El Paraíso Service Project

This weekend we were part of a group of teachers who went into the Zone 18 "El Paraíso" neighborhood to help work on a mission project that our friend Kelly works with, Global Soccer Ministries. It was a wonderful day full of hard manual labor, experiencing a bit of how the majority of Guatemala City residents live, and doing some great work in the name of Jesus!

The soccer field with part of El Paraíso on the hill in the background

Safety

The "El Paraíso" (ironically means paradise) neighborhood is in one of the more dangerous and gritty areas of an already gritty and dangerous city. Zone 18 is known for its gang activity, corrugated iron sided "houses," and extremely impoverished conditions. While there, we were instructed to stay together as a group, take no belongings with us we weren't prepared to have "walk off," and we were not allowed to walk down the streets, even in a group, without a man known by the community.

We knew it was going to be a worthwhile experience and we would be doing helpful work, but we had some reservations about entering such an unsafe part of the city. However, we decided our personal safety would not be too terribly jeopardized (in comparison to other service projects) because many mission groups have been down from the U.S. that our friend Kelly works with, and the man in charge of this ongoing (since 2005) project is a close family friend of Kelly's as well. Not that any one's safety can ever be guaranteed, but we were with people who were knowledgeable of the area and people, and they were known by the locals, also, who knew we were there to help, not hurt, and it is fairly usual for the community to see a group of gringos working away on the soccer field.

The Service Project

Many of the teachers at CAG have expressed a desire to get involved and do something truly helpful, yet have been hindered by 1) not knowing who to contact to volunteer 2) not wanting to go by themselves into a potentially unsafe and unknown area, and 3) not getting ourselves into gear due to laziness in general, as happens often no matter where you live. Good intentions, right? So when Kelly offered a service project to work on building a soccer stadium in a very needy area where there was already a built-in infrastructure of volunteer workers and an ongoing project, this seemed like a great chance to do something useful!

Our task for the day was two-fold: First, we were helping to complete some soccer stadium seating, and second, we were starting the process of building a house for a 9-person family that is currently living in a one bedroom tin shack.

The soccer field was a GREAT service project! We loved working on it because it seems like for a community that has nothing to claim as its own, let alone a nice, open area to join together, this was something that would serve many, many people - the entire community! Also, Guatemalans are fanatical about soccer. It is one of the few things everyone takes an interest and joy in, so to give them something they are passionate about seems like a great idea!

Working on the field seating was very laborious; everyone got very good at using shovels, hoes, and pick axes. While we did not pour any cement, most of our job was to move dirt to create the space to build more seating, fill dirt in the partially completed seats, and tearing down a hill to create a road for trucks to move sand and cement (currently being done by people with wheelbarrows, a tedious and slow-going way to move land!). There is not much to talk about, except that we worked hard for roughly 5-6 hours. On the positive side, we could definitely see the progress we made by the end of the day!

Part of the fun of the day were the kids that hung around us. They were full of energy and excited we were there. They tested the few English words they had learned on us ("Yes" and "Thank you"), and they really seemed to enjoy using the wheelbarrows and pick axes the most. Bringing them joy and giving them a stimulating and productive day was worth it above all else.

On the other end of the spectrum, working on a house that will directly benefit a family bursting at the seams was also very rewarding for everyone involved. We met the family members whose house was going to be built, and they even joined in on the project. Actually, the family members who were around we extremely helpful, and the little boys were some of the hardest workers of the day! Talk about witnessing a real need. This is a family that has nothing to its name but piles of trash, corrugated iron sides and roofing for the one room "house," and 2 small beds.

Outhouse for the 9-person, single-room housed family

It was very sad to see the living conditions these kids were in. Due to malnutrition (we're assuming), the boys we saw that were 8 and 12 years old looked like they were 4 and 8 years old, respectively. We were told they walk to a nearby school, but who knows. The girl we met looked about 14 and she was still in the elementary grades. It's doubtful she'll be in school much longer. An example of malnutrition: one boy told a teacher that it is easy to stay full. You just drink 2 glasses of water in the morning, 2 at lunch, and 2 glasses of water and dinner. How sad! We were told they get some food, but it is never a certainty. The dad (of the family's house we were working on) was passed out from drinking on 1 of the 2 beds in the 1-room shack, and at one point woke up long enough to come out and directly leer at a blonde female teacher. The mom dropped by briefly and she seemed very kind. According to the man in charge of this project, these are some of the worst living conditions the mission has seen.

The goal of the house-building mission project is to give families a small home with which to start out with -- 2 bedrooms and a bathroom (roughly 1/4 of a typical floor plan of a States house). Families like this with absolutely nothing do not even know how to get started, and they are so overwhelmed with what it takes to build/improve a house, the church mission group comes in, builds a very small house, and the goal is for that to be a jump start for the family to build on -- maybe a few more bedrooms, a kitchen, a 2nd floor, or something. According to the missionary, the plan usually works! Part of how they decide what families to build houses for is whether or not they will continue to improve what they have been given. Obviously the waiting list is long. This family has been waiting for their house for over 5 years.

9 people live in this "house"

One of the funnest parts of the work we did was knocking down a poorly constructed concrete wall to make way for the new, sturdier wall that the mission project will build in the future. We all took a turn with the sledgehammer, and then moved the rubble via assembly-line to create a retaining wall at the edge of the small property.

While knocking the wall down, we had time to look around the area from the confined quarters. The family outhouse looked like it was from a creepy horror movie (so did the dad...), the "streets" were mere iron-sided alleyways (that we figured had to be very hot inside - you would bake alive in there!), and the family's land was also home to a rag-tag mama dog and her 4 puppies, 2 ducks, and plenty of spiders and rat-sized cockroaches. But there was safety and fun in numbers, and we all had a great time doing the work.

The "neighborhood."
These are all houses, and the alleys are the only streets

It is almost impossible to imagine what daily life looks like for this family (and countless others in the same situation). Where do they sleep? How do they sleep? Who gets the bed? The cockroach-encrusted ground? What happens during the rainy season? How do they cook? what do they do for water? How does the outhouse get cleaned--or does it? Where do they do laundry?

When we left (earlier than planned due to sheer physical exhaustion), we all knew that we had done just a little bit to help a lot of people, and hopefully shed some light on their lives. We know the experience also brought us all closer to the realities and poverty that we seem to glide over so easily on a daily basis, living in our Zone 15 and Zone 10 bubbles, which really do not represent the vast majority of the City or country. We will all remember our work at Paraíso the next time we are asked to donate our time or money to such worth causes as helping the impoverished or those many, many souls that are in need.