Neel Patel: Student Report from 2014 Alternative Winter Break in Guatemala
Traveling is something I have looked forward to doing for most of my life. I always had a desire to visit different countries and get to know the people and their culture. For the week of December 14, 2014, eight students from the University of Tennessee, College of Engineering, went to Guatemala for an alternative winter break. We were led by Judith Mallory, the International Coordinator for the College of Engineering, and the trip was coordinated through Utopia Volunteers. The reason I signed up to go to Guatemala was a desire for new experiences, especially having the opportunity to explore and experience a different life style. We flew into Guatemala City, the largest city in the country, where the majority of population resides. From there, we traveled by van west about four hours to the second-largest city in the country and the historic Colonial era town of Quetzaltenango, also known by its indigenous name, Xelajú or Xela.
On our way to Xela, we stopped at a local restaurant to eat dinner. The menu for the restaurant was in Spanish and none of the servers spoke English. The only thing I knew to order was “pollo,” asking the server in hand gestures if the chicken was fried or grilled. And of course, the food was served with chips, two different kind of salsas, beans, rice, and tortillas, which is exactly how I imagined it would be.
After arriving in Xela, we were divided into groups of four each to live with two different host families. I was anxious at first as to living in someone else’s house that I don’t even know; after meeting the host family of Hugo Cabrera, I felt relieved. Everyone in the family was so kind and loving, even though they did not speak English, and we were able to communicate with sign language and broken Spanish verbs that we remembered from high school. We talked with them for an hour after we arrived. The first topic that came up was having Wi-Fi access and then we talked about places to visit and things to do. Living with a Guatemalan host family was an excellent learning opportunity of local standard of living, customs, and culture, giving us valuable insights into the daily life of average Guatemalans.
For many Guatemalan families, resources are scarce and housing is inadequate. Many families cook over wood fires in the home with no ventilation. Lung infections, serious illness, and even death results from living in an atmosphere of suffocating smoke. To diminish this health hazard, we built six safe cook stoves in the rural community called “Las Rosas,”‘ which is located near Xela. Our project was to build efficient wood burning stoves, using a simple design employing brick, block, sand and concrete, with a piece of sheet steel on top for a cooking surface. The smoke from the stove was vented outside the house which helps with breathing problems and general air quality in the home. These highly energy efficient wood burning stoves use forty percent less wood than conventional stoves and get extremely hot very quickly.
In addition to the service project, we had the opportunity to tour the city of Quetzaltenango, an old Colonial town, where we saw Central park, local markets, and shops. We also went horseback riding, visited volcanic hot springs, and Tulate Beach on the Pacific Coast. The best part of the trip was playing soccer with the natives on the beach for soda. Needless to say, they were very good and we were a little rusty so we lost, but it was definitely one of the best experiences of the trip.
It was a privilege for me to visit Guatemala and live with a host family to learn about their culture personally and not in a traditional classroom setting. This international experience was like an adventure to me where I got to meet a lot of new people and experience the different lifestyle of a Latin country. This trip has not only increased my appreciation for cultural diversity, but has also allowed me to become more independent and comfortable with any environment, to increase my deep commitment to personal growth, and to gain a valuable perspective on different ways of life. It was a great opportunity to make new friends, learn another language and culture, and to see historical monuments and sites.
