Good morning from Guatemala!

By Elizabeth Miller

Morning: Good morning from Guatemala! Enjoy this view from the garden of the Semilla campus, which we be our home base for the duration of our course. We have a full day today, including an opening orientation and two field trips in the city. Check back later for a report of our day and some initial reflections.

Evening: It is 9:00 pm Guatemala time, and our group is spread around the Semilla campus in the cool evening darkness. Some of us are journaling on the second-floor balcony; others are cleaning up after a dusty, hot walk around the city earlier in the afternoon; and a few are enjoying a game of ping-pong. Today’s agenda was demanding on the heels of a big travel day, so this evening is well-deserved.

We started the morning with an excellent lecture from Lizbeth Gramajo Bauer, an anthropologist and political scientist from the Universidad Rafael Landívar. She provided us with a sweeping overview of Guatemalan history and some helpful frameworks for understanding the social and economic structures that have shaped the context up to the present day.

Then we jumped in the van for a visit to Puerta de Esperanza, a local organization that provides tutoring and alternative education for children living in the city’s largest market. Here we witnessed the challenges that children and youth can face in obtaining an education, as well as the creativity and dignity of families seeking to provide their children with better opportunities.

Our day ended with a tour of the Casa de Memoria, a small museum dedicated to the historical memory of indigenous suffering and resilience from the Spanish colonial period through the Guatemalan Civil War. The museum was the perfect bookend to our morning lecture, retelling Guatemalan history from a Mayan perspective and with rich symbolism.

In the coming days, expect to hear some more reflections directly from students!