Chicken soup in an empty kitchen

by Valerie Hudders (Belgium)

I didn't expect to find Guatemala

Join me into Doña Lucero her kitchen. We e are lucky. Electricity is working so one light bulb is shining softly into the dark room. The wood in the stove is burning well. Today we are not trapped in a smoke cloud inside the house. The house is the last one of this 5-street village before reaching out to the forest and higher peaks. We are in the mountains of Guatemala. Habits and some people their dialects in this village will confuse you with Mexico. This house is built close to the border they share. It's a pity you arrived just too late to meet Doña Lucero. She is one of the most driven, resourceful, and caring women I ever met. She is about 40 years old and the mother of four children between 16 and 26 years old. For a few weeks now, the kitchen where we are standing suffers a different atmosphere. New ideas and good energy are lacking. Doña Lucero is dreaming about a restaurant. Together with her children, she wants to share their gift of making good foods by combining a restaurant and accommodations. They want to share the treasures of this abandoned mountain area and make it more attractive to tourists. Together with other locals, they will have more opportunities to make a living where they want: here, at their home base. With the same spirit of Doña Lucero, the oldest daughter couldn't deal not having any future perspective. To speed up their dream coming true, she said goodbye to all and everyone she loved and left the village to make money. It's thanks to her I can show you around. Before I was never offered to stay the night. I'll show you the reason but herefore we need to go out. Watch out so you don't squeeze one of the little chickens running around... Here, this smallest and newest part of the house is the reason why Doña Lucero and her family felt ashamed of inviting people. The toilet! A few months ago the family could afford a flushing toilet. Thanks to this upgrade the family can have as many unexpected guests without feeling ashamed. Doña Lucero her youngest daughter got inspired. So now the two last women in this house left the village. Doña Lucero and her youngest daughter said goodbye to all and everyone they love. Now they are another step closer to creating their family-dream. Knowing Doña Lucero can not enter any moment soon gives me the feeling I'm showing you around in the most empty house in the village. The empty feeling stays even though I'm not by myself. Not now, nor earlier. Just before you arrived a friend and I were waiting until the chicken soup started boiling on the wooden stove. In the meanwhile, we were talking about daily things in life. About how she could grow up in a house where she and each of her 9 siblings had their own room. How happy she was she could continue her school and stay in dorms. How her parents were able to adopt two orphans from neighboring villages and offer them a future with better opportunities. About how she knows the smell, feeling and salty taste of seawater. Her fathers' job made all of this possible. In return, she got used to her father being abroad regularly due to work. With two of her siblings joining this work, they grew into a family business. While we were waiting for the chicken soup to cook, a new light shined into my eyes. We started talking about the normality of growing up in a family where the father is the local coyote. As we would call them: the local human smuggler. Everyone in the neighborhood knows who he is: the helping hand to many people in their journey. to the North, by delivering expensive Mexican identity papers, mapping out routes ... Nobody can benefit from snitching them. After all, they help dreams come true for many. I can't blame them. Thanks to him, Doña Lucera and her family are getting closer to their dream. Sip from your soup while we wait to receive a phone call from the USA.