Chontalá Adventure

23-25 de Augosto, 2012

 

We have been here 2 weeks and decided it was time to take a weekend adventure. Our first adventure together as a team was to a small pueblo called Chontalá, a Mayan village in the mountains. One of the missionaries, Tiffany, has a friend from college, Joe, that lives in the  village and teaches English. (Just to give you a picture, Joe is a red-haired, Irish guy that looks like he just stepped of the boat.) He offered to be our guide for the weekend. In preparation, all we were told was to bring a blanket and 40Q (roughly $5) for transportation. I offered mass Friday morning for our safe travels. After class we were ready. We all met up and headed to the back of the mercado which is the bus station. In a parking lot behind the market  are several multicolored recycled school buses from the States, known as camionetas or chicken buses to take you in all directions. We had to take 2 camionetas and 2 vans. . One to Chimaltenango, catch another for Los Encuentros, then onto Chichicastenango for food, and one into the pueblo of Chontalá. Around 4-5 hours in total. To give you a small glimpse of the experience, imagine yourself driving up the east coast through the mountains of Virginia in a school bus that is passing the cars on the road. I'm not sure what the top speed for a school bus is, but I'm pretty sure that we were at maximum. There are at least 3 people per seat and as many people as humanly possible standing in the aisle. The vans were even more packed. We figured they were 16 passenger vans and we counted I believe it was 35 people inside not counting those on top! I know that the Lord protected our travels. All in all it was a great learning experience for Central American travel. Some of our lesson included; new vocabulary, such as ladron (theif ), there is also a verb form known as ladronin,  never underestimate how many people can fit, you should not yell at the bus driver,  there is no such thing as personal space,  and your lap is as good a seat as any:)

           We stopped in first in Chichicastenango  to buy food.  Joe was an expert in guiding us through the market and different shops to find our specific ingredients. Once we had collected everything for the weekend we headed for Chontalá. For our first meal we decided on homemade spaghetti sauce and noodles. As we were cooking, the people of the village stopped in to say hi to Joe,  and meet the new gringos. What beautiful people!  We learned Joe has 2 other names, Jose and Shep, which is his name in Kiche, the spoken Mayan language in the pueblo. Joe taught English class while we finished dinner and then put on a movie with his projector. Gotta love Willy Wonka! And like any good nurse during dinner I had to ask what was the greatest health struggle of the community. Joe said the biggest problem is alcohol. The Latino culture in general is very muchisimo (male domintated). This is exacerbated even more so when lack of work for the leaves a family hungry. Many of the men start at the cantina around 7am and drink all day. We saw a few just walking around very glazed over. Please pray for our men! The other real issue in the community is hernia. Men and women carry very heavy loads on their heads! (Patrick has a great pic on his site). Different teams will come throughout the year to offer surgical services. I want to say Joe said they performed about 50 a day!
         The kids watched  Willie while they waited for us to finish so we could play a game of futbol after dinner. I was so excited to play. The kids decided it would be fun to play Gringos vs. Mayans. We all thought that was a horrible idea :) so one of them joined our team. Sam, our Mayan player was the only one to score any goals in case you were wondering. It was a village event. Henry, age 5 to Sam, 27 was present. We played on a concrete court, most of us in sandals so naturally we ended up with some battle scares.

          We all slept together on air mattresses and on the floor in Joe's room. Cold is a relative term apparently and since I have lived in Fl my whole life my measurement might not be quite as accurate, but I was freezing the entire weekend. I slept in jeans, 2 shirts, a hoodie, socks. I also had a wool blanket doubled over and another that I brought. Gracias a Dios we all made it through the night.

          In the morning we made banana pancakes and eggs. I am not a pancake person, but these I must say were excellente! We then hiked to el rio with the kids. I was excited to spend time with them at one of their local spots. The river was a bit cold and murky from all the rain. My guess from surfing in Fl in the winter would be  around 55-60F. We played and danced in the river until everyone became too cold. We prepared an assembly line and made PB&J's. Apparently it is not very common and while most of the kids ate them, peanut butter is not a favorite with Mayan kids. It was nice just to be in the present, fellowshipping in the presence of others. They are each such beautiful people. We were able to get just a glimpse into lives. One of the boys who had amazing futbol skills was telling how his family hasn't seen his dad for five years because he is working in the U.S. to support his family. He will be reaching eighteen soon and will soon accept the responsibility of changing places with his father in the U.S. to support the family. I can't imagine having such a burden at such a young age when you have so many other desires, but this a reality for many of the youths here.

          We hiked back and just enjoyed each other a bit in the kitchen as Joe gave us a little history of the Guatemalan war. If I remember correctly it started in the 50s and lasted until around 96. (My friend Patricio has a much more in depth and accurate account in his blog if you care to read. http://heartanddepth.com/filled-with-wonder/) It had was primarily over land. Almost all of Guatemala was owned by the Chiquita banana co. and the workers were basically in slave labor. The CIA financed the Guatemalan government to overthrow the president who was trying to improve the lives of the people, by returning land to the Mayans, building schools, and hospitals, etc. Guerillas groups formed in response to the military kidnappings and disappearances. Many times the indigenous were caught in the crossfire. Whole villages were wiped out by the military if a guerilla was even spotted nearby their village. In the town of Chontalá, where we were staying, the women were gathered into the catholic church tortured and raped. The men were taken to the Methodist church tortured and killed. I believe Joe said 80 women were made widows that day. Dona Michaela, one of the women we met, was fifteen at the time and escaped. The women and children lived in the mountains and inside for 2-5 years before returning to their village. Once they returned they formed a co-op known as Naomi and Ruth making embroideries and textiles to support their families. I can't imagine the hardships of these mothers and children as they had to keep living despite such sorrow.

           The guys had mentioned a fire earlier so I thought after the cold river adventure now was as good a time as any to bring it up again. So glad Joe had that machete. :) The guys chopped wood with a machete and we had a fire going within about 15 minutes. Aww it was amazing! The first time I had been warm all weekend. The only thing that made it better was the mysterious disappearance of Tiffany and Joe, only to return with marshmallows and some fantastic cookie with chocolate already on it! Nothing makes a fire better than blue smores roasted on a fork. haha. Apparently out of our multicolored marsh mellow bag blue made the. The  best smore. Who knew?

          After our beautiful, warm bonfire we braved the cold to visit Dona Michaela and her family. They were a 15 minute walk through a corn maze away. The family was so welcoming and we visited for about an hour. Such authenticity,  and true generosity! You would never know the sufferings that they had endured!

          The family sells beautiful, fresh flowers in the market for money. They had a huge vine of jasmine that all of us ladies were smelling. The Dad gave each of us a bundle and we all couldn't stop smelling them the entire way home. It was dusk out and the Dad walked us all home. We asked how he would get home without a light, but he said it would be no problem for him. We invited him to stay for dinner and starting cooking pupusas (made with mezcla, queso and black beans).  Who says gringos can't cook? :) We all ate together with the kids as well, pupusas and rice. I was so full, but the kids were waiting again to play futbol. Another exciting game. We are still talking about who won. :) We had to cut the game off at 10pm or it would just continue forever...like and endless dream game...the sandlot. haha. such a classic.

          Sunday morning we went to the house of one of the women in the co-op. She makes gorgeous things to provide for her family and we had a private showing. I was glad that the gifts we bought could help support them.

          On our way out of town we visited the catholic church. Joe said the church is about 500 years old. The inside carvings are all made from wood but are black from the innocence. They were stone tablets on the floor through the middle aisle of the church where people light candles for each of their intentions. Joe had given us some and we were all able to light our own. 

          It was such a beautiful weekend. We were all able to fellowship with such authentic and sincere people. We only had a glimpse into some of these people's lives and how truly hard they are. There're families are struggling with things I could never even imagine. It was beautiful to the way Joe has been accepted into the community and how his one life has made such a difference. I pray that I may be an instrument for our Lord to make whatever music He desires with me.