Monday, 30 March 2009

• My Experience Volunteering in Guatemala

  

  Last week, I got out of this neverending winter in New York to spend an "alternative spring break" in Guatemala. It was my first time volunteering in a foreign country, and it was unlike any kind of volunteer work or travel experience I've had in the past.

  VOLUNTEERING

  For starters, the "light construction" we were told we'd do turned out to be hours and hours of nonstop dirt-digging atop a mountain that took nearly one hour to hike up to. It was to be the site of an eatery for a local tourism business in this remote, poverty-stricken village of Vuelta Grande, but starting from scratch was just plain painful.

  

  Thankfully, not all the volunteer work was so back-breaking. We also worked extensively in a public school, painting murals...

  

  ...Teaching English. (An interesting experience to say the least, given that I speak no Spanish. Lots of drawing, gesturing, and repeating).

  

  Many of these kids were adorable; they were totally game for learning the Hokey Pokey during recess.              

  

  

  On our last day, we organized and distributed donated clothing to boys and fathers. (Girls couldn't get anything because they were supposed to keep wearing their traditional clothing.)           

   

  

  GUATEMALAN LIVES

  I'm not gonna lie: Volunteering itself didn't inspire me to want to do more for these people. Rather, it was witnessing how they lived their lives that left me with the most sobering impression. A lifetime of watching TV shows or reading articles about third-world poverty couldn't hold a candle to actually being in a shuttle van, zipping through miles and miles of mountainous terrain, and watching that extensive distance sprinkled all along with children walking hand-in-hand from school to go back to their remote tin-sheet homes.

  

  Main room. Wire along the ceiling hooks up shared electricty for the TV and CD player.

  

  Kitchen with stone stove and water storage.               

  

  

  Outhouse is on a cliff about 50 steps away.

  

  ANTIGUA

  Life in the rural mountains seemed like a world away from the established, colonial city of Antigua, where we stayed for the week:  

  

  

  Surrounded by three volcanoes (one of which was active), Antigua also experienced a small one-shake earthquake while we were there.

  

  The streets (save for some narrow sidewalks) are entirely cobblestone, making rides bumpy and feet easily achy. But to preserve the look of this historic town, the roads will never get paved.

  

  Buildings, also for the same reason, will never take on "bright colors," although judging from all the hues, it sounds like by "bright" they mean "ultra neon."

  

  

  Antigua's city center feels like a step into Spain. Below, the Catedral, the oldest church in town.

  

  

  Their main shopping street is "Fifth Avenue" too, which also lines a "Central Park."

  

  

  Many buildings' plain exteriors don't give away the fashionable boutique, high-end restaurant, or swanky art gallery hiding beyond their doors.     

  

  

  While the city looked like it hadn't been touched in hundreds of years, it was also decidedly modern, employing technologies such as these green-energy light bulbs inside its lamp posts.

  

  "The Laundry" - where clothes used to washed. Now: a major make-out spot for Guatemalan teens.

  

  The market, full of knockoff souvenirs, aggressive salespeople, and all kinds of street food.

  

  With the majority of the country deeply Catholic, I guess it was no surprise that we saw things like a pre-Easter parade shutting down a major public street...

  

  ...or giant Bible verses on a billboard in the middle of a supermarket.

  

  School buses donated from the U.S. get reborn as public transportation in Antigua - called chicken buses because some passengers would take chickens onboard en route to outer towns. People sit three to a row.

  

  Wandering through Antigua feels like meandering through a maze. Virtually no street signs and lots of narrow lanes with ground-level storybook buldings. It's distinctive and charming, but also super easy to get lost!

  

  

  EXCURSIONS

  Outside Antigua, we traveled to Lake Atitlan, in the running for one of the modern wonders of the world.

  

  Drop-dead gorgeous houses along this lake. Imagine retiring here...

  

  

  We climbed up the pueblos of San Antonio, where views and architecture brought to mind Santorini, Greece.                    

  

  

  We shopped along the streets of Panajachel.

  

   

  OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

  Guatemala is a beautiful country, and during mid-March, a weather paradise. It was mostly sunny and 70s during the days but could get very chilly in the mornings and nights. Antigua was especially picturesque -- the maze-like compression of Beijing's hutongs and the mystique of old European towns combined with an uniquely chillaxed, Central American vibe. Coming from New York, I was not used to how friendly the people were; many of the smiles that greeted us felt genuine. Food was a bit of a surprise, to be honest. I expected something hot and zesty like the cuisine of its neighbor Mexico, but so much of it was corn-based (especially tortillas) and rather bland/hard. The biggest thing I had to get used to was using bottled water to brush my teeth. Surest way to spend those quetzales (8 to a dollar exchange rate) was getting water.

  One of the reasons I volunteered was to gain a new perspective doing something I've never done before, and after working in poverty-stricken villages, I definitely appreciate my life in the U.S. more, as cliche as that sounds. Now when I get antsy sitting in my cubicle at work, I think, "Hell, at least I'm not digging dirt!"

  

  As far as the people in those remote villages, they may live in dire conditions, but I didn't see a lot of complaint in their faces. Sure, they hope for a better life, but they also make the best out of what they have with a spirit and resilience I can't help but admire. Living in a city where there's always that desire for bigger and better, I could take a cue from some of these Guatemalans every now and then and appreciate life just as it is.

  Have you been or would visit Guatemala? Would you consider volunteering abroad?

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