Statistics & Information

Almost 80% of the population live in poverty (less than $2 per day); 60% of those are in extreme poverty.
67% of indigenous children suffer from chronic malnutrition (Unicef)

Of a population of over 12,000,000 people, 45% are indigenous.
50% of the people are Catholic. 40% are evangelicals.
71% of the population are literate.
GDP: $2,200 per capita (2005 est) - but it's really much worse because of the grossly uneven distribution.
50% of the Mayan children, even today, receive no schooling. Less than 30% complete primary school (6th grade).
In Latin America, Guatemala has the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rate.
A woman is 15 times more likely to die in childbirth in Guatemala than in the U.S. The average woman has 4 to 5 children, and 42% of the population is under 15. Only 43% of women use any form of birth control, including "natural" methods. This falls to 21% among indigenous women. Nearly a third of women report an unmet desire for family planning. Cervical cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths among women of reproductive age.
There were 80,000 new high school graduates last year. There were only 5,000 new jobs.
200,000 people were killed during the 36 year long civil war. Although the peace accords were signed in 1996, violence is still widespread. The murder rate of women has increased dramatically. From the beginning of 2001 to April 2007, 2,300 women and girls were murdered. 70% of these murders are not investigated and no arrests have been made in 97% of the cases, which involve incredible brutality, mutilation, dismemberment, sexual violence. The murder rate overall has doubled since 2000 and is 6 times the rate of the U.S.

Cuentos de Guatemala-La Madre y Su Bebe Asesinado

Unas historias de Guatemala, no quiero recordar. Pero nunca las olvidaré. Esta historia me fue dicho por una mujer de veinte años y pico. Le fue dicho a ella por su padre, quien lo vio con sus propios ojos.

Tres hombres caminaban en la carretera. Un camión los pasó. El camión llevó quizás una docena hombres y una mujer. Fue una escena horrible porque fue obvio que todos habían sido golpeados. En ese tiempo, ser sospechoso de ayudar los guerrilleros fue motivo suficiente para ser asesinado. Pero lo peor fue que la mujer agarraba al bebe a su pecho, tratando de proteger al niño. Mas adelante en la carretera, los tres hombres llegaron momentos después los soldados han matado todos de los hombres y la mujer. Cuando uno de los soldados vio que el bebe estaba vivo y amamantando, él levantó a la madre y le disparó al niño.
Quisiera creer que tales cosas no ocurrían en realidad. Pero yo se que, desafortunadamente, tal cosa fue común durante la guerra.

Cuentos de Guatemala-La Maestra

Hay otra historia sobre una mujer que desafortunadamente no recuerdo bien. Es la historia de una mujer quien quería que los niños de su aldea tuvieran la oportunidad de aprender a leer y a escribir.

Ella enseñaba los niños en la biblioteca de la aldea. Porque el ejercito no quería que ella enseñara a los niños, ella fue acusada de ayudar a las guerrillas.
Finalmente su vida estuvo en riesgo – y ella huyo a la selva. Varias personas de la aldea le trajeron comida en secreto.
Más adelante, por supuesto, ella se unió con las guerrillas, quien la han protegido del ejército.
Posteriormente (pero no se cuantos años después) ella fue torturada y asesinada. Aunque todos en la aldea sabían que ella había muerto, nadie le decía a su padre porque no quería que el supiera como ella murió.

Babies, Health Care & Traditions

Mi maestro decía que especialmente in el pasado, los Mayas no confiaban en los médicos y en los hospitales públicos. Para dar a luz, las mujeres preferían las comadronas para atender. Si sus hijos estuvieran enfermos, ellas los llevaban al sacerdote maya en vez de un doctor.

Ella me contaba la historia de su hermana mayor, quien se enfermo cuando era niña. Después ella ha tenido diarrea y vomitando por varios días, sus padres tenían miedo. Llevaron a la niña al sacerdote en su aldea y el les dijo que la madre era la causa de la enfermedad de su hija. El les dijo que era porque la madre no respetaba su esposo (quien, a este tiempo, tenia 16 anos) que su hijo estaba enferma. Les dijo que se arrodillaran y él dio a la madre 25 latigazos. El padre, él dio 10 latigazos. No entiendo si las palizas tenían la intención de castigar a los padres o de curar la niña. Como quiera que sea, el doctor les dijo que la niña iba a mejorar el próximo día. 5 días después, los padres temerosos llevaron la niña al doctor. Ella estaba mucho peor. El doctor estaba enojado porque los padres no han llevado a la niña antes. El dijo que era demasiado tarde para hacer algo para la niña y que su madre, de edad de 20 anos, debió haber sabido mejor. El próximo día, la niña murió. Los padres sufrían mucho y no creen en los sacerdotes ahora. Es una de las mas triste historias he oído, pero desafortunadamente creo que ocurría mucho en el pasado y posiblemente todavía ocurre frecuentemente.

Cuentos de Guatemala - Vendedores en Panajachel

Cuando yo llegue en Panajachel, me entristecía ver niños muy jovenes vendiendo tejidos y baratijas en las calles. Entonces vi las ancianas caminando en las calles llevando cargas pesadas de tejidos. Unas de ellas no llevaban zapatos. Yo creía "Esa puede ser mi abuela. Pobrecita!" Pensé que tal vez debo comprar algo de ellas porque fue obvio que necesitaban el dinero.

Unos dias despues, mi actitud cambió. Aprendí que es muy incomido tratar comer la cena en un restaurante cuando constantamente hay varias personas por la mesa, tratando vender algo. Unas me empujan en el brazo para obtener mi atencion!
Mas tarde pensaba que uno no debe comprar de las niñas porque quisas si ellas tienen éxito con sus ventas, nunca irán a la escuela. Creo que es muy triste que la mayoría de ellas nunca asistan escuela. Mejor a comprar de sus abuelas, pienso. Todavía tengo sentimientos mixtos en este tema. A veces quiero comprarles comida. A veces estoy muy frustrada y solo espero que ellas se vayan.
Como muchas cosas en Guatemala, parece que no hay respuestas claras. Solo hay mas preguntas.

San Antonio Aguas Caliente

We took the chicken bus out to the town of San Antonio Aguas Caliente this afternoon to visit the weaving museum. Fascinating place where you can watch the women weaving. Unfortunately I had already made all my purchases so didn't buy anything!

Sunday Morning in Solola

Trip Around the Lake

Washing Clothes at the Lake

Yesterday we took a boat trip around the lake. We visited 3 villages, San Pedro La Laguna, Santiago Atitlan, and San Antonio Palopó. It was a very fun day but we still haven't had a clear view of the lake and the surrounding volcanoes. We've seen such awesome photos that we figured it always looked like that, with the volcanes rising from the land all around the lake. Alas! The lake and the volcanoes have been shrouded in fog since we arrived at the lake.
Our traveling companions were 2 fun young women from England who had just completed year long internships in New York, one with a law firm and the other with an investment banker. They are doing a Central America trip before returning to England and back to school. Our other companions were 3 delightful guys from the U.S. Two of them are young doctors from Buffalo, NY, and the other is a lawyer (from Philadelphia I think) who was a school friend of one of the docs. We had some good conversations. The doctors have promised us they will try to change the US medical system, but readily admit that they see the traps that lie in wait for all doctors who want to make changes. Neat guys.

All of the villages are much bigger than we had expected. I think the word village throws us off. Plus we have a hard time truly envisioning the result of rampant poverty and lack of birth control.
San Pedro was much bigger and more congested than we expected. The entire town is built on very steep hills up the side of the mountain. Envision, if you can, the road up to our house in Costa Rica. Then make it 2 or 3 times as steep, and you’ve got the roads in San Pedro. After walking up the first street, we quickly decided that a Tuk Tuk would be a good idea. We hired one to take us on a quick tour of the town and to show us where the Spanish schools were. There was a strong smell of garbage everywhere we went. A rather scrubby and dirty town, it struck us as not particularly interesting. It is a very poor town – poorer than we probably could have envisioned prior to our trip to Guatemala. We are getting over our gringo preconceptions of “charm.” We passed the requisite Catholic church and the diminutive market and found neither to be interesting. San Pedro these days is known as the bohemian center of Guatemala, catering to a young, mainly European counterculture. It is also reputed to have some of the cheapest accommodations in Latin America, as well as inexpensive language schools. We did indeed see a couple of very nice hotels for amazingly low prices ($9 to 13 US) – with lake views, no less. We have had several people along the way tell us what a great little town it is. We don’t get it.
The next village, Santiago, had a substantial market area near the docks with some incredibly beautiful woven things with patterns we had not seen elsewhere. I would like to return another day to do some shopping (yeah, I know, where would I put it in the backpack?) and to take some photos of the amazingly colorful traditional traje, worn by both men and women. This town also was very hilly, but not as steep as San Pedro. Nevertheless, we wisely elected to hire a Tuk Tuk again to take us to the home of Maximón, the evil saint (more on him later when I have time to write more). In verification of one of my rules of travel regarding not taking many fluids, I decided I didn’t really have to use the bathroom after checking out the public facility. You’ll be grateful, I know that I am not going to discuss that particular issue further. But don’t drink too much, always carry toilet paper, wet wipes and antibacterial hand rub with you. I know you’re all saying that advice doesn’t sound like Laurie, and you are right. That’s exactly the point. I wouldn’t give that sort of advice unless it were really needed. So then I decided to try one of my favorite things, a tamal, from a vendor on the foot path. It was my own stupid fault. I could see that the banana leaf was too green and that this stuff had not been cooked. I could also see that it was cold. I also knew that when I asked the woman if it was a tamal, she sort of said yes, but she also gave me one of those paragraphs of explanation. Well, anyhow, it’s biodegradable, we said as we threw it overboard. I really do not know what it was, but it looked like some sort of very dead red meat with a cup of blood poured over it. I hope I didn’t kill any fish.
Our last village was San Antonio. There really was absolutely nothing here that would interest a traveler, in my opinion. All the houses were perched precariously on the side of the mountain. Of course they are built of concrete block and any other material that can be found. To describe them as concrete block really isn’t right. They are shacks that people in other countries would not use to house farm animals. Very ugly. I am being blunt here to make my point. The level of existence of most of the indigenous Maya people is hard to fathom.
We had 45 minutes to see the “town” so we stopped at the “café” for a bite to eat. But they didn’t have any food to offer. So we ordered liquados. I didn’t realize when I asked for a banano liquado that they would run down the street to get some bananas to make it with. So the rest of the group sat at the table waiting for a chance to place an order. San Antonio apparently is the green onion capital. There were whole groups of women and children on the side of the road sorting and bunching the onions, which presumably were to be shipped off to market somewhere. Picturesque? I guess so, but not a job many of us would want. Jeff, one of the doctors, is one of those great guys you meet in life who cannot say No. He also speaks absolutely NO Spanish. He wandered off from the café and when it was time to get back to the boat, we realized he had disappeared. When he Women Sorting Onions didn’t show up in a few minutes we all became worried that he had got lost in the maize of the village and couldn’t ask directions to get out! After 10 minutes or so, he showed up, his arms full of fabrics, saying “I didn’t really want to buy anything!” Turned out that he had asked some woman where he could find a bathroom. She said he could use the bathroom in her home if he would buy the bundle of weavings from her for 200 quetzales ($26 or so). The toilet, he said, was a hole in the floor of the dirt floor of the house, but it had toilet paper, and that was all that he asked! “Anyhow,” he said, “I told my mom I’d bring her some fabrics!”
On the way back on the boat, we noticed how many mansion sized houses there are along the waterfront, not in the Maya villages, of course, but out in their own isolated paradises. There’s the 3rd world and then there’s the rest…

More of My Favorite Women

Guatemalan Women are Simply Amazing

Women´s Health & Other Problems in Guatemala

It was 6 years ago when Sue Patterson received a call from a nurse friend asking for her help. The friend was working with 7 women who wanted to have their tubes tied. Each of them had at least 8 children. When Sue learned that $35 would pay for a tubal ligation for one of the women, she said that yes, she would pay for one of them. And furthermore she would email some of her friends, who might help some of the other women. The next thing she knew, says Sue, her friends had emailed their friends, and people were sending money to her. Shortly she had $4,000 in her bank account and says, "it occurred to me that this was not my daughter's money if something should happen to me!" Thus WINGS was created to help poor women in Guatemala to obtain reproductive health services.

Sue spoke this evening at the Rainbow Cafe. The Rainbow is kind of an all-purpose hangout for foreigners. It includes a cafe with pretty good food (but terrible coffee!), a bar, a used book store / exchange, a travel agency, and a bulletin board with announcements about local events, rentals available, etc. They host musical performances on most nights, and their best feature, they regularly host speakers on significant current events and conditions in Guatemala.

WINGS now has 15 employees as well as many volunteers. They have a $500,000 budget and focus on 3 main programs: (1) Family planning education and referrals in rural villages, (2) Youth Wings - 140 young people have been trained to provide talks to their peers and others, and (3) Cervical cancer screening.
Here are some of the sad statistics which Sue discussed:

· 60% of the population of Guatemala lives below the poverty line.
· Only 43% of women use any form of birth control, including "natural" methods. This falls to 21% among indigenous women.
· The average woman has 4 - 5 children.
· Cervical cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths among women of reproductive age.
· A woman is 15 times more likely to die in childbirth in Guatemala than in the U.S.

As she discussed the numerous problems facing the country today, it was clear that Ms Patterson found the situation to be discouraging. It was equally obvious that she intends to continuing to help as many women as she can to have the resources to take control of their own reproductive health.

Other statistics:
· $50 protects 4 women from unwanted pregnancy for 1 year using Depo Provera every 3 months.
· $100 pays for 7 women or men to undergo voluntary sterilization.
· $250 pays for 20 women to receive cervical cancer screening and necessary follow-up treatment.

I am very impressed by this organization. You can find more information about them at the Wings Website.

An Invitation

¡We have an invitation to Sunday dinner! But first let me back up to yesterday's excitement!
Chiqui and I have spent quite a bit of time talking about the traditional Maya clothing, which is totally fascinating to me. A woman can spend months creating one article of clothing. Of course they are works of art and if they're sold, they can sell for hundreds of dollars. So yesterday Chiqui showed up for my class carrying a garbage bag. "A surprise!" she said when I asked her what was in the bag! She had borrowed from her mother an entire outfit of her traditional clothing to not just show me, but to allow me to try on! Yes, we took photos! Chiqui and Gene's teacher, Saira, both helped to wrap me in the traditional "corte," or skirt, which is actually a long (maybe 5 meters) piece of cloth. The cortes are woven on a foot loom. They have no buttons, zippers or velcro, and are held up by a beautiful woven sash, which I think also has a special name, but I don't remember it. The sash is also very long and is wrapped tightly (!) many times around the waist. It is this tightly wrapped belt which Chiqui says is too uncomfortable. Although her mother wears traditional dress, Chiqui prefers her jeans and t-shirts. Next I was adorned with the ultimate piece of Maya dress, the Güipil. This loose fitting blouse, woven on a back-strap loom, is the part of the costume which indicates what area, or village, the woman is from. The designs are incredibly intricate. They are actually made in 2 pieces and sewn together. This is the part of the costume which can cost several hundreds of dollars, depending on its detail. I was nervous just pulling it over my head! The grand finale was the addition of the headdress, which in this case was a square piece of cloth which was folded up to a size that I could carry on my head. It seems to me that its purpose is to cushion the head when carrying large loads on the head, as is frequently done, but the purpose was not really explained to me. The women also weave shawls and "tzutes," used to carry babies, food or other loads.
Dressing up as a Maya woman was an awesome experience. I cannot imagine how so many women can have the talent to create these works of art. I can't envision working on a blouse for 3 months. I watch these women walking down the street in their beautiful outfits and I am in awe of them. I wish I could take pictures of some of these beautiful women, but this is not possible without permission, so for now you'll have to settle for this picture of me in Chiqui's mom's clothes!
Oh! So the Sunday dinner! I got so excited telling you about the dress up day that I almost forgot. Chiqui's mom has invited us to their home for Sunday dinner! Obviously you'll hear more about that later!
So far now, back to the books!

Easter Sunday

Rest, study, rest, study. Streets are quiet today. Mid-afternoon decide to walk around and find someplace to eat. Want to try Don Martin on the other side of the church. Sounds like it might have some good simple tipico food. It's not open today, so we stop on the corner and eat at Capit án tortuga. Food was not all that great and the prices were high, but we ran into Suzy, who we had talked to while in the line at the bank the other day. We ended up having a great conversation and hearing about all her fascinating travels from her single days. Another one of those adventurous women, now in her 60's, who traveled in her 20's to places where women didn't travel by themselves back then - Africa, Afghanistan... would love to hear more of her stories.
Saw today's only procession, San Pedro - a little tiny one to wind up the week!

Sábado de Ramos

Bfast @ Fernando's. Walking back toward our apartment afterwards we noticed many people heading to the church with huge bundles of pine needles on their backs or balanced on their heads. We're wondering if they are to be part of the alfombras or if they're for something else. Hopefully we'll find out eventually.
After breakfast we walked to San Felipe to visit the impressive gothic church & see their amazingly detailed alfombra, which runs the length of the church and is surrounded by gorgeous fresh fruits & vegetables. Don Benjamin, our landlord, had encouraged us to visit this one & when we saw him there, he took us outside the church & told us the story of the history of the church in this town where he grew up. It seems that the wooden sculpture of Jesús was originally in the church in San Lucas Cotzumalguapa, the home of many poor people. When their area was overwhelmed by bats, the people moved to San Felipe. Some time later, the Jesus appeared in the church in San Felipe. It was returned several times to its original home but always reappeared by miracle in the new town. The people from the two towns fought over the sculpture but it was eventually decided that it would stay in its new home, since clearly the miracle indicated that was where it belonged.
Written records tell the story a bit differently, indicating that the neighbors brought the statue to Antigua (then called Santiago) and that the priest subsequently had a church built for it. I prefer Don Benjamin's version, with the sculpture miraculously appearing in the middle of the night. At any rate, apparently the faithful have been praying to the Jesus sculpture since 1620.
After seeing the church and it's amazing alfombra, we talked to woman from Tennessee over cokes at a table in the market. She's here for 3 wks to study Spanish to renew her teacher certificate.
We walked back to Antigua and were walking from the grocery store to our apartment by a very indirect route when we came across a wonderful place called El Sitio. It seems to be an art museum/gallery, theater, exhibition hall and cafe. We had a wonderful lunch in the little cafe and spent some time viewing a big roomful of photography by Jeffrey Foxx, a wonderful artist who has specialized for many years in Maya people, culture and villages. Awesome stuff. We plan to go back again for lunch and to find out what events might be planned while we're here.
In the evening we wandered around the church plaza on the corner. Throughout this time of the year the plaza is filled with vendors supplying the crowds with food and drink. I love "street food" wherever we go. A great opportunity usually for a good supply of grease at cheap prices, and sometimes a learning experience, trying local foods. We had some sort of meat in sauce thing, served on a tortilla and topped with a choice of avocado, cabbage, tomato sauce, etc. As always, I asked the vendor for the name of the dish. And as is usual, I immediately forgot it. Anyhow, it was good! Other things offered are fried chicken, empanadas (but all fruit filled rather than meat or veggies), potato chips, french fries, chicharones (fried pork), sausage, pizza, pupusas (delicious flat things filled with meat, beans and/or cheese - a specialty from El Salvador), chiles rellenos (stuffed peppers), and tons of candy/sweet things.
While wandering around, we ended up talking to a family from the US who come to Antigua every year for Semana Santa. It's easy to see why people would want to return year after year. I think we will.
While at the plaza, I bought one of the palm bouquets. There is one big section of the plaza, directly in front of the entrance to the church, where the sellers of the palm arrangements sit and make the arrangements. It is a beautiful sight, as the women are all dressed in their colorful traditional indigenous outfits. There must be over a hundred people making and selling the bouquets, which are made of special palm leaves brought in from a specific area of the country, along with various other colorful flowers. Some different from the dinky little bow made of a piece of palm leaf that I recall from Palm Sunday in Florida! I was planning to wait until Sunday morning to buy one of these beautiful arrangements, but someone reminded me that the plaza would be so crowded tomorrow morning that I wouldn't be able to get there. So I asked what the price was. I was shocked to learn that these beautiful things sell for 5 quetzales (about 65 US cents), so I "splurged" on one.