This past weekend I participated in the 1st ever Juneteenth celebration here in Guatemala. Forthose of you who are unaware of the significance of Juneteenth, let me give you a brief history lesson. On June 19, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln sent the U.S. Army to Galveston, TX to enforce the decree set out 2 years prior that abolished slavery. On that day, Uniion General Gordon Granger, read aloud the that emancipated all slaves in the U.S. Therefore, Juneteenth is our Independence Day!
I left early morning Friday around 6:30am to begin my 7+ hour journey into the Verapaces. I made it to the capital, Guate, and navigated my way through the city with the help of a few friends. We made it to Moja Blanca, Guatemala's version of Greyhound, and began our journey up through the heart of Guatemala. On the way we ran into traffic. Correction, road block!!!!!! We waited for 2 hours at a standstill while workers tried to remove a big rig from the road. It seemed that the big rig somehow ran off the side of the road. It was halfway on and halway off. Making the bus hot and sweaty!!!
We finally started moving along, and realized we were cutting it close to our next destination. We might not make the other bus!!! We race off our bus as it pulls into Coban and run for the jam-packed coaster heading to Carcha. We barely made it! Wheeewwww! We get to Carcha and make our 10 min walk to the Coaster heading to Campur. We searched the parking lot looking for the right micro, and we finally find it. It was sooo jammed-pack, we weren't sure if we would all be able to fit. But this is Guatemala, land of "one more". All 25 of us in a 15-passenger van made our way on our 2hr journey. Needless to say, by the end of our trip, I was extremely tired and my knee was throbbing with pain.
We arrived around 8:30pm, tired and worn out from such a long day of travel. We detoxed for a few, and then began enjoying the party. We danced and talked. For some of us, we hadn't seen each other in months!
Dinner was beyond excellent! Our host made this mango beef, chicken, etc meal, and everyone was extremely happy. We all crashed and burned before 3am; piled-up next to each other like little cousins at a family reunion.
Bright and early the next morning, all 11 of us got up and handled "morning business" before we sat and ate cinnamon pancakes and eggs. I played Scrabble with some friends, and of course I won!! We played Spades and began prepping for our big feast of the day. Our host prepared several sauces to marinate the shish-kabobs and we had an open taco bar. Everyone helped prep and some grilled while others cleaned. 
After such a great feast, we had a Great Debaters - style debate on several pressing issues: (1) Has President Obama done enough for Black-Americans? (2) Do Black-Americans need to be afraid of the increasing population of Latin-American immigrants (legal/illegal) in their communities? (3) What does it mean to be Black enough? and (4) Feelings on interacial dating, marriage, and kids. Even though these are hot topics, we openly discussed our views in a very civil matter. Some of us brought in some very important facts. It was very interesting to watch as some people had to defend a side that they did not believe in. I think we may do it again sometime in the future.
Again, after a long day, we crashed. All 11 of us in one room, and we made it work. Of course, I got the bed because of my knee. (Sweet!)
We awoke the next morning on a misson to head back to our perspective sites. Some of us had longer travel than others, but we were all focused to get home in one piece. I made it home around 8, put my bags down and layed in the bed. I didn't cut any lights on, I didn't take off my clothes. I didn't even get under the covers. I just slept!! Extremly tired, but extremly pleased of a job well done!
teamwork
Good Friendships
Good Eating
TOO MUCH FUN!!
Cutting up the MEAT!
CHOPPING WOOD
too much FOOD
Looking forward to next year!!!!!!!!
0 Response to "Juneteenth"
Post a Comment