The City of Zones

Guatemala City drapes its urban self over ridges and valleys, hills and ravines.  The city is divided into Zones, all numbered in a spiral-like formation.  Certain zones carry certain connotations: some are rich, some are poor, some are dangerous, some are home to the expats, etc.  Art and architecture are appreciated everywhere with colonial buildings rubbing shoulders with cathedrals and sculptures and modern abstract pieces.  Parks and streets are dedicated to historical beings and moments, green space and open areas everywhere.  In the center of the city, there’s a huge trash dump, ignored by most, a source of living for many.  Traffic is horrendous.  Mega-malls are everywhere.  People are everywhere too, with many women wearing the traditional huipil clothing.  Markets selling every kind of trinket, textile, and touristy gift are seemingly on every corner.  Color, noise, smells, food, people, cars—it truly is a chaotic metropolis.

Rachel and I with a community leader who runs
a children's feeding program

I met up with Rachel at the airport, both of us eager to visit and experience this new place.  For our week in the city, we stayed in a total of three different places: two homes and one Mennonite conference center.  The CRWM partner organization Center for Transforming Mission (http://www.ctmnet.org/) graciously hosted us and showed us their various community missions in their city.  Their mission is “to mobilize and nurture missional communities of grassroots leaders who serve high-risk populations in hard places.”  They do this by identifying and mapping the hurt, the hope and the heart of their city and the communities they serve with.  With this level of understanding and respect for the areas they are in, they are able to work alongside each other and work towards the empowerment of their communities.

A church baptism

Rachel and I participated in several Bible studies, learned of the missions and visions of several child development and food projects, played with a bunch of adorable kids, walked the streets of those who live next to the trash dump, visited a gang-ridden neighborhood where school are changing lives, went to a baptism service, and heard may many stories from those who live and serve in these difficult areas.  I won’t lie—it was hard.  It was hard for me to see the harsh lives of many people, to learn of their struggles, to witness their poverty.  And yet, there was always hope.  These different projects, programs, and missions in each of these communities were changing lives.  These leaders were living and serving in their home neighborhoods, not dependent on mission trips or outside expertise to “do it for them”.  Seeing their passion for what they were doing inspired me to be passionate for my home and my community.

In all, Guatemala City showed me that where there are people, there is suffering.  And where there is suffering, there is opportunity.  And where there is opportunity, there is hope.

If you want to watch a great movie about Guatemala City, I highly recommend you check out the documentary Reparando (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1664825/).     

The next stop for Rachel and I lied just to the north, a 5 hour bus ride, to the absolutely gorgeous city of Xela (pronounced Shay-la).  Stay tuned to hear more about it!