10. Febrero

This week the theme was justice, violence, and peace in Guatemala. On Monday we visited the Survivors Foundation, which is a nonprofit that helps women and children who have experienced domestic violence to rebuild their lives. On Tuesday, we had a Zoom call with Robert Brenneman, an EMU and CASAS alumni. He is the author of the book, Homies and Hermanos which we are currently reading for our EMU class. Wednesday, we had two guest speakers who talked about their red-zone community. One was Yanet, the pastor of Roca de Salvacion in Zone 6. The other was Angelita, an ex-gang member who lives in Zone 6 and attends the same church. On Thursday, we had our weekly EMU class where we talked about everything we had experienced that week. Friday, we had our final exams for our Spanish classes in the morning, and then a free afternoon. Friday night we stayed at Semilla as a group before leaving on Saturday at 3:30 a.m. for the airport. We flew to Flores and spent the morning visiting Tikal. We went to our hotel in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day and Sunday there.

Time is flying by in Guatemala and we have already found ourselves halfway done with the host family stays. I find myself in the Peten region of Guatemala learning about the Mayan city of Tikal! The ruins are amazing and they cover a large area and even include a temple 70 meters tall! Something that I learned during this time is that they (The Mayans) actually were the reason that they had to leave the city of Tikal. Their exploitation of natural resources and excessive burning of wood caused a drought that left them exposed to invaders and without food.

It seems like a civilization that advanced would have figured out how to stay living where they built all of these structures. This draws parallels to our modern world, with our rising temperature and fluctuating temperatures. Some things have changed I guess. Humans are still the downfall of humans and we haven’t figured out how to save ourselves. This was a new side of history for me to see because we usually look back and romanticize the cultures of the past as being one with nature, but that simply isn’t true. I’m not sure humans will ever figure out how to coexist with our earth but we have to try for the sake of everything.

-Samuel Myers