Feria in Dueñas, Volcán Pacaya, and other musing about the conditions in Guatemala

The big news this week in Guatemala is that Carlos Peña, a young Guatemalan chico guapo, won Latin American Idol!!!! Id been watching with my family after dinner and when they made the announcement, we all jumped off the couch and started screaming in excitement. It was a proud moment for the nation and that kid is definitely the talk of the country and the envy of the chicas.

I had a fabulous weekend of carnivals and volcanoes. On Saturday evening I had the pleasure of going to the pueblo of Dueñas for their "feria"...the festival-carnival of their patron saint. Every town has their patron saint that is usually part of the full name of the town which they celebrate every year...for a whole month in the case of Dueñas. We visited some other trainees that live in town and played some rousing card games before venturing out into the crowds. This intriguing event was complete with rusty and creaky rides that looked like they were from the 1940s and were turned by hand or with a foot pedal. The ferris wheel was going way to fast to look safe. You couldnt pay me to go on it. The streets were filled with carnival games and delicious but hygenically dangerous street food. We started the dancing in the middle of the crowd in front of the stage with a live band and danced with some old drunk Guatemalan men. Good times. I have never seen so many people drunkenly passed out in the street before. (Sara, Im sure it pales in comparison to your Oktoberfest experience). Those guys seriously just lay down wherever and sleep it off. There were shines set up with candles all over in honor of San Miguel and the streets were covered in pine branches for....something siginificant Im sure.

After that wonderful cultural experience we got up at dawn on Sunday morning to climb a LIVE ACTIVE volcano, Pacaya. After several hours on several camionetas chugging their way up the mountainside, we arrived at the national park entrace. Pacaya is the second-most visited natural attraction in Guatemala besides the ruins in Tikal. There is a Peace Corps volunteer who works in the ecotourism program who met us on the bus on the way there. To climb the volcano you pass through cool, moist, green jungle on a very steep path. All of a sudden the trees just end and you come out staring right into the black crater. After snapping some photos that do no justice to the beauty of the view, you descend INTO THE CRATER! and walk across the cooling lava. You can feel the heat through the bottom of your shoes and see the heat waves across the rocks. The cooled lava looks like the ripples of how brownie batter falls. When you touch it its sharp like tiny shards of class. We took advantage of the earths natural heat to roast marshmallows!!! Yes, thats rights, I roasted marshmallows over hot lava and made peanut butter sandwiches with them from the special Jiff I brought from home. ¡Qué rico! This was seriously one of the coolest things Ive done in my life. Its absolutely unbelievable to witness the action of MOVING MELTED ROCK up close and personal. Its a bit nerve wracking with every step you take across the lava field since some times it makes cracking noises under your weight and you just hope that its solid enough underneath. The lava just seeps out of below at different areas. Ive never been to the volcanoes in Hawaii, so I dont know how it is there....but it seems like one of those things that wouldnt be allowed in the US. (Like many things I come across in Guatemala). Or at least there would be a sign saying something about"...at your own risk" and dont sue us if you fall in. Anyway, it was cool.

Other things that Ive been doing....Kelly and I ran to Ciudad Vieja and back, about 10K (6 miles-ish) one day. There was a dead dog on the side of the road that we had to leap over which made me almost vomit on the spot. The street dogs here are in such horrible shape. Ive never seen such emaciated, diseased, bleeding sore-covered beings.

Weve finally gotten some chances to do some relaxing in Antigua and Im starting to get to know the restaurants, bars, and sites of this nifty colonial city. Its good to be able to spend time with other trainees and volunteers and have some down time and reflection time on everything that we are experiencing and dealing with here.

This was not a good week for camionetas. There was two accidents along the highway that we go on to get to get to the training center in Santa Lucia. Lots of people seriously injured and some fatalities, I think. The drivers just have no sense of physics when they rip around those mountain curves. I find myself crossing myself like the little old catholic ladies, even though Im not even close to being Catholic, but somehow it makes me feel better since theyre doing it. Peace Corps called us on our cell phones to make sure that we werent on the bus that crashed since we hadnt arrived at the center yet. We had passed by the accident on the way and called our host families to let them know that we were okay before the town gossip of the news got to them. The other horrible thing about these accidents is that the drivers and their helpers flee the scene so as not to be held responsible. Very, very sad. And then today on the way to Antigua to go to the bank and use internet right now, there was smoke coming into the bus from under the dashboard. We debated whether we should exit the bus and I asked the helper if everything was okay before I paid. But generally in these situations I look around and see how the locals are reacting. If they think the situation is nornal and no cause for alarm....generally its okay. Hopefully.

In our group in Alotenango weve been busy planning our presentations and activities for the womens groups. This week weve been working on our "charla" on self-esteem and the importance of the role of women in the community. It been fun and challenging coming up with good participatory activities for the topics, but I think it will go well. Were doing a practice session with the womens group in Alotenango before we give the official one to a womens group during our field-based training upon which we will be evaluated.

Today we met with the coordinator of the Municipal Planning Office for the first time and got to know the different offices and departments of the municipality. It was a good experience and I think he means well, but the focus of the department is on big construction projects that people can see. The muni´s main concern is reelection of the mayor, which didnt happen in Alotenango, which they hope will be accomplished by the people seeing the completion of big projects. There is little thought to long term planning, or even planning of the year. When I asked, there is NO PLAN that exists for the municipality, even though they are techinically required by law to have annual opperating plans. Coming from the perspective of having read and studied so many comprehensive plans of cities in the states, its hard to see the lack of long term planning. This is an area that hopefully I can help the muni in which i will be working in my site.

Yesterday in the training center we had a very intriguing guest speaker come from Infopress, a infomation service provider active in Guatemala. The guy is an American who has live in Guatemala for like 25 years working in the media here. He also works a lot with cooperatives. They provide news bulletins to mayors and municipalities and has a very interesting perspective on international development. They also do trainings for communities and municipalities on corruption, political issues, and citizen participation. He made some very thought-provoking points in the course of his talk and according to him...

-Salaries in Guatemala are so low that people cannot purchase what they produce. In Guatemala only 25% of the people make the per capita GDP of the country, where in the US it is 60% so people have much more purchasing power in the states i.e. Fords idea of paying the workers enough of a salary so that they could buy the cars they were making.

-Planation owners often pay for the campaign costs of the mayors in order for exemption from taxes when they are elected. Sound familiar?

-In Guatemala you would have to pick 300 lbs of coffee to earn enough money to purchase one pound of coffee in the United States.

-Producers of products make very little money (semicolon) intermediaries make the bulk.

-The rich control the mainstream media, which supposedly controls corruption, which supposedly controls democracy. Thus corruption is rampant here. Hmm....

-One of the problems with international aid, is that it encourages "supply-based collectivism" where people come together in groups because there is money or stuff to be had, and disseminate when that source dries up. He thinks that collectivism only works SUSTAINABLY when it is demand-based, meaning that there is a reason or advantage to working together. In this way capitalism can generate collectivism. It is interesting to muse where Peace Corps fits into this and how we can promote demand-based collectivsm rather than supply-based, and if that is possible. This seemed to tie into William Easterlys book that I read on international development titled The White Mans Burden. The reason why "big plan" development has consistantly not worked, despite the billions of dollars being thrown into it. Local grass roots projects seem to have more "success", maybe because they are demand-based instead of supply-based. When tons of money or stuff is thrown at a country, there is no accountability of the people who provide the "development service" to the people receiving it. Thus, inefficiency, wastefullness, laziness, administrative problems or whatever hinder it from working because the client cant demand it to be any different.

Some good things to think about.

So far, being in Guatemala confirms and strengthens my love for the United States and its institutions in a non-holier-than-thou way. But it also shows me that the way we do things is not the only or best way to do them.