El Otro Lado del Lago

Tomorrow, Dolores and I will begin in-home visits with all of the women in the cooperative. One of our tasks throughout the visits will be to update the bios of each of the women in Just Apparel. The information that is currently on the website is several years old, so it’s important that we have the most up-to-date information for when we launch the new website and online marketplace. Additionally, meeting the women at their homes allows me to have a more in-depth conversation with each woman about her own perceptions, ideas and insight for the Just Apparel project and helps to build a personal relationship with each woman as well.

With this task on my mind and with today being Father’s Day, I began to reflect upon the women in the cooperative and how their relationships with their own fathers (or the fathers of their children) may differ from my own relationship with my father. In scanning the biographies of the women, I realized that while most of the women in the Just Apparel cooperative aren’t much older than myself, many have already lost their fathers to military conflict, murder, kidnapping, disaster, or disease. Some of the women are taking care of children who were orphaned and never knew their father, and many take care of their own biological children without the help of the child’s father. Guatemalan way of life has a culture that I’ve observed to be more collectivist and family-oriented than the American standard. I can’t even fathom how these women have persisted without the support of their own fathers or father figures for their children.

Children at the Puerta Abierta Biblioteca making Father's day crowns

In an email exchange with my own father today, he suggested that I consider the works of German sociologist Max Weber during my time working in Santiago. I was familiar with Weber’s “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” and have read articles by Weber in my political economic development courses at school. It was really interesting to contemplate some of Weber’s ideas in the context of the differences in inherent worldviews between myself and my Guatemalan partners.

When traveling to Panajachel (Pana) this weekend, I met a Guatemalan girl who had lived her whole life in Pana yet she shrugged and seemed nonchalant when she mentioned that she had never been to Santiago. A trip across the lake costs about U.S. $3 and takes less than an hour by boat. At first, I was shocked. How could she not even be curious about what was on the other side of the lake? But upon further reflection, I realized that she and many of her Guatemalan peers are struggling each day to simply survive, so my American-bred “quest for adventure” isn’t something that would have ever crossed her mind. A desire to travel has never entered her cultural framework, and isn't a part of her perception of how she lives her life.

My dad articulated it nicely in his email: because of my American upbringing, relative wealth and extensive educational background, I have a “fundamentally different zeitgeist from virtually all of the people you are now interacting with”. But I guess this is one of the reasons why I’ve chosen to study International and Intercultural Communication. Experiencing cultural difference is so deeply fascinating because even while we are learning about others, we are simultaneously learning even more about ourselves.

Some photos from our weekend exploring Panajachel and San Pedro de la Laguna:

At the Santiago dock about to take off for Pana

On the boat ride

With my homestay housemates and friends at the Pana dock

A tuk tuk (3 wheel taxis that roam the towns) named Brittany!

Markets in Pana

Pool party at the Piscina de San Pedro

Best BBQ on the Laguna

$5 Lunch