From now on

October 12th, 2008
(On the road somewhere between Chichicastenango and Guatemala Ciudad)


It has been more than 4 weeks now that I am in Guatemala. I have spent the last two weeks working in the north-east of the country on a cooperative farm near Rio Dulce. But this weekend, like every weekend, we take our school bus imported here from Quebec and go visit one of this Maya's land tourist attractions. This weekend destination is Lago de Atitlán(Lake Atitlan), the deepest lake of Central America, bordered by its gracious volcanoes and its small villages renown for their traditional craftworks and textiles.

We have arrived here Friday around noon after a 5 hours drive from the Capitol and since then, we have been constantly badgered by local women and children to buy tablecloths, mats, sweaters, bracelets, necklaces, artworks, toys, etc. It's evident that we tourists are a godsends for these people and they will use any tactic to get our precious money. And no matter how we say it “no, thank you” “solo mirar, gracias” “I'm not interested, thanks”, they keep on trying, lowering the price, showing you a different colour, a different motive, a different size.

It puts you in an uncomfortable situation because you know that they need that money to eat and live and you can see all the work in every item and how ridiculous the price is compare to a similar item sold in any Canadian store but you can't buy everything. So as the weekend progressed you spent more and more money but you also become more hardened in front of 10 or 12 years old kids who try to sell you 12 bracelets for a little more than a buck by saying “this is my work, I made it myself.”

It's also a reason why yesterday evening, when we all went to a local restaurant for supper, we were a bit outraged by the presence of children inside the restaurant still trying to sell us things while we were eating. When you walk in the streets, it's normal that they come and see you but when you try to have a moment of peace and just have dinner with you trip companions, we all thought that the restaurant owner could at least prevent those young salesmen to have access to the dinning room.

But what annoyed me the most was when two of my trip partners cried out “Oh Louis! Take a photo this poor little fellow has nothing to eat and we give him our meal.” That they let the kids circulate freely in the the restaurant to sell us things is one thing but that we begin to feed every kid who will simply come to our table and ask us for food, it doesn't work for me at all.

First this country only begins to have a tourism industry and if they don't respect the tourist's privacy, it will never work. And secondly, giving food for nothing to a child who seems to have the same capacities of any other child in this city while the others all work and weave bracelets or carve wood doesn't seem to me like the good way of acting. What will he learn? What kind of behaviour are we encouraging?

To avoid any confrontation with my trip friends and because I knew that behind their gesture there were evidently some good intention, I took my camera but didn't raise the flash and took a picture which I knew would be blurred due to the lack of light. Everyone was happy and I kept my judgments to myself.

And as for today we have visited another village, Chichicastenango. With is huge “mercado” today's activity was again shopping, even if most of us had bought anything they needed and more in the last two days. Again we had to decline constantly every offer made by every merchant while we were walking in the narrow corridors of the busy market.

At noon we were all happy to take a break for lunch, away from the crowd, before going back to the capital and end this shopping marathon. While I was eating my pizza, I heard a small voice in my back saying “comer?” (eat). I turned around and saw this dirty shoeshine boy both hands held in front of him and his little brother standing behind. I have simply melted in front of this vision and I gave them the rest of my plate.

Sometimes the strongest principles, hardest judgments and clearest visions can become blurred.

This weekend, I had to go to the small town of Thetford Mines for a pre-trip orientation weekend for my upcoming 5 weeks humanitarian work-trip to Guatemala. I gave a lift to two other participants(two women around 60) and on our way there, we were talking about this upcoming orientation and we all wonder what it would be about because non of us had any clue. But now that I've done it, I realize that it should have been obvious...

One of the big part of this formation was about the Guatemala reality. Their history, the Spanish conquest of the Mayas, the 1960-1996 civil war, etc. We also learned about the 21st century Mayas who still today form the majority of the population with the Ladinos(Mixed aborigine). What I retained the most about this civilization, was the fact that the are a proud population loving their country who prefer to live as refugees in their own land or beg in the street than leaving their birthplace.

The other big part of this weekend, maybe the biggest, was about social relation and respect. Social relation and respect among our group and social relation and respect with other cultures. During opening minds workshops and games we have created bonds among the group and began to understand what will wait us in this trip. But it all began when we were asked to put our luggage in the dormitory. 32 persons, men and women sleeping in the same room, beds 1 meter apart, no privacy, only basic facilities. The morning after the first night everyone said that they didn't sleep but let me tell you that with all the loud snoring that have kept me awake all night some of us must have slept! Lesson #1: bring my earplugs to Guatemala

After, they made us participate to a fake spiritual celebration provoking many reactions among the group. They putted us in many other uncontrollable situations where our values, our judgements, our team work was challenged. For example, they separated us in small groups with playing cards. We had 5 minutes to individually read this new game playing instructions and rules. They took back the instructions and ask us to play in complete silence. Of course, there were some differences among the group members' comprehension of the game but that wasn't so bad but when they said that the nominated winner and loser of each table had to move to another table, the real trouble began! The migrating players didn't had the same already agreed rules of their host table and the impossibility to communicate with words created all kind of reactions. After the game we have learned that no group has received the same game instructions and rules at the beginning so while everyone thought they were right, no one had the truth. A good analogy for someone who has to live and work in a different country who has a different culture...

The rest of the weekend was used to talk about the practical aspects of the trip: The humanitarian projects, A typical day of work, The security precautions we need to take while working in the most criminal part of the capitol, etc.

At the end of the last day, it was amazing to already see the complicity of the group. Not everyone of us will travel at the same time of the year, only 6 of the people who were there will travel on the same dates as me. There are several pre-trip weekends organized so I haven't met all my future workmates. But among the people I have met, I discovered many interesting individuals even if I'm 15-20 years younger than the age average of the group. The most touching moment of this weekend happened during the last activity where we were asked to explain in front of the group, using a pool drawing on a board, how much deep we were willing to plunge in this venture. Since most of the member's reserve toward the group was now disappeared, there were many emotional, hand and voice shaking testimonies heard from many different persons who were about to fulfill a long awaited dream, a big personal challenge or new life resolution. Me, I said that I was choosing the highest dive board to jump in the deepest part of the pool because I plan to plunge in this experience as deep as I can.

To conclude this short weekend report I would like to talk about one of the trainer who was there: Hugo, a Guatemalan political refugee. This authentic aboriginal really gave me the taste of Guatemala with his amazing knowledge about the politics, culture and history of his country and with his interesting and funny way of explaining it. He became even more funnier Saturday night when a few of us sat around a camp fire to talk and have a couple of beers. Nothing beats a half drunk Guatemalan telling Newfie jokes!

Although, later that night the conversation took a more serious but interesting turn when we talked about men and women respect and relationships. First, the different cultural realities appeared between our two countries but soon after, many different perceptions about love and respect appeared among the Quebecois group itself...

No consensus was found when I went to bed that night, but on my way to the dormitory, I saw a shooting star and I made a wish.