The Waiting Game: Update

The meeting that was scheduled for last Wednesday was, as anticipated, a bust. Ela had to go to Sololá for a meeting for the day and only 5 of around 50 women showed. One of them showed two hours late. As one might imagine it left me annoyed, disappointed and disheartened. 

When Ela returned from her all-day meeting she immediately came to my house and said, "Let's go! We're going to meet with a new group!". Guatemalans, as a whole are not the most informative people. I'm not sure why, but on most occasions they will simply fail to inform one of a meeting or an important or interesting or helpful bit of information, often then leaving that person in an unprepared or clueless state. So, as we walked the dusty paths and I began to interrogate Ela about this new group. They live in another community, in another municipality even, but this community is pegged to Chirijox. There is a Y in the road, seemingly still in the middle of Chirijox, and at that Y the village of Xolcaja in the municipality of Nahualá begins. 

They are a group of about 20 women that Ela had worked with in the past. She had recently talked with the leader and she had expressed interest to participate in the larger group again. We met with the leader, Ana, and Ana said that her group wants to participate with the projects but they don't want to arrive at my house for meetings, a ten minute walk away. At this, I was immediately annoyed and thought of how typical this was. Groups want the benefits of the projects but don't want to have to put in the work or responsibility to receive them. I have officially become jaded. 

As Ela and I walked home I asked about this. Apparently, years ago, there was a conflict between the two towns over a soccer field that is near the boundary. People of both towns still have animosity towards each other but they don't even really know why or remember what the conflict was about. Ela said she is a good mediator because she is neither from Xolcaja nor Chirijox. In fact, Ela said that the committee may be upset with her for even going to a meeting without speaking to them first. Ela said the animosity is purely psychological. 

A few day's later, Ana had spoken with the women of her group and they decided that they would attend meetings and participate fully in the larger group. Today we will go to meet the group and register all the women. I asked Ela about taking to the committee first before starting work with the group. Ela basically said to forget about the committee as she had called them all to try to organize a meeting but they aren't returning her calls. 

Because the thing is, Guatemala is a culture where rarely will this, or any, committee be called out on their negligent behavior. At the next meeting all will be as though everything is fine and the psuedo-power of the committee will continue, which is, as one might imagine, incredibly frustrating. As such, it made me very happy to see Ela stand up to the committee.