One Family Man and Three Halves

In Guatemala's Petén Province, which is as big as Taiwan, there lives one Taiwanese family man and the three "half-family" men of the Taiwanese Agricultural Technical Mission. . .

Leaving CKS International Airport, we embark on a flight of more than twenty hours plus transfers. We arrive in Guatemala in the night and in the morning board a small plane to fly the 510 km to Petén. We have traveled almost continuously for two days.

Hometown boy

From the airport, we make a 40-minute drive to Flores' Yum Kax Hotel. Stepping into the lobby, I'm startled to see a young Indian girl holding a baby girl; the baby looks just like my neighbor's Chinese baby! Is it really possible that the Indians and the Chinese were one people some tens of thousands of years ago?

The two-year-old baby girl turns out to be named Chen Wei-chen. Her father, Chen Chia-yao, is from Chiayi's Putze Village. To the members of the Agricultural Mission, he is "Boss" Chen. The local people call him Chayan ("hometown boy"). Encouraged by his father, Chen came to Guatemala 10 years ago to make a name for himself. After seeing Petén's awe-inspiring pyramids, he picked up his family and moved them to the province. Here, they opened up one hotel after another and became Petén's one and only resident Chinese family. In travel handbooks on Central America, half of the hotels listed for Flores belong to Chen and his family.

The other three halves

"Boss" Chen is Petén's only full-fledged Chinese family man. As for the Mission's three hardworking members, Chen jokingly refers to them as "half-family" men. Because of the remoteness of Petén Province, none of them have brought their families with them. Technical Trainer Yeh Yun-chao, the longest serving member of the Petén Mission, has been here for five years and is stationed at the Mission's El Remate Model Farm, 30 km from Flores. His wife is in Guatemala City and his daughter, in the United States. Technical Trainer Lin Yan-jen is stationed at the San Luis Field Station, 120 km from Flores. Wu Chen-tzung, the youngest of the technical trainers, just arrived here from Saint Vincent last June and is married to a woman of East Indian descent.

The 50-something-year-old Yeh has been overseas for more than 30 years. The early period of his time abroad was spent in Africa where he was posted in Chad, Niger, and Dahomey as part of a farming team. Though he suffered from an attack of an anopheles mosquito (which carries malaria) while in Africa, he nonetheless feels that Petén has been his most difficult assignment, especially during the civil war.

Not everyone has settled down

Guatemala's civil war lasted for 36 years and it was in Petén Province, along the Mexican-Guatemalan border, that the guerrillas most frequently appeared. "Our work requires driving more than 200 km every day. Though you're afraid, you can't not go," says Yeh. Fortunately, the guerrillas didn't attack the common people without cause, only surrounding them with their vehicles and subjecting them to a one or two hour harangue. At the end of last year, government troops and guerrillas signed a peace treaty. However, in the midst of reconstruction, not all of the guerrillas and displaced citizens have settled down and sometimes news is heard of visitors being robbed.

Usually, the Mission's members go out with a companion in the daytime and avoid going out at all in the evening. To avoid bandits, all of them have learned to drive at high speeds. On the region's pot-holed gravel roads, most people would not drive at over 30 kph, but the Mission's members have learned to weave back and forth across the bumpy roads at nearly 100 kph. When they see a large stone or tree limb blocking the road, or an oncoming vehicle flashing its lights, it means there are bandits ahead. They turn and flee without a second thought.

Posted in Ultima Thule

With transportation in and out of Petén being so difficult, the standard of living is poor. The Mission's members laughingly call themselves modern day Su Wus (after an official posted at the edge of the empire to watch sheep until his all male flock should happen to give birth to a lamb). The Model Farm has water but no power. The situation at the San Luis Field Station is the same. Many of the farmers undergoing the Mission's training live in small villages which are not accessible by car. After driving halfway, the trainers must walk, or if it is far, ride a horse. The Mission's trainers really are jacks-of-all-trades, expert not only in high-speed driving, but also horseback riding.

In carrying out their work, the Mission's trainers spend about half their time on the road providing support to very poor small farmers. But these farmers never have enough money to buy the materials they need and the government organizations working with the Mission also lack funds. The situation makes the trainers feel as if they are fighting a war with guns but no bullets.

Recently, the local people, who are typically more than a little xenophobic, have come to view the Mission's members as a part of their own extended families, encouraging the trainers to give their all in return. "Lin often takes medicine to poor families and helps get pregnant ladies to a clinic to deliver their babies," confides Chen Chia-Yao's wife, revealing the depth of Lin Yan-jen's friendship with the local people, which has obviously gone far beyond what his work requires of him.

Their other halves

While these globetrotting men handle all the many difficulties of their work with ease, it is thoughts of their wives and children that keep them up at night. Though Yeh says he just can't get used to eating tortillas, what he really means is that he misses his wife's cooking. Lin's wife is both pregnant and taking care of two not-yet-five-year-old children by herself in Guatemala City. The thought of her leads Lin to make a nighttime drive across 400 km of gravel roads to Guatemala City every two weeks to see her.

On the Model Farm, there are some Taiwanese karaoke tapes and some Chinese language magazines. The dart board on the wall is honeycombed with holes, each one a reminder of their faraway homeland, and the other half of the Mission members' lives.

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Driving Petén's farmers home after work. The relationship between the members of the Agricultural Mission and local farmers is more than just a working relationship.