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Eryn’s Story
American artist (Performing Art)
Eryn Johnson stayed in Guatemala for two
ArtCorps placements. She worked with a program that promotes
the education of girls in the Rio Dulce region of Guatemala.
Eryn's comments from her first year with
ArtCorps:
I was welcomed with open arms. At the
project site, everyone seemed to be well informed of my arrival
and ready to receive me. I was assigned a fellow volunteer to
orient me, which was very helpful.
My living situation....
My assigned room was equipped with a foam
mattress on the floor, but did not include the usual things
often associated with comfort (showers, privacy, furniture,
walls). I was able to adapt and was given lots of creative
ideas and support by my fellow volunteers. The food was also
basic, but for the most part nutritionally sound. The most
important things that I really missed, I was able to find in
the nearby town (well, except for peanut butter, and bagels,
and Thai food, and sushi, and my stepmother's lasagna).
The fax sometimes worked and sometimes did
not. I was able to use a computer that lost power about every
half-hour because it was situated too far away from the energy
plant. There were two cellular telephones that often didn't get
a signal. All of the employees and volunteers shared these
living and working conditions.
Because of the remote location of the NGO,
it was necessary to be creative in the use of materials and
resources. We made lampshades from paper made of corn, cups
from bamboo poles, and baskets from vines.
The community....
Developing a cooperative relationship with
the hosting organization and the community was a gradual
process, but ultimately a rewarding one.
The general community building work that I
did was helpful in that it improved community relations and
broadened the workers' expectations of their lifestyles at the
NGO site. People are now requesting communal activities. I
believe that the arts based activities I initiated had a
positive effect on the strength of the message we were trying
to communicate.
My work was very successful and was well
received. I always worked side by side with a program promoter.
The artistic techniques used were a part of the reason the
message of the program was so well received and had tangible
results.
In the village communities, it is almost
impossible for foreigners to be fully accepted. However, I was
often invited into people's houses and given the last bit of
food. After my first month, people seemed to be excited about
what I was doing and participated more actively.
The general community building work that I
did was helpful in that it improved community relations and
broadened the workers' expectations of their lifestyles at the
NGO site. People are now requesting communal activities. I
believe that the arts based activities I initiated had a
positive effect on the strength of the message we were trying
to communicate.
I felt people appreciated the arts
activities but were still more motivated by prizes and
competition than they were by the concept of creating or
working in a group.
I feel like I changed in some important
ways. I became more patient with myself, with others and with
time. I also became more accepting of different lives,
lifestyles, and ways of expression. In general, I am more
conscious of how time works - that things change with time and
so don't despair. I am more conscious of the fact that I can't
control the outcome of many things, so I need to wait and see
and while I wait, keep living and looking. When I see, I really
see something. When I hear, I really hear something. That is
different from only looking through your own frame of
reference.
How else the trip affected me....
Through my work in Guatemala, I have grown
in almost every facet of my life. One of the most significant
of these has been my growing ability of being able to be
patient. I have learned to respect time; not to be passive, but
to wait with energy.
This experience will effect my artwork in
many ways. I now know more about planning projects, assessing
and creating activities. I have learned about and have invented
a range of new techniques to access communities through the
arts. The jungle, the river, the people, the language,
Guatemala - these things will dance in and out of my artwork in
the future. They will effect the kinds of communities with
which I will choose to work and the subjects I will choose to
address. They will effect the way I express myself and the
tools I use to do so.
There are few people who really understand
the ways in which the arts can help develop communities,
especially extremely disadvantaged communities like those found
in many Central American countries. Art is not just for the
privileged.
The idea of sending an artist to a social
service organization to help them improve their programs using
the arts is a good one. What was difficult was the process of
convincing the organization that this service could be of help.
I am staying on at the NGO to continue my
work with the Eduquemos a la Niña program. I would
recommend ArtCorps to people who are very self-motivated and
driven in their work.
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