As August 2011 inched closer, I began negotiating my return from a year working in Australia for a Market Research firm, but try as I might, I could not rally my head or my heart behind returning to the U.S., let alone to working in an office. Determined to participate in something outside of myself, to facilitate change, and to get some firsthand experience in an area that I want to pursue a career in, I resigned from my job, and bought a plane ticket to Guatemala. In this way, I found myself in Comalapa, in the pouring rain, feeling as though I had forgotten every word of Spanish I knew, and wondering what exactly I had gotten myself into.
Despite some previous international experience, my two plus months in Guatemala shed light on poverty in a way I had not yet encountered. The local community is ninety-five percent indigenous Maya, and many here survive on subsistence farming and less than two dollars a day. Long Way Home´s primary goal is to give the people the arsenal to help themselves, rather than to impose an external solution. Although the organization works on a variety of projects; from a clean water program with Engineers Without Borders, to a community sports and ecological park, to building a school out of trash using green building and alternative construction, most of my responsibilities centered around the construction of the school. Occasionally I spent some hard but relaxing days weeding and tending to the gardens, but mostly I was covered in mud and doing whatever task was required of me that day. I laughed a lot, I showered very little, I made tortillas with Fedelia (the most wonderful woman ever and the mom to all of us!), I took Matt´s still very anesthetized and now one-eyed cat Meester home from Antigua in a Tupperware container on a chicken bus, I had a very very large mouse proudly dropped onto my blankets by another cat, Chairman, and well...I loved every minute of it.
At the school, I packed out walls, I sifted sand, I excavated and paved a driveway, I plastered walls, I cleaned out drains, I mixed cement....but mostly, I put a lot of artwork on the walls, carefully sculpting Mayan hieroglyphs and murals of corn out of cob and plaster. (Cob is a mixture of 9 parts yellow sand, 6 parts grey sand, 4 parts clay, 3 parts slip, ¾ cow manure, and 1 bag of straw). In addition to trying to make the school look beautiful, the goal was to use Mayan glyphs that had a specific significance to the building, to the school, and to the project. The school now has glyphs that are a wise man/artist, glyphs that mean to build or to erect a monoment, glyphs that signify roads, and to walk. There´s also a mural of corn and a basket of the 4 ears of corn from which all humans originate, a Queztal, and many more. The cod art puts a little bit of history on the walls, and will serve to remind the future students of how important preserving their culture is. While I was at Long Way Home, I learned so much about the construction of the building, a lot more about exterior finishes, and was able to see first hand how much it takes to make an organization like successful. Overall, I came expecting to do a lot of hard labor, expecting to learn about development and alternative construction, and mostly, expecting my ideals to be shattered by the harsh reality of poverty, and the slow progress of development work.
Yet instead of having my ideals shattered, I began to believe even more strongly in them. It took only a few days of living in such an environment to realize that I had fallen hard and fast for this challenge, for this town, and for the extraordinary people who live and work here. Guatemala enchanted me. Long Way Home has such an impact on the Comalapan community, and their potential impact once the school is finished is unfathomable. It was an incredible thing to be able to participate in. I could associate each action I took, however small and inconsequential, with the bigger picture, and the mission of the organization. Often small but consummate results appeared, such as putting the finishing touches on a wall that was just tires when I arrived, or a mother tearfully telling us that every day she thanks God for life and for health, but she gives us ¨un mil gracias¨(a thousand thanks) for giving this community something God cannot: the practical tools to help themselves. No words really exist to describe what it feels like to participate in something and hear such a heartfelt thank you. I will miss Long Way Home soooooooooooo much!!!!
Let the world change you, so you can change the world - Che Guevarra
I only have a few days left in Comalapa with Long Way Home, and it is with a heavy heart that I am now about to write my reflections over my time here. A heavy heart because writing this means that I am on my way away from here, despite the fact that I feel like there is still so much for me to gain from living here. I feel like I have only seen the surface of all the work that goes on here, and there is so much more I can learn from Long Way Home, and therefore a return in the near future is a real possibility.
When I think back on the past 4 months here it is incredible how fast time has flown by, I have never experienced it go so fast before. Every day has been filled with new challenges and fun experiences. I can still remember arriving in the airport and being a bit nervous about what I had gotten myself into. But as soon as I saw Rebecca jump around a corner with a big smile and give me a big hug I already felt at home. When I arrived to the park and met all my new workcollegues/friends/roommates I knew that I had arrived at a good place, and every day since that feeling has been reinforced. The next day I was already busy working, and I got to meet all our Guatemalan workers who all welcomed me with a big smile and some Spanish conversation even though my Spanish was far from conversational at that point in time.
In the beginning everything was new and exciting. It is fun to notice how things that have never been a normal part of my life, now have been fully adapted into my new life here. To wash my own laundry by hand in a sink, boil water before I can take a bucket bath, only have limited choices when it comes to groceries, mud and dust everywhere, sharing a room with several other people, living in a house with thin walls, work long days and being bit by small critters are all things that I have been accustomed to in the last several months. I can imagine that this life does not sound very attractive to many people, but to me these have all been very easy adjustments to make thanks to all the positive aspects of living in such a special community. I have learned so many new things about development work, made new amazing friends from all over the world, learned a new language, gotten new intellectual and physical challenges, had little kids run up to me on the street and give me a hug just because, people smiling to me on the street and saying buenos dias everywhere I go, cozy and fun nights around the fireplace and perfect climate have all made my time in Guatemala some of the best months of my life.
Most importantly I have learned how a small group of dedicated people with their heart in the right place, can make a tremendous difference in other peoples lives. Long Way Home's capability as a small grassroots organization to handle so many issues at once, has been a true inspiration for me. They create jobs, get trash of the streets, educate kids and grownups about the importance of taking care of the environment, building a school out of trash and tires, built a community park, creating present and future growth and help make life better for a small well deserving community.
The teamwork between the volunteers here and the locals, speaks for the respect Long Way Home has earned through the years of working in and for Comalapa. By volunteering here you are automatically a part of this teamwork because you work for Mateo, and that is something very unique and special. To be able to walk down the street as a tall blonde, in country where they are mostly short and dark hair and still be a small part of their community has been a true pleasure and treat.
I am forever thankful to the family of Long Way Home and Comalapa for having shown me how a simple life with little luxurious good here and there (like a hot shower or good cheese), is a life that suits me far better than a luxurious life where I seek out more simplicity. This is something that I will forever take with me wherever I end up in the world. I wish for everyone to be able to experience what I have experienced here. I want to thank Long Way Home for giving me a home in Guatemala, and recommend to everyone who is considering coming down here to do it, you will not regret it!
It started with one of those moments, a total coincidence, right time and the right place and a right frame of mind.
I met Mateo in San Pedro in a restaurant on one of his brief and rare breaks, just as I was planning on moving on from living with a Guatemalan family for the previous five weeks. We got to talking and that is how I came to find out about Chimiyá and Long Way Home. The project intrigued me with its philosophy and philanthropy both very close to my own values. A quick check on the website assured me that this Texan was legitimate and the following Monday I was bumping down the road to Chimiyá in a tuk-tuk.
Mateo and Cat, although possibly a little surprised that I had kept my word, were incredibly welcoming, and I was given the tour of the five acres and what was to be my home for the next five weeks.
From the waterfall at the far ends of the park to the welcome banner at the entrance and all in between, this place had a presence; a safe place for Guatemalans to come to learn, play and enjoy and a place for us gringos to think outside the square, to challenge ourselves, to learn as well and hopefully to do and share something positive.
Everyday living in Guatemala is a total experience in itself. You will not easily find all those conveniences from home, that is for sure, but in Chimiyá it is another step further, this is the Guatemalan countryside. For starters I am living in an adobe (mud brick) hut with a solar panel (a bit of a luxury considering the main house has no electricity) and I bathe (successfully) using a bucket of cold water. I can now master the tangle and bustle of a Guatemalan market to buy food, I can cook the Guatemalan staples in a variety of ways and I can bake using only an element (burner), a feat that I am sure Mateo is ever grateful for, seeing my prodigious making of lemon cakes. I also have a healthy respect for the Guatemalan highlands during rainy season; the sound this rain and thunder can make under a tin roof has to be experienced to be believed. And I have a new bravery around snakes, Chimiyá snake count: seven.
As for the project itself, it really is amazing, my first real experience of what Mateo and Chuwi Tinamit has created unfolded on the second day. I was up by seven eagerly anticipating the arrival of a local class of Mayan children. They arrived twenty-five strong all singing and upon seeing Mateo all broke into a mad run to be the first to hug and be hugged by the bearded Texan. Wow, what a sight, one which I know will stay with me forever. The children then looked at me and it is my turn to introduce myself, "Me llamo Amelia y soy de Nueva Zelanda", I sing a Waiata, a Maori greeting song from my country, and the ice is broken and these children become part of my Chimiyá family. That day we hoe a terrace together and plant seeds in the organic garden, then I clean out the bodega (tool shed) and continue cleaning out the cabanas for more future volunteers and end the day enjoying Cat's amazing cooking.
My work over the five weeks has been incredibly varied; I have learnt to do things I never thought I could or would get the chance to do.
Hoeing, although not normally a task for a white girl in the Guatemalan highlands, was a job I was to become pretty good at, from preparing, planting and weeding the organic terraces, to the botanical garden. Visually I must have looked quite an oddity, pants tucked into polka dot gumboots hoeing away in the Chimiyá sun.
Adobe work is also another skill I never thought I would put on a CV, but Anne (another volunteer from the States who joined the family a few weeks after my arrival) and I successfully made four adobe stoves or BBQs for families and the like to use around the park. For those of you that are unfamiliar with adobe work it is incredibly dirty work, you stick mud blocks together with more mud and water to create your construction. I am sure the local kids thought it was funny seeing Anne and I covered nearly head to toe in mud; we did have a lot of fun.
Teaching at Chimiyá has also been another amazing experience, from English, to geography, to poi (a Maori dance performed with balls on a string), and even the Maori action song that I sung that second day. Through this Anne and I were invited to be part of the local parade accompanying the class dressed in their traditional traje (clothes) and have lunch with the mayor during the festivities of the week-long San Juan Comalapa feria (festival).
I was there to see the community kitchen basically completed (what a pretty garden is out the front!), I witnessed the first corporate sponsor of the park arrive (Hurrah) and plonk a new scoreboard for the soccer field on front of the existing sign. Mateo had to quickly move it again while the cement was still wet. And while I was there all the plants so lovingly tended to by Cat were sold. I watched families and couples walking around the park, relaxing or watching the mobs of boys that would come to play soccer on what must be one of the best soccer fields in Guatemala. I also witnessed Julian's never ending battle trying to mow the soccer field with a temperamental or just mental hand mower.
Chimiyá did become a family for me; Mateo, Cat and Anne, the children and the Chimiyá and Comalapa locals. Nights without television and electricity singing around the bonfire, eating Mateo's famous "beer chicken" (if you are curious then come to Chimiyá to experience this culinary delight), listening to Carlos and his Guatemalan band playing late into the night by candle light, being hassled for my thick New Zealand accent and my funny words (it's a torch not a flashlight!), the dramas with the newly purchased semi-suicidal goats, and watching out for Cuch the horse least he get stolen, again, (Cuch has since been sold), the snuggles with Chimi the kitten and ignoring Suz and Che (the dogs) and their attempt to eat our dinners.
Chimiyá was the right place at the right time for me. I can only hope that the people I have met along this leg of the journey have benefited or enjoyed my efforts and company as much as I have.
Perhaps as a lesson on the realities of life here, one of the last things I helped work on was the construction of a botanical garden. This garden has now been moved due to the theft of a large number of the plants. So such is the life of development work in developing nations. Sometimes it truly is three steps forwards and two steps backwards. That is why the work and time that Mateo and the other volunteers have invested here is even more amazing. For those of us used to the Western way of life which progresses at lightening speed and with utmost efficiency it is best to leave that notion behind and have patience and perseverance, admirable traits that are easy to forget in the developed world. They say that good things take time, and that it won't happen overnight; the selfless work at Chimiyá is testament to that, but it will happen and it is happening.
(ES)
(EN)
