La Gomera: First Visit

On May 29, 2008 I went on my first adventure here in Guatemala:

I accompanied a friend to a small town in the southern coast of Guatemala called La Gomera, Escuintla. My friend needed to go to the town to visit a small school that's being sponsored by an American Foundation; my friend is the link between the school and the foundation.

On our way to the school my friend told me some facts about the town. Here is some of what I learned:

>> The main source of jobs in the are are the plantations: mostly sugar cain plantations. But the plantations only need workers available during part of the year, so for the rest of the year people find it hard to get jobs in the area. Some people then open little convenience stores, but then the others start getting in debt at the stores. When the money gets scarce some turn to stealing to be able to feed their families.

>> There are only a couple schools in the are, one public and one private. Which this means is that there is little access to education. The education provided by those schools is limited, I think it is only elementary school. (The government never seems to have enough money for education).

>> The infrastructure of the town is very poor. For example, the roads are paved but not in a good state and whenever it rains they get flooded because there are no drains.

Knowing this facts I start wondering what could be done to improve the living conditions of the town people.

On one had, I wonder how much more should the government do for the town? I guess it should take care of the roads and stuff like that, and maybe build more and better schools--education is so basic for improvement!. Although the truth is that Guatemala's government is very small and is the one that spends the least in public services in all Latinamerica.

But is it the government's responsibility to provide more jobs? How should the government intervene in that situation?

On the other hand, my dad has always said that it's the character of our people--the Guatemalan people--that is keeping us in this place of underdevelopment. What he means is that people aren't proactive, that they are always waiting for things to suddenly get better and for the government to give more, that it isn't ingrained in their mentality to go and fight for better things.

So I wonder: first, to what extent is this true; second, what could be done if this is true?

This leads to another thing: the international intervention.

Year after year there are international groups that come to the country for a few weeks to build houses and dwells, to teach English, to paint churches, to bring medical missions, etc. But how much does this really help to improve the conditions?

There is something called participatory communication thru which people are empowered, given the toos, to improve their situation by themselves. I believe that's the best option.