gaia x Guatemala: a failed attempt to reach Yepocapa
The Fuego volcano in Guatemala erupted on June 3rd, 2018. Most of the people who were living in the affected area were aware of the dangers, but had no alternative place to live. Since the majority does not have access to the Internet and is used to hearing small explosions coming from the volcano, it was difficult to estimate the risk of its activity. A national SMS-warning could have been initiated by the government to communicate the conditions of the volcano, but was apparently not initiated due to legal ‘privacy’ reasons.
Félix, who has been trying to help victims of the eruption in various ways since the beginning of June, guides the gaia team through the affected area and beyond in an attempt to let us experience the local circumstances and the ways of living of different types of Guatemalan communities. His point is that it is impossible to help others without experiencing differences in culture, living conditions and personal circumstances. Western values are simply not universal.
On Oct. 14, the team drives from Antigua to Escuintla, passing ground zero. Even though the eruption took place in June, its path of destruction is still clearly visible and the reconstruction of the main road and its bridges is still not finalized. Our Guatemalan friend and driver, José, tells us that he was in Antigua when Fuego erupted. ‘It was a very sad moment for all of us’. Ashes covered the city in black.
Passed Escuintla, we take the local road on our way to Yepocapa. We aim to visit a small community that lives on low resources and has no possibility of owning the land they live on. Félix has visited this community several times before, and is developing a plan to help them move towards a more sustainable future. The effects of the eruption and heavy rainfall, which have created knee-high rivers with strong currents, have made the road barely accessible. We stop in Los Yucales, a small community that is clearly not used to visitors. We feel uncomfortable: we are intruders in a community completely unknown to us in every way. Young inhabitants of the town gather around us on the main square and kindly offer us a beer. We accept, some of us extremely uncomfortable by the attention we did not foresee nor ask for. We struggle to get an idea of the thoughts, ideas and values of the people of Los Yucales, and we realize the pretentiousness of claiming to know the needs of others without emerging oneself in their situation.
We are told to return because the road to Yepocapa has become unaccessible due to the water. If we wait too long and the rain starts to pour, José tells us, the road back will likewise be unaccessible. Many communities in Guatemala suffer from this fate of isolation by natural causes and a lack of (proper) infrastructure.
We return, soaked by the heavy rainfall in the back of the pick up truck. We slowly but surely start to understand the bigger story that Félix is trying to tell us: a sustainable method of giving and collaborating can be achieved only when it is based on local needs and when assumptions about others’ conditions are absent.
