Following the delicious breakfast, we went upstairs to the roof where we did an activity to learn about everyone's educational biography. Everyone was given a sheet of paper, markers, crayons, and the task of representing our formative educational or life experiences on the page in twenty minutes. Once we had finished with that portion of the activity, everyone had the chance to share with the group. I found it incredibly interesting to learn about everyone's life and background coming into the program. Very much a worthwhile activity in my opinion.
A little later in the afternoon, we had another really interesting activity. It was a socioeconomic survey of the city. We were broken up into groups with four themes (education, clothing, food, and medicine), given 50 quetzales (about US$6 and the minimum daily wage in Guatemala), led to the central market, and then told to use the money we were given to purchase what we could and to interview (when appropriate) people to find out more information on the various costs of living in the city. My group was the one focused on education. We wondered around the market for a while, but were completely unable to find anything school related. So we decided to leave the main market place and started exploring the various small stores to find one that sold school supplies. A couple blocks away, we finally started finding stores that had what we were looking for. The first one we walked into we asked about prices, and then decided to buy some pencils. We asked for ten, but the store only had seven. We ended up visiting various stores and buying random school supplies, most of which were relatively inexpensive.
One of the last stores we visited was run by this Guatemalan woman who was a former teacher at the Spanish school we start at on Monday. Our conversation with her was really interesting. According to her, the two biggest problems in Guatemala are malnutrition and unequal access to education. She also had a lot to say about her experiences with teaching Spanish and meeting people from around the world. About two years ago her house was completely destroyed by the mudslides that are very common in Guatemala, so she can no longer host students, but she has many fond memories of her former job. We were very grateful for her time and insight into the current situation of education in Guatemala.
Following our adventure, we all met back together to share and debrief the experiences we'd had. One of the groups had visited a children's clinic and talked with the doctor about the health situation in the city. She said that the biggest problems she sees in children coming to the clinic are almost always directly related to malnutrition. They also purchased many different types of medicine for their fifty quetzales. The food group was able to purchase enough food to cook one hearty meal for a family of five. The clothing group was able to buy a really cheaply made pair of sandals and a children's sweater for their fifty Q. The challenging part of this activities was really thinking about how difficult it would be to live on and support a family on fifty quetzales a day or less. Getting sick or buying new clothes on top of feeding a family is extremely difficult. The experience was the first big shocker of the semester.
The privileges that I personally have can be kind of difficult to swallow when we do activities like this one that really open your eyes. I'm still processing the whole activity and the whole sticking out the crowd as the blonde, blue eyed, tall, white girl in general. It's a very different experience to be the minority in the crowd, yet not necessarily the negative side of the minority status. The privileges associated with the color of skin that I was born with honestly make me uncomfortable. I can't pass by the beggars on the street without a sense of guilt for having my life instead of theirs. That guilt is gradually transforming into a strong will to work on the areas in which my true living out the life of being a more responsible and globally minded person. I plan to make that a stronger focus in my life now and continue that when I return home.
Thus far, this trip has been absolutely amazing. I am sure there will be more challenges to come throughout the semester, but I am sure that this is going to be a transformational time.
Hasta luego!
View from the hotel roof, which served as our classroom for the day....
No comments:
Post a Comment