The Beginnings.

This entry is from January 24th, 2009. At approximately 5:32 P.M.

I’m not really sure how I want to write these entries, but I really do want to document my time here in Central America. I’ve now been here for nearly a week. I arrived on Monday, and it is now Saturday. I met a very interesting man on the plane into Guatemala City. He was very helpful, and runs a project called Mason’s on a Mission. (REMEMBER to look them up online). We stayed in a guest house in Guatemala City, but the city is very dangerous so we weren’t able to wander and explore as much as I would have liked. We went on a walk together to the center square which was interesting, because the three powers in the country had buildings/structures there: the army, the government, and the church. We saw the first evangelical presbyterian church in Guatemala, which was built by the government in order to break up the monopoly that the Catholic church had over the country. We also took a tour to the city dump, where people live next to and work in. Children used to work in the dump to bring in money for their families until a fire in the dump caused minors to be banned from working there. A woman opened a school in the dump for these children, and we went to her to hear the incredible story. It’s really beautiful to see someone living here with so little herself, but so willing to do as much as possible to make positive changes among her own people.

Directly from the dump, we drove up to the hills above the city where the more wealthy people live. It was an appalling contrast, but very interesting to see one extreme and then the other consecutively. We went into the mall, which was built because it’s a place for the more wealthy to have a safe haven from the crime in the city below. It was almost disgusting though, looking at the prices and seeing that people were actually able to purchase things from there. There was also a large store (called Hiper Paiz until August when the chain will have the name Wal-Mart), which is owned by Wal-Mart, and resembles one exactly.

We learned some of the history of Guatemala, which is incredibly appalling. We heard from Victor and from Fidel (our Guatemalan coordinator) about the years of war and the realities of this country today. Guatemala was at war for a period of 36 years. 36 years. Yet the people still go on today. Women’s pregnant stomachs were cut open, babies removed and killed, husbands heads presented after. It's simply unimaginable, and this only ended 13 years prior to me being here. Children swung by their feet, with their heads knocked into trees. But the people continue to live. They must look to the future I suppose. How else are you able to continue? I just feel like my life is so simple and so easy. I’ve never experienced these enormous horrors (thank G-d), and it’s incredibly difficult to even imagine this being a reality.

After two days in Guat. City, we traveled five hours into the highlands to the second largest city in the country, Quezaltenango, also known as Xela. And that's where I am now.




A bed of questions that aren’t asked.