Guatemala Diary: Live from the field

These dispatches are from NATAN’s team in Guatemala, who are accompanying a group of American volunteers in a reconstruction and rehabilitation operation following two devastating hurricanes in the area. You can read the team’s stories below and then click here to learn more about the operation.

SUNDAY 6-JUN-21 – ARRIVAL – Delegation #1: Dr. Eitan Shahar and Efrat Gronsky

Hello from faraway Guatemala,

You are waking up now but for us it’s the end of the day before going to bed. We landed here after 36 hours of 'fun' travel time at airports and flights – which was especially frustrating since the first few days of our stay here had already been planned before our arrival. Once we arrived we got right to work. We started by conducting a training course for volunteers acting in disaster areas. We are training a delegation of about 20 American volunteers from our partner organization, AHAH -All Hands And Hearts . The training includes a variety of topics in the fields of community, community resilience and social capital, humanitarian aid, NATAN’s intervention model in disaster areas, cultural competence (working with unfamiliar cultures), coping resources and  the Six C’s Model to strengthen resilience and prevent PTSD. The training is based on the knowledge and experience we have gained by deploying in numerous disaster zones.

On Monday we will start working with the local community to build a joint project according to the specific needs of the people in the village. This is an area where members of the Mayan indigenous population live in remote communities, far from the large cities. They were hit hard by the hurricane and we are helping with social rehabilitation as the American delegation is engaged in the physical rehabilitation of establishing a school and a community center for two nearby tribes. The weather here is not easy: Hot and humid. A real tropical climate. But we have no complaints. The work is challenging and we hope to keep up with good progress and developments. Goodnight from Guatemala, Eitan, and Efrat

NATAN Team members Efrat Gronsky and Dr. Eitan Shahar now on mission in the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala

__________________________________________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 9-JUN-21 – Update from Dr. Eitan Shahar and Efrat Gronsky

We’ve arrived at Sesajal, San Pedro Carchá to help two small communities that were badly hurt by the hurricane that hit this area about six months ago. The main damage is economic as they subsist only on their own agriculture which has been almost totally destroyed. There was also a lot of damage to buildings and a local outbreak of dysentery due to the flooding and sanitation problems in an area where there’s no infrastructure that could withstand such a storm.

Yesterday we finished delivering the intensive seminar to the international delegation we are collaborating with. Today they begin their work in the field. Their task for the next two months is to rebuild 2 buildings in both communities. In one, they’re building a school and in the other a community center. The communities are 40 minutes away from each other. All the construction is done with wood as are all the houses of these villages. The construction is completely modular and professional led by American construction specialists and carried out by energetic volunteers. While we trained the volunteers, their professional staff was in the field making preparations.

As of today, we begin the work of making connections with the 2 local communities that have been most affected by the hurricane. We have a local contact, a vehicle and a driver who is also our interpreter and we are working together with the community to build the content and activities that will accompany the construction. The training seminar we conducted received good feedback and certainly met expectations. Of course conducting  a seminar in field conditions has its challenges, especially now with the COVID restrictions requiring  teams to work in three separate capsules. Working around these limitations we were forced to diversify and combine training activities, simulations and group discussions and overall it turned out well.

Our training covered how to assist communities in disasters, the ethics of volunteering in the international arena, NATAN’s model of intervention in disaster areas, characteristics of community and community resilience, , the Six C’s Model for dealing with stress and trauma and ODT (fieldwork activities) to strengthen teamwork skills.  Here are some pictures from the training seminar to look at while we get ready for another day here in remote Guatemala. Goodnight from Efrat and Eitan.

above: NATAN team Efrat Gronsky and Eitan Shahar lead training seminar with AHAH volunteers in Guatemala

________________________________________________________________________________

SATURDAY  12-JUN-21 (dispatch from Eitan Shahar and Efrat Gronsky)

Hello friends, here’s a quick update from the field.

Over the past two days, we’ve held meetings and activities with two local communities. We met with the leaders of the two communities, with groups of women, with the local health committees, with the State medical nurse who comes here once or twice a week, with the school staff and conducted other informal meetings with people in the village.

We organized activities with teachers and children at the village school with the aim of giving the teachers new ways to engage the children. Because of COVID they are forced to teach in capsules of 60 children a day and so each child is only able to attend school for two hours one day a week. The rest of the time the kids have noth organized activities, so keeping them active and engaged is a real challenge.

In our activities with the women's groups, we used “Point of You” cards, which we use in therapeutic activities with individuals and groups. In addition to the community training, our partners at AHAH have asked us to organize another meeting with the team that is leading the delegation on the issue of volunteer support and retention. We were asked to share our knowledge and experience - how to support volunteers, how to identify difficulty in volunteers and how to strengthen their resilience when working far from home for two months while isolated according to AHAH’s COVID precautions.

The volunteers’ conditions are certainly not easy. The weather is very hot and humid, they live in high density without any air conditioning or ventilation, with outdoor toilets and field showers, working hard  in long days of heavy physical labor in the heat. Our years of experience working with volunteers in disaster areas around the world, under extreme conditions is a real help here. We have tips and expertise we can share to help the volunteers and their team leaders to cope. 

Our first week in the field is coming to an end. Overall, we’re pleased with the progress so far and ready for another day.

Efrat and Eitan

Photos, top row: Efrat and Eitan meeting with villagers in Sesajal, San Pedro Carchá, Guatemala

bottom rows: Efrat and Eitan embedded with AHAH volunteers building a school in Guatemala