Hi there,
Welcome to the Safe Communities Task Force blog. I’m glad you stopped by because I’ve got an awesome story to share with you today.
I’m honored to have had the opportunity to sit with 17 year old community member KaUa to discuss his latest experience traveling and volunteering abroad.
KaUa recently spent time in San Vicente Buenabaj, Guatemala to participate in an immersion service opportunity through Courts for Kids where he was hosted for a week and helped build a community basketball court. Nicole Vigil, the Boys & Girls Club Outreach Manager at the time, encouraged him to get involved and helped KaUa apply for the program.
‘“I was sitting in class with Nicole and near the end she said, “Oh by the way would you like to go to Guatemala?” I thought it was probably not going to happen but said “Let’s take a shot at it.”’ KaUa described the process of completing an application to Courts for Kids and how on his first phone call with them he was asked if he wanted to go to a Blazers game, which was not at all what he expected. He said, “Sure!” and continued that you always say sure when offered opportunities like this.
KaUa found out the trip would cost $2,000 and didn’t want the cost to be a barrier. The Boys & Girls Club helped pay for expenses and in addition KaUa received a scholarship from Courts for Kids. “I didn’t believe it until landing in Guatemala. I had my passport and I still didn’t believe it. I got on the flight and still didn’t believe it,” KaUa explained.
Welcome to the Safe Communities Task Force blog. I’m glad you stopped by because I’ve got an awesome story to share with you today.
I’m honored to have had the opportunity to sit with 17 year old community member KaUa to discuss his latest experience traveling and volunteering abroad.
KaUa recently spent time in San Vicente Buenabaj, Guatemala to participate in an immersion service opportunity through Courts for Kids where he was hosted for a week and helped build a community basketball court. Nicole Vigil, the Boys & Girls Club Outreach Manager at the time, encouraged him to get involved and helped KaUa apply for the program.
‘“I was sitting in class with Nicole and near the end she said, “Oh by the way would you like to go to Guatemala?” I thought it was probably not going to happen but said “Let’s take a shot at it.”’ KaUa described the process of completing an application to Courts for Kids and how on his first phone call with them he was asked if he wanted to go to a Blazers game, which was not at all what he expected. He said, “Sure!” and continued that you always say sure when offered opportunities like this.
KaUa found out the trip would cost $2,000 and didn’t want the cost to be a barrier. The Boys & Girls Club helped pay for expenses and in addition KaUa received a scholarship from Courts for Kids. “I didn’t believe it until landing in Guatemala. I had my passport and I still didn’t believe it. I got on the flight and still didn’t believe it,” KaUa explained.
I asked him what it was like in Guatemala and KaUa said, “The people are nice there and the people in the village talk with you. They have an old life style and live by traditional values; here we are constantly developing.”
He shared with me how the villagers have a different perspective on how people spend time together. KaUa connected with a lady who ended up being his favorite person in town. She had a 21 year old son and he said she was always "reaching" and wanting more than what the traditional lifestyle offered. There was a language barrier so they spent a lot of time communicating on their phones through Google Translate, laughing at the process and making jokes.
At one point, a community member got upset at them for spending so much time together because in Guatemala when two people spend so much time together alone it means you want to be together (like courtship). KaUa described how he had to explain his innocent intentions and address this misunderstanding head on all while communicating through a big language barrier.
He shared with me how the villagers have a different perspective on how people spend time together. KaUa connected with a lady who ended up being his favorite person in town. She had a 21 year old son and he said she was always "reaching" and wanting more than what the traditional lifestyle offered. There was a language barrier so they spent a lot of time communicating on their phones through Google Translate, laughing at the process and making jokes.
At one point, a community member got upset at them for spending so much time together because in Guatemala when two people spend so much time together alone it means you want to be together (like courtship). KaUa described how he had to explain his innocent intentions and address this misunderstanding head on all while communicating through a big language barrier.
I asked KaUa if he could highlight some lessons he learned from his travels. He said the following:
- Utilize everything. “Make the most of everything, including friendships, scraps of material, and more. Keep everything in circulation, no matter how strenuous it may be to do so. No food goes to waste in Guatemala. Whatever they don’t eat they feed to the animals.”
- Appreciate what you have. “I feel more humble. I can’t complain about anything in America. I have friends who just complain about their lives but life in Guatemala is [hard] and I never heard anyone there complain about anything. Just live with it and don’t focus on your problems all the time.”
- Support your family/community network. “In America, if someone's family can’t support them people run away or escape. Families in Guatemala stick together. They support their families financially. One man drove in a cattle truck all the way from Colorado to Guatemala to bring his family money. I like their family values.”
- Be willing to haggle. “Don’t let your Spanish speaking friend help you when buying things because language can get in the way. Just speak money. I gave merchants a calculator and they would enter their price. I would take it back, delete it then enter my price. That’s how we shopped.”
- Prepare yourself for travel. “Drink lots of water and don’t sleep too much on the plane. We took a three hour flight from Portland to Houston then a five hour flight to Guatemala. On the way back, we had a five hour layover.”
- Have patience. “At one point we boarded a boat and when we arrived at this village there were tons of kids wearing bracelets that followed us around the entire two hours we were there. One little kid asked if I wanted to buy a bracelet and he didn’t like the price I offered. Later, the same little boy tried to steal my wallet and didn’t think I would feel it, but I caught and stopped him. I was shocked that someone so little would do this and use such bad language (excluded from this blog post). If my little brother acted that way he would be punished. You have to be patient though to understand that things are different there.”
KaUa says you have to be careful when sending an American representative to another country. “There are some kids you don’t want to send,” he advised, because some people there weren’t mature enough or left a bad impression. “There’s an ignorance thing with some people who went. If more poor kids could go I think they would get a lot out of it,” KaUa offered.
I asked him to talk about the day-to-day life in the village where he stayed and if it’s similar to life in America. KaUa explained that not many people go to school in Guatemala after Middle School. Most of the boys go to work and do labor or travel to the U.S. to make money and send it back to their families. Mostly the girls stay in school but even they sometimes get jobs and help the family financially instead.
KaUa talked about how lunch is sacred. All the family members return home to experience lunch together and then disperse to continue their days. KaUa says they don’t follow time the way we do in America. They work until the sun goes down or until the weather gets bad and then return home for the evening.
When I asked if it was hard to adapt during or after the trip, KaUa replied, “No. It was nice to see my family when I got home but I want to live in Guatemala. I want to go back someday.”
Thank you KaUa for sharing your story with our community and I sincerely hope you get to move to Guatemala one day. It was amazing to hear about your experience and insight and awesome to think that this opportunity is accessible to many people/youth in our community. You are an excellent ambassador for Clark County and we are all very proud of you for what you’ve accomplished.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post! I will see you next time.
Sending my best,
Christopher Belisle at SCTF
I asked him to talk about the day-to-day life in the village where he stayed and if it’s similar to life in America. KaUa explained that not many people go to school in Guatemala after Middle School. Most of the boys go to work and do labor or travel to the U.S. to make money and send it back to their families. Mostly the girls stay in school but even they sometimes get jobs and help the family financially instead.
KaUa talked about how lunch is sacred. All the family members return home to experience lunch together and then disperse to continue their days. KaUa says they don’t follow time the way we do in America. They work until the sun goes down or until the weather gets bad and then return home for the evening.
When I asked if it was hard to adapt during or after the trip, KaUa replied, “No. It was nice to see my family when I got home but I want to live in Guatemala. I want to go back someday.”
Thank you KaUa for sharing your story with our community and I sincerely hope you get to move to Guatemala one day. It was amazing to hear about your experience and insight and awesome to think that this opportunity is accessible to many people/youth in our community. You are an excellent ambassador for Clark County and we are all very proud of you for what you’ve accomplished.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post! I will see you next time.
Sending my best,
Christopher Belisle at SCTF
