Quick Facts

When I got my assignment to Guatemala as a Peace Corps Volunteers part of me was wondering what Peace Corps is doing there. Guatemala seemed to me to be more of a tourist destination than a place that needs Peace Corps Volunteers (granted I have a tendency to vacation in some austere locations). And besides, the Peace Corps has been in Guatemala for over 45-years...is there really stuff left to do? During a conversation early in my training, I asked one of the staff members “when will the Peace Corp’s work be done”. His was response was “when there were no longer children starving in the countryside”. Fair enough. I thought I would take a few minutes to share with you, my three faithful readers, some facts about Guatemala I have come across in my time here which have helped me understand and contextualize my service. I tried to stick to the facts which are more or less not disputed or colored by political debate.
- Over 2 million people lack access to basic needs such as healthcare and education (of 11 million) - 1 of 4 rural children graduate from elementary school
- Half of all children suffer from chronic malnutrition
- As of 2003 57% of the population lived in poverty and 21.5% in extreme poverty
- In my municipality of 30,000 plus people, 90% of the houses are made of Adobe, 2% are made of wood, and 8% are made of block
- My municipality ranks #21/332 in the nation for Poverty and #12/332 for extreme poverty
- The 1996 Peace Accords ended a 36-year civil war, the longest and bloodiest of Latin America’s cold war era civil wars
- The civil war left an estimated 200,000 dead or “disappeared”.
- The Earth’s axis tilts 23 degrees off vertical causing seasonal variation
- For the period of 2000-2004, only 7 percent of congressional representatives in Guatemala were women, and only 11 percent were indigenous.
- The United Nations recently listed Guatemala as the fifth most dangerous country in Latin America, with 44 homicides for every 100,000 people.
- Of every 100 homicides, 93 are left unsolved
- Guatemala received a score of only 2.5 of 10 on Transparency International’s 2005 Corruption Perception Index, ranking alongside Libya, Afghanistan (been there), and Philippines, slightly worse than Zimbabwe, Belarus, and Vietnam, and slightly better than Russia, Republic of the Congo, and Venezuela (they all sound like great places to visit).
- Of the denunciations of public servants presented to the Public Ministry, only three percent are investigated and concluded
- Many existing Municipal Planning Offices lack qualified personnel for technical analysis and advanced planning (I’m working in a Municipal Planning Office)

Sweet 15

For the ladies in Latin America, it’s the 15th birthday that is celebrated in style. It’s a coming of age, not in any sort of scandalous way. I was fortunate to be able to celebrate the 15th birthday (quinceanos) of the daughter of my host family Faviola this past weekend. What was probably the best part about it for me was that I wasn’t just a guest. I helped the family set-up the decorations for the celebration, I was one of the last to leave at 4 in the morning after we cleaned up the majority of the decorations, and I was the only non-family member to dance with Favi during the formal part of the evening (at the urging of the fam). All the aunts, uncles, and cousins came for the event; needless to say it was a full house. The festivities began with mass on Saturday night. Favi had her own chair and kneeler in front of the alter and there were special blessings just for her. She wore something that was a cross between a prom dress and a wedding dress (not actually tacky in any way). The party was in the municipal salon. She made a grand entrance and there were speeches made by her father and godparents. She gave a lovely speech thanking the right people. One rather fun tradition is called “El ultimo baile con un muneca” (“The last dance with a doll”). She danced with a doll and then at the end handed it over to her next youngest female relative, supposedly signifying her transition from childhood to adulthood. Good food. Good dancing. Good cake. Good fun. I think this experience and others like it, more than working in the office during the day, is what I’m going to cherish from my time here in Guatemala.