La semana...

One of those week recaps:

Sunday: It was a wonderful day for food. Firstly, my family got up at 11 and ate breakfast at 11:30 - pancakes with homemade mango marmalade. We spent another hour talking about what we were gonna do that day and decided to make pizza. We had homemade pizza for lunch, at 4pm, which was amazing, so delicious. And then we had a slumber party with the girls at Adelaide's where we made brazilian bean stew, rice and guacamole. The brazilian bean stew is tomatoes, onions, chile peppers, garlic, black beans and orange juice! It's incredible. A catholic procession was going on in the parque central out of the main church for the start of Lent. Men in black and purple robes and funny smurf hats surrounded the entire plaza, and 3 dozens of men were swaying and supporting a huge Jesus carrying the cross with the Last Supper table next to him. Little children were waving incense in front of it and a sarabanda was playing a marcha funebre in the back. Xela is supposedly the only place in the world where each church does a different procession every sunday during Lent until Semana Santa. We're going to San Cristobal de las Casas for Semana Santa, so we'll miss the Xela action but we'll see the mexican way of things. After dinner we watched the Coca- Cola Case, which I repeat must be watched.

Monday: The day started with the weekly meeting at the women's office where we talk about what we're doing during the week and talk about what needs to be done and fixed and turned in etc. These meetings I've come to notice don't really achieve much, and things are repeated each week but never actually get done. 2 new foreigner volunteers came for the meeting but Tita told them later that they couldn't work because the Office has no room for them. One of them had experience in investigation in social work, so I realized that maybe I'm taking up space from someone who can actually bring a skill set relevant to the Office's work. What I like most about the office though is that it is entirely run by Guatemalan women, and the workshops are given by guatemalan volunteers and interns. I think it's a lot more effective that way, and the only way complete societal change can occur. It has to come from within rather than being imported from the "icons of freedom" Westerners pretend to be. Since I showed the women in the Office the march and election photos, I've sort of become the official photographer for them, so whichever activities they imperatively want photodocumented, I get to go to. Monday afternoon, I went with Tita and Candy to the Rafael Landivar University to the inauguration of a new diploma that University and the public San Carlos University are offering, sponsored and coordinated by the OMM - the degree in Psychology and Mental Health Studies. About 50 people attended, mostly students, and Tita, the directors of the universities and I think the mayor spoke and honored the teachers of the new course of study. A Doctor in Psych gave a sample lecture about dynamics of the guatemalan family and couple, and how those shape today's society and national psyche. According to him the problems in society is due primarily to the dysfunctionality of couples and the disintegration of family, rather than the socio-economic decisions taken by the government. The violence in Guatemala is due to the change in values and in parenting: 17 people per day are killed here, and there are about 200,000 youth gang members - the new societal order is shaped by the individuals and by the way they are raised. He pointed out the "enemies of the couple", which were the lack of romance, money problems, in-laws, routine, violence, vice and addictions, infidelity, and the lack of fear of God. Then he talked about the disintegration of the family, which is according to him due to dwindling power of parental authority, loosening and forgetting of values, and increased rebellion of children. He mentioned these new value sets were brought by TV and increased openness to the outside world; in other words globalization. He made a lot of jokes in the process to keep the interest alive and illustrate his points. He mentioned God a couple times, and how love of God must be the ultimate priority. He also shared that the most common cases he's received in consultations are infidelity between couples and the consequences of machismo. It was really interesting to attend a Guatemalan college lecture, and I wonder how different an American psych college lecture would be - how much would the causes and points discussed differ. It was also interesting to see Guatemalan college life. I think only 2% of Guatemalans go to college, mainly because very few universities are public, and the costs are quite high. So the richer kids of Guatemala attend the private Rafael Landivar, and I kept wondering during Morales' lecture if he had anything to do with the poorer sector of Guatemalans, because most of his examples I could tell were for the upper class to identify with. How different is the nature of that field when dealing with poorer people? A companera in the office, Kery, works as an intern-psychologist and has told me that here, a psychologist is viewed by most as someone that deals with crazy people. So it's still a nascent field that people are starting to see is very necessary in guatemalan society, but still rejected by most because of the stigma it carries with it. But things are changing, which the implementation of this new degree shows.

Tuesday: I went to Xecharacoj with the oficina. But I had to catch up with the other girls because they told me the wrong time to meet. So I could've stayed in the office instead, but I decided on a little adventure. I didn't know where to take the bus or stop but I figured it out along the way, asking people, befriending mayan ladies on the bus who took me to the house I was supposed to go to in Xecharacoj. Elba, another intern, was giving a cooking class, how to bake a pastel frio. I just took pictures and talked to Leslie, another social work intern. I'm actually becoming friends with these two lovely gals, which is pretty exciting, and the first time I actually make friends with guatemalans. Elba has invited me to her house in Momostenango, which I hope I can go to one weekend.

Wednesday: We went to Llanos to the crafts recycling project, more women came and we made baskets out of newspaper rolls. It turns out that the two gringa girls from Monday morning are actually going to be volunteering too. Coming back, in the bus, a guy asked me in english where I was from. He had been living in Boston and DC for 9 years illegally and was deported 5 months ago. His 2 children are still up there, probably american citizens born from illegal parents. Now he has a visa though, so I think he'll head back up and stay there.
Wednesday night we went to El Cuartito to watch a documentary that didn't work, called the Fourth World War, and then salsa dancing.

Thursday: Entremundos morning with a terrible salsa class, and then went to Pacaja with the office. On the way there, I asked Eunice what she thought about Sandra Torres. According to Eunice, Sandra accomplished a lot and was the only first lady to do so, especially for the family. She respects all the achievements of Sandra but wouldn't want her as a president for all the corruption and blunt way she does things. Eunice, like Hugo, is voting for Rigoberta Menchu again this time around. She said there are 36 political parties this election and the one with most support so far is the Patriota party, the military party, with the leading candidate Otto Perez Molina. The rising support for the military party is due to the rising violence that people are tired of, and so they hope the military can bring order to Guatemala. Unfortunately, the military is just as corrupt as everyone else and probably owned by narcos too. Whenever I ask why people would vote for candidates they know are corrupt and involved in narco activity, people just laugh and answer that everyone is corrupt in politics here, there are no exceptions. Maybe that's why people's votes are so easily bought; if they know everyone is corrupt anyway, they might as well vote for the one who gives them the most amount of stuff before the elections!
In Pacaja, my friend Elba, the youngest intern from a crafts/finishing school, is teaching the ladies how to do embroidery. That group is too small and they haven't been able to get more people on board so they risk being abandoned by the office. We basically just sat and talked for 3 hours while Elba was teaching. At night, Kate and I went to a benefit party for Chico Mendes, and Armando and Claudia, his daughter, were there. We talked a lot, about Chico Mendes' relation to Dragons, about the community and Estela, who's been kicked out of the host family circle for breaking rules, much to my dismay. According to Armando, several incidents occurred where Estela had asked students for money, for patron money for her grandson, and had gotten money by lying about her economic situation and pretending that her husband in the States doesn't send them money. In addition, she's working with an organization called Compassion through her church, but is also breaking the rule by involving her entire family, while the organization specifies that only one member per family can participate. I don't know how true what he was telling me is. She definitely has indirectly asked me for money before. I wonder how much these families do it for the pisto and if they do it for compartir at all. The only places I've really felt were doing it from their heart are Concepcion, Venecia, and the Ixcan.

Friday, Saturday were full of Entremundos translation, salsa dancing and out with the gals. Chichicastenango market tomorrow!