Highlights & Lowlights (El Retorno)

Being back here was never quite the plan. When I tell people of my summer plans, and how it all came to fall into place, the first word that comes to mind is “serendipitous.” I suppose the extra benefit from finding a way to inject an otherwise rarely used word into my vocabulary helps make it all worth it in the end.

I left Guatemala at the end of 2011 after nearly a year of working for Habitat for Humanity. I could spend days highlighting the amazing experiences I had here in Guatemala during that time, however, the archived post in this blog would do those memories more justice. As such, I encourage you to flip back. And now I am back in Guatemala for the summer working for the US Government. As I have come to adjust again to life in Central America, I find myself working most on – as one close friend of mine put it – creating new memories, and not living within the many old ones.

That, for me, is an interesting world: caught between the here and the now and the Guatemala of 2011. My mind struggles to process the similarities wrapped within the many differences juxtaposed between the 2014 and the 2011. The ghosts of 2011 haunt me around each and every corner of Guatemala, begging me to relive what once was. To step back and breathe in the tranquility, the love, and the carefree living that once flowed through the breezy streets of Antigua. Yet staring me in the face is 2014, and life in the capital city, which relentlessly push me forward, like a mother bird nudging her youngest out of the nest towards the real world.

“Mother knows best.”

“Packed like sardines in a tin can,” is the best way I can begin to describe life in Guatemala City, the most populous city in Central America. For all its many faults, Guatemala’s most glaring shortcoming, and that which most directly impacts my daily life, is its poor infrastructure. Traffic here is the worst I have seen in my life (caveat: I have been spoiled while living inside of the DC Beltway and have never dealt with rush hour traffic, nor have I ever been to places like Bangladesh or India. I have, however, experienced flavors of traffic in large cities like LA, New York, Chicago, Lima, DC, San Jose, San Salvador, and La Paz).

This doesn't begin to scratch the 

surface of how crowded it really gets

I do appreciate the public transport at moments when we cruise in our private lane past the rest of the traffic that inches along bumper-to-bumper. If it weren’t for the lanes dedicated solely to the public buses, the tin cans of sardines would rot under the Guatemalan sun with the rest of the commuters. An air of VIP-status hangs over the bus as we bypass the horrendous traffic; however, this quickly dissipates among the random odors wafting throughout the humid bus. Jammed shoulder to hip to chest to buttock among what feels like thousands of other locals quickly reminds me that this is not first class, VIP travel.

A taste of Guatemalan traffic

It’s love-hate with the buses and me. They get me to my job faster than any other option, but the lack of common courtesy or common sense exhibited by my fellow riders frustrates me beyond repair. Let others step off the train before boarding. Move to the center of the bus rather than crowd around the doors, so as to create more space for others. These simple concepts are lost upon the commuters, which I’ve moved well beyond trying to understand why and into the realm of acceptance.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

However, the work I have been involved with has helped to assuage my daily frustrations with public transport and, more importantly, helped to form new memories and keep those of 2011 at bay. To be a part of Vice President Biden’s visit to Guatemala, no matter how tangential, has made the efforts of this summer worth it. 

Hey, Joe...

For those unaware, the White House has been escalating the issue of unaccompanied children from Central America, which have been especially flooding the US borders in 2014 (52,000(!) children just this fiscal year). Unfortunately, destitute families, seeing no other option for economic opportunity or for escaping the crime in Central America, settle on sending their children to the US – in the hands of coyotes – as their best option. Many believe – falsely – that immigration reform in the US is near, and that such reform will allow for today's new entrants to stay permanently. This is simply not true.

While immigration reform is atop the list of White House’s lengthy list of “to-dos,” it is, in my opinion, a ways away from fruition. Further, if/when reform actually does pass, lawmakers have made it clear that such reform will only apply to those undocumented immigrants that arrived in the US before December 31, 2011. Those caught at the border illegally now are turned back to their home countries, and with their repatriation flight home let's just say that they are not given a notice to return when immigration reform is finally complete.