Talks

i also went to many talks this week, one about the civil war and one about situations women face here in guatemala. the later i found very compelling. the civil war talk was very difficult for me to undertand plus i was incredibly tired because i had my dance class and hadn't eaten yet. i didn't eat until 930 p.m. yesterday because the talk ran 2 hours. I need to read a book about it which Nolan's on the hunt for a good one about the civil war for me so I can understand more. anway, going back to the talk about women here. It was very shocking! The women here have no rights if their husbands let them get a card to vote then they can do vote during elections. However, it's up to the husband to decide. It's an extremely machisimo society. Many male politicians trick women into voting for them by promising they will work to improve the situation for women if they are elected into office, but once they are there they do absolutely nothing. The two women that spoke were from a battered womens shelter in Xela. It's the only one of its kind in the country. There are some shelters soley for children, but none for abused women. They have many programs such as allowing children and women to live there, teach the women trades, help them get a divorce, day care and school for children too. They rely soley on volunteers and donations. They have been in existence for 17 years and right now is the toughest time they've had and are probably going to have to close a lot of the departments as they aren't receiving donations from other countries anymore. They said they have never received a penny from the Guatemalan government. There are only about 10 female politicans here and hundreds of male politicians.

Women are only given one chance to divorce and if they don't go through with it they can't divorce their husband. It's a way of punishing the her. Many women put up with the sexist, abusive, and unequal society and relationships. The roles of female submission and male domination are taught when children are very, very young. I've been told it's worse in the smaller pueblos. Women aren't educated about birth control so they often have babies and multiple babies at very young ages. The only time the women received medical care is when she's in her reproductive prime and pregnant.

The medical care here isn't the best anyway. For example, Josefina took Jeremy to the pediatricians office last week and they told her they only see 20 patients so that's 10 in the a.m. and 10 in the afternoon. Another time she went to anothe roffice office and the doctor said he wouldn't see Jeremy because he was seen by another doctor he is fueding with. They quickly recommend expensive unnecessary procudures as well.

Anyway, I wish I was a pharmacist so I could write a check and give them a donation to keep their wonderful organization alive.

I'm going to about three more talks in the upcoming weeks. One of them is one 4th of July by the lawyer that I saw at school last week I believe. He's doing a fundraiser with an organiziation across the street from Sakribal. He's going to talk about the relationship with America that day. I really like learning about the culture and problems they face here. Plus, I work on my understanding the language too.