Ixil, the second is Spanish
- A very low tourist area, the local Ixil women wear some of the most beautiful and traditional Mayan clothing in Guatemala
- An 82 foot waterfall is nearby, and I hope to visit it
- The town consists of white, adobe buildings and cobblestone streets, and there are no streets signs
There you have it! I will leave by public bus (called chicken buses in Guatemala because you can transport poultry as well) on July 20th with Ben and Jenna. We will return to CASAS August 13th and I will fly back to the States on August 15th. One month from today!
Now a little update on my week:
My one my good friends here from Goshen is named Jenna. Jenna was leaving with a fantastic family, but unfortunately the day after Free Travel she learned that her family had to move out of their house because they could not pay the rent and were struggling to find money. (Both parents are without jobs). Jenna stayed at CASAS for almost a week before things were finalized that she could come stay with me and my host family. I guess our moms know each other through a Bible study group, so my parents offered to have her come stay with us (which really surprised me). SO, for the last 2 weeks here in Guatemala City I have had a roommate! It's really nice having her around, since I don't interact much with my family, especially when they're not around. My host mom actually just got a job at a restaurant last week and works 4-10 pm everyday, so now no one is home until either my host dad or sister get back from work, between 8-9 pm. Nicely put, I am slightly frustrated and slightly burnt out with my host family situation and am looking forward to something new. Yay!
Last week went well, I successfully finished my final project on soccer, though our Canadian professor grades quite hardly. Apparently A's are a rare commodity in Cananda, something I have had a hard time adjusting to. :) But, that's another story. Last Tuesday afternoon, July 7th, we visited an organization working with gang prevention around Guatemala City. They organize various activities and educational programs, including inside local prisons, trying to educate at-risk youth about the danger associated with gangs. A random fact: if you belong to a gang in Guatemala (most gangs have come down from Los Angeles, including the MS-13 and MS-18), the average life expectancy is 24 or a life in prison. It was another fascinating and eye-opening experience. The rest of the week we had free afternoons to finish our final projects, and my presentation was on Friday. One highlight from my project on Guatemalan soccer: The professional league here (equal to MLS) is called the National League (Liga Nacional), and there are three divisions below this, similar to minor leagues in the States. At the end of each year (there are 2 seasons in a year), the worst team by point ranking goes down to the First Division, and the best team in the First Division goes up to the National League, this structure works in the same way for the rest of the divisions. Crazy, huh? So technically, if you are in the Third Division and win (a lot) you could be in the National League in 3 years. So, the teams are always changing, which is something I wasn't used to with sports in the States.
Weekend:
I had a great weekend. Friday night Jenna went to see her own host family, who is staying in a very small house with Jenna's grandma, aunt, and uncle, so I had the house to myself. I did homework and watched the Gold Cup (a CONCACAF soccer tournament). Saturday Jenna, me, and another Goshen CASAS student Trish, took public chicken buses to Antigua! Both Jenna and Trish had been there before with families and Spanish classes, and I was thrilled to finally get to go. It was a beautiful day, all the volcanoes surrounding the small city were clear and shining. We spent some time in the markets there, and I finally found some things that I loved for myself, I was so excited: a beautiful duffel bag, a ceramic mug made by a kind Guatemalan named Francisco, and a woven fleece jacket/hoodie type thing. I also finished gift shopping and we enjoyed wandering around and looking at the overwhelming number of things. We had lunch in a great restaurant off of the Central Park, then walked around looking at other stores and places, then had ice cream in the Park, which has lots of trees and a fountain, in the center of the Palace and Cathedral, and then headed back to the buses to go back to Guatemala City. Jenna and I arrived back at the house, exhausted and proud to have travelled all by ourselves, and watched the US/Haiti Gold Cup game with my host dad (no comment, though Holden's goal was amazing). Sunday I went with Trish, Jenna, and her family to the Mega Frater in San Cristobal, the local mega church. The church was massive and beautiful, complete with 2 schools, fields, and like 10-story parking garage on the campus. The church is built for 12,000 people, but I estimate only 5 or 6 thousand were there on Sunday. I really enjoyed the live worship band and singing, and they have simultaneous translation into Engligh on headsets so we could follow along, though I could understand most of the service. Sermon: Wife and Husband are equal, though Wife must recognize her place below Husband and serve and assist him with anything he needs. Jenna then went back with her family for the day and I hung out with my host dad again (great) and did homework.
Monday afternoon we finished our afternoon classes, which was Peace, Justice, and Violence for me. I really enjoyed reading our textbooks/readers, but didn't feel like I got a whole lot of classtime, but that's okay. Yesterday we had a busy afternoon - we first went to a center that supports migrants heading to or coming from the US or other countries. They provide food and a place to stay for usually up to three nights, and will assist migrants with educational, health, and legal services. We even got to talk with 3 migrants who were staying there currently - 2 had been recently deported from Mexico and 1 from Houston, Texas after having lived there for 20 years. Their stories, coupled with the reading we have done on Guatemalan migration for our Intro class, were definitely hard to hear. The journey, pain, and horror that migrants experience, especially women, on the path to try to find another/better life is unbelievable. I won't go into details now. After that we visited the Anthropologists Forensic of Guatemala, who is working at exhuming mass graves throughout the country from the all too recent civil war in Guatemala that left over 200,000 people, mostly indigenous, either dead or "missing". The organization goes to villages, finds, and carefully exhumes the bones of these murdered, sends them back to the lab in Guatemala City with any evidence (clothing, for example) found in the mass grave, and there professionals attempt to put bodies together, identify the dead, and analyze what happened there, treating each place as a crime scene. This is textbook definition of meticulous work, but they have been able to identify hundreds of bodies and send these remains back to the Mayan villages where families can perform a proper burial and finally have more closure to what happened to them. (A proper burial in the Mayan tradition is extremely important, and there is also an active bond between the living and dead that is nurtured by visiting a grave site, thus a lot of the pain inflicted on the Maya was the creation of these mass graves, or the taking of bodies, so that the Maya could not properly bury their dead). Needless to say, this organization does amazing work. We got to see parts of these bodies (skeletons), but weren't told too much about them. We also got to see the "evidence room" where there are hundreds of cardboard boxes waiting to be processed. Each box contained 1-3 bodies. There was an entire section that had come from Nebaj, Quiche. I don't have time to go into more detail, but both of these places were amazing and their work truly inspirational.
Tomorrow is my Spanish final, then in the afternoon we are visiting the US embassy, which should be pretty interesting. Friday morning we have Spanish group presentations with our classes (each class performs something using all the grammar we've learned to the entire Seminary. Oh boy.) Friday afternoon we wrap up our Intro class and finish final project presentations, Saturday is open, and Sunday I'll leave my host family and spend the afternoon and evening in CASAS hanging out with the group and doing service orientation. I'll write another closing post then, and that might be the last you'll here from me until I return to CASAS in August. I'm not sure if we'll have time or find internet in Nebaj or not. I leave for service on Monday.
Anyways, I'm still doing well and learning a lot, so I can't ask for too much more. :) I hope everyone is doing well! Thanks so much for all your support and prayers. Until Sunday!
Much love,
Rachel
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