Oaxaca Family Adventure: Guatemala City, Antigua, and Caminando Por La Paz

Panaderia where we get yummy treats to eat with coffee

It can't get much better than being greeted by friends when arriving in a new place as we had the pleasure of experiencing very early Sunday morning. Our friends Megan and Mario live in Guatemala City in a Maryknoll affiliated house located in Zona 18, a very poor and dense neighborhood. The house was founded by Padre Tomas as a means to combat gang activity by fostering education. Since the priest's passing a few years ago, the house has been operated by Mario and other young men. They provide sessions in tutoring, help with homework, school supplies, a hot meal, and community support. Walking through the streets of this neighborhood which houses half a million people, Mario calls out to just about everyone and points out the houses where the kids in his program live. Abe asked me "how come Mario knows everyone?" He also shows us where the gangs are imbedded and about how they extort the local businesses. Fortunately they have for the most part left his organization alone.

Yesterday, on a walk through the neighborhood, Mario took us down the steep steps that lead to the most impoverished houses that are built along the sides of the hills. They are mostly made of sheet metal and cinderblock. Passing street dogs curled in corners, he took us to see a house that the government recently built. It is a three room and one bathroom house of cinderblock and metal roof construction. A pair of women from the neighborhood advocated for the construction of 8 of these houses. On our way back up the mountain we could see the Caminando Por La Paz house which happens to be the tallest in the neighborhood and which Mario helped to build 7 years ago. Inside, one of the cooks was preparing lunch for the next group of about 40 kids. She cooked rice and potatoes in a tomato sauce and reheated corn tortillas that another woman in the community made from scratch the day before. Megan sliced watermelon for the dessert. We gathered around the kitchen table for our meal before the children arrived filling the house with smiles and laughter. Penelope joined a small group of young girls in the chapel who were making crafts. She loved it and even had the chance to practice her colors in Spanish.

Monday we drove one hour to Antigua which was the capital of Guatemala for about 200 years until a series of earthquakes led the powers that be to consider a new location leaving Antigua a small colonial town with cobbled streets and a favorite destination for tourists. Before visiting the town, we drove up the hill to a complex designed by artist Efrain Recinos that houses a chapel, museums, galleries, event spaces, gardens, and a restaurant. We walked around the grounds getting inspired by the natural and the artistic beauty. We ate in the town before visiting a textile museum and the local market. Antigua is one of those places where I could have taken a picture of just about everything. It was so beautiful and charming.

Earlier in my blog, I wrote about the Oaxacans eating Sunday dinner with their families and how that made me long for that feeling of home. It has been wonderful to end our trip in a community of old friends and new ones eating our meals around a big kitchen table. Today we visit the zoo where we hope to see jaguars, and tomorrow we fly home to Chicago.

It has been an amazing trip which has stretched and shaped us in new ways. I heard or read somewhere from some wise person that the further you travel from home the closer you are at finding home in your self--or something to that effect. I think we will return with new perspectives on your life and hopefully new adventures lie ahead.