Porque Sí

After my last entry I thought I’d take a step down from my soapbox. In the moment that I took one foot off my preachy podium, my host brother decides to abandon his studies at the local private catholic high school.

About a month ago, Andy, my 21-year-old host brother who is married with one son, decided that he wanted to return to his schooling after a short 6-year hiatus. He wanted to return to his schooling at our local private catholic grade, middle, and high school, but had some problems with his inscription due to some rule that doesn’t allow married students to study. To make a long story short, he eventually, after a 2 week on going conversation, was given the opportunity to be a student again and finish out his last 3 years of high school. I can’t tell you how happy I was that he had consciously made the decision to return to his studies. His decision was, for me, a sign that not everyone in Guatemala has the same feeling towards education as was conveyed in my last entry. It gave me, something that is often lost in the western highlands of Guatemala, hope for the future.

Almost a week ago, while hanging some clothes up to dry on my rooftop and shortly after Andy had made the decision to return to his studies, he and I had an interesting conversation. I simply asked him why he wanted to return to his studies. In reply, he gave me something that should be a patented Guatemalan response and one that I should’ve expected after asking him such an open-ended question. Porque Sí! This translates to "just because",“because”, or “cuz” and is a commonly used answer to express agreement without actual expressing anything that could be considered an opinion. I went on to push the subject further and asked him what he thinks he will gain by returning to school. He said that he wanted to eventually make more money to support his family and has aspirations of one day having a place of his own. Andy is a married man and so going along with Latino culture can now move out of his parent’s house in search of a home for his 10 month old son, Renato, and his wife, Darling. He has three brothers and they are all married with children and no longer live in their parent's house. So, I’m sure that he feels a pressure to move out, although I know he’d never admit it.

As of now, Renato, Andy, and Darling all live in Andy’s parent’s house in a small room and will continue to live there until they have the funds to find their own place. He’s driven micros, local transport shuttles, in the family business since he left his studies at 15. Yesterday, Andy decided to throw the towel in on his schooling after only 2 weeks back in the game. As of now, it seems that he’ll be driving micros for a long time to come. So, while I step off my soapbox and try to leave behind, even if only momentarily, my disappointment and frustration towards the way the western highlands of Guatemala takes for granted the importance of education, I struggle to see that the glass is half full in this situation. The glass will continue to seem half empty as long as there is a lack of thirst to learn.

Andy comes from a well-off family who can afford his schooling, which makes it that much harder to stomach the fact that he’s decided to give up on his education. It’s very difficult for me to understand why he would want to leave his studies when there are so many students, who if they only had the financial means, would find irresistible the opportunity to continue their education. The amount of money that I spent on books every semester in College is more than enough money to help a student through a year of private middle or high school. I’m currently looking for money to support 3 students this year and if you have any spare change or desire to help out please let me know. Until then, I’ll eat some tortillas, walk to some schools, wash some hands, brush some teeth, and do it over again. Things are they way they are in the western highlands of Guatemala, for lack of better words, Porque Sí!