Thursday January 16, 2014
As we are on our flight from Atlanta back to St. Louis I can’t help but reflect on the past 13 days and smile. Many memories were made and a lifetime of lessons were learned. I’ve made a few comparisons between the culture we were immersed in while in Guatemala and my everyday life at home and I figured I’d share them below just to give you a glimpse of the differences.
Internet is not accessible anywhere and everywhere you go in Guatemala. I found this to be kind of nice for the trip because I wasn’t distracted by my phone as much and spent more time enjoying the trip and the people I was there with. It made me realize how attached to my phone I really am and that I often miss enjoyable moments or meaningful conversations due to this distraction.
You can’t drink water straight from the faucet in Guatemala. This includes brushing your teethe and swallowing even the tiniest bit in the shower…I learned this one the hard way and spent 24 hours of the trip not feeling so well. This isn’t something that even crosses my mind in the U.S. I just go to the sink and get a glass of water when I’m thirsty. The locals can’t even drink the tap water without boiling it first. This has also increased health problems within the country because soda is often the same price as water at the tiendas (convenience stores) so people buy soda and rarely water. One of our field coordinators told me that diabetes is on the rise there because of this.
I’m not sure if this is true of the entire country, but most of the places we went we could see crops of some sort growing on every spare piece of land. There would even be just a couple of rows of corn growing along the side of the house. Also, everything was done by hand pertaining to these crops. We saw people plowing the land and harvesting by hand. They don’t have big machine and tractors to assist them with this hard work. I often forget that so much labor goes into growing the delicious fruits and vegetables I eat on a daily basis.
The people there ALWAYS say “Buenos Dias” with a smile on their face when they walk past you. It’s normal. This made me realize how often I walk past someone at home and just look down or past them without saying a word. A simple hello with a smile can make a big difference in someone’s day.
Going to Guatemala with a very small Spanish vocabulary gave me a greater appreciation for people who travel to the U.S. knowing little English. I will certainly be more patient in situations involving non-English speaking people. I also have a strong desire to learn more Spanish and maybe even another language now.
We were often referred to as “gringos” while in Guatemala. I’m not sure if this was supposed to be derogatory or not, but it made me more aware of the terms I use for other people. I may not mean for things I say to be hurtful, but other people may interpret it differently. As I travel back home I will certainly pay more attention to things things I say and how they can be misinterpreted.
Everywhere we went it was guaranteed that we would be stared at. I can think of times when I have caught myself looking at someone if they dress a little different or don’t look like they aren’t from the area. This can also be interpreted as a bad thing and I will definitely be more aware of the expressions on my face as I come back to the states.
There aren’t prices on most things in Guatemala. Most of the time they tell you a really high price when you ask and then they ask how much you will pay and you have to talk them down. This isn’t something you often have to deal with in the U.S. One time another student and I were looking at a hammock in the market. The guy said it was 1000Q (about $125 USD). We said we could not afford that. He asked what price we could pay and we told him we only had 250Q ($31.25 USD). He said he’d take it. We decided we didn’t want it after all and he instantly said he’d take 150Q ($18.75 USD). This amazed us. Who knows how many times we paid way more than necessary for gifts we bought throughout the trip. I’m thankful that we have set prices in stores in the U.S.
There are stray dogs EVERYWHERE. I have never seen so many dogs just wandering the streets. They roam around and search for any food they can find and just continue to breed among each other. They aren’t aggressive or mean to humans, but we were warned not to pet or feed them from day one.
Children start working at a young age in Guatemala. We often saw the children walking cows with a rope along the side of the road, working in the field with their parents, carrying heaving loads on their head alongside their mother, or helping build a shelter with their father. Things like this are not as common in the U.S. I am thankful to have grown up in a home where my parents taught me how to do things on my own before I left for college, but it was nothing like the life these families live on a daily basis. Also, children are not watched over constantly like they are in the U.S. The children that lived next door to one of the homes we were working on came over to play with us whenever the wanted. We’d see them chasing chickens in the field or wandering close to the street without an adult in sight. Very different from what I’m used to seeing in the U.S.
The graveyards there are absolutely beautiful. They are very colorful and look like a celebration of the lives the people lived. They look like little brightly colored houses built along the mountainside. Much different from any graveyard you’d see in the U.S.
The public transportation in Guatemala is usually via a “chicken bus”. We did not get to experience one of these because we always had our own bus available to transport us, but I got to chat with one of our field coordinators about how they work. Basically you just flag one down when you see it coming (they usually honk really loud to let you know they are around). Then you hop on and wait til they get to your distinction (usually another town). The money guy (who always carries a gun) will then find you in your seat to collect your money for the trip. They call it a chicken bus because you are allowed to bring your chicken on with you.
The last major difference I can think of that I noticed while on this journey was the technique and tools used while building the house. In the U.S. you rarely see anything built without the use of power tools. Those weren’t used at all during our building process. We even had to walk to the neighbors house to fill up buckets with water to use in mixing the cement. The building materials were also different. For the most part the entire house is only built using cinder blocks, mortar, cement and rebar. They don’t really have all the options and luxuries that we do in the U.S., but they are happy to have a roof over their head when the rainy season comes.
If you took the time to read all of that then I hope you took something away from it. I’ve realized that we often take for granted little things in life such as fresh water and technology constantly at our finger tips. I hope that you will take time to be thankful for these things and see how blessed we truly are.
~Lauren
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