The Wonders of Guatemala, Part IIII (Final Thoughts)
Subtitle: San Lucas Toliman Mission
Finally, I want to spend a short while talking about the mission itself, because it was undoubtedly the most amazing thing I saw in Guatemala. (I promise I won’t talk you to death…) Going to Guatemala, even before we landed, our group had some doubts: what could we, three college students with essentially no special skill, do in Guatemala that somebody already in Guatemala could not do better and faster? Why were we going?Then, at the mission, some of the volunteers stumbled upon a speech by Ivan Illich titled “To Hell With Good Intentions.” (You can find a copy of this essay, courtesy of altruists.org, here.) Essentially, Illich attacks volunteer work in general, and especially international “missions,” as being pretentious, useless, and worst of all, a possible destabilization and cause of violence in the areas that were “helped.” Between our own doubts, and the undeniably persuasive words of Ivan Illich, we were very doubtful of our ability to help.Then, we heard Fr. Greg’s talk about the work and duty of San Lucas Toliman mission. Fr. Greg, who has lived at and headed the efforts of San Lucas Toliman for the past 40 years, knows it and its goals like no one else. And he has a very unique, slightly radical, and very sensible view on many things.Fr. Greg emphasized, over and over again, that the purpose of the mission is to help the people of Guatemala live their lives as they wish. The mission is not there to impose the American culture or methods on Guatemalans; it is there to assist the Guatemalans in, as Fr. Greg would say, “living their culture.”
As such, there is one crucial point that is at the heart of volunteer work at San Lucas Toliman: we, the volunteers, are not Guatemalan and never will be. We do not know what is best for Guatemala or her people. We cannot simply come once, make things perfect, and leave fulfilled. In fact, there is only one thing we can do in the beginning. We can speak with the Guatemalan people, live with them, and most importantly, we can learn from them how it is that they wish to live their lives. When they have taught us this, then we can assist them in their own work at living their lives as they wish. As volunteers, our primary job is to learn. We must learn, as well as we can, about the people of Guatemala and Guatemala herself. We must learn what those people want our help with, and how it is that we can help them. We can make friends, learn lessons, teach Guatemalans about or own culture, and open up communication between our people. That is our purpose as volunteers: we help others in the ways that they desire our help, and we learn about them as they learn about us. It is, in a sense, the definition of Loyola’s goal of “service-learning.”
We went to Guatemala, and we doubted how we could help. Our time in Guatemala, however, completely changed my view on exactly how any person can help another person. You cannot impose yourself or your assistance; how can that be called help? You can only befriend and learn, and then assist. You can gain some understanding about a person or a group of people, and you can bring that understanding back and share it as best you can with everyone you encounter. You can open up a small window into another world, so that others gain that same understanding, and that same ability to truly assist another person or group of people.
So, until next time, as always, feel free to get a hold of me through comments or by e-mail with any comments or questions. Cheers! Next time, and in the future, I promise to be less “preachy.” ;-)
Sincerely,
Paul Sidlowski
P.S. For more information on San Lucas Toliman Mission, just click the link!
The Wonders of Guatemalla, Part III
Subtitle: An Interlude for a couple of Lists
Howdy all! I’ve decided to take a quick break from subjecting you to my long-winded blogs, and simply throw up a few lists that I think you might like. Some of these are humorous, some are serious, and some are simply a way for me to share some cool experiences I’ve had here that I couldn’t find another way to fit in. So, without further ado:
Top Ten Medical and Pseudo-Medical Facts I’ve Learned in Guatemala
- How to take pulse and blood pressure – This may seem minor, but it was a goal, and darn it feels good.
- Don’t sing in the shower – it’s not worth the new friends you’ll find in the water. (For reference, see my article “The Wonders of Amoebas)
- At 6´3”, I tower over just about everyone in Guatemala by quite a bit.
- How to load a syringe – I did not expect this one, but I went out with the dentists, and there I was loading up Novocaine for them. I figure it might be a useful skill, considering my career aspirations.
- A tooth extraction bleeds, a lot – Unfortunately, due to a lack of dental care, much of the work that dentists do here is extractions of rotten teeth. Because I’m not afraid of blood, I got drafted to hold the flashlight and assist. It’s a very good thing that the dentists do, to ease the pain of an awful toothache, but I still don’t envy them their jobs here.
- Playing Soccer with little children can be hazardous to your health, and that of your feet – only one day here, and I broke my 5th metatarsal playing soccer.
- If you land on your foot badly, and you hear a crack, it is probably not just a sprain – whoops; my bad.
- Despite what common sense might say, a nightly foot massage really can help a broken bone – every night, the night guard at our house would come up and massage my foot. It felt great, and I am incredibly thankful, although I was admittedly a little dubious about mixing the words “massage” and “broken bone” at first.
- “Dolor” means “pain” in Spanish, and “Mejor” means “better” – As annoying as it was to break my foot and find myself on crutches for 3 weeks, it really did help my Spanish in some regards, such as “¿Dolor?” and “Es Mejor.”
- A broken foot can really make you a celebrity – I can’t count the number of times somebody asked what happened, and now I’m beginning to see and hear stories of people referring to me by miming the use crutches.
Top Ten Awesome Things I´ve Experienced in Guatemala
- Climbing Pacaya, an active volcano: There is something incredibly awesome about having the soles of your shoes melt from the ambient temperature of the ground. Also, no picture of flowing lava does the real sight justice.
- Going to mass in a church that was built before 1600 A.D., and touching runes in rocks that were carved as many as 2000 years ago – I love history, and Guatemala is simply full of history, from buildings to rocks to the stories you can hear.
- Bartering at a shop in Panajachel, or anywhere else – Bartering is a way of life here, and one that is completely novel to me. Unfortunately, bartering well seems to be a skill that I lack, and I cannot count the number of time I’ve bought something only to meet someone who brought the same thing for half as much.
- Climbing Sierra de Oro, a mountain/hill/Mayan fort, with a broken foot – The stories were amazing, the carvings and altars were amazing, and the accolades I got for climbing it with a broken foot were almost worth the one time that I accidentally stepped in a nest of fire ants.
- Walking around Antigua – It was like stepping back into 1600´s Spain.
- Hearing Fr. Greg’s talk about Guatemala – Fr. Greg is the local priest here, who began San Lucas Toliman mission and has stayed here for the past 40+ years. The man has an insight into Guatemala and it’s people like no one else I have heard or seen here, brought about mainly by his awareness that he is not Guatemalan, is not Mayan, and can only help the people to live the way that they wish to live. I will devote my last blog from Guatemala largely to Fr. Greg’s work, but for now let me say that he truly deserves the honorary Ph.D. that Loyola awarded him with.
Those six, and the 10 “medical” facts are only the tip of the iceberg, and cannot begin to do my experience in Guatemala justice. However, I hope I’ve given you a little taste, and perhaps you feel a little incentive to come here and see the things I so poorly described for yourself.
As always, cheers!
-Paul Sidlowski
The Wonders of Guatemala, Part II
Subtitle: The Wonders of Amoebas
I submitted a final sample to the clinic for testing today, and I just got the results back. Let me tell you, I could not be more excited: it seems that I´ve picked up some new friends in Guatemala.First, the news that I expected: I, and the other two Loyola students with me, have Amoebas, which is the local variety of intestinal parasite known for causing the malady commonly known as “Traveller’s Diarrhea”. (Fun Fact for the Medically Inclined and Others: It seems that this particular part of Guatemala is something of an aberration, where Traveller’s Diarrhea is concerned. In most places, it is E. Coli bacteria, and not intestinal Amoebas, which cause Traveller’s Diarrhea.)However, that news was mostly expected, since the impression that I have gotten is that very few people stay here for more than a week or two without getting Amoebas, since you can get them from the shower, sink, or any other water that has not been filtered and finds it way into your mouth. The clinic simply gave us anti-parasitic medicine and sent us on our way.
However, unlike my compatriots, I seem to have received a 2-for-1 deal of sorts. I also seem to have procured a systemic bacterial infection. Again, however, the clinic simply handed me an anti-biotic (Ciprofloxacin, if you’re interested) and sent me along.
Now, this may seem like bad news, but for some odd reason, I’m truly a little excited. It really is part of the experience; now I can go home and tell all my friends about the cool, weird stuff I caught in Guatemala. Also, I got a chance to interrogate one of the local doctors and pharmacists about drugs!
Well, I’m off to call my parents and share the good news. Until next time, as always, cheers, and feel free to write at PSidlowski@luc.edu.
-Paul
The Wonders of Guatemala, Part I
Subtitle: The Wonders of Washing Your Clothes by Hand
Welcome to our first instalment of “The Wonders of Guatemala.” This will be our longest instalment, since I will give a quick run-over of everything that has happened in Guatemala up until today, July 20th.
Thus far in Guatemala, I have been terrified that the car driving me was about to go over a cliff at least three times. I’ve been cheated when buying something because of my lack of bartering skills any number of times. Here, the water from the sink is not safe to brush your teeth with, and you are not able to flush your toilet paper in the toilet. I’ve been attacked by a wild dog, I don’t speak Spanish, and I broke my foot on my second day here. All of this is 100 percent true, and guess what. I love it here.
Guatemala is truly an amazing place, on so many levels. First, the natural surroundings here are utterly different from anything I have ever seen in my life. In the morning, I can wake up, walk out my door, and see two volcanoes right on my doorstep, and know that another one is right behind them. The clouds here are far too low in the sky; sometimes they’ll even sink down to ground level, and you will find yourself walking down the street, through a cloud. Not a single building here is insulated, and many buildings have walls that are permanently open, because the year-round temperature here averages around 78° Fahrenheit.
Then, the history here is astounding. I have seen churches here that were already 200 years old when the Revolutionary war began, and I’ve walked on ruins and Mayan fortifications that were already a thousand or more years old at the same time. I’ve heard some of the local Mayan stories and myths of times past. I’ve heard more recent stories, of the struggles that San Lucas Parish, and all of Guatemala, underwent during the 30 year-long civil war that ended only 12 years ago. I’ve heard heart-rending stories of lost husbands, sons, daughters and mothers who simply disappeared from a military checkpoint and were never seen again, and I’ve heard uplifting stories of groups of hunted children who were successfully smuggled through military checkpoints by one courageous woman.
And, of course, as my subtitle suggests, I’ve washed my clothes by hand. Compared to some of the other things I’ve seen here, that might seem small, but it truly embodies part of what Guatemala has shown me. In order to wash all of the clothes that I brought here (four pairs of jeans, shirts, underwear and socks), I will probably spend about an hour to two hours at the “pila” scrubbing and soaking, scrubbing and soaking. Then, I will hang them up to dry, which will probably take another day, at least (and considerably more if I’m foolish, and hang them out in the open so that they are soaked again by the daily rain). It is a slow and difficult process, but in an odd way it is very fulfilling. Frankly, washing my clothes here takes infinitely longer than it does in the United States, and after all is said and done, they are probably not as well washed as they would be after I put them in a machine. However, there is a sense of satisfaction in looking at a bucket full of jeans and shirts that I’ve scrubbed by hand. I do my own work, and I’m satisfied with what I have done. Perhaps that is something that the Guatemalan people, who largely still plough their fields, pick their coffee beans, and wash their clothes by hand still know that we have forgotten. They are content to live their lives according to their culture and their nature. Even if it means picking hundreds of pounds of coffee, by hand, per day.
All of that having been said, however, I vow here and now to never complain about the 15 minutes that it takes to fold my clothes after they come out of the dryer at home.
Well, until next time, cheers! As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to write them below or send me an e-mail at PSidlowski@luc.edu.
Sincerely,
Paul