Amazing Words/Motivating Revelations

February 10, 2011

I get to the worksite today with a strong desire to know more. I want to know more about a lot of things!

Who are Gracelda Gonzoles, Jose Yac and CIDAC?

Gracelda and Jose accompany us to the work sites every day. In fact, I learn, they are both our drivers and our partners. Initially, I was not entirely clear about their role in the Guatemala Stove Project. They  work for CIDAC, the organization that translates our (yours and mine) Canadian dollars into stoves – basic cooking implements that enable women to cook safer and more nutritionally for their families. (Here traditional male/female roles are still very much accepted/expected. So, the kitchen really still is the sole domain of the woman.)

Today we are in Chirrenox, a village of about 4,000 people. The compound we are actually building in is home to five families. GSP will construct three stoves here.

The kitchen in the largest I have seen. It is sparsely furnished.  When we arrive—pushing a wheel barrow full of stove mason basics – the women begin quickly preparing the area. The open fire in the corner is put out and moved to a make shift outdoor kitchen. They seem to already know that their stove will be off limits for at least two weeks while the cement cures.

The job of talking to the families, determining where a stove would be most beneficial and preparing the family to receive one is the job of Gricelda and Jose.

Gricelda speaks K'uiche, Guatemalan Spanish and English. She is 31 years old with an undergrauate degree in political science. Now she is working on her Masters in Public Health at the university in Xela.  She is a strong woman who is prepared to dedicate her life to her people.

"I am sad about the situation here," she tells me. "People need many many things here. The government doesn't have interest to help these people. This year there is an election. I help a little bit, but there is no money. When there is no help from the government it is difficult."

Like all of the women in the rural villages we visit and work in, Gricelda wears traditional dress. But she also wears high heels. She trudges accross terrain that I have difficulty navigating in my spiffy hikers, wearing shoes that could easily send the average woman flying down an embankment.

But Gricelda is no average woman. Every day we build she is with us, helping us, talking to the women, lifting bricks or sifting sand. If it needs doing she does it.

The people need education, she tells me. They need to learn about health and nuttrition. The problem has been exasperated in recent years because Hurricane Agatha destroyed the corn -- a Guatemalan food staple. With no corn and bean crops, of poor ones, the people don't have food or nay money to buy food.

"Sometimes the people are so poor that they can't afford to pay the bus to the hospital," says Gricelda "and the government doesn't have sufficient money to help.

"I think it is important to work with families so that they understand the importance of education," she continues. "But the government needs to fund medicine. We need to also transform the mind of the woman and this can only happen through education. They need to get some training about cleaning, washing and cooking.

"Even when the families do have a garden, they bring the fruits of their labour to the market rather than eat them. Malnutrition is a serious problem. The women need instruction on how to feed their children properly."

Gricelda tells me that the work GSP does is important because a safe stove is something every family needs.

Every day there are more babies, she tell me.The men are off in the market in another town. They sleep with other women and bring home disease. Doctors are finding gynecological problems, cervical cancer, and aids. Sexual health training for her people is one of her dreams.

In the morning there are no men around. They are in the market selling jeans that they all make (women and men) in their sparse homes. For many the sewing machine is their only furniture --other than a board propped up on some bricks or milk cartons for a bed and a few broken plastic stools. But the sewing machines are not theirs, I am told. One man owns all the machines in the village. He pays the people 3Q for each pair of jeans. ($1 = approx 8Q) The industrial sewing machines would cost about $4,000Q to buy.

Today, I am working withdaughter and father team Meaghan and Phil Brackenbury of Perth. Phil is a grade three teacher. Meg is a grade 7 student. She belongs to her school's Social Justice Group.

Without knowing it, Meg changes the way I see the world today. She makes me think. When I shed tears today they are tears of profound joy. This is what I will write in my Ottawa Family Life magazine article about my conversation with Meg:

My most compelling work today is an interview with a 12 year old girl from Perth named Meaghan. She is a member of the Social Justice  Group at her school. "I do this because one person can make a difference," she tells me. "To become a whole you have to understand hpow the other half lives. To make a change you have to have understanding."