Teresa Shares Her Guatemala Service Trip

On September 25, 2005, Teresa Carter shared the following during the Sunday morning worship service at the Listowel Mennonite Church.

Good morning, for those of you who don’t know me very well, my name is Teresa Carter, and I returned home a few weeks ago from Guatemala doing a short term mission trip. I was in Guatemala for five weeks, accompanied by nine other youth and two leaders. The program I went with is called Enlace; which means weave together, in Spanish. Enlace was a brand-new program. We were MCC Guinea pigs in this new adventure.

Teresa's Service Location

We flew into Guatemala City on July 20^th. Our first week in Guatemala was spent in the city. We stayed at the CASAS - Central American Study and Service Building. There we got some orientation to try and prepare us for our three weeks in Santa Maria Tzeja. The orientation alone was an eye opening experience. Our leader at CASAS took us on a tour of the city. Starting with the Ravine, which is just that, a very steep ravine, the only thing is there are hundreds of shacks that go up and down the ravine practically stacked on top of each other and all falling a part. We visited a man in his home there. Don Julian welcomed us into his home and told us his life story of poverty and suffering and the strength it has taken to keep going. We took a tour of the National Cemetery. Here is where you can really see the difference between the rich and the poor. The poor were buried in a cement wall eight grave’s high, stacked on top of one another. While the rich were buried in enormous tombs that were kept in excellent condition and are well cared for. Their graves were better than what most of the living were living in. As we were walking through the cemetery, we kept noticing the walls of graves would have black spray painted numbers on them, we were told that once a family could no longer pay the rent for the grave, it was spray painted and the body would be removed and placed in a common grave. As we reached the edge of the cemetery we look out through the trees and saw the city dump. Mounds and mounds of trash, from where we were looking down you could see the people moving about rummaging through the trash, looking for anything worthwhile . . . these people lived in the city dump.

From Guatemala City we traveled four hoursto Coban on a city bus, then moved onto a 12-passenger van on gravel roads for another five hours till we arrived in Santa Maria Tzeja. I’ll give you a little background on Santa Maria Tzeja. Santa Maria Tzeja is a very isolated community located in the Ixcan jungle in Northwestern Guatemala. In 1982 after a decade of hard labour and getting themselves settled in the village, the town’s dreams were shattered as escalating violence reached their village and destroyed it. At least 17 villagers were brutally massacred in army raids. Many fled to Mexico and spent the next 12 years living as refugees there, while others stayed in the village only to live under the military’s demands. In 1994, those who had fled, decided to return home to the daunting task of starting their lives over.

While in Santa Maria Tzeja, we faced many challenges, some of which we were expecting and some were surprises. One I knew and my family and friends all knew I was going to have problems with was the food. You see I‘m not a really big fan of beans, or strange vegetables, so meal times were slightly stressful for me. Bugs, spiders and ants became regular guests in our rooms, bathroom and luggage. Getting sick and having to spend a night in the health clinic and be on medication for a week. Mud half way up your legs while walking, never being able to stay clean, the heat and our bathroom accommodations were all challenges we had to face. The biggest Challenge however was becoming part of the community. The fact that we spoke different languages created quite a barrier in making friends. But slowly through working together and teaching and learning from each other, we gain each others trust and friendship.

Working on the Community Center

Our two main projects while in Santa Maria Tzeja were to build a community center and teaching English. Building the community center was more work than we bargained for. Removing old concrete, digging through clay, shoveling wheelbarrow upon wheelbarrow of sand, mixing cement by hand on the ground and lifting and pouring buckets of cement into pillars. But at the end of the three weeks when we were finished it was all worth it.

The Most gratifying job however was teaching English. I helped teach a grade 9 class, which meant the students were anywhere from 15 to 20 years old. Seeing their eagerness to learn and interact with us was very rewarding. My favorite part of the class was when we would play a game together, and get the chance to laugh and have fun.

Host mom preparing one of our meals

Our meals were eaten in families home. We had 3 families that hosted us during meal time. We quickly became very attached to these families. Their children were very open and loving and always ready for a hug. We would play with the children before and after meals, we would go take cooking and weaving lessons from our host moms. They quickly learn what our favorite things to eat were and tried to make them as often as possible.

Teresa with David and Otto

Our free time was spent trying to make friendships and trying to learn from the people. We went to meetings with people from the town, health meeting and education meeting. We would challenge the youth to volleyball games (and usually lost). One thing we did that touched all of our hearts was the day we visited the Massacre site. An older gentleman from the community who lost his wife,three children and a sister in the conflict lead us to the site. While there he explained the events that lead to the massacre and the ones that followed. He then thanked us for taking the time out of schedules to come to their village to hear their story and then he told us that he hopes and believes one day their will be peace. Not one of us left that site with a dry eye.

Everyone always says when they come back from one of these trips that they received so much more than they ever gave the people they worked with and it’s true. I never expected to leave Guatemala so full. Full of love, Full of new faith, Full of a renewed appreciation and full of new hope. When we left Santa Maria Tzeja, our eyes were truly opened, our hands were calloused, our feet were sore, our bodies were covered in bug bites and our hearts were touched to the very core. We arrived there strangers and outsiders and we left family. A part of us will always live in Santa Maria Tzeja, In the community center that stands tall in town, in the youth that now have a base for English, in the children who we gave countless twirl rides and hugs to, in the band who we spent countless nights singing with, and in our host families who enjoyed watching our reactions to the food they had made for us. And the people of Santa Maria Tzeja will forever live in us, their smiles, their attempts at English to make us feel comfortable, their laughter when we attempted to improve a skill which they had long ago mastered, and their love. My life has been enriched and blessed because of this experience and I want to thank you, my church family for helping make it possible, through your donations, and your prayerful support. Muchas Gratis Amigos.

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