Guatemala
2010

These were the images that deterred me from pursuing medical or grad school. I was 20, new to photography and naively enthusiastic, already three years into a biomedical sciences degree I was falling out of love with. It was these images that were the catalyst for me ultimately pursuing photography. Images of women who were learning to read with babes on their laps, women who ran their own farms and companies. Pillars of their communities and their families. And I owe this life trajectory to them.

Images re-edited. The words from my original posts.
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I had the absolute pleasure of travelling with CAUSE Canada interns photographing their current project of women empowerment through literacy and leadership classes.

Upon arriving in Guatemala I was greeted by the CAUSE Canada interns and representative at the airport and so began a seven-hour cross-country adventure from Guatemala City to Huehuetenango (pronounced Way-way-ten-ango and more fondly referred to simply as Huehue). Being an enthusiastic road tripper the prospect of such a long car ride wasn’t too bad. So began my first experience of transportation Guatemala style.

To give you the best description of Guatemalan roads let me start by giving you some basic math. The driving distance between Guatemala City and Huehue is about 260km. As mentioned, the time to cover said distance is seven hours. So take 260km and divide it by seven hours and this will give you an average velocity of 37.14km/h. Yes. 37.14 (I hold on dearly to this point one four) clicks. We crawled from the capital to Huehue. The bumpy-caked-in-with-fog-while-passing-chicken-buses-on-blind-corners-while-going-through-police-checkstops ride was a good taste of what was to come. While travelling to the more remote towns to attend leadership and literacy classes I became quite accustomed to my head ricocheting of the Mitsubishi’s windows. Anywhere else it might hurt, right?

Unfortunately, I can not even begin to describe (or even find a sampling of) the barrage of merengue and mariachi on the radio – my deepest apologies that you miss this integral part of Guatemalan transportation.

The second mode of transportation is the infamous chicken bus, locally known as a ‘camioneta’. In every town, there is guaranteed to be a lineup of brilliantly painted old American school and transit buses with lights flashing and the most ridiculous horns you have ever heard blaring.  For approximately $1.25 for an hour of travel, you can go practically anywhere. Now, you are not simply paying for the trip but also the experience – which makes it so worthwhile. At the bus stations, vendors will flood onto the bus offering all types of delicacies or health products, and individuals may come on to beg for money. One particular man scrambled onto the bus just as it left the terminal and started to give a rather lengthy speech. With my rudimentary Spanish I understood little of what he was saying and eventually just started to watch Xela go by outside my window. Several minutes later I turned my attention towards the front of the bus just as he lifted his shirt followed by a rather large piece of gauze and lo-and-behold – intestine! I now wish I had paid more attention to what was being said.  Only on a chicken bus!

Now for the true reason of what took me down to the country of Guatemala. CAUSE Canada has been working in the western highland regions of Guatemala for over 20 years empowering and improving the lives of the indigenous people through water and health, forestry and more recently microcredit and women empowerment programs. Primarily operating within the departments of San Marcos and Huehuetenango, Mam women are given the tools to establish small businesses and become leaders within their communities and to their children.
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I should probably start with this disclaimer: I am a horrible writer.

Not only do I have a tendency to switch tenses three times in a sentence (which really shouldn’t be that much of a surprise seeing as I was dubbed ‘Queen of Run-On Sentences’ in Junior High Grammar class and can easily write an entire paragraph void of any useful punctuation), but I also love sharing useless little details. So in short, bear with me.

I should probably introduce you to how this entire trip got underway.

I write this with the snow falling outside, my dog curled up on my lap with his head bobbing along with my sporadic typing, a cup of decent coffee in front of me, a tiny bit of chocolate to help me forget about the snow, and Dala playing in the background.  A little escape from the editing and emails I have been working through.

So began my trip to Guatemala.

Below is another of my favourite couples (the couple under the drying corn). Don Desiderio and Doña Tecla reside in Todos Santos, Huehuetenango where they are a well-respected family.  Prior to the escalation of violence during the Civil War Don Desiderio was the mayor of Todos Santos for two years.  In 1991 the founder of CAUSE Canada, Paul, approached Don Desiderio at the prospect of starting a nursery to help combat the growing problem of uncontrolled deforestation.  For seventeen years Don Desiderio spearheaded the project before being made the director of Institucion Mam de Desarrollo Integral (IMDI) – providing potable water, pilas (a device used for laundry and washing dishes present in most Guatemalan households), agriculture knowledge and health initiatives.

Don Desiderio and Doña Tecla are now retired and dedicated to working at home growing milpa, apples, and peaches.

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I absolutely loved attending the literacy classes. The women were so proud of their ability to write and count. In the mornings the children would attend school and in the afternoon the mother’s and women would attend school.

A third year class of women met in Vista Hermosa – at this point of their education they were able to read aloud from newspapers. Spanish is their second language as Mam, a Mayan dialect, is their first. I will see if my next post if I can post a sound clip as it is quite an interesting language to listen to.

I was followed around this classroom by several young boys who were quite enthralled with my camera – this young fellow however was more content listening to the women read.
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