Last weekend I was out in Jalacte, a village right on the Guatemala – Belize border. I spent a couple nights there with the Peace Corps guy and we hiked over to Guatemala and spent the day there on Sunday. It was really interesting to see his life in a village without electricity and running water and also to see how life changes when you hike twenty minutes over a mountain and across a river to arrive in the neighboring Guatemalan village. We arrived in Santa Cruz, Guatemala around 6:15am and there was a lot going on in this small town even at that hour. The homes were different, there were stores, the Spanish music sounded in the bus, there were a lot of Spanish blooded people (in the village in Belize it is almost 100% Qe’qchi Maya). People have mustaches. Most pure blooded Mayas can’t grow much of a stash. The girls are friendly. The Belize girls are not very friendly. They come across as disinterested in foreign guys. But that’s fine with mean, makes life a little easier, as I’m not looking to get involved with any kind of relationship down here. On the other hand the Guatemalan girls stare you down and flash a cute smile and I have no problem staring right back at them. Welcome back to Latin American culture.
Along with two of the Peace Corps guys we spent a few hours in a small city, much larger than Punta Gorda. There was a typical Guatemalan market which we weaved in and out of and a bunch of stores with a lot more options than what you can buy in Belize. All I bought was a small sized machete with a leather case for it that cost me 65 Quetzales, less than $10.
Spending a couple nights out in a very remote village and crossing the border gave me a lot to think about it. How is the life different in the village in Guatemala than in Belize? Life in that part of Guatemala was centered around the cattle industry. Most peasants take care of the cattle or work on the ranches that are owned my a few rich elite. In Belize there is still land and the people can grow as much corn as they can manage to work. 90% of the money in Jalacte, Belize comes from selling corn in Guatemala. Even though people don’t have much in the village in Belize and there’s no electricity and running water, there’s still money. The villagers do not pay taxes besides when they shop in town yet they have a school with teachers that are funded by the government. The government doesn’t pay for much more than that. Money issues cause a lot of conflict in the villages, as people do not trust anyway who asks for money to do a project. They help with traditional tasks like building a thatch house, but they have a lack a trust in pooling together to building a school building if it is not completed with government money, which happens often.
Villages hear rumors about how once they got a Peace Corps a lot of projects started to happen. Once example is in a village called San Benito Poite where every family has a solar panel. Money for this was donated by the Italian government and labor was provided by the Cubans. It just so happened that there was a Peace Corps there at the time that may have helped with other projects, but did not make the solar panels happen. But word passes and villagers are all about bringing in a volunteer to be the power behind getting resources, writing a grant, or donating themselves. However, just as it’s not my role as a JVI to provide material goods, neither is it the Peace Corps. These are some of the challenges one faces. The expectations have been built up because of the flow of funds and resources by foreigners.
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