At 6:30 am, I joined Mimi on a trip to the market. In general, the word early is rarely part of my vocabulary. I clung to my blankets for as long as possible before forcing myself to get my act together and sprint to the shower. Once out of the house, the misery of leaving my bed began to fade as the cool morning air and Mimi’s good company were quick to lift my mood and set my day off to a productive start. Mimi agreed with me that mornings are not her strength, but she enjoys the morning exercise, and likes to find the freshest products early on before they are taken.
Mimi knew the market’s shops and streets by the back of her hand. The market was already full of activity. We weaved through streets, entering and exiting buildings in hopes to find the best quality products for the best prices. Fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, meats, and dairy products were plentiful, for prices we could only dream of in the US.
The products were from different villages ranging from 1-6 hours away by bus. The sellers often had to rise in the wee hours of the morning to make it to the market. I wondered how much these people must be making in comparison to the time and transportation they sacrificed to come here. Willy told me that they were staying overnight in a village once when some of the farmers left at 12 that night to catch the bus for the next morning’s market! The market was an everyday occurrence, which meant that different people took turns making the long trek to Barillas to provide the city with fresh food and animals. I saw one woman walking by me holding a live chicken by the neck, I’m assuming she had just bought. There were also Turkeys in baskets calmly enjoying their last hours while people rushed by paying them no attention.
At first I attached myself to Mimi’s side having no idea where to start or what to say, but she encouraged me to look around for anything I wanted. One women had a huge bag of blackberries that were only 2 Guatemalan Quetzal per glass (a little larger than a cup). That’s equivalent to about one quarter! After we retrieved our groceries, we returned to the house for a quick breakfast of eggs, beans, salsa, boiled plantains, and fresh tortillas before beginning our work days.
I started by working on HFPF’s manual for perspective tour groups. At around 10, Marco and Willy joined me at my living room office to brainstorm our outline for the manual. We spent 2 hours filling a whiteboard with all the topics we wanted to cover. This included topics such as HFPF’s mission, history, objectives, and a very detailed debriefing of what it takes to organize a work group, and what specific roles work groups play in effecting communities. The day passed quickly after we finished. I began laying out our manual, and working on my interview question for village members. At 4:30, Willy and I began our language classes. If you’re going to spend 90 minutes reviewing a language with someone, Willy is the one. A smile rarely leaves his face and his good humor can make any amount of time slide by. I have heard people say that you can truly speak someones language when you can understand their humor and laugh with them. Willy makes that much easier to do. We used a technique where I spoke to him in complete Spanish and he would do the same with English. This is a wonderful way to practice a language, because it helps you understand that the linguistic barriers you may face are the exact same for someone learning a different language. Both of us really struggled with the subjunctive, and were able to use our collective language skills to form a basic understanding of when to apply the tense.
Willy also shared a little bit of his history. While his light hearted and joking nature might come across as low key, he definitely knows what hard work and persistence looks like. Willy was born and raised in Barillas and attended up to high school in the city. In 2002, he began studying environmental engineering. During this time there were no schools in Barillas. The only way to continue his education was to travel to the department’s capital Huehue every weekend for 5 years. He would leave on a bus around 7 Friday night and arrive Huehue at 6 am. Two hours later, he would begin classes for the whole day, then proceed to return on the bus to Barillas at 8 pm. He spent the week working, studying, and saving up money while living with his parents. The buses and roads in Guatemala are also not resources you want to rely on. There was one occasion where the bus driver fell asleep while driving along a steep mountainous slope. The bus jerked, hitting the side of the mountain to everyone’s relief, for if it had jerked to the other side, chances of survival would have been slim. After riding the same bus for 5 years, Willy got to know the driver reasonably well. When Willy finally finished schooling, the driver told him how he would take drugs every morning in order to stay awake for the long road ahead. They were so strong that he would forget the whole day after he sobered up. “God was very good to me during that time” – one of Willy’s final remarks while wrapping up our conversation. Willy had the tenacity to follow through with a dream of education, but for many people, an 8 our drive to Huehue every weekend was not a possibility. He now has a good job with HFPF that helps others achieve the education and quality of life that he is now fortunate to have. He also saved up to build a beautiful home overlooking the rolling hills with his wife Sandra, a woman he waited for a span of five years to be with while she was dating someone else. In addition, he is very grateful for his parents support and now can help them age comfortably in house right next door. Barillas has improved a lot since Willy got his degree, and is now a home to 5 different universities. The economy has also improved as more people move here and the business population continues to expand. While Barillas has an external reputation as a poor and dangerous city, I can see that there is a strong sense of community here and people like Willy who can envision a better future for all around them. Persistence and discipline seem to be themes among the people and stories I have encountered so far. Over the next two months I am looking forward to understanding on a deeper level exactly what this type of persistence can accomplish within a developing society.