Campur

Heading out of "the Camp"
Endless hills.

Maximizing the terrain for farming.

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.

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!

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.

W

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

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.

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.