amadelacasa

So, I guess I've started the real countdown for my last days here in Cobán and Guatemala. Today was my last Sunday here (at least for this year...) and I've had a great day! I've been eating cake, laughing a lot and I also had time to listen to a liveband in the shopping mall (you know the German mall looking like a big church...). Since Rosa, la ama de mi casa, and probably my best friend here, has her only day "off" (still preparing three meals...) on Sundays we had to use it well!

It somehow feels very strange to leave Guatemala again, third time leaving now not knowing if I'll ever come back. And I'm very bad at goodbyes, I prefer saying "See you again!". And I hope I will, but I can't be sure. And this time I will leave some really good friends here, friends that will never have an opportunity to visit me like I've been visiting them. But I'm so greatful for all the beautiful people that I have got to know here, and I know they've all changed me a bit, hopefully for the better ;)



Da gang! Maria, Rosa, Hector and Gudelia. All up for some cake!


Maria, the youngest sister (out of seven).


Rosa.


Hector, the youngest out of fourteen siblings, enjoying his "tres leches".


Gudelia.


Me, about to get high on sugar...


Cake.


Querida Rosa, gonna miss you so much!


Felix, look! No hands! I know it's not heavy, but at least I'm carrying SOMETHING on my head... In Guatemala.

It's raining again. This time very heavy. The combination of heavy rain and sheet metal roofs is making it almost impossible to have a normal conversation. The rainy season in Guatemala has started. It's been raining for almost two weeks now, a couple of hours every day, sometimes the whole day. But from the other two rainy seasons I've spent here I can't recall it to be this heavy ("fuerte" in Spanish, can't really find a good word in English, neither in Swedish...), but they say it's because of the climate changes...

"The light went away again!" is what they say when the electricity goes away. Normally it's connected to the heavy rains. I found it hard to understand the expression first, but in a country where most people don't have electric cookers and where other electronic equipment is very limited it's logical to talk about the light going away. No one here talks about electricity.

This time the light went away in the evening, just before the sunset. Soon it was all dark both inside and outside and only the frequent lightnings (and the shopping mall with the huge McDonald's M that never seems to be out of anything) gave us some light on and off. "¡Ya viene la luz!" ("The light is back!") Rosa said happily, lightening a candle in the citchen to be able to prepare the dinner.

Now the light is back again and the floor in my room reminds me of a private swimming pool. But we live in a good house. We notice the loss of electricity because we have access to it. And I notice the water leaking in to my room because I actually have good walls and windows surrounding me. A big part of Guatemala doesn't. First year when I was here, in 2005, a whole village just dissapeared in te heavy rains. It rains a lot up in the highlands and around the more volcanic parts of the country, and that's also where the poor Mayan people have their homes and grow their crops. Guess who (again) are the most exposed in this country?

But any way. I've been here for almost eight weeks now, only two and a half more to go. So it's really time for me to go on vacations, don't you think? Tomorrow I leave for a birthday party in Guatemala City, after that I'll go to some other turistic, but beautiful and interesting places, trying to stay away from flu and heavy rains. Hopefully together with some really nice people! Wish me luck!

153 deaths so far according to the Guatemalan newspapers, seven according to WHO. Costa Rica is now the first Central American country where one case of the disease has been stated, even if it's nothing life threatening. Guatemala is trying to protect it's borders, representatives from the Central American governments get together to try to find a way to cooperate to not letting the disease spread here. In Guatemala so far there are three suspected cases, but nothing stated.

Yesterday I saw all the pictures from Mexico City where people wear masks to protect them selves. Today I saw the first people here in Cobán using the masks. In Sweden they say that the masks are doing no good, that it even can worsen the spread of the disease since it will start to itch after a while and people will use their dirty maybe infected hands to scratch them selves in their face close to mouth and nose.

Of course the situation scares me, like it should for people all over our planet, deadly diseases spread through the air is never a good thing and it's a threat to us all. But more than it scares me right now it makes me very frustrated and upset. Why? Well... Where have most of the deaths been stated so far? Why? What parts of the world will PROBABLY get most affected of this disease? Why?

Keep your hands clean is the advice given to stay away from the flu. And stay away from crowds. In a country like Guatemala or Mexico volonteers from international organisations are trying to get people to understand the importance of cleaning the hands before eating. At some places there are not even portable water. In Mexico City the population is about 22 millions. It IS crowded! And people HAVE to go to crowded areas to be able to, in different ways, earn their living for the day. Now everything is closed in Mexico City. About 35 000 restaurants and bars had to close down. How will that affect the allready poor people there?

Many contries, now also including Sweden, are advising their citizens to stay away from Mexico. I don't know what will happen with the advises if the flu will spread more down through Central America or to other parts of the world. But I know that Guatemala is allready suffering from the increasing violence here, both through the insecurity and the deaths, but also with a diminishing tourism. This affects an allready weak economy. The flu will probably help...

A friend of mine, who is now living and working in Guatemala City, told me she went to the hospital with a friend today. No flu though, but they didn't feel to good going there knowing about the poor medical security and the high risks of infection. People here who can afford it buy masks, but that's all they can do. At the hospital they told my friend there will be medicin comming in for the flu in a day or two. One dose will be about 600 quetzales, or 60 dollars. Who will be able to afford that?

I have friends here who are just making it for the day, and I'm seriuos when I say that I actually don't know how they make it to pay their rent and their food. But their worst case scenario is if they, or their kids get very sick, becuase they will probably not be able to pay for a medical control, and if they do, they might not have money to buy the medicin the doctor will recommend.

I read something interesting in a Swedish newspaper today. A representative from the Swedish National Board of Health and Security said that "Anyone in Sweden can buy the medicin against the flu to have at home. But of course it wouldn't be to nice to keep medicin for one self if one is not ill..." Sweden today says they have medication for a forth of its population, a bit over 2 million doses. In the UK they say they have about 33 million doses. In Mexico about 150 people allready died. In Sweden and UK everyone is fine so far... So what did you just say about keeping medicin at home if you are not sick?

Today the argument from the Swedish government to advise Swedes to stay away from Mexico is that if they get infected they might not get proper care and medication. I will leave Guatemala in about three weeks from now and I don't feel to worried about my self. Of cours I'll wash my hands and stay away from crowds, but I will leave for a guarded, even if it's far from safe, Europe, and while I'm still here I have a medical ensurance that will help me if I get sick, even if I know that it can't cure me.

I'm not saying I'm safe. I'm not saying anyone is safe. But I'm saying that 50 000 people die every day on our planet from other reasons than age. I was born with a lot of benefits and I can return to my country with one of the best health care supplies (free of charge as well) in the world. But in Guatemala I will leave my friends who will never see another country, who have to fight to get food for the day, who don't have the possibility to clean their hands once every hour and some of them who can not even read a newspaper since they never attended school.

So do I feel afraid? Not to much. Do I feel upset? A bit. Do I just hate the unequality in the world? You bet!

In the strange, cold country, far far away where I'm from, it's normal to have one surname. Before my parents got married my full name was Jonna My Håkansson, with the surname of my mother. But when my parents decided to marry we all changed to my fathers name, Andersson. Having the same name within the family in Sweden is a way of showing unity, that we all belong together. Some have two surnames, mostly as a way to keep their own names when they got married or maybe if one have divorced parents, correct me if I'm wrong.

Here in Guatemala, and in most latin cultures, it's almost the other way around. Here the system is made for two surnames, one from your father's side and one from your mother's. If I would have been born here, my name would have been Jonna My Andersson Håkansson, showing first my father's name and then my mother's, always in that order. It shows your heredity, it tells the people you meet about your family and your history.

But what happens if you get born by a single mother? Well, almost all children getting born in Guatemala do have a father, somewhere. Even if the parents don't live together the father can still register his name for his child so that it gets one name from each parent. But the father has got to do it. He's got to go to the municipality to register for his child, it's not enough if the mother goes there.

If the father refuses to give his name to his child, or if he simply deny that he's the father of the child (and this happens a lot here...) the mother has to start a process against him, proving that he actually is the father. This will take a lot of energy, a lot of time (bureaucracy in Guatemala is cooooomplicated stuff...) and it can get expensive.

So why would the single mother even care about getting the father to registrate his name for their child? Isn't it just easier giving the child only the mothers name?

Well... First it's about tradition and structure. The system is not made for persons with just one surname, that means the child of a single mother will get registred as her sister or brother... At least when it comes to the name. Because the child will get the same surnames as it's mother, that is first the name of it's mother's father and then the name of it's mother's mother. And in the register it will look like they're siblings. This will also make it obvious that the child doesn't have a father. In school they might just use one surname for those kids, excluding them from what's normal here. And it's not a got thing not being normal, not following the traditional structure. Being a child without father will mean a lot of disgrace and reasons for the other children to bully the fatherless child.

And of course it's also about money. Somehow it always comes down to money. By register the father's name to the child it confirms that there is a man taking responsibility for the child's life. And in a country ruled by the laws of machismo, the man is the one making money and taking care of his family. So bearing the fathers name also means that the child will be, by law, entitled to economical support by its father. Unfortunately this is a system that isn't followed to well. The mothers that I've been talking to, who actually managed to persuade the father of their child to go register their name, still doesn't get any support from the men. And in a country with 98% of all crimes being unsolved, there is a long way to justice. A long way for the fighting, single mothers and their children to get the support they're actually entitled to.

So if you ever travel in Latin America and they look strange at you when you say that you just have one surname, don't be surprised. Here it's not just a name. It's about culture, it's about pride, it's about responsibility and it's about survival. With just one surename you will probably also mess up the whole registration system!

There are many ways for a man to control his woman. The best way to do it is to make sure she's dependent on you. Economically. As long as you've got a job you'll just tell her to stay home, that you don't want her to work, since that would be a disgrace to you. If you really want to make sure she doesn't leave the house while you're at work just make her pregnant. Since you're the head of the house and also the one with the sexual needs (women are just there to please the man, right?) you decide when it's time to make another baby. If your woman, by any chance, would tell you that she wants to leave the house (sometimes she actually needs to go out to the market to buy you food, or go to the doctor with one of your kids), make sure she tells you when she'll get back. And if she doesn't get back on time, or if you see her talking to another man in the streets, or if she doesn't serve you food on time, or if she doesn't get the baby to stop crying or, just imagine, if she doesn't want to please you sexually whenever you fell like it, you're allowed to punish her. And then you can go home to one of your lovers (who still thinks you're divorced, waiting your second baby) to get some affection and support.

This might sound like some kind of worst case scenario and I feel like the biggest hate-all-men-feminist ever (Pablo, I promise you, I'm NOT!). But without lying to you I can tell you that this is the case for a lot of women. In Sweden those cases exsist, I'm sure. In Guatemala those are not cases, it's culture. And with saying that I DON'T mean that all men are like that. I DON'T say that this is the Guatemalan culture. But I say that this is the culture of machismo. And unfortunately the machismo is everywhere here. About one woman dies every day in Guatemala because of violence within the family. (The whole female popuation is about 7 milions.) Every second day a girl dies of violence within the family or extended family. In 80% of the cases sexual violence is included, and in 20% of those cases the girls are younger than five years old...

Guatemala is far from just violence and controlling men. The Guatemalan culture is so much more than machismo. But the violence is a part of the reality here and machismo, as bad as it gets, still is a more or less accepted part of the society. There are wonderful, caring fathers and husbands, there are organisations fighting for the women's rights. There are laws about the women's rights as well, but there is no functioning judicial system making sure that those laws are followed. If you go to the police and tell them that your husband treats you bad, probably nothing would happen. And if it did, or if you as a woman decided to leave your husband, who would take care of you then? Who would pay for your kids food, shelter and education? Maybe it's easier after all, just to do as you are told, in that way you might not end up in trouble.