Corners & Conversations

By Wesley Kennedy

During our first few days, we have had a great experience. We have gotten out and roamed around the city of Antigua and noticed many things. Sometimes I’ve noticed the difference in culture with the Guatemalan people, like the different clothes they wear – some people were wearing very traditional Mayan clothes and others wore very modern clothes. There were also many different things being sold – venders on the street wear traditional clothes, and many people who work in the stores wore the modern clothes. And then other times I noticed the difference between the Guatemalans and us. Like the courtesy on the street – at some points, we crowded the streets we walked on while the Guatemalans were very polite and made sure others could get through.

Since being here, we have had many interactions with people here, like Reed got photos with the police, and I meet a guy named Nadi on the corner of downtown Antigua. Nadi and I had a great conversation about the political scene of Guatemala and America…we talked about immigration policies and how the government seems to care a lot about the little things – he explained how a small crime could change your whole world, and how he thought the government keep a cycle of poverty going. We even talked about Ukraine and Russia. This experience helped me learn a lot about how people in Guatemala make a living, because he said if you’re poor, you tend to stay poor and have to work in less ethical ways – he explained how it’s not because their bad people, it’s because they’re in a bad position. He used to live in LA and was deported back during the Obama administration. He thinks that when it comes to Americas immigration policies they treat every crime like it’s same. For him he was caught with a small amount of illegal substances and he thinks it’s very upsetting to see how all the legalization is happening after it caused him to be deported. Even though he he was deported, he understands that he made a mistake and he is just unhappy that it led him to be deported. When it came to Ukraine and Russia he was very smart on the subject he believes it’ll be a lose-lose situation because Ukraine is being attacked and cities are being destroyed however if Russia continues and makes the situation worse NATO will get involved which will cause a lot destruction for the world.

So far we have experienced a lot and I hope we get to have more of these great experiences in the future. One question these 2 days has given me is how do other Guatemalans view the political situation not just Guatemala but in the world?