A Cape Bretoner’s reflections on culture and friendship in Guatemala

Two months after returning from Guatemala, participants of the 2012 LWB service trip were asked to reflect on their experience volunteering with Librarians Without Borders at the Asturias Academy. This post comes to us from Nicole Radzikowski, who works as a Public Librarian in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.

One of my favourite things about travelling is recognizing and appreciating the similarities and differences between cultures. Before I headed to Guatemala, I was excited to immerse myself in a new culture that I expected to be very different from my life at home in Cape Breton, an island in the province of Nova Scotia on Canada’s Atlantic coast. After spending ten days in Guatemala, however, I was surprised to find that in many ways Guatemala reminded me of home. In 2012, I was the only participant on the service trip from Canada’s Atlantic provinces, and conversations with my fellow trip participants revealed that in certain ways, Cape Breton is relatively foreign to many of them (e.g. there’s no Starbucks here, Sunday shopping is a relatively new phenomenon, and yes, the menu at McDonald’s really does feature the McLobster during the summer, although no true Cape Bretoner would ever order one.)

I’m fairly reserved - I am a librarian, after all - but overall, Cape Bretoners have a reputation for their hospitality. Likewise, the people we met in Guatemala were incredibly warm and welcomed us into their school, their homes, and their lives. The LWB executives and members have spent several years working with Miguel Angel Asturias Academy and cultivating relationships with the school’s founder and staff members, and several trip participants had visited the school before. That being said, most of us on the trip were traveling to the school for the first time and were essentially strangers, but the staff members at the school made us all feel perfectly at home and let us jump right in and get to work on the numerous projects we’d planned. The students weren’t reserved either; on our first day at the school, the younger kids ran up to us as they entered the library and greeted each one of us with a hug. Every day, we ate breakfast and dinner at Doña Margerita’s comedor, which she operated out of her home. While we ate, Doña Margertita’s children would drift in and out of the dining room, casually chatting with us or sitting next to the table and watching TV. They were totally comfortable and at ease with having a group of hungry strangers descend upon their home twice a day. The friendliness we experienced wasn’t just limited to the wonderful folks at the school and Doña Margerita’s. . . everywhere we went, we were greeted by everyone we encountered with a smile and an “Hola” or a “Buenos Dias,” even when we were just walking down the street. Likewise, most Cape Bretoners would smile and say hello to a person they encountered while they’re out for a walk, even if it’s someone they don’t know. Tourism is a highly lucrative industry in Cape Breton, as in Guatemala, so for many Cape Bretoners their livelihood depends on being welcoming and friendly toward tourists.

There were so many other moments during the trip that reminded me of home: The die-hard fans at the Xelaju Super Chivos (Super Goats) futbol game were reminiscent of the crowds cheering at a Cape Breton Screaming Eagles hockey game (Another commonality: in both places the sports teams have really weird names.) The scenery at Lake Atitlan, with its impressive volcanic mountains surrounding the beautiful lake, reminded me of the mountains along the Cabot Trail that slope down to the ocean. Like Cape Bretoners, Guatemalans are also very family-oriented. For instance, one of my fellow trip participants mentioned in a previous blog post that in Guatemala, Mother’s Day is a very important holiday. At the school, the students threw a party honouring their mothers, and the day’s festivities culminated in a pre-dawn parade through the streets. If staying up until 3am on a weekday to party outside with their moms isn’t a clear indication that Guatemalans love their families, I don’t know what is.

One last highlight of the trip for me took place during our last day in Xela, when Carmen and Carolyn bought friendship bracelets for each member of the group. This was the perfect way to end our time in Xela, since the bracelets symbolized both the friendships that had developed among members of our group as well as the warmth and friendliness that the people of Guatemala had shown to us during our time there. The bracelet I chose was also significant to me because its design featured little embroidered mariposas (butterflies), which had proven to be incredibly popular among the younger students when they were decorating their Mother’s Day cards during Library Day. (The kids politely requested “más mariposas,” (more butterflies!) when we ran out of them and several LWB group members, including me, scrambled to cut out more construction paper mariposas.) Overall, the service trip was a fantastic experience, and proved to me that while there are certainly differences between Cape Breton and Guatemala, in many ways both places are very similar. I look forward to following the Asturias project’s progress, keeping in touch with everyone, and visiting Guatemala again someday!