We don´t eat with Them.

While wearing different hats at Mayan Families, I became involved with different parts of the organization: the preschool, the client visits, school visits, the educational teacher component, the women sewing class, and the elderly.  The preschool only ran from 8 until 12, which left me time to work on my reports and these other items. 

One day, there was a big lunch for the sponsors who came in from the US. The organization is solely run from US donations and when they come in the local female cooks make them a nice local lunch and introduce them to the kids. It's a nice cultural exchange, but appears to be a bit awkward and forced at first.  As they were preparing for lunch, I began to see lovely, kind faces walking in from the front gate.  They were the elderly group, which comes in a few days a week for lunch. Unfortunately, organizations in Pana do not have much to give to the elderly population.  Sponsors are interested in the young children and do not take interest in older adults.  The government also feels the same way in Guatemala giving little to the elderly and more aid to young children and families.  

With this said, the organization offers them a meal of beans, cheese, rice, and tortillas.  They do not offer them the love and attention they desire or accommodate their other urgent health care needs. There is a clinic and local hospital in the village, but it is difficult transporting them there as they have special needs. One is partially blind and the others have walkers.


Also, they only receive a small stipend per month, which is the equivalent to about $10 per month. Within the Mayan families, they are close knit having the kids take care of their parents and live in the same home.  For those who don't have this type of family, they are left with loneliness and many difficulties.  

When sitting at the table, I spoke with Ana who was working with her Uncle and 4 others in her home.  She was the aid who took care of all their food, shelter, and health needs.  She was quite a woman and shared with me the culture along with her difficulties with getting food and medical supplies for the elderly.  One has diabetes and she has to constantly make trips to the pharmacy and watch his diet. Another one is partially blind, and the others are in walkers.  She is an angel and I love sitting and talking with her. We sit and eat rice and beans and they are sharing with me what they like to eat and some of their favorite activities.  There are flies surrounding our table while the other tourist table is clean and immaculate..


Usually I would be bothered by the flies, but I just put it aside and focus on the people God placed in front of me. Their smiles are so big that it makes me feel so content and forget about the flies and what I am even eating.  

                  

Ana is thankful to have someone come and sit with them and someone to share her challenges and concerns with.  It was clear the elderly were not getting much attention from much staff at Mayan Families.  While I shouldn't say that being there such short time, I could tell from how much they craved attention. I sat with each of them placing my hand on their back and kindly smiling.  We played a little game I used to do when I was 19 with in the assistant living home-brought back such memories.  They must have all said, "Thank you." a few times each as they were so grateful so have someone give them some quality attention and acknowledge their being-that's my job and I am happy doing it.  

                                                                   

                                                

                                     

While I was walking them out, I noticed some looks from the Volunteer Coordinator at the other table.  They seemed to be some concerned looks with the connections I created and my sitting at the other table. It was a lunch with just the management team and the sponsors therefore it was not for volunteers, but I was sitting at the opposite table. The forbidden table as I was suppose to just do the ordinary tourist thing and flock with my same group.  This contributes to my analysis of a slight separation between staff and the locals.  The staff have their outings, lunch, and conversations together and the locals do their own separate thing for lunch. There is never a local staff sitting at their little lunch party of 8 people where they each bring an item.  They usually like to talk about their frustrations with locals, which is why local staff are not invited. While it's a nice organization, there is a clear US and THEM separation, which is present within the atmosphere. The locals are respected by staff, but there is a different conversation and dynamic that occurs..

With this said, I had a feeling with the looks that I was doing something wrong in their eyes. Sometimes good deeds must come undone.  Here comes the 23 year old Yale graduate who is the Volunteer Coordinator at Mayan Families. She is the one I originally spoke with about volunteering-very nice, smart, and organized, but still has a lot of learn.  

"Priscilla, you're not suppose to sit and eat food with them."  "You need to get approval from the lady who supervises. Wow would this be a contradiction in countries that love to share food with one another example: India and Morocco.  

"I'm sorry they just were so happy having me sit with them and I genuinely wanted to talk with them."

"It's okay, we just usually don't have volunteers work with them." 

"Oh, okay. I understand." 

"It's not a problem. I know you were just trying to help. 

It appears that India and Morocco have it right. There is such beauty in the sharing of food as this simple exchange can bring such joy to the soul. PRIS