EIL Intercultural Learning

Sitting in Madrid airport waiting for the connecting flight back to Dublin my mind begins to wander. Five months previous and I was at the very same point on my outward journey to Guatemala. A country I knew next to little about. How quickly things change. I console myself by saying that this is not the end but merely the beginning; the beginning of a love affair with a country and its people. The strange sounds and exotic smells that will forever evoke a thousand different memories. Yet trying to unravel the complexities of a country like Guatemala takes time and perseverance.

In such instances the easiest place to start is often with the facts. Guatemala is a poor developing country. More than half of the population lives in poverty, 6.4 million to be exact. It's the lowest ranked of any Latin American country on the UN's Human Development Index. This ranks countries based on indicators such as income, life expectancy, school enrollment and literacy.

When I arrived the country was just after electing a new president. The campaign posters were still up and by all accounts it had been a fairly fought election. During the next few months I would discover that the people of Guatemala were desperate to believe that this leader would be different to the corrupt dictators of the past and be able to provide the country with some much needed stability. Time will tell.

The living conditions I encountered were basic but adequate for my needs. The first house where I stayed was occupied by a mother and her 36 year old daughter. The family is considered middle class by Guatemalan standards having the luxury of electricity, television and clean water. The mother and daughter share the same room with it being customary for the daughter only to move out once she is married. Sadly, her father is no longer with them having died in the last great earthquake to strike the country in 1976.

You are constantly reminded throughout your time there as to just how scarce a resource water is to such families. They only receive a limited amount during the day which they then have to allocate between the different activities of housework, showering and toilet flushing. Sometimes it happens that they have to go days without any water. For showers, one of my host families employed a technique of heating up a bucket of cold water by using an electric filament plugged into the mains electricity. However, rolling blackouts can cut short their power supply at any time so it always pays to have some candles on standby for emergency lighting.

One of the most common sights you will encounter right across Guatemala is that of people carrying bundles of wood on their backs. The strain etched on their faces as they shoulder their sagging load uphill during the course of a hot Guatemalan day. This time consuming exercise is often referred to as the fuel poverty trap. The length of time it takes for them to secure fuel for the basic needs of heating and cooking prevents them from being able to earn a regular source of income from working. It is often not uncommon to see young boys gathering fuel at times when they should be in school receiving a formal education. The breaking of this fuel poverty trap is one way in which to bring about significant change in a country such as Guatemala.

But there are others. Above all else the population needs reassurances that the government has its best interests at heart and does what it is supposed to do, serve the people. Without such trust the country is never going to build itself a brighter future. Unfortunately the signs are not good. Fundamental to the functioning of any society is an effective justice system. And yet it was quite evident during my time there that this was something which was lacking. Apart from the visibility of armed security staff on the doors of most businesses, on a number of occasions the community itself decided to take the law into their own hands through the lynching of criminals committing crimes in their localities. Many people also informed me that certain parts of the police force were known for their corruption and so it was better to steer clear of them altogether in the event of a crime being committed.

Instability in the area of public office is a further barrier to any future development. The term for most Guatemalan presidents appears to average only a few years. This doesn't provide much time in which to implement any kind of reform program. And it's not just at a federal level that this applies. With each new President is born a new local government. Under such a short tenure of office the prevailing mindset appears to be take what you can while you can.

The widespread discrimination against the country's indigenous Mayan population also doesn't serve the collective interest. They suffered badly during the Guatemalan civil war and still today fail to receive adequate government support. This is particularly the case in the area of education where their schools are poorly funded and under resourced. If the country truly seeks to move forward then it must address the marginalisation of its own indigenous people that constitute over fifty per cent of the population.

In order to gain a real insight into the Guatemalan way of life then the transport system offers the observer a fascinating vantage point. Without doubt it serves as a microcosm for showcasing the best and worst of Guatemalan society. From riding in the back of dusty pick-ups to taking your life in your hands on board a chicken bus, there really is nothing that takes you as close to the action. Be prepared for fiery eyed preachers, relentless vendors trying to sell you their goods or inquisitive locals trying to understand why you're even there in the first place. Wonder in amazement at how the fare collector manages to retrieve payment and remember changing faces on buses running at twice their capacity. Despair at the sight of old people and pregnant mothers having to stand without prejudice to the rest of Guatemalan society for entire journeys before then disembarking from buses that remain perpetually in motion. It's all there to be believed.

And if the transport system serves as one environment in which to observe Guatemalans in their natural habitat then the other has to be market day. Every town no matter how small organises a weekly market. They offer great value for money with plenty of bargains waiting to be discovered. By and large they are not tourist affairs which mean you get to witness the real deals going down. The highland markets are the most colourful with the local Mayans always dressed for the occasion in their traditional hand-woven garments. And if you listen closely you should also get to hear at least one of the twenty different indigenous Mayan languages being spoken. The markets tend to wind down soon after midday after which time such places start to resemble that of a ghost town.

The other thing that Guatemalans know how to do well is to celebrate. No occasion it seems is ever too small. Family get-togethers are a regular occurrence and during my time there I was fortunate enough to be invited along to birthday and anniversary celebrations. The host families are so welcoming to volunteers and are always looking to include them in their own social events. Apart from occasions such as these the Guatemalans also look to celebrate outside on the street in the form of parades. It's certainly not unusual to turn a street corner and next thing find yourself caught up in the middle of a marauding religious procession. Although these occur year round it's during Easter week known as Semana Santa that they really take it to another level. The sheer size and flamboyance of the processional floats is of a scale I had never witnessed anywhere else before.

In all I spent five months in Guatemala. For three of these I worked for an ecotourism forest park in the town of El Novillero. The park is administered by an association founded by local community leaders. My work there centred on investigating the possibility for the park to use its own natural resources so as to produce clean electricity. As a result of this the park applied for funding to the United Nations grants program in Guatemala in order to develop its own micro-hydro project. The hope is that the park will be able to become self sufficient in its energy needs and provide an example to other community based projects that have similar sustainability goals.

At the end of my time in Guatemala I definitely felt as though on some level I had succeeded in getting to know the country. Having to speak in a foreign language doesn't make communication easy at times but warm gestures and acts of kindness can go a long way towards overcoming this social barrier. You'll find that staying with a Guatemalan family really opens your eyes as to what it's like to live in a developing country. There are certainly many challenges to be faced and the country still has a long way to go in order to provide a better standard of living for its people. However, even the simple act of bringing your stories and pictures back home and sharing them with friends and family can make a difference towards highlighting the ongoing plight of countries such as Guatemala and making it part of the wider public consciousness.