Finding Peace and Love In A Pool
Camino Seguro has Support Teams that come in often, especially over the summer as schools and other groups take advantage of summer vacation. These teams (www.safepassage.org/teams) come in for a week at a time to give extra support to Camino Seguro programs. The English department is often a grateful benefactor of the extra support, as these volunteers are able to lend a level of individualized instruction that a single teacher can’t give in a class of 25. At the end of their time volunteering, the Support Teams often get to take an excursion with students, teachers and volunteers. Since I am new, I was treated to taking part in an excursion to Irtra this weekend. Irtra is an amusement park in Guatemala City that has a large pool surrounded by palm trees and peacocks. We took the students there for a day of swimming.
I was picked up by a flashy “chicken bus” – one of the brightly painted American school busses that ferry people around Guatemala. We then drove to the project to pick up the students. They got on the bus and, of course, walked immediately to fill up the back of the bus. I have hardly had any opportunities to interact with the students since I’ve been here. I really felt that lack of connection as the students got on the bus and whizzed past me without a second thought, or perhaps even without a first. I haven’t had a bus ride that lonely since I was an awkward pre-teen (and I was pretty awkward back then).
Once we arrived at Irtra, I started chatting the students up right away. Of course, being teenagers, they were way too cool to chat with me. Teenage rebellion transcends place and culture. But, I was determined to wriggle my way in.
After some finagling over pool regulations with the powers that be – who knew Guatemala had rules? – we finally got to head down to the pool. Once at the pool, it was a whole different story and my interactions with the students took a complete 180 degrees. Not only were the students suddenly responsive to my conversation starters, but they even sought me out. It was amazing.
Most of the students knew how to swim, thanks to their involvement in the Guatemala City United Way swimming program in 2008. We horsed around seeing who could make the biggest cannonball splash and the coolest looking jump into the pool. One of the girls climbed on to my back and had me dragging her around in the water. We raced in heats across the pool. I was constantly trying to let them win because I’ve clearly had a lot more practice at swimming than they have. My attention was primarily focused on teaching. I gathered a group of a few students and reached deep into my memory bank to remember the proper technique for the different swim strokes. We went through front crawl, the frog kick and back crawl. One of the boys, Wilfredo, didn’t have much experience and showed a keen interest, so I took him aside. We spent almost a half an hour at the wall of the pool practicing kicking. I didn’t know I remembered so much about swimming! It was unbelievable to see the difference in their ability after just a short morning swim. It’s true what they say; kids soak up everything like a sponge. Especially when they’re already in water.
It felt good to provide the students with an opportunity to just relax and have fun. These youth have a very difficult life. A majority of them come from single parent homes. Their parents work extremely long hours – first spending 10 or more hours in the dump, then several more sorting through the day’s findings. Many of them come from large families, with a number of siblings all vying for attention. In some cases, the parents are addicted to drugs – often alcohol or glue. Some have been exposed to domestic violence. For many of these youth, there is just simply not enough love to go around. Yes, they are teenagers filled with angst, but all of that melts away in a moment after giving them some positive attention. It’s a very bittersweet realization. How bad must their home lives be in some cases to be so hungry for attention and so open to receiving it from someone they’ve only just met? You can feel it in your bones how badly they want love. It absolutely breaks my heart to think of all the forces at play that keep such amazing people from being shown how wonderful and lovable they are.
But, because of that, there is also tremendous opportunity to really connect with these youth. It’s hard for many of the volunteers to see or feel that they’ve had a real impact because most are here for only a matter of a few weeks or a few months. I am here for a year. I have the time to really connect with these youth and be a consistent source of support and positive reinforcement. I won’t be able to change the larger social system at play, but in that time I can definitely plant the seeds for them to challenge it. I want these youth to see something beyond the dump. I’m not saying that working in the dump is purely bad. In fact, I think the guajeros do a job that is absolutely vital. But, the conditions surrounding the work are extremely bad, and the way it proliferates itself within families is abysmal. Some of these youth are going to grow up and get out of the dump, and that’s great. That’s the whole point. But, not all of them are going to grow up and work in call centers, tourism or some other more socially acceptable job. And I’m realizing that’s okay, too. As a matter of fact, I honestly hope some of them don’t leave. I hope some of them stay and take the knowledge and skills they’ve learned from school and Camino Seguro to fight to change the conditions surrounding the dump. I hope they fight for better pay. I hope they fight for clean water. I hope they fight for sanitation. I hope they fight for better safety regulations and more strict accountability measures. I hope they fight for proper disposal of medical waste. I hope that some of them have the courage to make life better for their whole community. That takes real courage, real knowledge, and real wherewithal. If I see that someday, I know the work of Camino Seguro has been a success.
Realistically I can’t personally do much in a year. I can’t effect broad, sweeping changes. But I can love them, and I can set up a system, at least in my department, that gives them the tools to take a stand. I can’t create harmony in their outside lives, even if I can give them a daily dose of positivity. The lasting impact that I can make is helping them build on the harmony that they already have inside (and they do) to bring that out into their communities. It may take years for this to develop, but that’s okay. Small steps are still progress. And all this came from a short morning swim.
This week I saw peace in a pool.
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