For those without much time to read my brilliant post, here’s the short version: My birthday is coming up on June 19 and what I would love more than anything is the support of my dear ones in the work Limitless Horizons Ixil (the organization I work for) is doing to help the youth of Chajul. Can you support us by making a donation here? Anytime to give is wonderful, but the best time is first thing in the morning Wednesday, June 12, when a percentage of your gift will be matched.
Here’s the long story:
When I was traveling at the end of March, I went down to the supreme court in Guatemala city, where former Guatemalan president Efraín Ríos Montt was facing charges of genocide. It was a historic trial, an incredible moment to witness, the first time a former head of state was being charged for genocide against the Ixil Mayan people in a national court system. And it was all over the news internationally. We walked right into the courtroom with hardly a pat down, and there was the frail, pasty 86 year-old, wearing an immutable self-protective smirk. Just a few feet—each in his or her turn—sat the witnesses, their backs to us. Many were from Chajul, the town where I work, in the region where the genocide happened. The women in their traditional woven blouses, the men with their sombreros in hand, each in a world that wasn’t her own, communicating in a language that wasn’t his own, pleaing for justice through a convoluted and complex court system that wasn’t theirs, bearing the condescending inquiries of the defense lawyers, reaching back deep for the darkest moments of their lives, the things they spent years trying to forget. Watching loved ones be brutally murdered, being raped, being tortured. Things you can’t imagine. The clash of culture—so difficult to capture through news articles—was apparent.
Ríos Montt was convicted of genocide, but Guatemala’s highest court overturned the ruling. It’s unknown what will happen next or what will come of the witnesses acounts—likely, they’ll have to testify again, if they have the strength.
The war—simply referred to here as “the violence”—is a shadow that hangs over everything here. Something that, as a foreigner, I can never fully forget, and yet can only barely glimpse the extent of the pain it brought in tiny moments. In little windows I imagine the suffering and fear most of the adults here witnessed and survived: a friend recounts his parents fear of the dark when they were exiled and living in the mountains, that any tree or bush could be a crouching soldier, and I wonder what it is like to carry that survival mechanism with one everyday, forever. A lunch with our landlady on a quiet day in the office, and the first personal question I’ve ever asked her fills our lunch hour with horrific accounts of what she witnessed living in Chajul during the war. With tears she ends with the finding of her father’s body in a field. These moments reveal themselves to me bit by bit, the weight of what people here carry everyday, like the firewood they walk for miles in the mountains to find, cut and pile on their backs, the long way way home. They do it to survive.
And yet, I’m inspired by my colleagues at LHI—local women who are dedicated to helping their community—and our youth—52 bright, motivated scholars who want to go to school so they can realize their visions for their futures. I have no agenda for what those futures should look like—but we work so these kids can have an abundance of possibilities for their lives, with the faith that they’re the ones whose development will heal the wounds their families and community carry.
I’ve been working hard on this fundraising campaign for our Youth Development program, and I want to use it as an opportunity to invite you to participate in our efforts. My birthday is next week, and if you’d like to consider making a gift to us through this campaign, it will truly make me feel loved and supported in my work and my life here from afar, to bridge the gap between rural Chajul and home. Any time to give is wonderful, but tomorrow morning (Wed) is the best time to give—starting at 6:00 am CA time, until they run out of funds, Global Giving will be matching a portion of your gifts.
http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/empower-mayan-youth-in-genocide-torn-community/
Thank you very, very much!
World Interest: Guatemala 