The Luck of the Draw

This past weekend Guatemala was on every news channel all over the world. One of the active volcanoes here, Pacaya, erupted and caused quite a bit of damage and covered many areas in ash. Then the tropical storm, Agatha, came and left Guatemala not only soaked, but covered in sticky ash which has clogged drains and been a nightmare for the people living in it. Where I am, in the department of San Marcos, we were not affected by the ash, but we were greatly affected by the storm.

I love rain. I have always loved rainy days and one of my most favorite things in the world is waking up to the rain pelting my window. I like walking in the rain because I know I can go home and change my wet shoes and socks. I know I can go home and drink a glass of hot tea or take a hot shower. But that is not the case for the majority of people here in San Marcos. People think I am crazy when I tell them I love the rain, but that is because it does not affect my life like it affects the life of people here. There is small town very close to where I live here in San Marcos and the fire department wanted to evacuate the people. Most of the people in the town are very poor and live in tiny wood houses. Wood houses with huge gaps in the walls and in the roof. These houses were drenched, everything inside was sopping wet. The cooking stoves were too wet to start fires, and there was not a piece of dry wood to be found anyway. These people were trying desperately to find a few tortillas to eat, because they could not cook anything, or heat their homes, or boil water to have safe drinking water. So the fire department comes in and wants to evacuate.

Where are these people supposed to go?

They don´t have money to pay for a hotel. There entire family lives in the same town, in the same conditions. There only option is to stay put, they don´t have any choice. So they will stay in their wet homes without anything to eat, and will drink dirty water to stay alive. That is the only choice they have, the choice to drink dirty water and risk getting sick, or dying.

Can you imagine that being your only choice?

So, during this storm I was sitting in the living room of Judy, my boss, with Elvia, the lady I live with. We were baking chocolate chip cookies, making bread, and eating hot soup. We were discussing how prepared we were with enough food, candles, and gas, in case another Hurricane Stan occurs, when people were out of supplies for days. Well we start watching the news and hear about all the flooding happening on the coast, how the electricity is out, bridges being swept away, and landslides. And we change to the local channel and hear about this tiny town two or three miles from where we are sitting. And someone says, it is always the poor people who suffer the worst. And I thought, it is the poor who suffer period. Here I am, baking cookies and people are fighting over tortillas. Here I am, wrapped in cozy blankets with toasty warm feet inside my Ugg boots. And here is this mother with her tiny child wrapped in a rain drenched blanket, with plastic sandals on her feet. Here I am eating hot soup, and this mother can´t start a fire to heat up some water to drink.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the unfairness in the world. Why was I born into my life, and that mother into hers? Is it the luck of the draw? What have I ever done to deserve what I have, and what did she do to deserve not having anything? I can´t get a certain Bible passage out of my head from John 9:1-3. Jesus and his disciples encounter a man born blind from birth. The disciples ask Jesus, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, ¨Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God´s works might be revealed in him.¨ And Jesus proceeds to cure the man.
I have to ask, what is being revealed about God´s works in the mother here in Guatemala, today? No one is magically going to cure her situation. No one is going to make her house weather tight and provide her with dry cooking wood and enough food until the rain stops. She will continue living the same way for the rest of her life, and probably her children will too. This woman did not sin, she did nothing to deserve her situation in life, and yet, there she is. With no prospects, with no choices.

So yes, I agree, it is the poor who suffer the most. But why is that so? Why do we allow that to be the truth? Why do we sit in our warm homes eating chocolate chip cookies? Why do I have that option, the choice, when others have none? Why is that the reality we live in, and why do we accept it?

Sometimes, weird things happen

People here in Guatemala and in the States always ask me what I think about Guatemala. This is a hard question to answer because I have so many different experiences, many of them beautiful and others frustrating and not so beautiful. But they are all a little weird. So I feel like the most honest answer to this question is, Bueno, sometimes weird thing happen.

I was inspired to write this blog a few weeks ago when I was sitting on a caminoneta (an old US school bus) holding a live turkey on my lap. My turkey? Of course not. At this point I realized, sometimes, weird things happen to me in this country. But what is even weirder is, I have become accustomed to these weird things and hardly think twice about them.

What types of weird things happen? Well, let´s see…

I will start with the story that prompted me to write this blog. The camionetas also have a nickname, the chicken bus. They have this name because people enter the buses carrying live chickens, roosters, and turkeys all the time. Generally this happens more in the rural communities, but it happens all over the country. The other day I was coming home from Xela, the second largest city in the country, from my language class. Occasionally I see animals on this bus, but not frequently. Mostly I see animals when I am traveling to a community to give a workshop. Well the bus was very full, three people on each seat and the center aisle crowded. An older lady gets on the bus with her turkey in her arms with a leash around its neck. She finds herself standing next to me (I was the third person in the seat) and is having trouble keeping her balance as the chicken bus whips dangerously around the curves. Well she is trying to hold her turkey and keep her balance and I am impressed that she has not completely fallen over. Well she turns and looks at me (the only white person on the bus) and says, ¨here, hold my turkey.¨ My reaction? Bueno, Of course I will hold your turkey! Well, I am sitting on the bouncing bus trying to stay in the seat myself and staring at turkey in the face, hoping he won´t bite me, and I decided that this was weird. And I started to think of all the weird things that happen to me on a regular basis.

Some of my best stories are on the caminetas. People often play with my hair on the bus, especially if it is down or in a braid. Old, young, male, female – everyone likes to touch my hair. I´m not sure if they think I can´t feel it, or just don´t care. But really, I can´t blame people for this, my hair does have magical powers.

When buses are stopped people come onto the bus selling everything from gum, water, soda, pizza, chicken, coffee, icecream, medicine, herbal medicines, pens, to water that will cure cancer. You can buy it all and never move from your seat. Generally the sellers move through the aisles advertising what they are selling, but every now and again I get a seller that decides to harass me. Here buy this icecream. No thanks. It is really good. I don´t want it. Why don´t you want it? I´m allergic. Here buy this gum in a crinkled wrapper that has been in my pocket for who knows how long. I don´t like gum. Do you want to buy my hat? Bueno, I´m allergic to hats too, but thanks. And only after the seller moves on to the next person do I realize how weird the conversation was.

Hey, Mom, don´t read this part.

Then other weird things happen that are slightly more dangerous. The other weekend I went on a trip to Cobán and El Quiché, two departments in the northern part of Guatemala. My driver was driving like a maniac up a dirt road and I finally asked, ¨Pedro, why are you driving like a bat out of hell?¨ ¨Remember that car we hit back there?¨he answers (yes because that was weird too). Well, in this part of the country people will chase after you with guns and shoot you dead. Bueno, I would prefer to return home alive. Another time I was traveling on another dirt road in the middle of the night (really not very smart, but sometimes I get stuck in situations without any other choice) and we had to stop. We had to stop because there was a huge truck in front of us full of boulders. Well, this truck was too heavy to make it up part of the mountain. What is the logical conclusion to this problem? That trucks full of boulders should not drive on this dirt road that is impossible for most pickup trucks with four wheel drive? Of course not! The logical conclusion is everyone that is waiting behind the truck and waiting on the other side of the ¨road¨ should pull the truck up the mountain. Yes, about 20 men tie a rope to the truck and pulled it up the mountain.

But really, I like the weird things that happen. I don´t even know the name of the old lady with the turkey, but I will remember her for the rest of my life, and her turkey (that never bit me). I like the excitement of waking up every day and having no idea what is going to happen. Sometimes I wonder what type of culture shock I will have once I get back to the states and everything is orderly and without chaos. Because right now walking 4 blocks to my office can be an adventure, or just an ordinary day at the office, but I never know. I never know when, but sometimes, weird things happen.

La justicia, sí es possible

I had the opportunity to participate in two marches for the martyr, Bishop Juan Gerardi. Juan Gerardi is a hero in Guatemala, and a hero in my heart. I need to give you a small amount of information on the life of Juan Gerardi, so this post might be a little long.

On May 9, 1967, he was elected Bishop of Verapaz, where he emphasized pastoral work among indigenous communities and in 1974, he was appointed Bishop of Quiché. Between 1980 and 1983 El Quiché saw increased levels of violence in the conflict between the Army and various rebel guerrilla factions. The worst violence and human rights abuses were seen in the department of El Quiché. Hundreds of Roman Catholic catechists and heads of Christian communities, most of who were of Maya origin, were brutally murdered. Gerardi was highly outspoken against the military and demanded that they stop the violence against his catechists and the population of Quiché and Guatemala in general.

In 1980 Geradi closed the diocese of El Quiché, making a very public statement to the world about the violence occurring there. He left the country for the Vatican, was denied re-entry into the country, and was exiled to El Salvador and Costa Rica until 1982. In 1984 he was appointed bishop of the department of Guatemala (which is the equivalent to a state, like Verapaz and El Quiché). While working in the department of Guatemala Gerardi became involved in the creation, and became the head of the Office of Human of Rights of the Archbishopric (ODHAG), which is still active in the assistance of victims of human rights violations today.

After the 1994 Oslo Agreement (an essential peace agreement during the war that preceded the 1996 Peace Accords) ODHAG began the creation of the Recovery of the Historical Memory, or REMHI project, to discover and present the truth of the 36 year civil war. The actual REMHI report is huge, but it essentially looks at the impact the violence had on Guatemala. It looks at how the violence was carried out and includes thousands of testimonies of witnesses and victims of the war. The report looks at the violence carried out by both the army and the guerillas, but in the end it places the blame for 89.7 percent of the violence to the government and 4.8 percent to the guerillas. The UN sponsored Historical Clarification Commission, which came out after the REMHI report, actually places 93 percent of the atrocities to the government and only 3 percent to the guerillas. The report discusses the historical context of the war, providing a through description on why the war started and where its roots were, following the various military governments up to the Peace Accords. The REMHI report also focuses on social reconstruction and how Guatemala can repair the damage of the war and preserve the historical memory of the war.

On April 24, 1998, the REMHI report was published, to the obvious dislike of the government and army. Two days later, on April 26, Gerardi was brutally assassinated in his garage by three army officers. It was not until 2001 and after a long and tumulus fight, that the officers were convicted of his murder. This was an important achievement for Guatemala, because it was the first time members of the military had faced trial before civilian courts

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Every year the anniversary of Gerardi’s death is celebrated, and this year marked the 12 anniversary. Here in San Marcos we celebrated the anniversary on the 17^th of April, with a large march and mass afterwards. It was beautiful to see so many people come from all of the aldeas all over San Marcos, I even saw many of the women we work with from various communities. Our march was during the day and had a somber feel to it, there was music playing, but people were not singing nor chanting. I had to leave during the mass for a YAV retreat, but I was glad have been in solidarity with the Guatemalans for the march. It is about remembering the life and death of Gerardi, and remembering that his desires and dreams for Guatemala can be achieved. The quote that accompanies Gerardi is,”” La justicia, sí es possible,” or “The justice, yes is possible.”

Bettina, another YAV, and I then went to Guatemala City for the real anniversary and march of Juan Gerardi. We arrived in the city in the morning and went to the parish house where Gerardi was killed. We went into the garage and saw the beautiful mural that has been painted in there in remembrance of his life and work, but also in remembrance of the war.

The mural is huge, covering three walls, and I took a lot of pictures of it, but I can’t post all of them here. We then went to the crypt of Gerardi behind the huge Cathedral in the Central Park of Guatemala City. The Mass took place at 5pm, and the Cathedral was packed, and the march was after. More people participated in the march in San Marcos, but it is dangerous to be out at night in Guatemala. During this march people were chanting and even though there was a small amount of people, there was plenty of energy. Bettina and I were laughing because the woman who was in charge of leading the chants was not very good, so a group of young men took over and they were competing with the woman on what chants they would use. The young men were obviously better and engaged the crowd more, but the woman did not want to give up her loudspeaker and it was pretty funny. The march ended in the park in front of the parish house, and people sang and gave speeches. They talked about how we have to continue fighting for the justice, and against the impunity here in Guatemala. Yes, it is a hard a long fight, but we have to be courageous and not give up hope.

Gerardi is a person that I have come to admire more and more during my time here in Guatemala. I have learned a lot more about his life, and I have read a lot more of his speeches and writings. Gerardi was firmly committed to the idea that the church is called to be involved in political and economic issues; the church is not confined to the space of spiritual ministries. Gerardi claimed that the church has the responsibility to protect the dignity of the human being, because the human being is at the center of the gospel. Gerardi saw the REMHI report as an announcement aimed at finding new ways for humans to live together. But it is also a theological piece that ¨works in the light of faith to discover the face of God, the presence of the Lord.¨(Gerardi´s speech during the presentation of the REMHI Report). Gerardi was committed to the truth because we can´t have peace without truth, so truth should be the goal of all of humanity. When we are truly truthful with ourselves and others we are forced to recognize our own responsibility in the happenings of the world, and then we have the responsibility to act. Because we can´t have truth without action.

Gerardi was a man of incredible wisdom, and I believe that wisdom came from deep faith and beautiful understanding of the gospel. Gerardi´s life was constantly in danger during the entirety of his ministry, but he never let fear stop him. He knew it is not easy to be a disciple of Jesus, but we are called to work for the reign of God at all costs, especially when it means putting our lives in danger, because that is were the justice is needed the most. We all admire martyrs, but who actually wants to be one? It is hard to have enough confidence and trust in your faith to allow yourself to put your fears aside. I would like to be at the place someday in my life, but right now I can only admire Gerardi and try to mirror some of his actions and philosophies. Right now I can listen to his call for truth and the direct and indirect responsibilities I carry, and how I should act them out. He is a man that still can teach the world so much about justice and peace, because he is certainly still teaching the people of Guatemala, which can be seen every year in the anniversary of his death.