For 9 years, John and Jane Shafer have traveled as part
of a team of volunteers to provide medical care and home improvements to some
of the most impoverished people of Guatemala.
This summer, in their 10th year, they took the
8 hour bus ride from Guatemala City to the mountainous highlands of Uspantán, Quiché,
Guatemala, to help the community that lives at an elevation of 7, 000 feet.
After returning from their sojourn with organizations San
Antonio Guatemalan Endeavor (SAGE) and Helps International, they
immediately prepared for a banquet to begin planning next year’s trip.
The Shafers very kindly agreed to share their experiences
with IT. Below are responses, reflections, and stories to each of the many
questions IT asked.
How long have you personally
been involved in the organization? And, how many years have you gone to
Guatemala?
We have gone to Guatemala for 10
years. The first two we were doing construction work to update a clinic for our
use as a surgical facility. The last 8 years we have gone to Guatemala with Helps
International as part of the medical, surgical and construction team.
The first 2 years we worked at
the renovated clinic. We found the clinic to be too small for the volume of
patients we care for. The last 6 years we have been in a hospital built by the
CIA during the Guatemalan civil war.
What is the socio-economic
state of the people you visited?
The people we serve are the
survivors of the Guatemalan civil war [that ended] in the mid 1990’s. Many of
them lost family and were displaced from their homes and their land. Many of
them are on subsistence living.
What is daily life like for the people in this community?
John: The women get up early to start the cooking fire on the floor, inside their home. After the meal, the men go to work in the cornfields that may be a 2 hr walk from their home. The women care for the children and gather wood. It has been estimated that the woman of the house will carry as much as 8 TONS of wood per year.
What is the role of most of the young women, youths, in this community?
Children attend government-paid school through the 6th grade. After that they continue only if their parents can pay. The girls help wash clothes, cook meals and care for their younger siblings. It is not unusual to see a 6yr old girl carrying a younger sibling on her back, her mother carrying one on her back and also being pregnant.
What is the role of most of the young men, youths, in this community?
The young boys also go to school through the 6th grade. Then they frequently end up working in the fields alongside their father. The older boys may also accompany their father to work cutting sugar cane for additional income for the family.
