While their friends and family were at home enjoying Thanksgiving turkey last year, two high-school seniors from Boothbay Harbor, Maine, were at a garbage dump in Guatemala, surrounded by a different type of bird: vultures.
Matt Forgues (right) and Katrina Wheeler, both 17, spent 10 days in Guatemala City last fall as part of an annual trip organized by the Maine-based non-profit, Safe Passage. The organization aims to improve the lives of Guatemala City’s poorest citizens — people who live in the city’s massive garbage dump and have little access to education, healthcare or other opportunities for improvement.
Forgues and Wheeler spent ten days in Guatemala City at the end of November, along with four other students from their high school, and two adults from the town. This is the second year in a row the two have traveled with Safe Passage.
“The first time I went down I was totally unsure that I was going to like it,” says Wheeler. “Then you go down there and it’s a whole different experience. It’s complete culture shock. You see these incredible kids and they’re so happy even though they have nothing. It makes the trip worth it. That’s why I went back the second time, to be around people who are so thankful.”
Raising funds for the people is an important part of the commitment to traveling to Guatemala. “Last year, we donated $1,600,” says Forgues. “This year we raised $2,500.” The money goes to helping to supply families at the dump with much-need provisions like rice, flour, honey and sugar.
“Part of the deal with Safe Passage is that students need to keep a certain grade and attend school a certain number of days for the month,” explains Forgues. “If you do that, they send you home with a care package.”
The packages are lifelines for a community with almost no access to basic staples. “Safe Passage’s motto is ‘combating poverty through education,’” says Forgues. “Essentially, though, it’s to keep these kids alive.”
The team also had to plan several activities to conduct with the kids at the dump (left). “We worked with four-year-olds, the third grade class, and then a high-school class,” says Forgues.
One of the exercises they came up with centered around the theme of identity. “We had the kids do drawings about their homes,” says Wheeler. “One half of the drawing was what they liked about their homes, the other half was what they didn’t like. There were several pictures with guns in them. In one, there was a picture of a man shooting another man. There was a picture of a drive-by. Another kid drew these big black birds, because in the dump there are thousands and thousands of vultures, surrounding it. You had this really nice picture with all of these creepy birds.”
Forgues did the same exercise with a different group of students. “One girl said, ‘I love my home because my mom is there and my dad is there and my siblings and my sibling’s husbands and my dog. But the thing I don’t like is all the hitting that goes on.’ That really shocked me. You don’t expect an eight-year-old to say that,” he says.
More than anything else, Forgues says the students he saw needed love. “It’s a tough life there,” he says. “Eighty percent of the kids are physically abused. Something like 60 to 75 percent are emotionally abused. Three percent are sexually abused. That’s documented.”
The poverty at the dump creates a lot of violence and crime, says Wheeler. “There’s a lot of stealing, prostitution, etc. It evolves from the poverty.”
Both students say in addition to helping the people of Guatemala, their trips have changed them and helped to shape the directions of their lives. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do before I went down there. Now I do,” says Wheeler. “I want to go into Peace and Conflict Studies. I’m already taking classes online. I’m interested in the political aspects of what’s going on.”
“I have declared as pre-med,” says Forgues. “I always knew I wanted to do something health-related, but going down there put the hammer on that. I know exactly what I want to do now. I want to work in impoverished communities.”
So did these Mainers miss Thanksgiving back home with their families? “Not at all,” says Wheeler. “Thanksgiving is Thanksgiving. You’re going to have many more.”
Forgues agrees. “Thanksgiving is about being with your family. But how many times do you get the opportunity to do what we were doing? I’m willing to give up one day with my family to go down and help in any way that I can.”
Photos courtesy of Matt Forgues