Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Campur

Heading out of "the Camp"
Endless hills.

Maximizing the terrain for farming.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Gilligan, we'll miss you

It’s that time again—a volunteer group is leaving while another one is taking its place. And now nearly two years after we started this adventure called Peace Corps, my group is now the seniors. We are the veterans, the old hands, the next group to be heading out the door. Where has the time gone?

My sitemate, Michelle, is a member of the departing group (the “Healthy Schoolers”), but she has decided to extend her service for a couple of months. I’ll have to put up with her crazy for a little while longer (I love you Michelle!). But my good friend Jill Geissler (or Gilligan as she has been called…the “j” sound does not exist in Spanish and Guatemalans have an extremely difficult time trying to pronounce her name) is leaving in less than a week.

Jill often made the 2 ½ hour trip from her small community of Campur to the big city of Tactic to hang out with Michelle and me. Twice she was evacuated from her site because of disturbances (most recently this past week) and stayed at my house (aka. the refugee camp) for extended periods of time. Lots of listening to Joe Purdy. Lots of watching Grey’s Anatomy.

We are going to miss you, Jill. Alta will not be the same without you.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Mizzou-RAH!

The Tigers are now in the Elite 8 after knocking off Memphis tonight! Now as an alumna of the University of Missouri, I know better than to get my hopes up. I am more than accustomed to disappointment, failure, and underachieving when it comes to our athletic teams (this past football season would be a good example). But, nevertheless, I am cautiously optimistic.

¡Vamos equipo!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Soy una tia...otra vez

My brother Ryan and his wife Anne just had their first child yesterday (March 22). His name is William Trippler Griffin. I became an aunt for the first time in May of 2007 when my niece, Reilly, was born, and now William is my first nephew.

Congratulations Ryan and Anne! I am so happy for the two of you. I wish I could be there to see the new little guy in person! I can’t wait to meet him.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

W

I wouldn't expect to see this sticker on a Windshield in Guatemala.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Ama la vida

Last Friday the Judicial Body of Guatemala launched a campaign against lynchings. Good luck with that.

As I have mentioned before, lynchings are rather common in Guatemala. Frustrated with and distrusting of an ineffectual legal system, people administer their own justice: Mayan Justice.

Case in point: A couple of months ago a tienda owner and employee in town were kidnapped and subsequently dismembered. For nearly a month, people were finding body parts— a hand, lungs, a leg, entrails, an arm, a head—washed up on the banks of the river that runs through town.

Townspeople from a nearby aldea of Tactic captured three men they claimed were responsible for the murders. The men were stripped down to their underwear and marched over a mile into Tactic, all the while being beaten with iron poles. The crowd grew to nearly 2000 people as the men were paraded all over town before being brought to the center park. The lynch mob was set to burn the men to death, but the police “rescued” them first and took them to the hospital and later prison.

And sadly this isn’t an anomaly in Guatemala. Usually at least once a week there is a report of a lynching in the news, and typically only the successful ones make the papers.

So a campaign against lynchings is definitely warranted, but only time will tell if this one is successful. The Judicial Body has chosen, “Ama la vida. No seas parte de un linchamiento,” (“Love life. Don’t be a part of a lynching.”) as the tag line for the campaign. I think I could do better.

Guatemala is a very religious society. I have never met anyone who has claimed to hold any religious beliefs other than Christianity, and upon meeting people I am routinely asked, “Are you Catholic or Evangelical?” as if any other beliefs are nonexistent. A supreme insult to use against someone who has ripped you off is, “No eres cristiano,” (“You are not a Christian.”) or simply the ominous, “Dios sabe.” (“God knows.”)

In light of this, if I were a part of the Judicial Body of Guatemala I would have gone with a religious don’t lynch people slogan. John 8:7 would be perfect. “El que de ustedes esté sin pecado, que le arroje la primera piedra. No seas parte de un linchamiento.” (“Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”) Or the previously mentioned “Dios sabe. No seas parte de un linchamiento,” I think would also serve well.

But I am afraid that no campaign against lynchings will be highly effective since it is a treatment of the symptom and not the disease. Until Guatemala has a functioning judicial system, people will continue to take justice in their own hands, regardless of my proposed catchy slogans.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Ides of March

This is the front page of today’s Diaro. It recounts the death of Julio César and his wife who both died the day prior (the 15th of March) after an out of control bus whose driver had been shot crashed into their car in the capital.

Now there is nothing humorous about a fatal car accident, but I did find it extremely ironic that a man named Julio César, the equivalent of Julius Caesar in English, would make the front page of the newspaper after being killed on March 15.

Beware the Ides of March.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Gorillas in Guatemala



This is an engaño. There aren’t gorillas in Guatemala. In fact, outside of the Peten, my wildlife sightings can be chalked up to one deer, one squirrel, and one opossum. I was excited about the deer, ambivalent but surprised about the squirrel, and initially scared to death by the opossum since I found it at night on my porch.

The short video below was actually shot in 2005 in Rwanda. During our Cape to Cairo trip, Jenna and I went mountain gorilla trekking in the Parc National des Volcans, nestled among the Virunga volcanos. There are only less than 700 mountain gorillas left in the world, located in the area where Rwanda, Uganda, and the Congo meet. There are none in captivity.

Each day a total of 32 visitors are granted a permit (for a substantial entrance fee) to visit 1 of the 4 gorilla groups allowed to be viewed by tourists in the Parc National des Volcans. Eight people are randomly assigned to each group. We were chosen to see the 11-member (at the time) Sabinyo group, which includes, Guhonda, the largest silverback mountain gorilla in the world, weighing in at over 500 pounds.

Accompanied by our guide, Pastuer, and a group of semi-automatic rifle touting guards (there to protect us from poachers), we set out into the thick Rwandan jungle in search of the gorillas. Pastuer was in radio communication with another group of armed guards whose job it is to remain near-by the gorillas 24 hours a day to protect them, and they directed us as to where the Sabinyo group was currently residing.

After nearly two hours of hiking through the dense jungle, we came upon the gorilla group in a bamboo grove. In a more open area a minimum distance of seven meters away from the gorillas is supposed to be maintained, but since we found them in a bamboo thicket, we were allowed to get closer. Visitors are permitted to spend exactly one hour with the gorillas, watching them eat, play, and interact in their natural environment.

It is an amazing nearly inexplicable experience being so close to these enormous human-like beasts. The hour felt like just minutes. Towards the end of our time, we were all engrossed observing a recently born baby. Its awkward gangly body didn’t seem developed enough to support its large head as it stumbled around. As it playfully inched towards us, there came a point when it was too close for its mother’s comfort. She snatched the baby away and charged us.

Now I don’t think the video clip fully conveys the intensity of the situation. A huge angry gorilla was coming straight for us, and my heart was racing. I was standing right next to Pastuer as the gorilla reached out with her menacing hand and grabbed his leg. But if Pastuer was frightened, he certainly didn’t show it. He calmly motioned to us to move away slowly and quietly from the gorillas, while he “told” the gorilla to back down through grunts and hand signals. Add “gorilla” to the list of languages I would like to learn.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Name: Gringa

This is a receipt I received quite a while ago from a fast food Chinese restaurant (The Little Fast Chinese Man) in Plaza Magdalena in Cobán. Besides the offensive caricature (common here), you may also notice in the bottom left hand corner under Nombre Cliente (name of client) the employee took the liberty of filling in my “name” for me without asking.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Monday, March 2, 2009

Orden del Quetzal

The Orden del Quetzal is Guatemala’s highest honor bestowed upon individuals, organizations or entities whose civic, scientific, literary, artistic, or humanitarian contributions to the country merit special recognition. Supuestamente.

Peace Corps Guatemala received the Orden del Quetzal in 2005 from the then President Óscar Berger. The national Peace Corps Director at the time, Gaddi H. Vasquez, came to Guatemala to accept the award at a ceremony attended by the U.S. Ambassador John R. Hamilton, President Berger, Guatemalan dignitaries, returned and current Peace Corps Volunteers, and PC staff members. Ambassador Hamilton called it a “red-letter day in the history of U.S.-Guatemalan relations.”

During training we were informed of the high honor and shown the award, which hangs proudly on the wall at the Peace Corps office. Everyone who is or has been a part of Peace Corps Guatemala is very proud of the distinction, but I now wonder if it is really even a distinction at all and whether or not it is something to be proud of.

The other week President Álvaro Colom made an official visit to Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro. Along with publicly apologizing for Guatemala’s involvement in the Bay of Pigs invasion, Colom awarded Castro with the Orden del Quetzal. Due to health reasons, Fidel was unable to meet with Colom, so his brother Raúl accepted the award on his behalf.

The news of awarding of the Orden del Quetzal to Castro was not happily received by many Guatemalans, and a handful of past recipients opted to return theirs. But as I recently learned, Castro was not the first person of questionable character to receive the honor.

After the trip, the national newspaper, Prensa Libre, ran an article recounting other dubious bestowals of the Orden del Quetzal. Ex-dictators Benito Mussolini of Italy, Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay, Jorge Videla of Argentina, and Hugo Banzer of Bolivia all have received the Orden del Quetzal. And the fact that the Guatemalan National Lottery, ex-presidents’ wives, an aquatic park, and the personal secretary of a former vice-president among others are also holders of the Orden del Quetzal makes one question the eminence of the award.

I just hope Cervantes isn’t judging Peace Corps by the company it keeps amongst Orden del Quetzal recipients.