World Vision Visit, Guatemala – May 12, 2011

My World Vision guide and interpreter, Angela, arrived at the hotel around 7:45 a.m.   We sat in the lobby and completed the required paper work and then set off for the district office about an hour and fifteen minutes away on good roads.  We met Cesar on his motorcycle at 9:30 a.m. and he guided us to the district office in Santa Apolonia.   He left his bike parked there and he and Sylvia, also from the district office, joined us for the final 13 kilometers to the village of Panatzan where my sponsored child lives. 

That final 13 kilometers to Panatzan took us over 45 minutes.  The first half was on a narrow paved road and the last part was on a loose gravel road.  All of it was windy and up and down the hillside with big drops on the one side which were kind of scary but the views were wonderful.  It was a sunny day but a bit hazy so the visibility wasn’t perfect.  However, the scenes were all stunning.  This time of year is just the end of dry season and rainy season is coming.  Despite that fact, everything looked very green.  The dirt right along the road was very loose and looked very dry but it was obviously very fertile.  Everywhere you looked there were small fields of vegetables and they looked very healthy.  Men were often out in the field spraying the crops and Angela assured me they were using organic materials.  She also noted that the land was probably part of a large farm owned by one family but smaller sections were rented and farmed by individual farmers.  The individual farmers just get by and are able to survive with a lot of hard work but the owner keeps getting richer.  It doesn’t sound like a very fair system but people are at least surviving.

The town or community of Panatzan is very small and sits in a valley surrounded by beautiful hillsides covered in agricultural fields and trees.  We didn’t see a lot of the town as the host family lived near the outskirts of town as we were entering from the hillside.  I know they have at least one general store though because Grandpa runs one and that’s where we sat for our visit.  When we pulled up in front of the store there were ten or twelve people in sight.  There was a lot of bustling around but no one came to the car right away.  We gathered up the presents and food and went up to the store where I was introduced to a lot, but not all, of the people who were present.

Grandpa is Manuel and he runs the store and farms a small section of land.  Grandma is Josefina and she also minds the store at times and does all of the cooking for the whole clan.  Mom is Aida and she has three children: Yury who is 9, Sheidy ( my sponsored child) who is 7 and Darlyn who is 4.  Two of Sheidy’s aunts were also present and each of them had several children, and there were some neighbourhood children around.  At one point I counted 12 children probably all under the age of ten so it was a busy place.  I did not get introduced to all of them individually.  They were simply introduced as aunts and cousins and neighbours.  At the end another older lady came in and I was not introduced to her although we did say hello to each other.  I found out later that she was the local midwife.  Several other people stopped by throughout the time we were there but they were just there to get something from the store so not part of the family.

Sheidy’s birthday is May 12^th so the visit was planned to coincide with her birthday.  With so many children around I was glad that I bought a good sized piñata.  I also bought a large bag of mixed candies that I thought would partially go into the piñata and partially remain for the adults to share.  However, the entire bag apparently went into the piñata as did some other little trinkets that I bought for the purpose such as a tiny yellow rubber ducky, balloons, bracelets, really small ball, jacks, etc.   Of course there was a great run for the candy but wouldn’t you know it that the tiny rubber ducky was the hit of the day.  That toy passed from hand to hand and squeaked continually for hours.  Too funny!

The piñata was fun to experience.  Sheidy had to go first and she had to be blindfolded and turned around 8 times (7 for her age and one more for good measure).  She then started swinging at the piñata.  They decided it was too tall for her so they had to move what I assume was the clothesline to a new location so it was lower.  Cesar was pulling the other string on the piñata, something I didn’t realize they actually did, so the piñata moved up and down the clothesline and spun around so the child had to try and find it blindfolded.  I knew they had to hit it blindfolded but I hadn’t realized that someone was moving it on them at the same time. 

Anyway, Sheidy managed to punch a few holes in the star shaped piñata and start one point breaking off.  Then it was turned over to Darlyn to take her turns and she did a bit more damage.  Eventually it was turned over to Yury.  Because she is 9, she got spun around 10 times and seemed a bit dizzy after that.  She made a number of good strikes but eventually crashed into the side of the house head first so had to leave the game.  I’m not sure why an adult didn’t catch her but I guess we all thought she was going to catch herself first.  She had a very red scratched forehead and will have quite a goose egg there for some time but she seemed okay as the day went on.  Another of the girls finished the piñata off and when the goodies poured out there was mayhem on the ground as all the kids tried to grab their share (or more).

Purchasing a piñata was interesting.  The first shop I saw in the afternoon had piñatas of every size and shape including Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Lightyear, Mickey Mouse, clowns, dogs, cats, star, etc.  They even had several Easter bunnies but I thought it was a bit too late for that.   The star was a perfect solution.  The piñatas are simply wire covered with thin coloured paper.  They are totally enclosed when you buy them so you have to punch a hole in them to put the candy in.  For some reason I thought they would have made them with the candy on the inside but that is definitely not the case.  The one we bought was 20Q or less than $8.  Some were as low as 15Q and others were as high as 45Q but none of them were very expensive.  The candy for the inside cost more than the piñata itself.   The little trinkets were 1Q each so about 12 cents each.  Perhaps that tells you just how tiny the little rubber ducky was!  I think the girls in the shop charged the wrong amounts for these things but then what do I know about piñata stuffing?

We stopped at a bakery to buy a cake on our way but they didn’t have any cake so we bought a couple dozen pastries.  We ate those as a treat in celebration of the Sheidy’s birthday and everyone sang Happy Birthday to her before we started eating.  And strange as it may seem, they actually do sing Happy Birthday in English, as opposed to Spanish.  Angela said she didn’t know why they did it that way but everybody does it.     

Sheidy opened her gifts from me but they weren’t really exciting for a seven year old.  I bought her some clothes as that’s what they requested.  I could not find the traditional skirt and blouse that was suggested but I think she was quite happy with what she received.  She changed into the blue skirt and white blouse and they both fit and looked very nice on her.  Of course Sheidy is absolutely adorable so I’m sure she would look very cute in just about anything.  She also liked her Havianna flip-flops from Brazil, although I’m sure the name and country didn’t mean a thing to her.  And she liked her jewelry – the bracelet/necklace/belt/etc. with the magnetic pieces so it can be worn anywhere in any style.   

I also gave her a lot of books and things that I had purchased before I knew she wanted clothes.  Being an educator, of course I wanted to get her something educational so I bought her some small colouring and activity books that dealt with the alphabet, numbers, shapes, colours, farm animals, jungle animals and transportation.  Most of these were in both Spanish and English so that was an added bonus.  I think they were the only seven in the store so I bought them all, and of course there had to be crayons and coloured pencils to make them complete.   I also bought two Spanish books just for reading: Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, and two jig-saw puzzles that were sort of Cinderella-ish.  And lastly I bought a couple of games but I don’t know exactly what they were because they were in Spanish.  One appeared to be like dominoes but with alphabet and pictures instead of dots.  The other was three games in one so who knows.  She wasn’t very interested in any of the books because she really can’t read yet, but I’m sure her Mom or big sister will read them to her until she can read them on her own. 

I really needed to get Sheidy some toys to play with but that didn’t happen.  Where we bought the books there was a toy tea set and we almost bought those but didn’t.  The next day we couldn’t find anything similar at all.  She likes dolls but I couldn’t find any dolls that were appropriate, and I just didn’t see any other toys to buy.  Perhaps I just don’t understand how or what little girls in Guatemala play with or do in their spare time.  I don’t imagine they are very demanding so it should have been easy to buy something.  However, I just didn’t know what to get so that was it.  Oh, of course she did get the mandatory Canada pencils, pins and Canada flag stickers.

Sheidy was very shy when I first got there and it was hard to get her to smile.  By the end of the visit I think she was feeling more comfortable around me, the stranger from nowhere with blond hair and blue eyes.  She had so many children around to play with that I could certainly understand that she didn’t want to stay with me during the entire visit.  However, her Mom kept calling her back every time something different came up or every time a picture was being taken.  I’m sure at times she thought I was more bother than I was worth and I don’t blame her.   It was just wonderful to see her in such a full family environment and having so much fun.  There was no doubt that Grandma and Grandpa loved all their children and grandchildren, although Grandpa laughed and said he didn’t remember how many grandchildren he actually had.  And it was obvious that Mom and the two aunts were good mothers to the children.  Sheidy will certainly never be alone or lonely in such a close-knit family group and it’s nice to know that that’s the environment she will grow up in.

Grandpa and Grandma speak their native language primarily and then Spanish.  The younger generation speaks both languages and classes in the schools use both languages.  That way the language will never die.  Most also learn English so that means they speak three languages – definitely more than me and most of the people I know.  Grandma thanked me for my visit.  She did this in her Mayan dialect (the name of which I cannot remember).  Sylvia translated that into Spanish and Angela translated that into English for me.  Grandpa also thanked me but he did so in Spanish, as did Aida.  They were all very grateful for my sponsorship and support over the years and especially for my visit.  I am invited back any time I care to visit.  Their thank-you messages were all very moving and heartfelt.  When I consider how little I actually do and how much it is appreciated, it certainly makes me wonder why I don’t do more.

I didn’t actually see inside many of the buildings where they lived.  I assume the brick building off to the one side was a bedroom for at least Aida and the three girls but perhaps for Grandma and Grandpa too.  It was a plain brick building probably 10 x 20 feet in size with a door and one small window.  Some of the aunts and their children live nearby but not right on these premises.  The kitchen or cooking area was on the other side of the store.  It was a large room probably 15 x 15 feet with a dirt floor and the stove at one end and lots of open space everywhere else.  According to Aida, Grandma does the cooking.  Outside the cooking area is a sink and there is running water from the tap.  It is not drinkable as it comes from the tap but World Vision provides them with a water filter so they have clean water right at home.  The water filter is a clay pot that sits on the counter full of water and that filter will last for one year so it’s an easy way to get clean water. 

I don’t know if there is a family room anywhere or whether they simply use the covered porch in front of the store.  The porch is certainly large enough to hold about 20 people.  We proved that during our visit.  There were some chairs and stools for people to sit on and then a table came from somewhere but I’m not sure where.  It may have come from the building beside the store so that may mean that there is a living area inside that building.

All of the females were dressed in their traditional costumes which included a wrap around skirt with a belt at the top to hold it on and a loose blouse.  The material for the skirt is always very colourful.  Originally the different colours represented different tribes and that is how the Spanish distinguished them.  By that I mean that the Spanish made each different group wear a different colour so they could be distinguished.  Now the females still wear the traditional costumes but they wear just about any colour and pattern.  The blouses are also in many different colours and often embroidered.  They are very beautiful.  The men just dress like farmers everywhere.  Manuel was simply wearing a pair of slacks and a shirt – much less colourful than the ladies.

Well I think that’s all for this visit.  It was a great time and I really enjoyed myself.  The World Vision staff members were great.  The family was wonderful and Sheidy is a beautiful little girl.   I’m glad I had the chance to visit and maybe I’ll even be able to do it again sometime.  This project is expected to continue and Sheidy is young so I will probably be her sponsor for many years.  It’s certainly a great experience to see the whole family and their home situation.  It definitely helps the sponsorship take on a more personal and meaningful dimension.  I don’t write frequently but I know my letters will be very different now that I’ve met this wonderful family.