Catching Water

I won't cease wondering what kind of impact this experience of living and working in Guatemala will have on our girls. I think about the visits to communities in which we work. I carry images of my girls playing alongside indigenous children, their brightly colored guipiles (traditional Mayan clothing) in stark contrast to my girls' outfits bought at a large department store in the US. 

From a trip a couple years ago:

Duck, Duck Goose (Pato, Pato, Ganso)

Makes friends fast, a life-long skill.

My girls have experienced a lot. With time their memories will fade and become more ideas than specific recollections.  

On the way to Honduras a couple weeks ago we stopped to visit a project that MCC supports near the Guatemalan border. Guatemala has the 4th highest malnutrition rate in the world, and within Guatemala this area is among the poorest. 

It’s starkly impoverished. Children with extended bellies wearing clothes intended for kids half their size. The poverty is real and unbelievable and yet there it is, begging us to notice. 

We were welcomed in the community by a group of women, the leaders of the community working to improve their access to water and food. They fed us bread soaked in a sweet corn-based liquid. 

Photo credit: Ellie

Ruby really enjoyed it, and the women enjoyed her. 

The rest of us offered ours to the kids sitting near us. “We just ate lunch. We’re a bit full." 

 We went on a walk to visit their local water source, the most dinky watering holes imaginable.

Peering at one of the "wells."
(Don Peters, MCC Canada Executive Director, joined us on this trip)

These women wake up at 4:30 every morning to walk here and gather water. It can take two hours to fill a small container. These plastic bowls “hold” their place in line, as the water trickles in over the course of hours. 

 I couldn't help but feel the irony in carrying around our plastic water bottles to quench our thirst as we stared into the small puddles of water. 

This is their reality, their daily ritual, whereas my morning ritual, in contrast, is to take a hot shower, drink hot coffee, and check my Facebook. 

This area has been hard hit by the drought that has passed over Central America over the last couple years. MCC’s work here has been to support a local NGO to construct water catchment systems that save and store water for individual families. This water can then be used for things like watering gardens. 

Retrieving water from the Catchment System

The girls were with us, and we trudged up and down the dusty paths, visiting sparse but proudly demonstrated gardens, water systems, and these watering holes. As happens often while living here, I was unsure how much of the desperate situation to explain to my 3 and 5 year-olds. 

It was hot and sweaty and dusty. I carried Ruby on my back up the steep hills. There were several complaints from our girls. “It’s hot. I’m tired. My legs hurt. Are we done yet?” 

I don’t want to instill a sense of guilt in our girls. That’s not the point. But I do want them to know that there are others who have very little. That basics like running water are not a given for all people. (Ironically, as I wrote this, our electricity and water were out for more than five hours due to a thunderstorm). So I explained in simple terms that these women are people Mommy and Daddy work with, that our job with MCC is to help them figure out ways to catch rain water and feed their families. 

“These women have to walk along here to get water. You know how we have water in our house, in the faucet? These women have to carry their water all the way from these water holes to their house. Every day. Lots of times every day. It's a lot of work.”

The next day, as we continued our travels towards Honduras, it began to rain. 

“Mommy! It’s raining!” This, from Ellie. "That means our friends from yesterday can have some plants.”

I just looked at her. Somehow, some little piece of the day before had stayed with her. She made the connection that these “friends” will be thankful it’s raining, that the rain will be helpful. That with this rain, their plants will grow, and their children may get some food.

I hope and pray that these moments will be nestled deep in their hearts, that the feelings of compassion and joy for others will be nurtured. That our life here and the stories we will choose to tell them as their memories of Guatemala fade, will shape our girls and our family in unfathomable ways. 

Ellie's homework: A Sampling

I've mentioned before the mountain of homework Ellie has every week. I thought I'd give a sampling of some of her homework, and you can tell me if I'm crazy to think this is a lot for a pre-kindergartener. That is, a preschooler the year before kindergarten.

Every Monday Ellie brings home a pile for the week, including this vocabulary packet. This is due every Friday. It includes a page of words, syllables, and sentences to read, the vocab words to trace and illustrate, and a page of sentences to rearrange and write.

She also brings home weekly flashcards that she colors, cuts, glues, and I cover with contact paper. She is tested on these every Thursday. Luckily, they are always English words, so she has always received 10/10 and we never have to practice them.

On Mondays she also brings home this reading book that we are supposed to read several times throughout the week to practice and improve her Spanish literacy.

Every week she is supposed to practice writing her name in cursive. We don't do this very often because we barely have enough time/motivation/energy to get the other homework finished.

Once a week she brings home this vocabulary notebook. It contains a list of 5 English words that we are to find pictures in magazines, glue them in the book, and then she writes each word 3 times. This is always due the following day, and is usually accompanied with other homework sheets, also due the following day.

Some homework sheets that she gets a couple times per week, often math or writing:

She has weekly Dictations (in Spanish) every Friday at school, which get sent home for me to review and sign. She's extremely proud when she gets them all correct. Mostly because she gets a sucker.

Other days throughout the week she brings home science projects in English, phonics pages, or more worksheets. Once a month she has a presentation where she has to share about a topic with 4-5 sentences in front of the class, with some kind of display. She's done one on panthers, one "About Me," and one "My Family." The nice thing is that these are all in English, so the prep work and practice are minimized.

On top of all this, we are supposed to be reading to her at least 15 minutes every night, which we have always done as part of our bedtime routine.

On the one hand, this is so much. After being in class all morning she comes home and often has an hour of homework. It's a battle sometimes, though thankfully, she mostly loves it.

On the other hand, we are so privileged to have access to such a great school. She is learning to read and write and in just a few months we've seen her grow tremendously in her skills.

One of our projects with MCC is an adult literacy program for the Kekchi, an indigenous population. I'm constantly reading reports of (mostly) women who stopped going to school after 2nd or 3rd grade to help at home and never went back. Now, as adults with several children, often as widows or single mothers, they are taking the opportunity to go to elementary school or junior high. When I have this perspective, I can't help but pause and just be thankful for education and the fact that my daughters will learn to read and write while I know adults here who can do nothing more than sign their name.

It's all perspective, but it feels like, for US general education standards, this is quite a load of homework for a five-year old. Am I right?

March is Marching on by

I was doing well blogging in January and February. And then March came along.

I was so busy this week I didn't realize I wasn't part of my weekly FitBit Challenge group until someone emailed me on Thursday and asked me where I had been all week. I just didn't even have time to click one simple button to join the group. It's been that kind of week. On the flip side, I've gotten a whole bunch of steps for not doing any intentional exercising, even more than most days when I go for a run. Also, I'm on antibiotics again for yet another sinus infection.

Sick day at home on Sunday. 

To make this post more cheery, here are some fun photos of my cute kids from this week.

I love these sister moments.

Ellie was the "Niña de la Semana," so on Thursday we got to bring her favorite snack to school to share with her classmates. Pancakes with peanut butter and syrup was this year's choice. Ellie loved every second of it.

Hung up in her classroom this week.

Pancakes in her class.

Ellie was insistent that we needed a picture of her whole class, and that all the boys had to stand up behind, and all the girls were below in front. I'm not exactly sure why this is a thing...

Having a cute baby sister is sometimes really fun.

This week we spent a couple days with some members of our team and representatives from our local partners from Guatemala and El Salvador. We partner with a Catholic Diocese, Indigenous Mayan organizations, local Mennonite church conferences, other church denominations, and local NGOs.

We signed MOUs for the next year, and heard from partners about their current projects.

While we had meetings, the girls got their homework done.

Next week is Semana Santa (Holy Week), and we're looking forward to some time off as a family to rest and connect, hopefully without a lot of internet.

Long Week

It's been a loooooong week. It feels like one of the longest we've had in a while.

Some numbers:

55 people from 10 countries gathered here in Guatemala over the course of 5 days to discuss political advocacy and the MCC Connecting Peoples programs.

2 nights where my girls were awake until 10:00pm due to activities, and another late night way past their bedtime.
3 times I went through a drive-though to eat a meal in the car.
3 days I drove back and forth twice a day between home, the girls' school, and the retreat center.
45 minutes to the retreat center, with traffic.
7 people who came to a lunch we hosted were Guatemalan alumni of MCC young adult programs (6 went to US or Canada, one to Bolivia, one will be going to the US in August).

1 talent show with people from 10 countries, including 3 cute Chapman girls singing and playing "5 Little Monkeys."

2 more very busy weeks before a rest during Holy Week.

Countless conversations with other MCCers and workers who share a passion for helping the "least of these."

New Paint

We recently updated our MCC office with some paint, updated some cushions and furniture, and basically brightened up the place.

A glimpse into MCC Guatemala/El Salvador's office space:

MCC 's mission and vision statement (with a picture from one of our projects).

Translation:

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a worldwide ministry of Anabaptist churches, shares God’s love and compassion for all in the name of Christ by responding to basic human needs and working for peace and justice. MCC envisions communities worldwide in right relationship with God, one another and creation. 

Where we receive guests. 

Our cute little visitor.

Two cute little visitors.

My desk (on the right).

The entryway with photos from our projects.

Michael got a new standing desk, finally. This works a lot better than the rickety books and stools he used to use to make his desk higher. 

El Salvador-Current Realities

You may have read something in the news this week about a disease carried by mosquitos, the zika virus, that has now spread to 25 countries. For adults, the symptoms include fever, rash, joint paint, and conjunctivitis, but more seriously there has been a connection to a serious neurological birth disorder called microcephaly, where the brain is basically much smaller than normal. Because of this, some countries, including El Salvador, have advised women to avoid becoming pregnant for the next two years, until at least 2018.

Let me say that again: they are recommending that there be no new pregnancies for the next two years.

One of our partners decided to do some education with their communities to promote awareness of standing water, where the mosquitos and their larvae are most likely to infest. There are recommendations to replace standing water every few days, and to bleach and monitor closely the pilas that usually have standing water (outdoor sinks used for washing clothes, dishes, and pretty much everything). Unfortunately, this can be both difficult and impractical in areas with little access to water.

We currently have four workers in El Salvador and about five projects. Though we live in Guatemala, our duties as Representatives also cover El Salvador.

As if the threat of disease is not enough, El Salvador has been on our radar because of a recent spike in violent deaths, a 70% increase in 2015. A huge majority of these deaths are attributed to an increase in gang violence. Some of our workers live very near these realities, working alongside people directly affected by this violence. Some statistics show that El Salvador has surpassed Honduras as the country with the highest murder rate in the world.

A very close co-worker of our staff has an 8-year old son and she is already preparing herself for the reality that within the next two years she will need to move. Why? Because they live directly across the street from a gang member, and within a couple years this child will be targeted. That is the reality of this context. It's much easier to understand the desperation of families wanting to flee their homes, even their country when there are names and faces to these situations, especially when one considers the context in which the gangs have emerged, and the role of the US in many of these situations. These issues are not as clear-cut as some would like to portray them.

Another piece of news in the last week is that the Peace Corps has withdrawn from El Salvador "due to the ongoing security environment." Granted, the Peace Corps is usually the first to leave in many countries, and is not necessarily a litmus test for when to leave, but it is still telling of the situation. They withdrew 158 volunteers from Honduras in 2012 for safety concerns as well. There had been about 113 volunteers in El Salvador in the last year or so, down to about 55 this month when the decision was made to withdraw. Currently there are about 146 volunteers in Guatemala (depending on where you get information).

For now we are monitoring the situation, checking in often with our staff, and praying for those who are affected.

The US government is not willing to leave American citizens in El Salvador, yet it's deemed necessary and acceptable that women and children be sent back to such unsafe situations. One quote I read sums it up best:

"Clearly there is a humanitarian crisis in El Salvador. It's unconscionable to send people back into the same situation."

What Are We Doing Here?

We're doing this for the girls.

Roasted rabbit at a picnic.

Living here, working here. Learning Spanish. Being exposed to other cultures and having experiences that would never be possible in the US. At least in part. Of course there is also the call to serve others and work in peace and justice and development, and model that for our girls.

This is what I have to tell myself almost every day. When I start to question this life that we've chosen, I remind myself, "we're doing this for them."

Many people tell us what great experiences we're providing for our girls. And then the other day I thought more about that, and I questioned this line of thought. They are young. When our 5-year contract ends in 2018 (we're almost exactly half way through it), our girls will be 7, 5, and 3. That's still very young.

Maybe too young to remember anything?

Recently we took a trip to Nebaj, in the highlands of Guatemala. The Ixil people who live in this region were the hardest hit during the civil war. In fact, what happened there is now recognized as genocide, which killed thousands of people and destroyed countless villages. Widespread killings, rape, torture, and "disappearances" were intended to completely wipe out the Ixil people. Ex-president Rios Mont is currently on trial for being the general during this time of genocide and crimes against humanity. Random fact: his daughter was one of the candidates that ran (and lost) for President of Guatemala in elections last Sunday.

In this region, MCC supports two projects through a local Mayan organization. One is a project providing space for young people to learn about farming and traditional agriculture as a way to make a sustainable living, by each working a piece of land. It's a beautiful project where we are seeing youth who want to retain their traditional practices, and want to work hard and make a viable living, so that they can avoid migrating to find work.

The other project is around gender equity, and accompanying Mayan women as they try to rescue some of their traditional practices around medicine and health, while also learning about equality and justice for women, something difficult in such a male-centric culture.

During our trip we visited some land where youth are working hard to cultivate diverse crops. One young woman shared with us how proud she is to work the land and prove to her family that she, as a woman, can not only work the land but produce results. We had to walk along a steep hill for at least 20 minutes to arrive to her small plot of land.

We witnessed a workshop among participants of the project on creating organic fertilizer.

The girls enjoyed helping.

We were served a traditional Ixil meal, a dough cooked inside green leaves, served with a delicious red sauce, eaten with your hands.

Hazel was a little leery.

The girls accompany us on these visits. They play. They meet new people. They get gawked at a lot for being white (and cute). This particular day I remember watching them be creative, playing with sharp, pointy sticks. And the North American-safety-crazed-mom in me just let them be. I had a moment where I realized that this was it. This was part of why we're here. They're learning and playing and living. This is not just a temporary place of work. This is life as they know it. They know nothing else.

Look Mom! Sharp sticks!

But still. I wonder, is it worth it? Honestly, they are so young, though they are exposed to so many fascinating experiences, will they remember any of it? They have no idea the context of what they see. To them, it just is.

Michael was about the age Ellie will be when he and his family returned to the States after being born and living in Peru his whole life. He remembers some things from his time there, stories and images he holds in his mind. But more important than specific memories, his experience of living overseas, his identity of being born in Peru, has stuck with him. It shaped him throughout his childhood back in the States, and into adulthood those experiences integrated into his thoughts and views. It brought us full circle back to Latin America.

And so, even if my girls won't remember every detail, and won't remember every trip we take, and won't remember every person we meet, they will have a bigger lens to interpret their world. They won't think it strange that almost every single friend they have at school has a different skin color than them, and speak Spanish.

They are used to strangers talking to them, carrying them. They travel well and often. They make friends quickly, often with limited language skills. This, I must remember, among the others, will be a life-long skill.

I can only hope and pray that little nuggets of our life here will hold on to their hearts and in their minds as they grow, and I have to trust that these experiences are molding them in more ways than I can see or understand. 

That is why we are here.