trip mail 10

So today we leave, on to bigger and better. For the last couple of days, in stead of working as we planned in the orphanage or distributing beans to surrounding villages we have been stuck working in the bar at Hotel Backpackers. Granted this is how hotel Backpackers makes the money to keep the orphanage running (with the help of foreign donations as well) I did not travel 3500 miles to serve alcohol to a bunch of rich tourists or drunk Guatemalans. That may sound selfish so let me explain. In Costa Rica the organization we hooked up with, Pura vida, had on its premises a rehab center for alcoholics and former drug addicts. There were a lot of men who found community and a chance to overcome their addictions in the company of fellow believers. The strange thing is that now I am working at a bar that works in direct opposition of such an organization. The paradox is that Hotel Backpackers promotes drunkenness (all the locals are sloshed belligerent and encouraged in being so) and the money they take from them (people who are needy but in a completely separate way) and give it to the kids. In some ways it could be looked at as a Robin Hood type way of running things, rob from rich give to poor, but I see it mostly as creating one problem to fix another. Another disturbing thing we have seen in the bar is kids as young as fifteen drinking (drinks bought by other people) and prostitutes the same age with rich older men. It makes me sick, and though those behaviors aren’t encouraged here they are accepted. Unfortunately there is a need for the children of Casa Guatemala and this is the only way they have found to meet it (donations aren’t close to enough).

I hope it doesn’t sound as if this time here has been a total loss, because it hasn’t. we have met some great fellow travelers. A bunch of travelling French girls who we had to speak to in Spanish because it was our best common language and also a couple of Irish folks we worked with were incredibly nice. They all left on Sunday and now this place is lonely so it is a good thing we are leaving today. By this afternoon, we will be headed up to the ancient Mayan Ruins of Tikal and then on to Belize, so pray for new friends and good weather (right now we seem to be in the middle of a giant storm that dumps rain on us every other day.)

Love you all,
Matt