Zone 3

This weekend I got the opportunity to spend some time in one of the poorer areas of Guatemala City. This is a rare experience, because as a "gringa" it is not usually safe to go. But a friend of mine (Annette) works for Young Life there and invited me along to a mini fundraiser they were having.

A little background information: For those of you who do not know, Guatemala City is divided into 22 zones. You know a lot about an area just by knowing the zone. I live in Zone 15 which is one of the wealthier zones and Zone 10 and 14 are the "downtown" areas, zone 1 is where the market and a lot of the older buildings are, etc.

All I knew about zone 3 was that it is where the dump is and where I don't want to accidentally end up. I had been a few times before with Annette to pick up one of the players on our soccer team, but had not really spent time there and had no real idea what it was like, until Sunday. And I still have almost no idea what it would be like to live there.

So, on Sunday Annette and I went to help out and support a fundraiser put on by some of the volunteers. Annette told me not to bring anything and just put a little money in my pocket. When we got there, however, she pulled out her big purse which contained her wallet, phone and a rather fancy camera. She explained to me that the people know her and they know Young Life and because of that they leave her alone. They know how helpful Young Life is to their community.

For the first hour or so, we just hung out, helped them set up, played soccer with a few of the kids (and got beat). But there were not may people so it was decided that they should walk around the neighborhood and "advertise" the party. Annette asked if I wanted to go.  I would be lying if I said that I was not nervous. Being two tall, blond girls, we got a lot of stares, and it was quite uncomfortable. But Annette assured me I would be okay. We walked up the street a little and then through a small opening in fencing. Behind it was a narrow cement path about the width of a normal sidewalk. On both sides of the path were walls behind which were people's homes. And by home I mean (or at least what I could see) a room or two full of people. I don't even know how to explain it. It was beyond anything I thought to imagine. I wish I could paint a better picture, or put how I felt into words.  It was overwhelming for me even though we were only walking around for about ten minutes.  

After we left the fundraiser, I asked Annette to explain more about the people living there. Here is what I understand. Everyone living there's work is related to the dump. The people who are lowest in the system work in the dump. They spend every day sifting through other people's trash attempting to find something that could be sold or reused. The lowest of these people only get to look through the trash from poor neighborhoods while others get "nicer" trash. Once they find things they either keep it and use it or sell it to middle men. The middle men are one step higher in the system. They buy the bottles, cardboard, plastic, etc. and sell it to people or places who will recycle it. The highest workers are the ones that work on the garbage trucks. They drive around the city and pick up people's trash. Again the highest get to work in nicer neighborhoods. As they are collecting the trash they go through it and find anything they think they can sell or use. So once the trash makes it to the dump, it has already been gone through once. And this is their life, working in and with trash. Nothing is wasted. There are even people who collect the leftover food from restaurants and resell it in the neighborhood. Hard to imagine.

But I think we need to imagine it. I get caught up in my pretty decent life working with wealthy kids and forget that it is not the norm. Yesterday I had trouble sleeping because I was stressed about some of my finances. But what I have to deal with is nothing compared to the people I saw and met in zone 3.

I am so glad that Annette invited me along this weekend and that I took her up on it. It really opened my eyes to what this city is like outside my little bubble. It made me appreciate what I have a lot more and makes me want to do more for those in this city that have so little. The two hours I spent there are going to stick with me for a while. They probably should.  


Here are a few photos (thanks Annette)

Their goalie, he was pretty tough!

Our intense soccer game (we lost)

Bubbles :) 

Some volunteers getting the food ready

Back to Guate - Year Two

So it has been a while since I have written. Many of you (including myself) possibly forgot that I even had a blog. Well, here we go again. So, I returned to Guatemala over a month ago psyched to be returning. I don't know if it is the country, being out on my own, being back to work, or some combination of those and other things that makes me a different person while I am here. Or at least a stronger, more productive person.

It was hard and sad to leave friends and family behind, and hard to think about the friends that would no longer be here when I returned. In fact, none of my closest friends came back. And yet, I was excited to return. And so far it has been pretty good!

Some of the highlights:

• Moving into my new place which is smaller, but vastly better than my old one 
  
  
  
• Taking a week of Spanish classes in Antigua to jump start my confidence (it worked although I need to keep working on it as I have already forgotten things I learned)

• Running a half marathon (21K to the people here) through the city. It was a new PR for me, but I think what I am most proud of is the fact that I was tired and miserable by kilometer 7 and still pushed hard enough to the end to get a PR. (I have another race (maybe 10K, maybe 21) this month as well as a trail half in October)
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• Reconnecting with the teachers who were here last year and building closer friendships with many.  
• Meeting a lot of new teachers who are fun and ready to go on adventures
• I started teaching a weekly boot camp type class (core, arms, legs) for teachers in which we work out for an hour and kick our butts. This is big for me because I rarely feel comfortable teaching anything to adults. But we have fun and I am sure I will have the buffest arms of my life pretty soon!
• I reconnected with some Guatemalans I met last year and through them found a trail running group that could be amazing. I am pretty sure I will have a lot more on this later as I have only run with them once. But they run 8-10K during the week (not every week unfortunately) and then 18-20K on weekends. And they have connections so they can run on trails in places that I would not be allowed on even if I knew where they were. They also climb volcanoes which I love.
• I read Scott Jurek's book Eat and Run and am revamping my food (more on this will probably also come in a later post).
• And my students are amazing. They are so excited to be in middle school, listen well (at least so far) and are gong-ho about just about anything (including running across a field and saying hello to flowers!). I am super excited about what we can do this year.

Also, for the next month (at least) and I going to post weekly.  I am hoping this will get me in the habit of writing more.  I think about writing a lot, but don't actually do it.  

So that is a super brief version of what I have been up to. No big adventures, but a lot of little good things going on. And I am pretty content with that :)