I have now been away from home for eight weeks. Seven of those weeks have been in the country of Guatemala. Four of those weeks have been in the city of Guatemala, the following two weeks were in the city of San Marcos, and the past week has been, well, all over.
After finally finishing up with Spanish classes, I was on my way to the town of Sibinal in the western highlands of Guatemala. However, after only two days with my host family, I was off again, this time to meet an MCC tour group that came to learn about migration: the journey migrants make, the context from which they come, and what people are doing here in Guatemala to create opportunites for people to stay home. This meant visits to the two cooperatives where I will be working places called La Vega del Volcán and La Linea, as well as a trip across the border to Chiapas, Mexico.
In La Vega del Volcán, I met many of the people I´ll be working with this year. Froilan Ramos (pictured above with his fish ponds) is the community expert on raising and reproducing trout, and was one of the first to take part in MCC-supported food security projects that include raising trout and flowers. In Vega and also in the cooperative in a place called La Linea, I met more small farmers who are taking leadership in their communities through agriculture and tourism initiatives.
After the energizing week with the MCC group I´ve been feeling inspired and anxious to begin serving and learning with the local team. This week, I was able to settle in with the host family, start planning with the local team and learn more of the context for the development work MCC has been involved in here in Sibinal. Sibinal is a small town less than 10 miles from the Mexican-Guatemalan border, and the fact is, migration is a way of life here. In fact, both of my host parents spent time in Georgia before returning to Guatemala. My host father, Elfego, often talks of how he enjoyed his time in Atlanta, working in contruction. Ultimately, he and his wife decided to return to Guatemala with their earnings and luckily, they were able to connect with one of the cooperatives supporting small farmers here in Sibinal. Now, they raise trout in ponds behind their house, which is the main source of earnings for the family. Elfego and Julia have been able to live a life with dignity in their own community. They are able to feed and educate their four sons, support Elfego´s aging parents, and serve as leaders in their church.
Many people here do not have such luck. As I mentioned above, migration is a way of life here in Sibinal, as many people cross the border to work long hours in Mexican coffee farms. More and more, this has not been enough to sustain families, and so people have made the perilous journey up through Mexico, to the United States. Sometimes they return and sometimes they don´t. Sometimes the money they earn makes it back to family members here and sometimes it doesn´t. More often than not, the migrant family member is gone for five years or more, and the family structure has suffered greatly. Many homes are missing fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. This happens because opportunity is missing here in Guatemala. The privileged elite have control over the majority of the country´s resources, and use them to generate personal wealth. Very little of Guatemala´s rich resources is utilized to serve the poor majority.
The programs MCC has partnered with here in Sibinal, where I will be
serving for the next ten months, have focused on capacity building and
education for the peasant farmers here. They have taught the farmers the
value of the resources to which they do have access and how to utilize
them well in order to feed their families. This has taken the form of
agricultural projects that teach farming methods and business skills, as
well as community tourism initiatives that support the construction of
restaurants, lodges and roads to bring in tourists from Mexico and the
United States. The projects started small, but are ever growing as more
and more people see what is possible within their own communities.
Opportunity through farming trout, selling flowers or guiding bird
watchers through the green mountains creates a way of life here in which
migration is not the only way to survive. Fewer dangerous journeys can
be made and more families can stay intact.I have thus far been incredibly inspired by the leaders of these projects, who have created opportunity where things seemed so hopeless. The work is still slow going, as many have tended to mistrust the new ideas or are simply apprehensive about the risk of a new way of doing things. As I join the team in its work, I ask for prayers that God will open the hearts and minds of the communities here and that he will unite the people as they struggle against hunger and injustice.
Some pictures of my house:
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| The kitchen stands apart from the rest of the house. |
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| Everything is made from scratch and cooked on a wood-burning stove. |
