Ok, so i know that i may be a little bias but i think Guatemala is bad ass. I feel like i'm living in the wild west of Central America. Ok, not really. I actually feel really safe here, just about as safe as i would feel in any large city in the US. Never the less, my fellow PCVs (peace corps volunteers) keep telling me how they think our post is this close to being shut down. I don't believe them, i mean Guatemala has stayed open for almost 50 years. if you don't know your Guatemalan history (don't worry i didn't either til i came here) that means that the Peace Corps has been operating her even during the Civil War! and it was not a quiet war either, we're talking about young men's soles of their feet being cut off before they are beaten to a pulp and covered in gasoline and burned to death. I say if PCVs could handle being here during that than who am i to run away scared.
Where is this coming from you ask? well a few weeks ago i got an email saying that all non-guatemala PCVs are restricted from traveling through Guatemala for a period of time due to safety reasons:
“Heavy rains affecting Guatemala have damaged the road infrastructure, causing several sections of main roads to collapse and/or wash off... Another important event occurring in September is the Presidential, Congress and Local Authorities General Elections; which will be held in every town in Guatemala on Sunday September 11th. Due to these threats to PCVs Safety, Peace Corps Guatemala has temporarily prohibited PCV’s from other countries from traveling to or through Guatemala. This prohibition starts August 29th, 2011 and is expected to be lifted on October 3rd, 2011”.
cool right? ok, so it may be partly due to the rainy season which is no joke, but even less of a joke is the elections. they get nutz here for that.
second crazyness going on here was friday or so THE POLICE STATION IN MY MUNICIPIO WAS BLOW UP!! what!!! yea so i guess there are two versions of the story and i shall tell my preferred version (also check out http://www.prensalibre.com/totonicapan/Vecinos-Policia-San-Andres-Xecul_0_544745661.html if you read spanish or have it translated). So these two people steal a cell phone from a kid. the two people are arrested and then transferred to different police station because the neighbors are pissed and they "want to handle the culprits themselves" aka, lynch/burn/do generally bad things to them. the police don't turn them over so what do the people do? duh, blow up the police station, breaking windows and the gates and motorcycles. as far as i know no one was hurt. btw, the police here in guate are kind of a joke. much respect for them, but the general consensus is negative.
third crazyness that happened in the past week was that on saturday my friend and i were enjoying an afternoon in Xela, grabbing lunch and we were on our way back to site (well before dark) and we were on a micro (kinda like a big minivan used for travel within the city) and the crazy driver cuts off this other car. the driver was kind of an ass btw. anyway, we pull up to a stop and i hear this loud bang (no gun shot i promise). it was the pissed off driver of the other car. he got out of his car and pounded on the driver side window and was yelling. but that wasn't enough, he crossed around and started yelling through the open passenger side window, but that wasn't enough, so he climed aboard and started yelling at the driver to his face. he was so close to starting a fist fight, i was kinda scared (for the driver - a small skinny dude). best part was the angry dude! he was straight from the 80s, super long mullet all the way down his back with tight black jeans and an over sized white button up tucked in, complete with cowboy boots. but this was no ordinary mullet, it was the kind where the sides of his head were actually shaved clean. So great!
so to recap: guatemala is the shit! i love it. its dirty and grimmy and crazy in the best ways possible. but it is also amazingly beautiful with the rich culture (minus the mullet dude) and diversity. to counter all the crazyness i would like to finish with a story of how beautiful life here can be. so today i was at an intercambio (exchange/sharing) of girls groups. it was overall pretty boring, but whatev. this group is intended to help girls, especially those in rual indigenous communities with their self esteem and self empowerment. this one girl gets up to talk about her experiences with the group and how it has helped her. i kid you not, it was the most beautiful speech i've heard in guatemala yet. it was so positive and she spoke with such confidence and eloquence. she has had one of the toughest stories of any of these girls and she has come back from that to become one of the leaders/mentors for the younger girls. she aspires to be a lawyer so that she can come back to here community and help the other women find and practice their rights. how awesome is that? so cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment