World of contrast: Adapting in Guatemala

Photo by Heather Nyce

Joilyn Zimmerly, Emily Benner, Jill Leaman, Maria Landis, Mike Miller, Greg Lamb, Andrew Intagliata, Diana Crowling and Ellie Spaulding enjoy the tropical foliage and warm temperatures that make adapting to Guatemala bearable..

We've been here in Guatemala for over five weeks now. Our cross-cultural is more than a third over, and yet it feels in some ways like it's only just begun.

Already we've visited Mayan ruins, a returned refugee community, a neighborhood built into the side of a ravine, and one of the more wealthy areas of the city. Through these weekend and day trips we've seen a lot of the various aspects and contrasts of Guatemala; they have really opened our eyes to what daily life is like here on a variety of levels.

Some of us had traveled to Latin American countries before, but this experience, for me at least, has been a completely new and different one. There are so many more factors to consider this time, such as group dynamics, classes and lots of homework. Living with a host family and getting to know them, absorbing the culture, and both learning and accepting the lifestyle differences. As a group we seem to be adapting pretty well to the general feeling that time moves more slowly down here-when the bell rings it doesn't mean that we're seated in class, it means that we take about five minutes before we start moving towards class.

There are definitely other things that have taken some getting used to, such as not flushing the toilet paper, riding the bus an hour each way to and from classes every day, and seeing uniformed men with guns outside stores and on street corners. The violence is visible in a different way here than back in the States. In the U.S. we're accustomed to seeing violence more in video games and movies than in real life. A few nights ago my family told me that a 15-year-old boy had been shot and killed outside the circus, which was set up on the campo (soccer field) a block from my house. Two of my host siblings had known the boy.

Jill and her host sister also watched a gang hail a taxi, only to demand that the driver give them money or they would shoot him. These are not the kind of happenings we're used to experiencing at home, at least so close to us, and so it has been difficult to see or hear about them here.

At times it has been overwhelming, but a friend reminded me a while ago to "sit back and take it all in, because you'll never have another experience like this one." I didn't have many expectations coming into this trip. So even though I feel like I've learned a lot, hearing that reminded me that I'm not done yet; there is a lot more waiting for me to experience on this trip. In that respect, I feel as if we've only just begun.