Friday, March 24, 2006

Considering Pinalito

I have been trying to write something about my experience with a mission team for weeks now... Please excuse the bullet style descriptions: there is much to say.

Pinalito is the name of the little town where the missionary family, the Beenes, have lived for 20 years. The adventure begins with a treacherous ride up the mountain from Zacapa... it´s only possible in a 4 wheel drive. The mission consists of a coffee factory, a school, a church, the Beene's house, and some new apartments where 20 interns will soon arrive from the US. The "natives" live in bamboo huts or block houses that the mission has donated... they cook on open fires and sleep on cornsacks on dirt floors. The children are all TINY... the kids that I would have assumed to be 5 years old are actually 10 or 11. Malnutrition, worms and Parasites are the biggest problems with the children, and it is evident in their swollen bellies and wrinkley skin.

I need to learn more about their agriculture; I did see several crops of corn, and there are banana trees and coffee plants that grow wild. Recently, the mission donated avocado plants to raise the local income. Men and women walk two hours down the mountain to sell their produce... but I don't know what kind of money they make. I don´t imagine that there is really an economy, just a downtrodden community of people scraping by.

I am drawn to this place, for I see so much possiblity. Dad, it´s the same feeling you get when you come into my messy room and go crazy organizing my clothes and papers: some of the improvements seem so simple! I go into overdrive thinking about what I would do if... The kids need an alphabet around the classroom. 14 year olds cannot tell the difference between a "b" and a "d." There should be local men and women working in the medical clinic instead of short-term American volunteers. There is a new library with internet and computers, but there is no one to run it. As I mentioned before, there is a coffee-bean factory, but there is no one to sell the coffee. There are sewing machines to give the women, but no one to teach them how to sew. The land is fertile, but there are no gardens.

If you teach a man to fish, he can eat for a lifetime, right?

I am very tempted to stay, but very aware of how idealistic I am. I expect the usual parental turn of the nose from whoever reads this, for I know I am naive. The Beene family could tell near-death stories all week long, and they have a faith in God that is amazing to me. What can I offer that they have not already tried?

Nebaj

I am in Nebaj, a small mountain town in Western Guatemala, and I´m slowly settling into a comfortable and busy routine. I´m living with Maria and Pedro and their three sons, and the house is possibly my favorite of all of my spots so far in Guate. Although the city is very dusty (I cannot even attempt to wear contacts) and the roosters still crow throughout the night, I enjoy having my own little room on the roof, with a table in the sun to work on my Spanish, and a Mayan "chuu" or sauna made of clay bricks that makes for a nice bath when i can manage a decent wood fire and hot water bucket. Nebaj isn´t nearly as impoverished as Pinalito, (how strange that I compare wealth in terms of clean clothes, tennis shoes, and the size of bamboo huts) and it is famous for its very traditional indigenous culture. All of the women still wear woven skirts and shirts, and cook tortillas on a wood stove. The official language here is Ixil, which literally sounds like an African tribal clik-clik language!

As of now, the development work that I was hoping for isn´t panning out very well... the program that I am interested in isn´t organized quiet yet, and although it is discouraging, I am learning to get out on my own to stay busy. I´m taking Spanish classes for four hours in the morning, and gradually finding all kinds of opportunities to meet people. Tomorrow I´ll teach a local old man an hour english class, Saturday I´m off on a long hike to a nearby villiage, and Sunday I´m hoping to meet some missionaries at one of the Evangelical churches in town. I waited tables last Wednesday night for a chain-smoking Indiana man who supports a Non-Profit organization with a small restaurant... I´ve found that many of these volunteer programs attract the most hippie and wayward travelers... and at times I am completely overwhelmed with it all... life seems so empty when I get sucked into their mindset... come to a new place, eat, drink, sleep, take pictures, find another interesting destination in the Lonely Planet Guide... whew... life seems so pointless in this routine!

With that thought, I´ll admit that I´ve had my fair share of panic attacks this week... mostly because this is my first week as a solo traveler in Guatemala... there are no Beene teens or American missionaries to chat with. When I have time to think, my mood shifts to What AM I doing here in the middle of nowhere? What AM I going to do when I go home in May? Shouldn´t I be thinking about a real job by now, with clean-cut Ann Taylor suits and an office?"

Friday, March 17, 2006


Baptism in el Rio




Writing about Pinalito is a feat unto itself: Finding the time amidst the hustle of a mission team is one thing, and choosing the right words to describe the community is nearly impossible. (Besides that, stealing the computer from the MySpace craving Beene teens brings on a fit of whining that I avoid at all costs!)

I'll get to it, I promise.

Here are pics of some of the kids...
and a baptism.

Volcan Pacaya



Time for a little tourist action in Antigua. Besides, the tortilla intake is adding up.