Wednesday, March 21, 2007
I've been getting out to more communities, partly just out of interest, mostly to record their position using GPS. Yesterday I hiked for about three hours, visiting small towns. Along the trail, some children were curious about this strange guy with a beard, others quickly ran away. At one home, the Mother chased her children away and ran herself as soon as she saw me. There is a level of concern here about "foreigners" who want to abduct children for adoption or nefarious medical uses.
I ended up walking about 7km from home - double that for the highway route which doesn't follow the more direct trails over the mountains. The road maps for this region look like the trails of drunken worms as they wind around the mountains. For the ride back, I got a ride in a microbus with Juan. Juan told me that he worked in construction in Los Angeles for two years, during which time he saved enough money to return to Guatemala and buy a home and the microbus which now provides his livlihood. He has three sons, one of whom was with him, working as the conductor of the bus.
Just yesterday the newspaper reported that remittances from abroad provide 10% of Guatemala's income, providing benefits such as Juan's success but also indicating the failure of the economy here to generate sufficient jobs for its population. It is one more facet of the immigration issue in the Americas - the paper takes the view that if the US spent a little more money on improving the Central American economies, there would be no need for our expensive wall.
Still, Guatemala is better off than El Salvador, where remittances provide 16% of the national income, Nicaragua's 12%, or Honduras' whopping 25%. Costa Rica, apparently, is self sufficient.
The current economic issue is the government's attempt to privatize education at the insistance of the World Bank et al (the people here say "at the insistance of Bush"). The average family here has over 5 children - fees for education are prohibitive. What policy could be more detrimental to decreasing illiteracy than accessible education?
There is a major demonstration in the Capital today by teachers and their supporters from all over Guatemala. My host, Angel, is a teacher and left by bus this morning with many others for the Capital.
Anyway, in my ramblings I have gotten to Momastenango, noted for the blankets woven by local craftspeople. Sunday is the major market day, as it is in most Guatemalan communities. Besides woven goods, much fruit and vegetables, clothes, plastic toys, Snake Oil venders...
Antigua Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, the town that the people here in Nueva Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan mostly came from in 2002, looks like a semi-ghost town, with broken and rotting buildings. The problem stemmed from Hurricane Mitch, but was unique - the terrain is volcanic, and all the water from the Hurricane undercut the loose porous soil so that the buildings sank, cracking foundations and walls. But there remains a beautiful church (although with slanting walls) and the local priest strongly opposed leaving the town so a few people still remain there.
I really did want to add some photos of Momastenango and the old Sta.Cat.Ixt., but they just aren't uploading today. Maybe next time.
I ended up walking about 7km from home - double that for the highway route which doesn't follow the more direct trails over the mountains. The road maps for this region look like the trails of drunken worms as they wind around the mountains. For the ride back, I got a ride in a microbus with Juan. Juan told me that he worked in construction in Los Angeles for two years, during which time he saved enough money to return to Guatemala and buy a home and the microbus which now provides his livlihood. He has three sons, one of whom was with him, working as the conductor of the bus.
Just yesterday the newspaper reported that remittances from abroad provide 10% of Guatemala's income, providing benefits such as Juan's success but also indicating the failure of the economy here to generate sufficient jobs for its population. It is one more facet of the immigration issue in the Americas - the paper takes the view that if the US spent a little more money on improving the Central American economies, there would be no need for our expensive wall.
Still, Guatemala is better off than El Salvador, where remittances provide 16% of the national income, Nicaragua's 12%, or Honduras' whopping 25%. Costa Rica, apparently, is self sufficient.
The current economic issue is the government's attempt to privatize education at the insistance of the World Bank et al (the people here say "at the insistance of Bush"). The average family here has over 5 children - fees for education are prohibitive. What policy could be more detrimental to decreasing illiteracy than accessible education?
There is a major demonstration in the Capital today by teachers and their supporters from all over Guatemala. My host, Angel, is a teacher and left by bus this morning with many others for the Capital.
Anyway, in my ramblings I have gotten to Momastenango, noted for the blankets woven by local craftspeople. Sunday is the major market day, as it is in most Guatemalan communities. Besides woven goods, much fruit and vegetables, clothes, plastic toys, Snake Oil venders...
Antigua Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, the town that the people here in Nueva Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan mostly came from in 2002, looks like a semi-ghost town, with broken and rotting buildings. The problem stemmed from Hurricane Mitch, but was unique - the terrain is volcanic, and all the water from the Hurricane undercut the loose porous soil so that the buildings sank, cracking foundations and walls. But there remains a beautiful church (although with slanting walls) and the local priest strongly opposed leaving the town so a few people still remain there.
I really did want to add some photos of Momastenango and the old Sta.Cat.Ixt., but they just aren't uploading today. Maybe next time.
