Day 6: Sismos (Earthquakes)

Olivia: This morning our team was quite literally shaken out of bed. At first, all I heard was the panes of the window in my hotel room rattling loudly inside its frame, and then my mind slowly registered that my entire bed was rocking back and forth and the water inside my water bottle was twirling around on my nightstand. Fighting through the grogginess of sleep, my brain finally identified this rocking motion as an earthquake. With toe warmers taped to the bottom of my socks, I awkwardly tiptoed my way to stand inside the doorframe of my room.

What I found outside in the hallway was the rest of my teammates in various levels of dress and undress looking just as confused and bedraggled as I felt. We all looked at each other and asked "Did you feel that?" just to make sure we weren't imagining the quaking of the building. Within seconds the earthquake stopped.

Later, we discovered that the epicenter of the 6.9 earthquake was in San Jose, Guatemala​. All day long I couldn't help but think of all the families we've met thus far who've mentioned earthquakes in their stories. "The earthquake cracked my house" or "I don't feel safe sleeping in my home because I'm afraid the walls will fall on me when I sleep" are common themes among the families we serve here in Sibinal. I especially thought of Don Jose, a man and his family we met only yesterday. Don Jose lives in a beautiful, old adobe (dirt brick) home. Unfortunately, one of the more recent earthquakes significantly damaged his home, so much so that Don Jose could push some of his walls with only his fingers and they would sway back and forth like a teetering Jenga tower. I hope he and home are safe and sound following this morning's quake.

Over breakfast our host family brushed off the earthquake like it was nothing, saying that one earthquake a week was typical here in Sibinal. I am continually amazed by the things and situations that people can become accustomed to. If I learn nothing else on these trips to Sibinal, it's that the power of human resiliency and adaption is truly incredible. Despite the ever-looming possibility of dangerous earthquakes and impoverished conditions, the people of Sibinal continue on. Seeing their resiliency is a humble reminder that the small bumps and quakes I've encountered thus far in my own privileged life are nothing I can't overcome.

Franco: As our humanitarian assessment campaign draws close to an end in Sibinal, San Marcos, Guatemala, I can feel the mental and physical exhaustion begin to settle. I used to believe I could "train" and prepare myself for Sibinal by spending hours cross training at the gym or hiking for miles with a weighted back pack. In my experience this far, it is not the physical exhaustion, but the rawness of extreme poverty that slowly chips away my emotional resilience.

In the short time we have been in Sibinal, we have visited more than 25 families. When we visit a family for the first time all my senses feel magnified. I’m assessing everything about the home and the people living in it. As a team, we must come to a final decision that could potentially shift the lives of human beings living in extreme poverty. For me, the decision making process is utterly important. During the interviews with the families I put myself in their position. What if it were me working out in the fields all day? What if I could only feed my children tamales or tortillas once a day? What if my wife or husband left me with seven children without child support or work to care for them?

I find comfort in knowing that I am not alone in the decision making process. Our team of volunteers from the U.S. and Guatemala are here to support the selection process. Over the past several years, I have learned to trust our teammates. In the past, when I used to come to Guatemala alone I would get physically sick from the overwhelming responsibility I felt toward the families. Now, with a team of six selfless volunteers and Generacion Magnificat, I can share that responsibility. 

Emily: Today started off with a strong earthquake that woke up the whole team. I tell ya, i'm not quite used to the earthquakes. This one was a 6.8 and a huge boulder crushed a house over here in Sibinal.

There was multiple houses that we visited that cracked by the earthquake in 2014. One in particular is Doña Elena. When the earthquake happened, her whole family had to run outside of the house. The crack unleveled the house and it looked dangerous. Everyone keeps insisting that it's normal, but it's still so bizarre to me.

The whole team got to see what Jasen, Michelle, and Olivia do with their pilot project, Foto Voice. I gave Jasen my camera and showed him how to use it. He's definitely got the hang of it and his pictures are really good! I told him he found his calling! He was afraid at first but I ensured him that it'll be okay. Michelle doesn't give enough credit to herself. She's really good at analyzing families and speaking Spanish! She's able to jump into interviews and explanations with families with no problem. Olivia was the person to introduce Foto Voice and I believe it wouldn't be where it is without her. She definitely knows the concept and even though they all keep saying that they're afraid of the process, I think it's an amazing project that they are achieving well. Tomorrow is the presentation and final product of Foto Voice and I couldn't be any more proud for them! I'm excited to see it!

We are also having a meeting with a group of women who started an embroidery group to encourage women empowerment and education. I'm really excited for this part because I can apply my knowledge of business and actually put my studies to work as an international business major. I can't wait to blog about that tomorrow!

There's so many things that happened today that I can't explain in one blog post. We all have a big day tomorrow and would have to hit the hay sooner because we will be hiking at 4.00am Saturday morning. Tomorrow is the last blog until Sunday. Por lo tanto nos vemos.

Day 5: Sonrisas

Emily: As each day passes, the liquid energy bottle goes down a little. Assessing the families and the evaluation process is a lot more draining than doing the physical work in December. I have no problem with this because I can pass out easily at night, but I know that once we leave, it'll only get harder. I hate making decisions that affect the livelihood of the family. However, we want to make sure the donation money goes to the right place. I'm glad that both teams have expanded because we have a bigger opinion box.

I'm not physically nor emotionally drained but I’m finding it hard to speak. It's hard to formulate sentences because of all the information gained from this trip. I've never had this happen before but I’m forgetting words and my sentences are out of order. I'm working twice as hard to get out what I want to say. I don't know if it's from my brain being tired, or because I’m meant to be a Guatemalan and speak solo español! : )

If you recall from last year, we had sick children who we took to the clinic last year. We were able to visit them again and it was a good remembrance. We brought fruits and cookies and they immediately went for the fruits. Now, I don't know any children who go straight to fruit. It was almost like seeing feral children eat. We discussed this and Amy made a good point that it is a little hard to watch because their behaviour of eating the way they did was because of starvation. Similar to children eating candy on Halloween, but instead of candy it is basic foods necessary for survival.

This blog will be short as I have a lot of footage to go through and tomorrow is Mercado (market day), which is the busiest day of the week. So going places will take longer and that will be the only time we can shop for materials. Until then, nos vemos.

Olivia: Sonrisa!!

Sonrisa in Spanish is "smile." And boy have we seen some smiles from the families participating in Photovoice! As Franco mentioned in yesterday's post, Photovoice is a creative way to engage people and learn more about their everyday lives through photography. Photovoice is an opportunity for those who don't ordinarily have a voice, like the extremely poor and marginalized, the indigenous, women in a machismo-infused cultures, and children, to share their stories and exert their power as they decide what to capture in their photos. Photovoice is an empowering method of participatory research/assessment that acknowledges the expertise and the insight of our families that we, as outsiders from the U.S. can never fully understand. It's important to note that we ask for the families consent to participate as well as their permission to share their stories and photos with other people, particularly our supporters in the U.S.

 As of today, two out of the three selected Photovoice families have taken their pictures. The level of engagement we've seen between the members of the family, between the families and our teams, and between the Project HELLO and Generación Magnificat teams has been more astounding than I could have possibly imagined.

Our first family was Doña Inilita, her husband and four daughters. At first the girls were hesitant to take photos. They cradled the tablets to their chests, and I was concerned that they were going to be too shy or that they didn't quite understand the question we posed "What makes you happy?" But with some more smiles and a little more encouragement, the girls took off, running back and forth from the kitchen to the bedrooms, through the milpa (corn fields), and to their nearby auntie's house taking pictures.

I was a little concerned that Doña Inilita's husband, and elderly man in his late sixties or early seventies, would be reluctant to participate. However, when asked if he would like to try, without hesitation he said "yes". One of my favorite memories working with this family is when a member of Generación Magnificat noticed that all of Don Emiliano's photos were of the ground, despite his best efforts to take pictures of his milpa. The GM team member kindly gave Don Emiliano a few quick suggestions about how to capture things both near and far away. Don Emiliano listened attentively and when the brief lesson was over he promptly took the tablet back into his hands and started taking pictures again using the newly taught techniques.

After each of the family members finishes taking their pictures, each participant is asked to pick two of their favorite photos to be printed and discussed as group this Friday. As I helped the families’ swipe through their photos, I felt a greater sense of wonder and accomplishment at both the subjects and the quality of many of the families' photos! I was fascinated by which photos the participants selected, particularly one of Doña Inilita's selected photos. The first photo she chose wasn't a picture she took, but a picture of herself holding a piece of paper with her name on it that our team had taken for organizational and record-keeping purposes. As a caring mother who gives of herself to her children and family in a male-dominated culture, I felt such power in Doña Inilita choosing a picture of herself out of all the others. I am very curious to learn more about the reasons she, and the other participants, have for taking and selecting the pictures that they did during our group gathering on Friday.

Today's Photovoice, with Don Basilio, his wife, and two daughters, was yet another success. Radically different from Doña Inilita's family, Don Basilio's family also cracked big smiles as they snapped pictures of their home and family. This family seemed to take their photos in a slower, more methodically way, yet the themes of family, land, beautiful scenery, school books, and homes seemed to be commonalities between both families.

It was extremely neat to see Don Basilio and his wife take and compare pictures with each other, to see his children flip through their school books and snap pictures of their drawings and writings, and for Don Basilio to make is own version of a panoramic shot as he slowly snapped pictures while rotating in order to capture the entire view from his front door. Each participants' photos are so unique and I can't wait to see what other treasures we find with our final family tomorrow.

I'd like to end on a big THANK YOU, to my Photovoice teammates Michelle and Jasen. Without Michelle's support throughout the development stages of Photovoice and her willingness and ability to explain the purpose of Photovoice to the families, this project would never have gotten off the ground. Without Jasen and his budding photography skills, we wouldn't have the incredible documentation of the Photovoice process. Jasen's ability to observe and provide thoughtful feedback and suggestions has also greatly enhanced this experience. And of course, without the support of the rest of our Project HELLO teammates, who have supported the idea of Photovoice since it was first casually mentioned, and our Generación Magnificat teammates who tirelessly travel with us to the homes, enhance our explanations, and encourage and comfort our families, we wouldn't have the gift of these incredible photographs. Gracias a todos!!!

Amy: I am frequently awed by the power of human connection. We met with Don Jose today because we were told his home was falling down as a result of the latest earthquake. His home is, in fact, falling down; he and his wife sleep in a "room" made of wood and wrapped in tarps. They don't sleep in their home because it could fall and crush them during the next earthquake. Their grown children have married and moved out of Sibinal to find work to support their own new families. Their teen daughter wants to become an engineer, but they are unable to afford high school, so her education will stop at the sixth grade.

Yet, what I found most moving about this family was their connection to three small children. Initially we believed the children were their grandchildren. They were present when we arrived, went into the field to get Don Jose for us to speak to, and then stayed with us and the family through our entire visit. When asked who the parents of the children were, we found out they were neighbor children.

These three children were clearly connected to Don Jose and his wife. Their teen daughter held one of the children for a while during our visit and the youngest child stayed at Don Jose's side the entire time we all sat and spoke. They played with the family dog and moved about the home and yard as if they had spent significant time there.

As we wrapped up our meeting and headed to the next family the children came with us. They asked if we had gum and we gave them some. They walked three across, hand in hand, with us up a steep hill and down into a collection of homes.

Once at the home we were assessing we found that the children actually belonged there. We met with their mother and talked about the needs of the family. Their father is away much of the time working in coffee fields. They also lived with their grandmother, and their aunt and cousins lived next door. 

We discovered the two oldest had not been in school because their grandfather had been blind and they helped care for him and act as his guide. The mother expressed much sadness when telling us that he had died the month prior.

This was so much more moving as I thought back to their interactions with Don Jose. He had willingly and effortlessly filled a void left in the children's lives. He couldn't remember exactly how old his own grown children were, but I have no doubt he could have quickly recited the ages of his three young surrogate grandchildren.  His open and warm nature provided a place the grieving children could find solace. His wife and daughter included them in the family without pause.

The idea that it "takes a village" is lived here in Sibinal. To steal a quote from one of my teammates, "if you're going to believe in something, live it."