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| A tenacious spirit to learn |
What a funny photo?! At first glance you might think this little pencil was victim to a 4thgrade boy who was trying to waste time during his detention. But it’s not that at all. It’s interesting how I came upon this littlepencil. It’s actually, literally, anartifact from the remote, indigenous Mayan community of Chitepey, circa 2012, andupon further reflection it reveals a lot about a lot in this rural, remoteregion of Guatemala.
Chitepey is a small indigenous communityhidden in one of the steep, narrow valleys of the highland mountain range surroundingChamelco. As you descend into the valleythere are great expansive views of the highlands and you can see cornfields andsmall huts just across the way. Thevalley is almost a ravine. It’s steepenough and the walls are almost close enough to tempt a crazy gringo to run azip-line from one side to the other. Atthe base of the descent, the two valley walls meet at an acute angle and you discoverthe noisy, tenacious little river that carved this impressive naturalcathedral. This river is Chitepey’sprimary source of water.
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| Descending into Chitepey valley |
Recently, I was in Chitepey with a group ofnorte americanos who were working alongside the families to build improvedventilated cook stoves. The stoves burnhotter and cleaner than their traditional open fires. They are safer too because by removing the three-stoneopen fire from the home children can’t fall into the fire and burnthemselves. And these stoves burn lesswood, decreasing the amount of wood a woman has to purchase and haul back toher house, thereby decreasing deforestation too.
As I was walking out of a meager 12’x20’ home ofa single mother and her child, I stepped over this silly little pencil. It washalf-way buried into the ground, as if a dozen other feet had already unwittinglystepped on it. I was with a group ofgringos and I laughed to myself as I saw it, but I didn’t stop. To me it was just the last remains of a kid’spencil. As we approached the center of thecommunity where the concrete school building meets the soccer field it occurredto me that this little pencil represented a great lack, a lack of schoolsupplies in this remote region, a lack of education, and a historic neglect on the part of theGuatemalan government of these people, among other things.
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| Three little girls of Chitepey: Erica, Sandra, and Lidia |
But that’s not why I turned around to retrieveit. I turned around because I realizedthat this little pencil also represents the great tenacity of some little girlwho wants to learn. Like the tenacious riverthat ground this incredible valley into an altar beneath the heavens, thisground pencil represents the tenacious spirit of a child and her mother clingingon to any chance they might have to rise up and live a vibrant life in this hidden valley.
These are an incredible people. I’m humbled when I’m with them. It’s something to think, that all of this is happening, completely hidden, in the folds of Guatemala’s beautiful highland mountains.
Shameless for a cause: http://www.medicalteams.org/donate.aspx, designate to Guatemala Maternal and Child Health Program.
