Directly after that meeting, we went to a lecture on the history of Guatemala. Even just the brief overview we got was absolutely fascinating! One thing that was particularly interesting that I learned in the meeting is that the pre-colombian mayas called their god ajaw and while they were particularly reverent of the various elements of the world, they believed that it was their one god in various embodiments in the complementary aspects of heaven and earth. The ideal of life being about seeking balance was also really fascinating. The pre-columbian maya ideas of equality between all people was interesting too, especially considering that colonization left a huge mess of disparities and machismo.
After the talk on the history of Guatemala, we headed out into the center of Guatemala City to see the Cathedral and square. The architecture never ceases to amaze me, though the thoughts about the colonization that accompanied its construction are not quite as pleasant. After exploring the Central plaza, we went to a very cute restaurant for a delicious lunch.
From lunch we left for a visit to a school near by the municipal dump in Guatemala City. We had a chat with the women in charge of the school about her work with the children there, essentially the project is an accelerated elementary school with two rounds (one in the morning and one in the afternoon). The students work with the municipal government planting flowers or doing beautification projects in the city to earn money for their families in the time of the day that they are not studying, as a way for them to earn the needed money to help support their family, practice responsibility, and to keep them from having to work recycling trash in the dump. This project is far from an easy one, as the majority of the students are on the fringe of society and often feel like they are equal to the trash that is discarded in the dump everyday. The school is small but they make do with three teachers and four tiny classrooms. The woman in charge of the school says that they have had many graduates of the program, and three are now in Guatemalan universities Also, as soon as January comes she said there are always a big crowd of kids asking when school is going to open (the Guatemala school year starts in January). Quite an impressive woman and an impressively successful program reaching out to those who truly deserve a chance at an education and a place to be away from the dump.
Right after leaving the dump, we drove by the biggest mall in Guatemala which is called Miraflores. There was a huge IHOP that was pretty ridiculous. Also, we were told that as of two months ago.... there is a walmart in Guatemala City. It was little bit of a shock to go from the poorest area of the city to the richest. Apparently, Guatemala has the worst situation of inequity of all of Central America. While they are not the poorest nation in the region, the difference in level of wealth and percentage of people living in poverty create some pretty unfair extremes.
We drove to Antigua and got the chance to explore a little bit, then we went out for dinner to this italian restaurant in town. The food was, again, delicious! After we ate, we had the chance to speak to a Guatemalan scholar on his experience and thoughts on the current situation in the country. It was absolutely a fabulous conversation that got everyone's minds reeling with thoughts and questions. Considering that the country's thirty-six year civil war only ended fifteen years ago, the situation is rather complicated. I'm not sure that, as an outsider, I will ever be able to fully understand. But the discussion was very engaging and thought provoking. At the same time, the man we were speaking to challenged us all to think about the present situation in Guatemala through an mixture of objective, global, and historical perspectives in order to see more clearly why things are the way they are right now.
All in all it was an extremely interesting and jam packed day. I'm currently in a state of pensive exhaustion and should probably get some sleep.
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