Several times I have sat down to make a blog entry, to take advantage of this means of communication to tell a story; the story of several years, the story of thousands of lives, the story of countless struggle, the story of those who persevered and believed enough to overcome. Although it seems a simple act, it has taken more than a couple minutes and thoughts to express, to communicate, everything I was able to witness in these last few days.  The story that I share with you is one that encompasses a long, grueling history, and one that is for sure to have an extensive and exhausting future. This is a story in which the dictating problem has no concrete solution. We don’t know if this story will have a happy ending, or any ending at all for that matter. All we can do is use everything that we have been given to work in order to pass along the opportunity that we have enjoyed since birth, to those who have never been given such a chance. I want my writing, this post, to do justice to not only the people of El Basurero and the workers of Casa Del Alfarero, but also to the greater mission, the overall goal…to provide opportunity.

I have visited Guatemala two times in the past, once in 2007 with my family and once in 2010 on my own. However, the mass poverty that plagues the nation is not something that I, a Fairfax County native, will ever be able to forget. On a similar note, the people of Guatemala will always have a special place in my heart and mind. Let me tell you, when I came to Guatemala in 2010 on my own, with very little Spanish speaking ability, and naïve/sheltered mindset, I probably was not the most joyful person to be around. (and that’s an extreme understatement) But I can say with 100% confidence, with every fiber of my being, that my attitude turned around real fast thanks to the people of Guatemala. Never in my life was I able to spend time with better, more quality people who were willing to put forth every effort to make sure that I was having a great time, that I was able to be exposed to their fantastic culture, even though I did not deserve such wonderful treatment. One of the several things that strikes me about Guatemalans is their distinct ability to appreciate life, to have fun no matter where they are or what is going on. Needless to say, I had the trip of a lifetime in 2010! And thanks to the love of Guatemalan people, my life was changed. I made a promise to myself that I would return and try and pay the endless debt that I owe to these people. I came to Guatemala for a reason, these people without a doubt made me a better person, and I will always be more than thankful.

…Which brings me to now, May 24, 2012. We are here. We made it! Our ideas and hard work all year have turned into actions, and our actions hopefully will make some sort of difference, no matter how small. I arrived in Guatemala City on Monday and the first thing I was able to do upon arriving at Casa Del Alfarero was drive out to the overlook of the trash dump with Katie C. Pictures do not even come close to encompassing what we saw. Hundreds of people walking down to the dump, hundreds more already there scavenging, trucks driving through to crush the existing trash and to drop off more…all barely missing the people who were down there.  Talking with Laura, our helper from Casa, we were informed that about 11,000 people try to make a living from the dump, and living in the surrounding “neighborhoods” (for lack of better word).  As the trucks drove into the dump, we took notice that some trucks seemed to be more popular than others. More people swarmed around some trucks, and Katie C. and I did not understand…all of the trash trucks were the same right, I mean it’s all the same trash… wrong. Laura informed us that the people know which trucks come from which zones, and the richer zones provided better trash. That idea sickens me…

The next thing we were able to do was go on a house visit in the middle of the barrio. The house was crunched in the middle of several others, with a dirt floor and tin walls. There were two beds, a makeshift kitchen, and what looked like piles of junk. The woman runs her own sewing business, but lacks a proper sewing machine and does not have the means to buy one. She has one child of her own, but has taken in several more under her care. As she explained her living situation, I was astonished by the things she was telling us so matter of factly… So casually.  She shared with us that four of the children under her care were without birth certificates; they didn’t even know when their birthdays were. Without birth certificates, the children are unable to enroll in school.

As the day progressed, we were able to do some English and business classes to those who had previously signed up. Before leaving for Guatemala, I was very nervous about giving these classes. I did not think I was even close to being qualified to teach people about business. I didn’t think the lessons that we had planned were near advanced enough to do any good. I was very wrong, the women taking our classes have such limited business knowledge (most only have a fourth grade education) , that our lectures are able to do some good. We are currently planning for next week’s lectures as well as compiling a basic business book to distribute after our classes are over.

We have much work ahead of us, but I am honored and blessed to be a part of this mission. I hope that something that we are able to do, maybe some knowledge we are able to share, will benefit someone in some way.

Until next post,

Katie Faughnan

Although we have been working hard at Potters house, it seems as if everything is run in slow motion. I’ve found it difficult, despite everyone’s warnings that this would happen, to differentiate between the rushed, efficiency conscious mindset we bring to the project, and the steady pace most people here are operating at. I think this is a challenge for many people who come from one world and are dropped in to work on a project with an established organization has been focusing on for over 25 years.

Many of the women we work with in our classes have grown up with Potter’s House. They have spent their entire lives enslaved by poverty, and the desire to break free has been softened through years and years of struggle and slow progress. Apprehensiveness about their abilities flood their minds, and make quick action almost unattainable. Consequences of failure are so real and looming, that it requires so much bravery to take the plunge and try new things. In contrast, our culture is so fast paced, and focused on quick results, so it’s very hard for me to see the value in our contribution of a few short weeks. These women have taken business classes before, will attend our classes, and will take more in the future, so, I hope that we will be able to make an impact on at least one of the entrepreneurs here.

Yesterday we started teaching our second class about the relationship between revenue, expenses, and profits. At first we were nervous that our lesson plan was too simple, and that we would be done to quickly leaving our students bored, and disappointed. In actuality, it was the complete opposite, we received good feedback about the content of our lesson, as this was something the women wanted to learn to use while pricing their products, but we were asked to repeat the lesson next week, and take it a little slower. Our anxiety over our limited knowledge of business practices has been relieved realizing that concepts we have grown up thinking are logical, are the ones we need to explain to those who haven’t had the same exposure.

To lighten the mood, I’d like to share a few funny stories of us adjusting to life in our hostel in Guatemala City. Every night we wrap our heads in our t-shirts to protect our ears from the buzzing mosquitoes that make their way into our rooms through the cracks around the doors and windows. It always makes me laugh when I wake up in the morning and see Tisa with her turban on trying to pry herself out of bed.

In our new house in Villas Majen, there is no source of hot water. Therefore in the shower, there is an electrical water heater that heats the water at the spout. We found out later that these showerheads are appropriately named “widow-makers”. Last week Tisa was taking a shower, and we heard a loud pop, her scream and saw a flash of light come from the bathroom door. We yelled for her and she said she was ok, but that the showerhead blew up on her! We have a new shower head that works, and hasn’t blown, but it causes the breaker to switch a few times during the shower, so we all keep watch while each other is bathing to turn the switch back on as quickly as possible if it switches off.

As I explained before, we’ve grown used to bugs in our room, trying to avoid the buzz of the mosquitoes, falling asleep to the knocking of the big bugs running into our windows and doors, and watching the glow of the fire-flys that dot our ceilings at night. But, one thing I don’t think I could get used to is waking up in the middle of the night with a bug on my lips, and when I tried to brush it off I squished it and had a little snack. I couldn’t stop wiping my mouth and wanted to laugh and scream at the same time.

Our time in Guatemala so far has been a mixture of rushing to finish our lesson plans, hanging out for hours chatting in our room, hoping our “students” are learning something from us, and being given gifts of food and jewelry from those we visit during our house visits. This week we will be adjusting our focus on creating our book, hoping to create a resource for many people to read and follow along with long after we have left Guatemala City. I think I speak for everyone when I say that our experience so far makes us feel as this is our second home, and encourages us to continue working with projects like this in the future. The pace can be frustrating, and the roadblocks almost unbearable, but the small steps we see being taken to improve lives, are worth all the frustration.

Utill next time…here’s a picture of a community we visited, with the cemetery in the background.

Katie C.

Tisa and Katie previously described our experience with our first two house visits and, through this blog I will share with you guys the last house we visited. Pati is known as a community leader at Casa Del Alfarero. Her job is to observe what’s going on in the community she lives in and to focus on the health of the people that populate that community. She lead us to her humble home where we were introduced to four of her six children (2 of which were sleeping) and her 4 month-old grandson . Pati’s home consists of one room with 3 beds, a dirt floor, a tin roof, and a blanket for a door. Pati, her husband, and her six children, and her grandson have made this room their home. They don’t have actual legal ownership over the land they live in so, if the government decides to use this land for an alternate purpose then they would be left without a home.

I was so grateful because Pati openly invited us into her home without hesitation and shared with her her worries, her hopes, and her past. As soon as I walked in to her home I noticed that the 8 year old boy was left to care for his 15 year old sister’s baby while she went to school. I sat on the bed and saw that he had a radiant smile that instantly filled the entire room. Pati then announced that there was something that she needed to share with everyone. She mentioned that after her first husband (the father of all her children) died of alcoholism she became very abusive with her children. She mentioned that she would beat them and speak to them with deep anger. She spoke with such sadness and said that Casa Del Alfarero had helped her see her children as blessings and it gave her such peace of heart. She told that she encouraged her children to dream big so that they can accomplish the things she could never do. She said that one of her sons would be an electrician because he loved playing with cables. Her 8 year old son was going to be her lawyer because he can retain information easily. Her youngest son would become a soccer player because he is always playing with a ball and her grandson would be a nurse, because that’s what she loved to do.

We gave her some words of encouragement that came from the scriptures and Laura asked one of us to pray for the family out loud. Although I was very hesitant, I offered to say the praying. I prayed for their health, I prayed to God and asked him to give Pati and her children the courage to continue to work hard and believe in their potential to achieve their dreams.

As we left the house I was talking to one of the volunteers from Casa Del Alfarero about Pati and her family. She shared with me that Pati’s daughter, Katy, was in a relationship with a man who was a drug trafficker and who impregnated and abandoned her as soon as their soon was born.  Taking in the reality of these people was really a wake up call for Tisa, Katie, and me. We walked to Casa Del Alfarero with heavy hearts as we swatted the flies away from our faces.

Nicol.

Today we went on house visits within the squatter community close to Casa del Alfarero. It was very humbling, eye opening and emotional for all of us. Tisa explained our first visit in her last post, and here I will highlight our second house visit.

After we left Blenda, Virginia, and Ruth, we walked further into the community in hopes to find Carolina’s house. On the way we saw the community water supply. The houses do not having running water, and the cost to install the infrastructure was too expensive, to the community shares a water source which is reduced to a pipe and a bucket. We also learned that electricity has been installed in many of the houses, and some of the neighbors will share a cable bill. I never saw a bathroom, and in the shock of everything else did not ask what the people use or where they go. This question will be saved for another day.

We passed by dogs and children playing in the alley between the maze of cardboard and tin houses, and finally found Carolina. We ducked under the sheet she used as a door and escaped the smells of hot garbage, sweat, dirt, dog feces, and marijuana, and entered Carolina’s home. It was made of the same scrap metal and cardboard as the other houses, and had the same dirt floor, but was a little larger than the first house we visited. Carolina lives there with her two daughters who are 15 and 16 years old. As soon as I entered her house I saw that she had a bird cage, and in the cage were two parakeets singing their song, and brightening the mood of the home. Instantly I thought of my own parakeet, Santiago, and later shared that with Carolina; she laughed and introduced her birds to me. Carolina also participates in the jewelry workshop at Casa del Alfarero, but explained to us that even though her dream is to leave the dump behind, it is not possible to do right now because she still has to support her daughters. She attends the classes to prepare herself and give herself the opportunity to create a better life and escape the dangers of scavenging. Then, she told us a story. Carolina explained that the dangers of working in the dump go much farther than health risks and violence, recently while she was working the mountain of garbage gave out under many of the workers, this created a landslide like effect, and thankfully carried the workers with it down the side of the ravine where the dump is located. She explained that they were lucky, and many times the garbage will fall and bury the workers, who trapped under hundreds of pounds of garbage will die there, and may never be recovered. Carolina is anxious to leave the dump, but knows that it will take time to build her business big enough to not have to rely on the dump and its resources anymore.

Then Carolina showed us the jewelry that she made, and told another story. Last thursday, mother’s day in Guatemala, Carolina was very worried. She had no money and didn’t know what to do next. She went to Casa del Alfarero for her weekly jewelry class, and there Laura, another Volunteer purchased a set of her jewelry. Carolina explained this act as Gods blessing that gave her the opportunity to run to the store and purchase a phone card. With this phone card she was able to call her mother that she hasn’t been able to talk to in a long time on mothers day to tell her that she loved her. Her children were able to talk quickly with their grandmother, and she even had enough minutes left to call her brother in the U.S. to say hello to him. As Carolina told this story her voice cracked and her eyes began to water, and that is when my defenses broke down. Seeing her standing in her home, thanking God for the opportunity to talk to her mother, while so many things in her life have been so hard for her made me realize just how different life is for the Treasures.

We went to another house visit, which Nicol will explain in her post, and returned to Casa to teach our first class. In this class we focused on getting to know the women. We wanted to know who they are, and what struggles their facing, and what they want to get out of our classes. Tisa and I prepared about me speeches in Spanish to introduce ourselves to the women, and included information about our families, what our hopes and dreams are, and why we’re here. We believe that creating a trusting environment with these women will help us to help them as much as possible, and encourage them to participate in our classes so that our time may be spent productively and our lessons will be tailored to the specific needs and situations of these women.

I am humbled by their eagerness to learn, acceptance of our presence, and courage to dare to dream outside the life they have known all their lives, whether that be 20 years or 60 years. These women are some of the bravest people I’ve ever met, and I have learned more from them in the past few days than I could hope to teach them in the next month.

-Katie C.