Wednesday: I worked on my article more in the morning, I have this really nice spot on the roof of my house with a great view of Xela. In the afternoon I went to a community called Llanos de la Cruz with the women's office. I went with my "boss" Eunice, who is this incredibly sweet panda-looking lady. She's been working at the office for 2 years and is the head of the social work program, undertaking workshops and intern supervision. She likes working with young women especially because she feels that she can actually help prevent things like pregnancies from happening and help better women's situation by changing the mentality of resignation and acceptance in the face of machismo, and help them take the reigns of their own destinies by teaching them family planning, sexual health, and self-esteem. Anyways, we went to this pueblo because the Oficina is sponsoring an electricity course for the community. It's going to be 40h spread out over 10 weeks. The class was supposed to start at 2 but thanks to trusty Guatemalan time, it started around 3:30. Llanos de la Cruz has a very big group of organized women and we met at the leader's home, which is very visibly built and furnished on dollars sent by her late husband who died in the US three years ago. The community is very divided between what is called the colonia, the new settlers, and the community that's been there a long time. People from Guate have built houses and are renting them and my understanding is that that land used to be the original inhabitant's. Coincidentally, 65% of the rentiers are not indigenous but 90% of the original population are indigenous, so discrimination and racism are also factors deepening the division within Llanos de la Cruz. Some indigenous ladies from the women's group came over and talked about the division problem, how the colonia ladies are trying to create their own group within the group, how they feel discriminated against etc. It was interesting to be there but I couldn't catch everything they were saying, I ended up going home early. That night was Allie's birthday so we went salsa dancing at La Parranda, a salsa club.
Thursday: There was no community to go to in the afternoon so I went to the office in the morning, and we worked on coming up with slogans for the Dia de la Mujer, or women's day, on march 8th - the office is organizing a sort of parade through the Xela streets. This year, we are focusing on labor rights because women are seriously discriminated against in the workplace, be it field or office. Eunice told us that in the campo, men are payed 75Q while women and children are payed 30Q. In farms, women are objects, or property, and sexually abused by the supervisor as blackmail for their salary. Postponing pay or not paying at all, exploitation, sexual, physical, verbal, and psychological abuses are common issues women have to face in the workplace here. Again I worked on my article in the afternoon and took a salsa class with the other foreigner who lives in my house, Stefan.
Friday: I worked on the article and started to create a photo bank for Entremundos, walked up the hill to a mirador of Xela with Stefan and at night had a tipico dinner with the school. We made pepian, a typical Guatemalan dish with chicken and rice and a delicious sauce. We went to the discoteca after for more salsa dancing - my week has been quite full of salsa dancing.
Saturday: I met up with the group after lunch and we checked in about our internships and what we need to do for our expedition. That night we went to a soccer game with some teachers and students from the spanish school. Xela was playing against Peten, the northernmost department of Guatemala. Now I don't really watch soccer and am a terrible soccer player myself, but I could tell Guatemalan soccer is not of the highest caliber. It was an interesting cultural experience, especially because Xela has stronger support than any other team within the nation. There were brass bands constantly playing anthems and support songs, alot of people singing and insulting the other team, fireworks, air balloons, more fire, flags, painted faces, olas...people would climb up over the fence with Xela flags and wave them around. Xela won 1 to 0 after many vain attempts to score, creating an alegre ambiance for the rest of the night. Many food stands were outside the stadiums and we had to weave our way through slowly to get anywhere. There was a concert stage behind the stadium where a salsa band called Sangre Latina was playing, it was pretty awesome. Sport really makes you forget about everything as everyone unites under the support for their home team, leaving aside problems and preoccupations outside the stadium - I guess that's the beauty behind all the shouted insults, smoking and beer-drinking going on.
Sunday was chill, and tomorrow I start again! I'm meeting with Entremundos at 2 to do the final english and spanish copyedits for this month's publication, and I have a private salsa class at 6:30...
So that's what my week has been like. I know next week will be completely different because we're preparing for the Dia de la Mujer activities in the office and we're doing distribution and working on next month's publication at Entremundos, but I like how I'm not exactly sure what's going on and everyday is a new experience.
waouw! super busy, but seems great. I am really proud of you! Love, Dad.
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