Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Fantastic Article on Education!
Monday, November 2, 2009
A Resurrected Blog...
So I should probably start out by apologizing for the obnoxious amount of time that has passed since my last post. My inability to keep up on this frustrates me. I think I am going to try to bring you all up to speed with a series of smaller installments.
Regarding comments made on my last post, I think we should all observe a moment of silence for the Twins disappointing series against the Boston Red Sox. Darn MassHoles! Oh well, I have complete confidence in the Twins for next season…we’ll blame these losses on the Metrodome for the last time and look forward to a brighter future next year in a new stadium.
To give a preview for the topics I want to write about hopefully in the next several days, I’ve just included a short list of what I’ve been up to and what’s on my mind…
1.) Education. The Guatemalan school system is very different than that of the US and I have really been noticing that so much depends on education. I’ll go into greater detail on it more later, but I have been noticing how important it is for the development of critical thinking, voice, and argumentation.
2.) Pastor’s Conference and umpteen church events…these have really got me thinking about the Latin American Church.
3.) More meetings with community groups…I have really been enjoying my meetings with Rural Health Promoters and might try to do some significant work supporting their work and political efforts.
4.) Frustrations with the lack of a developed Guatemalan postal service.
5.) I’ve tried to make a lot of observations with respect to the Mayan culture down here…interactions with Mestizo people…how American/modern culture has affected it...etc.
6.) The more I get to know people down here, and the more time I spend just having fun with them, the more I am loving the friends I am making.
7.) Many Guatemalans, as I know is the case with other countries as well, totally idolize America while others can be very critical of it. Sometimes, hearing people talk about the US really makes me feel awkward.
8.) Two absolutely wonderful Americans came down to the clinic last week to bring some medical equipment down for our lab. The medical equipment will be excellent for us to have, but I was especially grateful for the encouragement they provided me. It was very special to be able to share my experiences here with some other Americans—especially Americans who were so eager to just soak it all in.
9.) I’ve been doing a little bit more traveling around Guatemala recently, but it is always good to get back to Patzun.
All that to say, there’s good stuff on the horizon. Don’t take my silence these past few weeks to mean that nothing worth writing about has happened.
So thoughts for today…
Part of what we do down here involves organizing a lot of workshops for members of the community. These could be with community leaders, health promoters and midwives, church leaders, or a group of random women from the rural communities. The main goals of these meetings are to facilitate political organization and empower them to participate.
The first meeting I attended was a workshop for women from the rural communities of Tecpán (we work both in Tecpán and Patzún). Especially in the rural communities, women tend to be pretty quiet and reserved. Their role is pretty much to be the homemaker; raise children, which is a fulltime job when the average family is like 5+ kids; or, if they are working, to be a teacher. And roles tend to be pretty set in stone. Women don’t challenge the system, they don’t participate in politics, and they aren’t used to speaking up or speaking out. So our first activity was simply an icebreaker activity, the human knot, to get them to come out of their shell a little bit. After a short intro to the workshop, we split them up into groups of about 5 people and asked them to brainstorm responses to a few questions:
1.) Are you content with your life right now? Why or why not?
2.) What kind of future do you want to pass on to your children?
3.) Whose responsibility is it to create that future?
While I was really eager to see the results of this exercise, the thing that struck me most was that no one really wrote anything down at all. And I couldn’t figure out why until Mardoqueo, AV’s director of community and political development, explained a little bit about the education system down here. Actually, first off, several of these women were uneducated and illiterate. But even for those who had gone to school, the general style is that the teacher stands at the blackboard and writes things down while you as the student copy. The teacher knows everything and you know nothing. It’s not a question of the student’s ability to understand, it’s a matter of their ability to practice rote memorization and learn “the right answer.” Just as a side note, and this is another topic I want to spend more time thinking about later on, but these workshops have really taught me just how much of public health work demands an ability to be an effective teacher.
Anyway, back to this particular workshop…for students, there’s always a fear of not getting the right answer. And I think it is this same fear that keeps people from speaking out and participating in the government. I think it’s the same reason we had a hard time getting these women to brainstorm for our activities. They’re not used to generating their own answers; so when we asked them their opinions, they were trying to figure out what we wanted them to say. For many of these women, when we asked them if they were content with their lives, they just gave a casual nod of assent—almost as if it were a reflex, without even really considering it. However, it was encouraging to see that, slowly by slowly, some of the women who come to these exercises regularly are learning how to voice their opinions and I think some of the newer women are looking up to them and trying to learn from them.
A successful democracy unquestionably needs confident citizens who are able to think for themselves, think critically, and form arguments. And, as I’ve already mentioned, this is inextricably linked to a solid school system. But another reason a successful democracy needs an educated population is simply that the people need to know what the law says.
One thing I need to keep in mind is that these realities aren’t like chemistry problems. I am used to approaching a problem, studying, designing a small research project, and writing a paper/taking a test, and then moving on. I am used to packing things up neatly at the end of the scholastic year. These problems are long-term problems, they have overwhelmingly deep roots, and it is an uphill battle on every side. But the people I have met here who are working at AV have given me reason to be hopeful. I will look forward to telling you about all of them next time…
Prayer Requests:
1.) I am trying to do a lot of writing down here to process what I see, but usually I get home at the end of the day and just collapse. I really want to get some good writing done, so pray for energy and clear thinking.
2.) Pray for the situation with education here. Guatemala needs teachers who understand the value of critical thinking rather than rote memorization, who understand that the voice and opinions of their students are valuable and not something to be silenced, and who encourage their students to be confident and benevolent leaders in their communities.
3.) Pray that the people of Guatemala would learn the laws of their government and seek to become honest, active participants. And pray that God would work in the hearts of corrupt politicians to inspire them to serve their country rather than serve themselves at the expense of poor people.
4.) Last week there were elections for municipality representatives and it appears as though the mayor rigged the elections to put people in office who would bolster his power. There are some things we are trying with other community leaders to negate the results of the election, but we’ve got a long way to go on that.
5.) While I try to maintain a spirit of hope in spite of all the uphill battles that Guatemala faces, it is sometimes easy to be disparaging about the situation. Pray that I would keep my spirits up and be meditating on Colossians 1:17, that “[Christ] is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
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Monday, October 5, 2009
On We Go!
¡Hola a todos!
First off...GO TWINS!!! I have to admit that I felt an inordinate amount of Minnesota pride yesterday when I opened up my Guatemalan newspaper and read about how well the Twins were doing...
I hope this post finds each of you doing well. Sorry it has been a little while since my last post. Life has been pretty busy lately. Hmmmm….where to start???
My work at the clinic continues to go pretty well. I am still doing a lot of observing and learning; it looks like that’s going to be my main occupation for at least a few weeks to come. My supervisor really wants me to understand the community, the politics, and the people well before I get started with any sort of project. I am trying to learn more about Guatemalan Health Policies, more about the politics of the municipal government, and more about the culture of this region. On the whole, I am really enjoying learning about the work of the clinic; however, everyday has its ups and downs. The frustrating moments come when I have to go to meetings that are all in Kaqchiquel (a Mayan language). It is NOTHING like Spanish and I just sit there and try to look interested.
I’m also really enjoying my coworkers. Last Thursday, we stopped working a little early so we could get in a soccer game before it got dark, on Friday I taught some people how to play Frisbee during lunch, and then we ate “elotes” (corn on the cob) after work one day. I’m told they are “in season” now, and the whole process of preparing and eating elotes is pretty involved, but Patzuneros (people from Patzún) really seem to love it. I had elotes 3 times last week.
Though I spend most of my time just observing and asking a lot of questions, last Thursday, I actually felt like I made a good contribution to our work. The previous Tuesday we were in Tecpán meeting with a group of women from the surrounding rural communities (very poor) and asking them questions about how content they were with the way their lives were (political situation, what kind of future they hoped to pass on to their children, gender roles, etc). We wrote down their responses and on Thursday we sat down to analyze them. My coworker started out by asking me, “Well what are our conclusions?” and told her that I couldn’t know without going over this in a lot more detail. She gave me somewhat of a quizzical look as if to say “well we just finished typing all of them in…how do you not already know what it says?” So, I took her through a process I had learned in a research class from Wheaton of clustering the data into categories, looking at what the data did and did not say, and then making note of all the gaps in our data. By the time we were finished, we had a much better idea of what our data meant, and also had an agenda for our next meeting. It felt good to make my first contribution since arriving.
In other news, last week Guatemala celebrated “El Dia de los Niños.” Just like we celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, they have another holiday to celebrate kids. And rather than a single day event, activities spanned from Thursday until Sunday night. Schools let kids sleep for an extra hour, there were countless piñatas in the streets, and churches had their own celebrations too. But all these festivities made me realize something. Being 24 in Guatemala is different than being 24 in the US. In the US, you become an adult at 18 years old. You leave home to go away to college. You move out of your parents’ house. And you start to support yourself. You are supposed to become “independent.” Here, leaving your youth and becoming an adult has less to do with predetermined age brackets and professional landmarks (graduating college, getting a salaried job), and more to do with your family situation. You’re still considered a youth at 24 if you’re not married; single people still live at home and don’t really seem to move into an apartment or anything like that. But once you get married, all that changes. Here, people talk about families more than they talk about individuals.
I am also starting to feel like I am finally starting to make the mental transition from life in the States to life here; but, this process is going to take a while. On Saturday, my friend, Victor, invited me to go to Chimaltenango with him to run a few errands. I hadn’t been and decided it would be good to get to know a new place. On my short tour of “Chimal” Victor took me into this shopping mall complete with an American-style food court (think air conditioning, McDonalds, Domino’s, and Taco Bell). On the way home, I was somewhat struck by how relaxed I had felt in that environment in comparison to Patzún. I hope I get to a place eventually where I can feel as relaxed here as I do at home (maybe that’s taking it a little far), and like Paul says in Philippians “learn to be content whatever the situation.” But, for now those periods of reprieve are much appreciated.
Prayer Requests!
1.) Give Thanks! I have been having some good conversations with my supervisor (Dr. Axel) about how I, as an American Christian, should approach my encounters with poverty and how I should think about development from my own, unique perspective. I really want to spend a lot of time down here thinking about what my roll in international health and development should be in the future.
2.) Health! I have been sick the last 3 or 4 days with a pretty nasty cold. Travel sickness is getting better and better, but this cold is a real pain.
3.) Tomorrow I am heading off to San Juan la Laguna for a 4-day conference involving pastors who practice comprehensive missions (or “Misión Integral”). I am looking forward to getting to know another part of Guatemala and learning about another part of what AV does.
4.) Medical School Applications! My days tend to start early, be pretty full, and then I just crash after dinner. That hasn’t been proving an entirely effective recipe for getting my med school secondary applications done. I am making progress, but very slowly. Pray that I could just get these last three secondaries out and then focus on what I’m doing here.
5.) Patience! The whole transition “process” continues at an aggravatingly slow pace. I want to be comfortable in the language, I want to understand the politics of the region, I want to understand the culture, I want to be AOK with the food, and I want it yesterday. Pray for patience…
Alright all, well that’s it from my end. But please keep me updated on what is going on with you all back there! I love getting emails from you all, facebook posts, comments on the pictures I put up on facebook, etc…Adios!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Not in Kansas Anymore!
1.) Travels: After a couple of full days packing, I finally got the heck out of Minnesota! Success #1. All my travels went just swimmingly all the way to my new home for the next 9 months. Jose Luis, from Asosiación Vida (the organization I will be working for this year), was waiting for me right outside the airport when I arrived around 9:30, and it was about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get back to Patzún. We pretty much covered a good amount of the small talk topics during the drive…including, “What sports do you like?” I told him I had been a runner for several years in the US and had done a few marathons in recent years. Big mistake! He got somewhat excited and told me that there was going to be a 10-mile race in Patzún that Sunday and that I should run it. Crap! More on that later… In any case, my host parents, Francisco and Margarita, were waiting for me when I got there. They showed me around their home and then showed me to my room. It´s a great house, very open, and I think I am going to be very comfortable there.
2.) My Host Family: They´re wonderful! In addition to my host parents, I´ve got 5 younger sisters and one younger brother. Zuly is the oldest at 18, and Misael is my 2-year-old little brother. They´re taking great care of me and Margarita is a total rockstar, prepearing special food to help my stomach ease into the Guatemalan diet. Francisco used to work for WorldVision for a number of years. Zuly(18) only lives with us on the weekends and is otherwise studying in Antigua to be a teacher. Karla (16) and Débora(12) are always helping me out around the house. Séfora (8) is constantly smiling. Analis (6) is constantly following me around the house and has told me at lest 4 times so far that she is turning 7 next month. And then Misael (2) runs up to me whenever I get home and gives me a hug. We´re still trying to teach him my name so far, but one thing at a time.
3.) The Race! So, even though my stomach was pretty uneasy the first couple days and I didn´t have much appetite, I decided to do the race. I went with some guys from church to the Municipality to register for the race, and…get this…they had a separate category for foreigners (not sure that´s necessary seeing as how only saw one other American in the 2400-person race). The race started in the next city and I was told that there would be transport over to the starting line. At this point, I´m imagining buses, but the reality was so much better than a bus. All of a sudden, all these guys started chasing after this huge truck that is usually used to transport mass quantities of vegetables to markets. When it finally stopped, a couple of guys scaled this monster of a truck and opened up the grate on the back. We all climbed in and packed in like sardines. Someone finally closed the grate and a whole bunch of other guys jumped on either to ride on top or hang off the side. It was hot and sweaty, people were laughing and cursing at each other left and right, and it was total craziness…but definitely my most memorable ride in a vegetable truck to date. The race itself was great too! I laughed a good amount throughout the race because people would point at me from the side lines and yell one of three things…1. a gringo!, 2.) canche! (which means blond hair), or 3.) any one of the 5 English phrases they know. All in all, it was good times.
4.) My Internship: I´ll be spending the next few weeks figuring out exactly what I will be doing this year, but so far, it´s been a really good experience. Dr. Axel Suquen is the clinic´s director and as soon as I met him I knew I would like him. He is very passionate about the work of the clinic in the community, he loves Patzún and all the people here, and he is full of positive energy. I think I am going to learn a lot from him this year. Yesterday, I went with two other AV workers out to some of the surrounding villages. After yesterday, I am inclined to think that this is going to be the most difficult part of my internship here. One stop on our tour of 5 villages was to Tesoro to visit and bring medicine for a 2-year-old girl who was just released from the hospital last Friday for malnourishment. The house was made of sticks, mud, and a nylon tarp for a roof. When we came up to the house, the girl´s mom came outside and we sat and talked with her for a few minutes waiting for her husband to return from the fields. When the clinic gives out medicine, we try to keep records of who the medicine is going to and get an idea of what their situation is like. For this family, the mom is 20, the dad is 23, and they have a 6-year-old, a 2-year-old, and the mom is going to have another baby next month. Plus, the dad´s parents live with them. They have no bathroom, and our best guess is that the entire family lives on about 8 bucks per week. It´s really no wonder that this little girl had a big belly, skinny little arms and legs with loose skin, and a big forehead. It´s going to take some time for me to know exactly how to respond to these situations when I see them. But, this is why I am here.
5.) Prayer Requests!
a. Pray for people living in the villages. Life is hard there and AV is really undertaking a difficult task trying to fix the structures that keep these people poor.
b. This has been kind of a funky season with inconsistent rain. Farmers need rain for their crops to grow. If their crops fail this year, they don´t eat next year and there will be more suffering. In large part, it really is that simple. Pray for rain.
c. Pray for me as I get used to my new surroundings. Bit by bit, I am getting more used to the diet here, but it will still take some time. Also, readjusting to the language is proving more frustrating than I thought it would be. And last but not least, pray that I would continue to get to know people here and make some good friends.
d. Give thanks for a great start so far!
I´ll try to post some pictures this weekend. ¡Hasta la proxima!
GRACE and PEACE,
Erik
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
I Guate Get Outta Here!!
¡Hola a todos!
Well, this Friday (9/18) I’ll be traveling to Patzún, Guatemala to spend the next nine months working for Asociación Vida (AV). Just two days prior to my departure, I am learning that no packing list is comprehensive enough for the unexpected. I have been in contact with the clinic’s director these last couple of months, but some of the more nitty-gritty details—such as where I am going to live and whether or not there will be someone at the airport to pick me up this Friday—have yet to be resolved. I suppose we’ll call those my first prayer requests.
AV is a medical, dental, and public health clinic sponsored by an organization called the Luke Society. Though the Luke Society is a global organization headquartered out of Sioux Falls, SD, their clinics are all run by nationals. I have traveled quite a bit throughout Latin America before; but this time, for the first time, I will not be insulated by a group of Americans. In fact, to my knowledge, I’ll be the only American working at AV. I don’t know exactly what my role will be there, but I do feel that this opportunity is one that the Lord has been preparing me for the past few years. At Wheaton, I blended together a biology major with cultural studies to learn about health beliefs and healthcare delivery in different parts of the world. In large part, I decided to pursue this opportunity hoping these next nine months will breathe life into things I have spent so much just reading about.
I do know that Patzún is a highland community about an hour and a half west of Guatemala City by car. Many residents in the region would identify themselves as “Cakchiquel” (a Mayan ethnicity), and in fact this population forms a considerable chunk of the patient base AV serves. Wheaton’s Human Needs and Global Resources (HNGR) program has sent several interns to this site before, so they are fairly familiar with “Wheaties.” Assuming my internship will follow roughly the same structure as previous internships, I will spend the first 2-4 weeks learning about the focus of the AV, familiarizing myself with Patzún, and comparing my skill set with the needs of the clinic. From there, I will sit down with the clinic director, Dr. Axel Suquen, and we will select an area to begin designing a project.
I hope to be updating this blog on somewhat of a regular basis, but that too remains to be determined. Also, I would love to hear from all of you! I’m told I will have consistent access to email, so keep me up to speed on all the happenings in your neck of the woods. More than any of that however, check up on this blog for my prayer requests. For starters, my prayer as I prepare for this year is that the Lord would teach me more about how I can spend my life serving the Gospel and my fellow man. And with that, we’ll continue this conversation once I get “down south.”
GRACE and PEACE,
Erik
