Common Hope

I've just finished a 2 week orientation at Common Hope (which is Spanish is known as "Familias de Esperanza", "Families of Hope") The family is made up of over 100 employees, more than 2,000 active sponsored students, their families, alumni and their families, sponsors (known as 'padrinos', which is also the word for 'God-parent'), long and short term volunteers, and work teams that come and serve for a week at a time (I hope that a lightbulb just went off in your head :).  Each new employee is required to meet and work with each department to get a sense of how the organization functions as a whole.  There was a work team here from the Best Buy central office this week, and I got to accompany them and serve as a translator for some of thier activities.

  

Best Buy work team and 6th grade class painting one of our partner (public) schools.

I took this one for you, mom.  Detail work!!

 The mission of Common Hope is Common Hope to promote hope and opportunity in Guatemala, partnering with children, families, and communities who want to participate in a process of development to improve their lives through education, health care, and housing.

They do this by frist identifying children who are not attending school.  A social worker is assigned to the family and the child(ren) are matched with a donor.  Needs are also assessed and many times bring light to why it is that the children were not attending school.  The current government has prohibited any kind of inscription fees for public schools or solicitation of funds from families...but there are still costs for uniforms (which supposedly the gavernment has also banned, but everyone still uses them) and materials. 

Other families are teaching their children the agrarian lifestyle and depend on their labor to provide for the family.  Still, others are suffereing from inadequate living conditions and are sick more often than not.  You don't have to be able to name Maslow's heirarchy of needs to know that healthy bodies and full bellies come before active brains.

So that brings me back to orientation.  I spent the first day in construction, with Felix, Pedro and Maura.  Affiiated families can apply for housing assistance, but the problem is that many families don't own their own land.  Common Hope has developed "casas moviles" (that look a little different from our 'mobile homes').  Teams that come down fill molds that make large, concrete tiles which are used for the floor and assemble walls.  If for some reason the family has to move, they can break apart the tiles and take ther floor with them.. same goes for the wall and the tin roof.  Some families are starting from scratch, some only need floors, some just an oven.  Families contribute hours (similar to Habitat for Humanities "sweat equity" ) working with teams to construct thier own homes or at the foundation.  It is also common to see mothers working in the flowerbeds, big brothers painting, etc at Common Hope in order to aquire hours. 




the evolution of the oven.


On any given day you can also find families gathered outside of the health clinic--another available resource for students and their families.  Teams of doctors and dentists also come to serve. 
So... housing, health, aaaand... education!  Common Hope has been matching sponsors with students for over 20 years, but last year began  an exciting new partnership with local public schools, that will in turn benefit entire communities. I am working with another "Educational Promoter" at a Primary (Elementary) school of over 700 students.

6th grade class.  Another work team led a craft activity at our school...
it was during exam week so it was a nice break for them! 

We plan and model interactive, objective-driven reading lessons for all grade levels.  The school year just ended so we've been preparing lessons and materials for a summer school program.

I will never take another teacher store for granted again!!!

 We are excited to see how teh students respond to the opportunity to express themselves creatively and work cooperatively.  Traditional Guatemalan classrooms are very teacher-driven and rely heavily on memorization of material and repetive practice. 

Centers!!! 



The staff at Common Hope is also like a family--a great big Guatemalan family! :) ha.  The day starts out with besitos and greetings.  ("Como amaneciste?"  Love this.. 'amanecer' is the verb for the sunrise, so it's like asking "How did you wake up?")  All throughout the day, whether entering or exciting a room, or just passing someone on a sidewalk you, at the least, exchange a greeting.  Eventually everyone gets settled into work and then at 10ish everyone takes a break--"refa".  I think of this as the equivelant to the Spanish tapas.  It is a light snack, a simple pleasure, but it just seems to keep everything in balance.





Little ones at Common Hope day care sharing 'refa'. 

At 1 O'clock we break for lunch.  Anyone who enters the dining room where people are eating will say "Buen Provecho!" Which.. sadly doesn't really have a literal translation into English.. it's more like "Bon Appetit"... wishing the recipeint that they find their meal tasty and pleasing.  So.. "Buen Provecho!" to which you respond "Graaacias!"   Or.. if you've shared a meal and are excusing yourslef you say "Gracias!" and everyone says "Buen provecho!" 

Meal sharing here takes on an entirely new meaning here.  As soon as we open our lunches that we brought from home, the containers are passed around and everyone grabs a bite of everyone else's something.  I think that there is great value in meal sharing.. it's something very common, but there's a mystical connection

 that happens at the table. 

Speaking of mystical connections.. they can also happen ont he soccerfield! ha.  We have 2 soccerfields at Common Hope, Nestle factory down the road has one, every school playground has, as its base a soccerfield.. and when all else fails ANY area--busy, cobblestone streets, church plazas, or steep, brush-filled hilltops can serve as a soccerfield.  And there is no limit to how many can play and there is no definate beginning or end to the game. I wasn't sure that I wanted to stay on the day that the staff and work team got a game together, but Paty, the head of the Promoters, said "Reimos mucho"--"We laugh a lot."  I'm in. 

That's me in the back playing defense. haha.  I scored the first goal of the game though!!

This post  has been a bit of a ramble, but as I get into the swing of everyday life here, I want to share the little things with my loved ones.  I hope this day brings, to whoever is reading, much laughter, a shared meal or two, and a common hope. 

A good morning

I was up early one morning hanging my laundry out to dry when I realized that I had never climbed the inviting spiral steel staircase that begins on the third level of my house.  I knew that I was in for a treat. As I was climbing up, Fuego was also waking up and greeted his friend, the sun, with a little smoke.

I watched the sky change from a grey blue pre-dawn color to light blue to whitish to yellow to pink, and back to blue. This is the view from my terrace.

Oh God you are my God and I will ever praise you

Oh God you are my God and I will ever praise you

I will seek you in the morning

and I will learn to walk in your ways

and step by step you'll lead me

and I will follow you all of my days

Nisperos!!!

 Wednesday, Oct 20 (Happy Birthday, Dad) is Dia de la Revolucion in Guatemala, so we had a day off from work.  But according to my family in San Juan, there is no day off from harvesting nisperos!  It was so good to go back and visit this family 





If grapes and peaches fell in love and had babies, they might turn out to be nisperos.

 

abuelita



mama blanca and abuelita sorting the nisperos according to size.  they get about 25 quetzales per basket.
 that is about $3.



my sister pointed out this shoe to me!! 



good thing i'd been practicing.

All of this "reflecting" without a stankin mirror.

So, the other night there was a gathering of church leaders at my house. After I showered I went down and greeted everyone, sat down at the dinner table, and joined in a few conversations. After about 20 minutes, Mama Irma looked at me and said, "Te maquillaste, Laura?" (Did you put make-up on, Laura?) Oh my gosh! I DID put make-up on this morning and I DID NOT look in the mirror after I showered! (I have yet to see a full length mirror here and other YAVers have found themselves in a household without a mirror at all.) So I go take a look and, good grief, no wonder the pastor's daughter didn't want to tell me her name! I look a mess! I take off the make-up and go back downstairs to laugh at myself.

The next morning, I'm getting ready to go to work and decide to ditch the mascara. I do put on a little powder and concealor under my eyes--sans mirror. I take the colorful school bus to work (two of them, actually), sit with some co-workers on the final stretch, and greet basically everyone that I pass on the way in. Then I go to the restroom--and there's my old friend, the mirror. I go to check myself out... only to find.. I didn't blend in my undereye concealor and I look like a banshee.

Ay, Laura.

Thank you, homeless friend

I arrived in Ciudad Vieja, just outside of Antigua, last week to get settled in with my new family and get ready for work! This is the 3rd Guatemalan home to which I have been welcomed. All three families have differed substantially in the resources with with they live, but all have been equally warm and generous. And although I embraced walking to the outhouse with a flashlight, and sincerely grew to love riding a children's bicycle through the cornfields, I am glad to be where I am now. And a little sign (literally) last night affirmed that I'm just where I should be.


(Rewind)
A few years ago I was serving food at Families Feeding Families in Durant, Oklahoma (plug:  http://www.familiesfeedingfamilies.org/ ) with First Presbyterian Church, Durant (plug: http://www.fpcdurant.org/).
I got into a conversation with a man about... conflict... and why the world is the way that it is. He said something that has stayed with me all of these years. Something along the lines of, "Look.. God's 'up there' and we're 'down here'. Imagine that there is a quilt between us and God. We see the underbelly--all of the stiching, loose threads, etc. But God, God sees the beautiful design above.
(Fast forward)

When I walked into my room that first night I saw this:

which translates to:

God is making a beautiful tapestry with each of our lives.

From here below we only see the tangled threads.

But when we're with God,

we will see what a beautiful work God made with us.

--C.T. Boom

So thank you, homeless friend, and thank you C.T. Boom--whoever you are, whatever language you speak.

Rural Guat

A few pics from our last week of language school, in a rural Guatemalan village. 

Corn is life.



My new favorite Spanish word:  anciano or anciana.  Translates to:  old, old, old man or woman.  Literally: ancient. 
I love them. 



True confessions:  I slept with this plastic bag on my head because we were convinced that we would not make it through the week without getting fleas.  Perhaps because when our host mom  brought our blankets she emphasized:  ¨THESE ARE CLEAN.  I WASHED THESE.¨ .. and just as a sight note.. ¨If not, you´d be covered in fleas!¨  Enter panic.



This is how Katarina y yo got to school everyday!!  We WAY impressed our family by not getting lost on the way home the first day.  The dad rushed into the kitched, out of breath, to say:  ¨You´re here!?¨ He had come home early because he was sure he was going to have to go out looking for us.   We had such a great experience with this family.  

Magic Eye

Remember these 3D hidden picture things?  If you crossed your eyes just right, a hyper-colored lion or a tye-died butterfly would jump out of the page.  Sometimes I would stare at the page...rotate it a little.. re-cross my eyes..and nothing!  Just as I decided that this was a trick page, that in fact there was no hidden image,  my brother or aunt would come up behind me and instantly decode it! What?!  You see what? I just didn´t see it.  I´ll put the book down and try again in a minute.. with fresh eyes.

Fresh eyes.

We´ve been in Guatemala for about one month now and already that which in the first few days struck me with complete awe is now becoming everyday life.  Oh yes, there is a woman balancing a huge basket on her head, dressed in her intricate, hand-woven, mayan huipil.    Also, I can now easily find my bus between the dozens of retired US school busses, which now don ¨fesitve¨ paint jobs.  (I thing public transportation would be more popular in the US if we just were a little more creative with our paint jobs.)

I mention the magic eye because I had a similar exchange (You see what?!) with my host sisters a few weeks ago.  They were showing me pictures on their comupter and then we got onto Facebook and they wanted to see my pictures.  I didn´t even think about it, but my most recent albums were of Antigua and of San Juan, clearly titled with some prejudice:
¨It´s easy to be a good photographer in Antigua, Guatemala¨
and
¨We´re not in Antigua anymore, Toto¨

I sensed a little tension in the room as we clicked our way through one album full of newly painted, colorful buildings, gorgeous--but remodeled--Cathedrals, blue skies, white clouds, etc, etc. ... and then... opening the other album (aka their home) to find cows walking down a muddy street, a personal glance into a backyard where cornstalks meet clotheslines, a muddy resemblance of a shoe in the road, and several ´old doors´. 

A question that was posed at orientation began to fester within me: How do we, from the culturally dominant center, exploit those ¨in the margins¨ for the betterment of the culturally dominant center?  How, even with the best intention, do programs such as YAV exploit those whom they seek to serve?

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

That day at orientation, YAVs threw out answers that stung:  explotation of food and labor sources, exporting work/importing goods, ¨Joe the Plumber¨ and the kicker...
the fact that we are rich enough to be poor for a year.
and
if we choose to,
we can choose to forget about the ¨borderlands¨ upon our return.

yowza.

And about a month after that discussion, as I sat with my sisters, I felt a conviction that perhaps by snapping pictures without permission and with regard, I had exploited their day to day lives in a more subtle way. We went on with our daily lives and in the end have become very close.

But since then,  I´ve rotated the page, crossed my eyes, and thought... maybe it´s like the magic eye.  (You see what!?) Well...  I see the beauty of brightly painted, weathered doors.  I am humbled by the ease and grace with which women, and even young girls, walk with their cargo perched upon their head.. not to mention that they are often bundles of handmade creations! Yes, the busses, in all of thier brightness, bring me joy.  Yes, THOSE ARE VOLCANOS surroundingus and that ¨is not normal¨! 

Marcia shared this quote with us the other day:
Days pass, years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles.

So as much as I want to ¨blend in¨ here, I do not want to begin walking sightless amond miracles. 

I also wonder what I would see if the tables were turned and I could see my home with ¨fresh eyes¨.  What would surprise me? Amaze me? Make me sad? Leave me curious?  What miracles of creation do we walk among sightless? So today´s blog challenge is to look around, with fresh eyes, and let me know. :)

And while we´re getting our eyes checked, my prayer is that our eyes would be opened not only to miracles, but also to injustice and need.  That along with sight we will have vision--What does ¨On Earth as it is in heaven¨ look like?  That would be the ultimate 3D image, popping out of the page.