Synodica Conference

Wednesday-Friday of this week, I went to the Synodica Conference near Coatepeque. Its basically the meeting of all of the Presbyterian Women in Guatemala. (This entry is going to be a mess because I cant figure out certain punctuation marks on the computer. SORRY!) It was really neat to get to see the women from all the different areas. These women represent different races, many of the 23 indigenous languages spoken here, varying climates and thus clothing styles, and varying income levels. It was amazing to see them all working together and sharing with each other the work that they do in their own communities. It was also good to see empowered women since women here are often not very educated and not respected in society.

I would be lying if I left it at that, though, and acted like I had a great time there. The meetings lasted about 12 hours a day and the conditions there were much worse than I had imagined. It must have been over 90 degrees and the one toilet didnt actually flush after the first day. I tagged along with some people who had been invited to stay at a house, but really we were sleeping on the concrete floor of a garage, which wouldnt have been too bad except that we were about 8 feet from the main highway of the coast of Guatemala and the door of the garage didnt shut all the way. So all night I felt as though I was sleeping in the street and waiting to be run over by a truck. The so-called bathroom included a hole in the ground about a block behind the house (I opted for trees instead) and a bucket of water in the yard with a 3 12 foot tarp that you could stand behind. Most people here are pretty short, but I still dont think 3 12 feet quite does the job! Actually, I can put my personal guarantee on that, since I used it twice....

Leslie (another volunteer) and I were discussing that this is what we had thought we might be living like in Guatemala when we first came here, but since we have been in better conditions, its hard to adjust to the worse ones at this point. It made me think alot about living without the comforts Im used to, and how much Im willing to give up before I go crazy! In retrospect, Im thankful for opportunities to live with these people and have these difficult experiences, but its not easy after growing up in the States, where we are used to things being CLEAN, comfortable, easily accessable, and where we run on SCHEDULES. Its very different from people who grow up here and dont know or cant afford for things to be different. The whole experience prompted me to make a list of frustrations about the differences Ive experienced here, and Ive decided to work on trying to get over some of them. BUT no matter what, there are some things I just cant do- like eat meat that has been sitting in a 100° market all day with flies on it, or bathe in water with worms. Thus, I will never be fully part of my community here, but I am working on being as close as I can!!

PS. I got to ride bumper cars at the mall last week and it was AWESOME!