december post

we're still alive and well. in good health. etc etc.

this past weekend we participated in our first "reflection weekend" with the break the silence network interns with jackie and caren facilitating. we talked a lot about how our internship was going, set some more goals for the future, and a tentative date for the last reflection weekend that we would be taking part in in january because we will be gone by the middle of february. our reflection weekend took part in a beautiful house in antigua with five cats, a garden, television, hot showers, and the most gorgeous kitchen i've seen in guatemala. antigua is a city full of dust, older historical architecture, petty crime, and tourism. it was the first time that many of the interns visited antigua but it was a good glimpse of the point of reference that many people see guatemala as being as a reality. we rarely get to take part in tourist activities because are busy with work but i enjoyed the time away from reality in antigua. we also got to see what the break the silence interns are doing around guatemala: a brief coles notes version is that one is into permiculture working in the lago de atitlan, another dude is working for the international human rights court of the americas in rabinal, another woman is working to set-up a nurses-assistance program in rabinal, and the last is working to develop healthy communities using programming like teaching hair-cutting courses as a way to increase self-esteem.

on monday morning we came together with all of the CIDA interns albeit one intern. all together there are about 15 of us working around the country. we were served breakfast and listened to a workshop about gender. afterwards there was some time to meet with the other interns over coffee to learn more about their programs. the areas that they are working on are: education, human rights working in conjunction with the united nations, and the above mentioned.

yesterday on december 2nd we participated in the second day of the "evaluacion semestral de conavigua" (year end evaluation) where all of the programs came together to give a powerpoint presentation. it would have been great to participate in both days but we were unable to because of time constraints. one really interesting presentation that i liked was about the "dignificacion y atencion psicosocial a victimas" where they discussed the 4 cases that are being brought forward to the supreme court in spain resulting from the massacres and mass-graves of bodies, workshops, and 126 processes of exhumations, and 1204 exhumations in total that they are working on and or have worked on, as well as the 20 cases pending with them. i have often wondered what exactly is going on with the exhumations and I would still like to know more about the involvement of CONAVIGUA in this process.

the year end evaluation was also a great way to come together with the MOJOs and CONAVIGUA workers and to network and meet new people. we ended the day with a ceremony discussing the energy of the day and a marimba dance where rosalina tuyux took the lead in shaking it. good way to end a long day for sure.