Guatemala has some of the most beautiful scenery in the region with some of the highest mountains. It is also has some of the highest risk to natural disasters. It is susceptible to the effects of high rainfall from hurricanes or extended rainy seasons that have become more frequent with climate change. There are a number of active volcanoes in the country and there is the constant threat of earthquakes. Our wonder at the beauty we saw was therefore tempered by the stories we heard about past disasters, particularly the impact that Hurricane Stan had in 2005.
We first visited the capital, Guatemala City, to meet with the MCC Representatives for Guatemala and El Salvador, Antony Sanchez and Irma Solano, a couple from Columbia. While there we stayed in the guest house of Semilla, an anabaptist seminary and teaching facility. A number of folks from our home church, Orrville Mennonite Church, came to "Guate" on work teams to help construct this building. Not sure which part you all worked on, but here are a few photos of the finished product:
We met with Antony and Irma in the morning to review the MCC programs and projects in Guatemala and El Salvador, including their experiences with responses to disasters. In the afternoon we had a very animated meeting with members of the Evangelical Mennonite Church (Iglesia Evangelica Menonita of Guatemala City - IEMG) that had particpated as church leaders in the response to Hurricane Stan damage in a remote indigenous village in Santiago Atitlan.
Irma and Antony and Members of IEMG
The IEMG participated in a three-year long disaster response with a very diverse group to a mudslide from the side of a volcanoe that devastated a Tzutujil community. There is a strong division in Guatemalan society between the "ladino" population and the indigenous populations (23 distinct groups). The IEMG, a group of ladino churches, participated in the response to restore the indigenous village with Mennonites from two indigenous groups, Kechi and Ixil, a group of conservative Low German speaking Mennonites from Belize, and work groups from the U.S. and Canada. It was a unique and stretching experience for all involved - and the leaders from IEMG, Noe, Manuel, and Juan Carlos were so excited to tell the story they were virtually stumbling over each other to tell us about the next point. It was really interesting and a lot of fun, although by the end of the afternoon Kathy and I were exhausted from concentrating on understanding the Spanish banter.
The highlight of our trip, as in Nicaragua, was a trip to see a remote village, Panabaj, that had been affected by the mudslide and had been restored by this multi-ethnic disaster response. We traveled with Antony by bus - this time a more colorful variety and, fortunately more mechanically sound.
Note the other "gringa" riding several seats in front of Kathy. Panabaj is located on the shore of Lake Atitlan, a very beautiful location that is frequented by tourists. The little girl in her mother's lap kept looking back at Kathy..... just not quite used to those gringos riding on this bus instead of the tourist vans. Once we got to Santiago (the tourist town) we hitched a ride on a pickup truck to Panabaj.
When we arrived at our meeting place in Panabaj, we had one of those surreal experiences. School kids are on vacation right now and the community organization (ANADESA - see explanation later) was starting up a vacation tutoring program for students that had problems keeping up during the school year - which is quite common since most children speak only Tzutujil at home prior to attending school. So - we arrived just in time to see them handing out supplies from MCC school kits (all you Menno's out there know about these...maybe helped put them together) for the tuturing program.
That's Kathy diving right in to help a little girl that was having trouble spelling her name. Only later did she find out, when the girl in blue explained, that the girl in pink didn't speak Spanish. But none the less, Kathy was able to communicate with her. She helped others with their "assignment" and during our later meeting with the community leaders two little girls burst into the room and headed straight to Kathy to show her their notebooks and what they had done.
The Disaster:
In October 2005, following an extended rainy season, Hurricane Stan hit Guatemala raining for three days straight. There were numerous floods and mud slides throughout Guatemala. In the village of Punabaj there was a tremendous mudslide that started near the top of a nearby volcano, flowed like a giant river down the side of the mountain and into the village, burying several hundred houses and their inhabitants, destroying hundreds of houses and killing over 250 residents.
You can see the track (furrow in trees) of the mudslide from three years ago in these pictures. The origin of the mud was the volcano/mountain in the background. In the foreground is the location where hundreds of houses were completely buried. This area is being left undisturbed as a memorial for those who lost their lives. Plans are to make it into a memorial park.
The diverse group described above, responded within days with emergency supplies and trauma counseling. When they saw the level of devastation, they began the planning process for a three-year extended response that included cleaning out the mud and debris in homes left standing, cleaning up a memorial park (owned by the Catholic church), and building new homes for 72 families. The Mennonite church in particular continued to provide counseling for trauma healing.
Out of that response a new community organization, ANADESA (Asociacion Nuevo Amancer de Santiago Atitlan - New Dawn Association of Santiago Atitlan) was organized with the mentoring of MCC. This organization is beginning to work at community development to decrease the economic and social vulnerability of the community.
We met with three of the leaders of the organization to listen to their story of the trauma they felt at the time of the disaster, the wonder of outsiders coming to help, and the hope..... almost giddy hope they have as they begin their community development work. They have a number of projects including the vacation tutoring program (above), an adult literacy program, artisans project to market traditional bead work products, tree planting project, more efficient cooking stoves with smoke vented to the outside, etc. One interesting project is an effort to capture a niche of the tourist trade, by providing a room and meals in homes in the community for those interested in visiting an indigenous community and hearing / seeing the story of the disaster and the recovery of a village. (Think MCC type learning tour... not a bus in and stay at a high class hotel). After our meeting we walked through the community to see the remaining signs of the disaster and the results of the recovery efforts.
Here is the group. The three ANADESA leaders are Josefina and Stella (front left) and Juan Ramirez (blue shirt). Also pictured are Diego (white shirt), Antony (MCC Representative), and Rachel ( MCC SALTer) and of course yours truelys.
In these two photos you can see the height of the mud and debris that covered an area away from the main devastation. The street and house to the left were filled to the level seen in what appears to be a bank on the left. Antonio is standing on the debris that fills half a doorway and up to the window sill of a house that was not rehabilitated. Three years later, grass is happily overgrowing the evidence.
Kathy and Antony discussing a new stove design
with a housewife. Prior to introduction of the stoves,
women would often cook on open fires on the floor with the
smoke just rising and filtering out through the roof.
The house on the right was one of the 72 built to replace destroyed houses. The room on the back was added through an MCC micro-loan program for the guest room project.
We stayed in the compound below - in the rooms to the right. They were sparse.... but very clean and comfortable. Lots of blankets (actually MCC blankets) for the night because it got reallllly cold! In fact, we were chilly much of the time in Guatemala.
Here are a few more photos of the families we got to know during our time there. There is so much more to tell, but this blog is already getting way to long and it's getting late. If you wish - take a tour of the photos available on our web album. Use your imagination! The trip was that good!
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