Last week I had the opportunity to accompany my first CEDEPCA group. I traveled to El Salvador as one of the interpreters for a workshop for women on domestic violence. We left Friday morning and arrived in El Salvador around dinner time. El Salvador is much warmer than Guatemala (than Cobán at least!) and a lot flatter. We stayed in a retreat center that was actually a former home for children that were “lost” during the war. The history of the retreat center kind of set the pace for the rest of our time, as the majority of El Salvador’s people still remember the atrocities of the war.
Saturday we did some sight seeing in the morning and planned for the workshop in the afternoon. We visited the UCA, the university where several priests were assassinated for speaking out against the war, and we also visited the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was also killed for having a voice against the injustices of his country. Sunday we went to Suchitoto, a small touristy town about an hour from San Salvador, for church. After a very moving sermon given by one of the group members, we put on a puppet show for the kids. It was so much fun and they seemed to really like it! Then we had lunch, did some souvenir shopping, and went to a lake. It was so nice to be a tourist!
The workshop started on Monday and ended on Wednesday. It was jam packed with emotion as the women (and we) dealt with the troubles related to violence of all types. The women responded well to the information that they learned and it was really awesome to see them building trust and coping with unexpressed feelings. I could get really deep here, but I won´t. I´ll just say that violence and war are very dark aspects of our human reality but spending time with these women helped me relate, if even just a little, to what the people in El Salvador and most of Central America have lived through. We all got pretty close during the workshop and even stayed up late talking "slumber-party" style the last night. So, although the topics of conversation were pretty dense, it turned out to be a lot of fun and I learned alot.
I discovered that I really enjoy interpreting, although, in retrospect, it was a tad on the frustrating side in that the interpreters did most of the talking but never actually said anything themselves. And it´s tiring! I felt like I never shut up! It was still a really cool experience, though, and I´m looking forward to the next time I work with CEDEPCA. We got back to Guatemala City late Wednesday night and after sleeping in and a fabulous last breakfast with the group, I made my way back to Cobán.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
The Holidays
My host family and I began our Christmas holiday with a cross country road trip to attend a quinceanos in Xela. We did some sight seeing along the way (there sure are some gorgeous mountains here!) and then had a good ole time at the party. Then I spent the week in Xela for the YAV’s Christmas retreat. As always, it was wonderful to see the gals and we had a great time celebrating Christmas American-style (complete with a pretend Christmas morning and homemade Christmas dinner!) before experiencing Christmas a la Guatemala. After the retreat, I spent a couple days in La Antigua Guatemala before meeting up with the fam. in Guatemala City.
We spent Navidad with Irma’s goofy aunt and cousin who were an absolute trip and really made our visit fun. I helped them make tamales (mushed up corn with sauce, meat, and some other stuff wrapped in banana leaves- sounds gross but they’re actually really good) and they had a good time picking on me because mine were really messy and looked like they’d gone number 2 in their leaves. Christmas Eve is the big day here and we went to a cousin’s house to celebrate. We danced, ate, and set off some fire crackers until midnight. At midnight on Christmas Eve it’s customary to set off fireworks and then eat tamales. I’m pretty sure no one strays too far from tradition because it sounded like World War III started outside! I have never seen or heard so many firecrackers in my life! It was awesome!! Then we all hugged and wished each other a Feliz Navidad and ate tamales while the little kids opened their presents. Christmas Day we went to an ex-aunt/sister-in-law’s house for lunch and I spent the afternoon playing twister and hide-and-seek with the little cousins. Apparently, it’s also tradition to set off more firecrackers on Christmas day at noon and again at six, specifically red firecrackers that look like 20ft long snakes! They were huge and really loud and rather scary if you happen to be a foreigner who’s not familiar with such traditions!
After 2 weeks of vagabonding around Guatemala celebrating this and that, we finally moseyed on back to Coban where I hardly had time to breathe before the New Year’s festivities began. We rung in the New Year with a prayer and thanksgiving service at church and then had a bon fire and set off firecrackers (yes, Guatemalans really like pyrotechnics. . .) at home. It was really nice to bring in 2008 with all of the new friends that I have made in Coban. On New Year’s Day we went to lunch at a friend’s finca and I learned how to milk a cow! You may not know this, but milking a cow has been on my list of things to do for quite some time. Sadly, however, it was somewhat disgusting and left me rather disappointed. Me, being the product of the suburbs that I am, didn’t know that a cow’s utter is nothing more than a huge, warm, hairy nipple (and this one had moles, eww!) and I was slightly grossed out and kind of felt like I was violating her. Oh well, at least I started off the new year by trying something new!
We spent Navidad with Irma’s goofy aunt and cousin who were an absolute trip and really made our visit fun. I helped them make tamales (mushed up corn with sauce, meat, and some other stuff wrapped in banana leaves- sounds gross but they’re actually really good) and they had a good time picking on me because mine were really messy and looked like they’d gone number 2 in their leaves. Christmas Eve is the big day here and we went to a cousin’s house to celebrate. We danced, ate, and set off some fire crackers until midnight. At midnight on Christmas Eve it’s customary to set off fireworks and then eat tamales. I’m pretty sure no one strays too far from tradition because it sounded like World War III started outside! I have never seen or heard so many firecrackers in my life! It was awesome!! Then we all hugged and wished each other a Feliz Navidad and ate tamales while the little kids opened their presents. Christmas Day we went to an ex-aunt/sister-in-law’s house for lunch and I spent the afternoon playing twister and hide-and-seek with the little cousins. Apparently, it’s also tradition to set off more firecrackers on Christmas day at noon and again at six, specifically red firecrackers that look like 20ft long snakes! They were huge and really loud and rather scary if you happen to be a foreigner who’s not familiar with such traditions!
After 2 weeks of vagabonding around Guatemala celebrating this and that, we finally moseyed on back to Coban where I hardly had time to breathe before the New Year’s festivities began. We rung in the New Year with a prayer and thanksgiving service at church and then had a bon fire and set off firecrackers (yes, Guatemalans really like pyrotechnics. . .) at home. It was really nice to bring in 2008 with all of the new friends that I have made in Coban. On New Year’s Day we went to lunch at a friend’s finca and I learned how to milk a cow! You may not know this, but milking a cow has been on my list of things to do for quite some time. Sadly, however, it was somewhat disgusting and left me rather disappointed. Me, being the product of the suburbs that I am, didn’t know that a cow’s utter is nothing more than a huge, warm, hairy nipple (and this one had moles, eww!) and I was slightly grossed out and kind of felt like I was violating her. Oh well, at least I started off the new year by trying something new!
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