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Guatemalan Trip Creates a Kaleidoscope of Memories, New Friendships and Increased Understanding
"Why would you want to go to Guatemala?" several of us were asked as we prepared for the February MayaWorks trip. Today our answers would be more impassioned than they possibly could have been then. For this was not a typical sightseeing tour. Instead, ten women from across the U.S. joined Pat Krause and Kathleen Morkert on a fascinating and enlightening trip to experience first hand the difference MayaWorks has made in the lives of many women, both Guatemalan and American.
Despite snow falls and late arrivals we finally all congregated in Guatemala City for our first dinner together. Many of us were strangers to one another but by the end of the trip we had became somewhat like family, sharing key experiences and knowing one another's strengths and weaknesses, so that it was hard to say goodbye.
Traveling by van,often over winding steep roads,we visited a number of towns including Chimaltenango to tour the Behrhorst Clinic, and two remote villages in the highlands. At Xetonox children in the school yard ran to greet us and presented a program of singing and traditional dancing as part of the celebration of the new school addition MayaWorks helped to build. There the women's group that makes cornhusk dolls shared their stories of how the added income had affected their lives and we introduced ourselves, all translated from Kaqchikel, one of 31 Mayan dialects, to Spanish, to English and back again. In Agua Caliente a group of women weavers and their literacy teacher awaited us for a graduation celebration recognizing the women's completion of fourth grade. In Comalapa we met with 30 MayaWorks scholarship recipients and visited the homes of women who had micro loans to purchase a sewing machine or perhaps pigs to raise and sell. Seeing beautiful Lake Atitlan, surrounded by volcanoes, was a special treat and where we visited the tourist center of Panajachel and two Mayan villages of Santiago Atitlan and San Marcos.
In every case, we were impressed by the mission of MayaWorks to help these women accomplish their goals in a sustainable way. We left with a kaleidoscope of memories of strong, hard working, inspiring Maya women who became individuals to us all; of a beautiful struggling country with a difficult history to overcome; and of interesting, capable, caring American women who forged special friendships from these experiences. This was truly an opportunity to "interweave lives."
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