<$BlogRSDUrl$>

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Friday, the 23rd
One of the things I like about rural areas like this is how quiet it gets at night, except for occasional spasms of barking dogs and toward morning, the pastoral sound of a few roosters, and perhaps the distant horn of a bus on the PanAm Hwy trolling for passengers.

Usually.

This morning was a bit different. At 4:00am I was suddenly jarred awake by loud repetitive music. Sleeping was impossible It sounded like a large non-stop party going on in the next room. However, the occasional HalleLUUUUUUIAaaaaah was a clue. Then there was an occasional intermission, filled with angry screaming in K’iche’ with a few understandable words in Spanish – DiOOOS, and El SeñOOOrrr. Yes, it is the beginning of Cuaresma, the 40day period before Easter, celebrated with a two day festival by the nearby Charismatic Catholic Church. They have been hollering, blasting music and fiesta-ing all day long, later joined by the other six or seven Pentecostal and Evangelistic Churches in town.

I just wish they could keep their celebration among themselves, without the need to blast it all over town. But I guess that is what evangelism is all about. Still, the Moslem Imams wailing from their mosques in Dar es Salaam were far less obnoxious than this display. I hesitate to think about how long this will continue tonight, and when it will begin again tomorrow morning.

I plan to go to Xela tomorrow. Do some shopping, take in a movie, basically get out of Dodge City here for the day.







The small Charasmatic Catholic Church is all decked out for its celebration of Chauresma.








And their sound system doesn't LOOK very threatening, but the Church is on the hill above town, and the speaker is pointed directly at the house where I am staying.



Saturday, Feb 24
In all fairness, I have to confess that the Church didn't begin broadcastiong its fiesta until 8:00 this morning. It was a good night's sleep.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Thinking about the Interaction of Cultures:

The problem of how traditional and minority cultures respond to societal and economic pressures is fascinating. In Tanzania, the desire to maintain traditional “African” culture seemed to me to be misguided nostalgia, as their traditional culture was already lost, except for groups like the rural Massai. The Pennsylvania Dutch seem to be holding their own, as the Hassidim certainly are in New York City. Of course, our own U.S. indigenous problem was largely settled by genocide and assimilation, although the remnants of that now seem to be recreating an imagined culture. Tibetan and Uighur cultures are now under strong pressure from China

Here in Guatemala, the Maya adapted their culture to assimilate Catholicism, and so maintained themselves for some 500 years. Quite an accomplishment. But now, modern pressures confronting the Maya traditions are complex and strong.

The Maya constitute about 55% of the population, but historically have not had significant political force. They are divided in some 22 groups each with their own language. Even now there is little effort to join forces, although there is now an indigenous candidate for the presidential election this October, Rigoberto Menchu. Partly, political exclusion has been encouraged by the ladinos - pretty much any Guatemalan who is not part of the Maya culture - who have used the Maya as a source of cheap labor and alternatively tried to isolate them or assimilate them. Probably the most drastic attack on the Maya since the initial brutality of the Spanish has been the long civil war here, most ferocious in the 80's under the U.S. supported Gen. Rios Montt. He was an evangelical Christian, by the way. And he is now fighting to stay in the legislature, where he can avoid extradition to Spain for crimes against humanity.

Currently evangelistic and Pentecostal Christianity is strong and growing, and neither tolerates Mayan customs since they of course possess the only one and true way to salvation. At the same time and partly in response to the success of the evangelicals, the Charasmatic movement is growing in the Catholic Church, and it too has replaced the traditional Catholic tolerance with dogmatic intolerance. Counter to these forces, the Peace Accords that ended the civil war in 1996 recognized Guatemala for the first time as multicultural, guaranteeing freedom of language, traditional customs and systems of justice. A nacent movement to foster and support Maya culture now exists. The Instituto Paraiso Maya here teaches courses in Maya history and intercultural relations, and there are posters on the wall promoting Maya Pride.

Meanwhile radio, television, the internet, and above all the increasing access to cities is changing the isolation of the Maya world. The Pan American Highway through the heart of Quiche Maya is being expanded to four lanes. This is a four-year project that brings workers here from all parts of Guatemala. At the same time, the economic plight of the Maya is increasingly dire, because their subsistance economy and traditions are based on agriculture (specifically corn). But while the population is increasing rapidly - the average family includes more than 5 children - the available land is not. And the ever increasing need for more and more firewood leads to serious deforestation, bringing its own additional problems of soil erosion and landslides.

The devastation of Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and Stan in 2005 were disasters far beyond the aid resources of Guatemala, and the major international NGOs responded in full force. CARE, Oxfam, Mercy Corps, Catholic Relief Services, USAID and many others provided lifesaving support and most are still here, now engaged in development and disaster prevention projects. Me too, now. The gifts of housing, water and sanitation systems, seeds, animals, roads, schools, planning, risk evaluation and the creation of entire new communities have been essential in avoiding total catastrophe, and have been largely successful.

But now.... the people here are dependent on outside help, gifts, for their infrastructure and, increasingly, their sustenance. This does not do good things for the spirit of the communities. How to get from this to self sufficiency and more? And what happens to Maya culture and traditions in the process?


Thursday, February 15, 2007

Saturday, February 10
It has been a week largely of work at the computer. I completed a fairly comprehensive and highly critical review of the municipality’s plan to minimize the damage during the next natural disaster. I’ve given a draft version to my counterpart in the office, Tomás, for his review and comments. Tomás is the guy who wrote the existing plan, as an assignment from the Mayor. Of course I’ve worded my review as gently as I could, with praise for the few parts he got right. He’s seen some of it, and seems open to suggestions.

My fear is that he will simply want to re-write the plan himself and then feel the issue has been handled. The objective is to get all the people who have responsibilities to contribute to creating the plan, so they will “buy into” it. That will require both Tomás and the Mayor to understand and support the effort. We will have to see if that is possible.

The existing plan came about at the prodding of the central government. Guatemala is highly vulnerable to a variety of disasters – earthquakes, tropical storms, hurricanes and their associated floods, landslides and land erosion, and volcanoes. After the calamity of Tropical Storm Stan, the government decided to decentralize the responsibility for planning, and required each municipality to create their own plan for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. Many municipalities, including mine, appear to have simply filled out a bunch of forms so they could say they have complied with the requirements. Our Plan hasn’t been updated since it was created in May of last year. There is no system to contact the communities when danger threatens, and the “Center of Operations” does not even have a home, much less equipment. Details, details....

I took the bus to Xela today to restock my snack food, use the internet, and buy a newspaper. Xela, (Shay-la) is the K’iche’ name for Guatemala’s second largest city, Quetzaltenango. It is an attractive place that has retained its historical architecture and feel, with a spacious Parque Centrál and several active street markets. It has developed into a center for Spanish lessons, so there are quite a few US and European students with backpacks frequenting the parque, cafés, and bars. Café Luna especially is noted for its fabulous chocolate drinks, and I try to get there as often as I can.
A corner of the Central Park in Quetzaltenango (or Xela, as it is usually known). The corner by the Stop Sign (ALTO) is a good place to buy a newspaper.

Cafe Luna, where you can spend an hour or two reading a book or reviewing a Spanish lesson over a cup of delicious hot French Chocolate.

Prices of things. The bus to Xela takes an hour, and costs between 65 cents and a dollar, depending on the conductor’s mood. It is invariably a large US School Bus with a rack on the top, repainted in primary colors with the chrome trim highly polished and a religious slogan printed on the windshield, and it still wears its Blue Bird insignia. There will be three or four people in every seat, hanging onto the seat in front to keep from sliding off as the bus careens around sharp mountain curves at high speed. Busses absolutely have the right of way, and pass other vehicles going uphill, around curves, whatever.

Xela has a decent shopping mall with typical shopping mall prices. It features excellent internet access at about a dollar an hour, typical mall clothing stores, a fast food area, even a computer store and an overpriced Radio Shack. Also a HiperPaiz which looks very much like a Walmart and is, in fact, a subsidiary of Walmart. It is stocked with the same stuff you find in a Walmart in the US, with similar prices. It is where I buy my snack food – yoghurt, apples, cheese, canned tuna, Oreos....

A decent meal in Xela will cost about $5.00, a beer about $1.75. But a basic meal in my community is only $1.60 – fried chicken and rice or beans, or a soup with fresh vegetables and boiled chicken or beef, always with fresh hot tortillas, plus a soda or other drink. My town also has a one-room post office, several variety stores, a hardware that is also really a variety store, a stationery store for school supplies, and a couple of canteens (bars). Several women in front of the market – empty except for Thursday and Sunday – sell freshly peeled oranges at 13 cents each, delicious watermelon slices for only 6 cents, and peanuts. They say there was an internet café here in the past, but it closed because nobody used it.

Friday, February 02, 2007




This is the family I came across while I was hiking outside of town. They were harvesting oats straw from their condado, tying it in bundles to carry to their town (6km away) for use as animal bedding.

I gave them an orange and some peanuts.





Nueva Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, from the hills outside the village. They say that this was all covered with pine forest years ago. No more. Firewood is the only cooking fuel available, apart from gas for the few pickup trucks that is purchased in Quetzeltenango or Cuatro Caminos. There is no fuel for heating, but cooking keeps the kitchens fairly comfortable.

I've seen plans to double the size of the town in 20 years. How? Water is a big problem - available for 2 hrs a day - and so is firewood. And land for farming, within walking distance.


Clouds were playing around the top of the volcano all day long as I was hiking.

This is the dry season, so the condados are golden, or brown if they have been spaded for the next crop of corn. Corn is planted sometime during February.

The rainy season should start in March.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?