Valentine’s installation
I woke up to find this Valentine’s installation by my son Mateo. May your day(s) be filled with love!
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Hawaii
To celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, Tim and I had a quick getaway to Hawaii. Waikiki Beach, Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head on Oahu. Poipu and Waimea on Kauia. Pink sunrises and orange sunsets, palm trees, ocean, blue skies. Grateful to Patrice for staying home with the kids and Charlie–Olivia’s school has been remote until yesterday–and to our friend and travel advisor Hina Aly, who knows all the best places.
Adoptees with Guatemalan Roots Meetup
Adoptees with Guatemalan Roots is holding its 3rd Annual Meetup/Conference for people adopted from Guatemala on March 25-27th, 2022 in Washington DC. The event is for adoptees who are 18 years and older.
For details on the schedule of events, how to join, and flight/hotel information, visit AWGR’s website: https://guateroots.org/annual-meetup/
The deadline to secure a hotel room at the discounted rate of $89 is February 23rd.
I once heard an interview with a group of adoptees on NPR’s Codeswitch. They were born in countries around the world and had gathered together to reflect on their experiences. One of the adoptees, a young man, described what it felt like for him to be in a room filled with other adoptees, to be part of a community. “Our homeland is each other,” he said.
“Our homeland is each other.” That observation stopped me cold. Yes.
Please share this announcement with anyone who may be interested. Or if you’re an adoptee from Guatemala yourself, consider connecting.
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Charlie and Clem
On days when she has appointments or is running errands, my sister Patrice drops off her tiny pooch, Clementine, for a doggie play date. Charlie and Clem love to rumble, chase, and take walks together. But this latest development of Clem jumping up onto Charlie’s couch–aka Chaz’s command central–Charlie’s not so sure about that.
Guardian article on remittances
This January 21, 2022 article in the Guardian pinpoints the reasons why the government of Guatemala has no reason to try to stop immigration to the United States. The title gives a tidy summary: “Guatemala’s economy buoyed by record $15 billion sent home from workers overseas.”
I’m not here to debate immigration from Guatemala to the U.S. I’m simply sharing reasons why it happens and why it happens on such a large scale.
Says Paul Briere, a former congressional representative in Guatemala who once headed the country’s commission on migration: “[The political elite] won’t make the effort to stop migration, they won’t make the effort to combat corruption, they will not make the effort to combat inequality, they will not make the effort to combat poverty, because they need that to be the situation. They need these people to leave Guatemala.”
As the article states: “The amount of money Guatemalans living abroad send home to their families reached record levels in 2021. Remittances rose to more than $15 billion (£11bn) in 2021, an increase of 35% on the previous year. The unprecedented rise prompted experts to question the political will to tackle the migration crisis when remittances from the US contribute so much to the Guatemalan economy.”
An estimated 2.9 million Guatemalans live in the U.S. Remittance analysts estimate that Guatemala sees between 2 and 2.5 million remittance transactions every month. The infusion of so much money from outside Guatemala effectively lets the government off the hook from delivering quality infrastructure, education, and healthcare.
Anecdotally, when I visit Guatemala, I am astonished by the housing construction projects—enormous two-story cement block homes funded by private remittance money. There’s a huge difference between communities where families receive remittance money and communities where they don’t.
Millions of people are poor in Guatemala, but Guatemala is not a poor country. “Where is the government in all this?” I often wonder when visiting underfunded schools and homes that lack clean drinking water. “Why are they not providing their citizenry with basic needs?”
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