March 2005

Gloria and I work with primarily indigenous recipients of a fund the proceeds of which are to be used for education. We found early on that our friends were poorly educated and that the funds were difficult for them to properly manage. With their encouragement Gloria designed a series of courses to assist in this endeavor. We found that a corollary consequence of education too often is disillusionment. After being encouraged to strive to learn more of the marvels of God’s creation we saw that some viewed their present circumstances as too limited but avenues open to the privileged were closed to them. Education increased their pain by making them aware of what they were missing and could not get. We found that some indigenous who fought beyond their disillusionment and did secure a middle school or high school education (rarely a university degree) might be able to find a poorly paying job as a teacher or, if particularly fortunate, a job with an NGO. These jobs however are contractual, usually for periods of only two to three months. Contractual jobs pay none of the legally mandated benefits and one would wonder how a person with a two- to three-month contract could concentrate on the task at hand while being preoccupied with finding his next short-term job.

One of the first classes we scheduled was in San Juan Ixcoy, about eight hours distant from Guatemala City where we lived. Gloria had prepared for twenty-two students, but only four arrived and they were two hours late. Money for travel was not available, and most could not attend. Dealing with this reality has been one of our greatest challenges.

“I’ve only got a second grade education. My son, Baudilio, has only finished the fifth grade. Can you do something to help us get an education? We want to learn but how can we?”

Gloria and I were closing one of our workshops in money management/record keeping when Pascual Flores, a 52-year-old farmer near the Ixcán area of northwestern Guatemala, blurted out the question. We close our classes with a time of general conversation about anything anyone wishes to discuss. Usually it is about our lives in the United States, our children, our house and, not infrequently, a solicitation for a job or information about how to get to the United States in order to find one. “My crops are poor, the price for corn is falling, my family is suffering and I must do something,” he continued. We receive variations of this plea wherever we go, but this time it was more poignant. I never know how to answer adequately and, as usual, I mumbled something about the difficulty of getting visas and the dangers of traveling illegally—neither of which addressed his plaintive question.

Nearly 10 years after the peace accords ending the 36-year war were signed and nearly 15 years after the ceasing of hostilities between the warring factions, there still exists unequal access to basic services in Guatemala. Indigenous Mayans, who bore the brunt of the misery during those years, have not yet been granted entry to civil society: only 25 percent of students receive books; only a little more than half attend school five hours daily; 32 percent of the money sent to Guatemala by family members in the United States is directed for education, 27 percent for food.

The World Bank report “Poverty in Guatemala” indicates improving education is central to reducing poverty. Education has to do with health, undernourishment, and rates of reproduction. Poverty fuels rebellion and political upheaval and creates fertile ground for greed and competing ideologies, which add to international instability. Rural populations, primarily Mayan, have an average poverty rate of 72 percent and in areas of the Petén and Verapaces the rate exceeds 90 percent.

The Central American Free Trade Agreement (see articles on CAFTA on the PC(USA) Web site) poses another challenge to those already on the margins by, among other things, allowing some U.S.-subsidized farm products to compete for market share in Guatemala with those products produced by indigenous farmers. Couple these concerns with long-standing uncertainties about land titles, poor land, lack of water, discrimination, racism, and exclusion, the plight of the indigenous continues.

But how do we address these inequities? Would having access to education and the encouragement to hope for a future matter? Gloria and I are fortunate in that we have a small opportunity to work with people at the margins in our role as education consultants for the PC(USA). We have found that just being there offers confirmation of them as worthy human beings and gives our friends an opportunity to be heard even if no great strides are made. Gloria and I find it ironic that we give classes on money management to people who have very little. They rarely have enough to pay the fare to our class or buy food. Paying for a cot in a barracks-style hotel would put them further at risk. We have been granted an ECO (Extra Commitment Opportunity) account, donations to which we use to pay all the above for our attendees. We ask you to help us to continue to offer this small encouragement by writing a check to:

ECO # E051838 (Required on check)
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Individual Remittance Processing
PO Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700

Write the title (Administrative Development in Indigenous Presbyteries of the IENPG) and the ECO number (E051838) on the subject line of the check and put it on your cover letter, too. Send a copy of the cover letter to the Area Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, Worldwide Ministries Division, 100 Witherspoon St. Louisville, KY 40202-1396. Click the button below to donate online.

Jesus Christ calls us to be more human and to live life as fully as he did, pointing out the hypocrisy, injustice, unfairness, oppression, and repression that separates us from one another and from God. There is injustice in all parts of the world, not only Guatemala but the United States as well. Assisting friends like Pascual to believe in tomorrow and to see that the people who now have all the power, money, jobs, opportunities, and education does not always have to be the case is a small effort. Maybe with encouragement from people like you he will one day be able to answer his own question.

Roger and Gloria Marriott

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 62