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Saturday, May 25, 2013

It's a Different World...



In lieu of an extended reflection on some particular aspect of life here, let me just lob out a number of experiences from the past couple of weeks that make me realize just what a different world I am living in right now:

+ I had a powerful conversation with an adolescent girl who shared with me her experience of being sexually abused by a male nurse at a home she lived in before coming here. Later she was subjected to extended sexual abuse by an older girl who was living in that home. This was the first time she had ever shared this with anyone. While I have had plenty of these kinds of conversations with people before, they have always been with adults reflecting back upon their youth. It is tough talking to an adolescent who is still trying to sort this kind of thing out, especially with limited resources for therapy.

+ Robbery is a real problem here. Most of the kids do not engage in this, but many do. They usually get caught, and I am often surprised at who is involved-  kids I like quite a bit and who surprise me by their actions. They have broken into a nearby factory canteen to steal food, broken into the house of a neighbor, cut through steel to get into an office to steal a camera, broken into the rooms of visitors and stolen money. Shoplifting from stores in town is not unusual. I just am not used to this kind of larceny from people I know.

+ One fifteen-year-old boy I have gotten to know seemed kind of down and out the other day, and I stopped to chat with him. He came here after having lived for some time on the street. He is a good kid with a solid moral sense and a warm personality, but is struggling with the strict rules and discipline of this place… thinking that maybe he was better off on the streets.

+ Maintenance men are putting together my dwelling, which includes erecting a couple of walls in an large open space. I noticed that they used very few vertical 2X4’s (we usually put them every sixteen inches). The guys were good sports when I asked for more to stabilize the wall, but I didn’t really understand their reluctance. After they asked if I also wanted the drywall screwed into the additional studs, I realized that they had to attach the drywall by screwing in the screws by hand with screwdrivers, whose ends were fairly stripped. Needless to say, I popped for a drill and a Phillips-head screw attachment, as well as some other basic tools that they were lacking.

+ We visited a few of our former kids now living in a government home (they were removed from NPH on orders of a judge (had been a lot of behavior problems here). The kids were teary-eyed and happy to see us. They spoke of the gang problems and reported  physical and verbal abuse by adults; and physical, verbal and sexual abuse by their peers…

+ Last weekend two men were found having been murdered in our little town, which is usually pretty quiet. Apparently they were separate incidents, and I’m not sure what it was all about, although most presume it was related to narco-trafficing.  Sadly, this was not big news… I recently saw a statistic in the Guatemalan newspaper indicating that there were about 650 murders last year, but less than 50 resulted in perpetrators being brought to justice.

+ I visited an older boy in the public hospital in Guatemala city, who came down with a syndrome leading to temporary paralysis of his extremities. He seemed to get decent treatment, but was in an open hospital ward (think of the post-OP tent on the TV show M*A*S*H), and getting into the hospital was like getting into Fort Knox. Each floor was monitored by teams of security guards, each holding shotguns. (There is concern about gang members entering the hospital to “finish off the job.”)

+ There are a lot of stores that sell used car tires. At first I thought it seemed strange- why would anyone want to buy used tires for their cars?  If anything, given the crummy roads here, you’d think they’d want good new tires. Then I realized: a car with new tires is an invitation to have someone steal the tires. Presumably fewer people are interested in stealing used tires.

Finally… I learned recently that the budget for this year (we operate on a calendar year budget) needs to be slashed by $240,000, which represents over 15% of what is needed to support the operation. I don’t know how many people will lose their jobs or what programs will be cut. Since many (the majority?) of those working here get salaries of less than $10,000/year, I don’t know how we will deal with this. Since I am not in charge here (which is probably a blessing), I do not have access to details of the budget- but, frankly, this is a little frustrating.  Finances are not transparent as at a parish. I understand that there is some savings, so perhaps we will spend that to plug part of the gap.

NPH is a hand-to-mouth organization, and has been funded primarily from generous donors living in Europe (Americans provide some money, but not nearly as much as the Europeans). But the economic situation in Europe has dealt a blow to their fundraising efforts… I wonder what this means for the long-term viability of the organization. They are working to develop funding sources here in Guatemala. However, while there are some people in Guatemala with a lot of money living lifestyles similar to that of wealthy Americans, they are a very tiny percentage of the population. And as primitive as much here seems to me, NPH is considered to be a “country club” in comparison to other homes like this in Guatemala. One the plus side, NPH seems to have a good reputation, as it is unique in providing a “family” atmosphere for the kids. A couple of weeks ago there was a thirty-minute program about NPH on Guatemalan television.