Merry Christmas! I hope this finds you well and enjoying the holiday season with your friends and family. Although it is sad to be away for the holidays, I am keeping myself active and busy with building relationships and experiencing life in
My position as a Jesuit Volunteer, working at St. Peter Claver Parish, is one that entails wearing many hats, as I have numerous roles and aspects to my job. Hitting the ground running in September, I quickly began learning about what my presence here called for. Over the past three and a half months I have led staff retreats for all thirty primary schools in the district, led confirmation retreats for students ages 11-13, trained and organized the Altar servers, conducted a biweekly food distribution (currently undergoing transformation), attended numerous meetings, and many other odd jobs and errands.
The staff retreats have been a great opportunity to get to know the teachers from all the schools and mostly have them get to know me who I am. I have struggled with certain aspects of these retreats, especially since they are led by two white Americans, Fr. Dick and I. It is also challenging to really get to know the teachers and let my personality shine through, as I am wearing the hat of retreat coordinator and sitting right next to a priest. Many call me “Brother Bobby” and think that I am on track for the priesthood. I’ve had to clear this up on numerous occasions recently and correct people who call me “Father”. However, not only in
The confirmation retreats have varied so much as I go from the Maya villages, to St. Peter Claver school here in town, to the predominantly East Indian community just outside of town, or to the Garifuna village in the very south. The Maya village children are very shy and giggly, the town kids (a mix of Creole, Garifuna and Maya) are a challenge to settle down and keep on track, and the predominantly East Indian school children are somewhere in between. I really enjoy being with the children, but am unsure if they have any idea of what confirmation means in their life beyond going to church to worship God. I have tried to focus the retreats more on life skills and getting them to think about values, decisions and their future. There will be a second round of retreats during January and February leading up to 18 confirmations the week of March 2nd and 7th. I will need your thoughts and prayers to make it through that week.
The Food at the Door program provides 2 pounds of rice, beans, flour and powdered milk (approximately $8.50) to 55 families throughout the district. Every Wednesday and Saturday morning men, women and children wait outside the rectory door, the majority who’ve paid around $8 to come into town from the villages. The program was started after hurricane Iris and was intended to get people back on their feet. Now six years later many of the same people are still receiving and is intended to reach the people most at need in the district, who are elderly or single mothers without access to food. However, this is not always the case and there are people waiting to be on the list who do fit the categories while others on the list have working children and access to food. These among many other problems are why we are planning to reform the program by updating the list, not having children pick up food (although they are one of the reasons why I enjoy it), and attempting to decentralize distributions. However, changes are very slow to happen, but I am adamant about putting them into effect since I am the face of the program and do not think the program does justice. It is enjoyable to see the people each week and have the chance to speak English, Spanish and some of the Qe’qchi and Mopan Maya I know, as people come from all over the diverse
At times I struggle with my roles here and feel a local person should be in my job instead. Working with religion in a third world country is a dilemma that I am faced with as a privileged white American male and am constantly thinking about how I am perceived and what the impacts of my presence are. Nevertheless, I am learning a lot from these struggles and dilemmas and they are helping me learn a lot about the cultures here and about especially about who I am and what I believe.
The biggest perk of the job is my motorcycle and the opportunities it allows me to be out in the villages and get to know people. I am trying to take in as much as I can from the people and issues going on in this region. Speaking with local people, organizations, other volunteers and anthropologists has motivated me to keep going and soak up as much as I can while I’m here. On Monday I stayed the night in Barranco, a traditional Garifuna (Carib Indian) village, which now has less that 100 people and only 5 jobs compared to a decade ago with over 600 people. Mother Nature kept my motorcycle and I there and allowed me a day and evening of conversation about the hardships and beauty they face everyday in life. A French Anthropologist living there, interested in religious rituals and synchronization between the Garifuna spirituality and Catholicism, motivated me to record as much as I can and focus on a few topics/ issues of interest while I’m here. Therefore in addition to my roles as a JVI, I am learning about and documenting as much as I can about the life that the people here experience. The three topics that I am focusing on are: 1.) oil drilling in village and National park land and the reactions/resistance by the people and environmental groups; 2.) gang culture (Bloods and Crypts) currently sweeping across many of the larger Maya villages in the district; 3.) and inter village conflict having to do with communal verse private land disputes and the fencing in of animals issue, especially pigs who cause the majority of the conflicts in the village as they tear up plantations eat human feces and pass on worms to children. Maybe one of those will be my research topics later in life. What waits around the bend is unknown and to me that is a pretty beautiful thing… “no true”?
I am constantly thinking about all the love and support I have from my family and friends and this fact keeps me going. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and enjoyable New Years and don’t do anything I wouldn’t!
Peace and love,
Bobby
