Saturday August 28 there was a fujuni. A fujina is when the men get together to clean up the village. Each man age 18 or older brings his machete to chop the village. They clean/chop the school grounds, the cemetery and the football field. It takes all morning. The ladies bring cacoa drink, juice or coffee after the men finish chopping the village.
Then after the fajina there is a community meeting held at the community center. At the meeting the men address issues of the village. There was a lot of arguing going on this meeting. I have a difficult time understanding because the men speak all in K’ekchi, but I usually get what is being said. If I don’t understand I just ask someone who is sitting close by me.
At this meeting some men argued that only 18 year olds and older should chop. Some men like to send their young son in their place; however, some men think that is unfair. Some men think that younger than 18 can chop too. It was a big debate because this issue deals with them personally. Also if a man does not go to fajina they have to pay 10.00 dollars to the village council. The debate could have gone on and on until the chairman finally told us to move on to the next topic.
The one man in the village that made me cry one time. He accused me of not visiting his house because he was a drunkard. I said that was not true. I did not visit because he never invited me. He kept screaming at me and said that he doesn’t need me to help in the village. He said he doesn’t want anything to do with me. He was not going to send his kids to the preschool I was opening, nor was he going to send his daughter to camp GLOW. I don’t know why I took it so personally, but because he was screaming at me I just started to cry. Well I bring him up because he likes to scream and voice his opinion at the community meetings too. He had to be kicked out of the meeting several times.
Fajina is an excellent thing I believe. The community comes out to help the village look clean. I asked another volunteer Laura if they do fajina’s up North in Mestizo (Spanish speaking villages) she said no. That fajina’s are just done my maya villages.
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