Cricketd's Travels

Tourist-ing

2009-12-05T20:24:00.007-05:00

As much as I am not fond of being a tourist, this past week with Honey was pretty fun. Our days were packed full of travel and adventure.

We went straight from the airport to Coban on her first day. The next morning we headed straight to Semuc Champey to see some waterfalls and jungle. Honey was the photographer as I jumped off 10 meter cliffs, swung into rivers, swam through caves, and tubed down the river. Beyond those adventures, our hotel also didn't have hot water and we had to ride in the back of a pick up truck back to town!

On the third day we ventured over to Rio Dulce, a tourist town full of rich ex-pats living on their yachts and floating from port to port. The area was really pretty and we got to take a boat tour the next day to Livingston which is the port town where the 'garifunas' live. Honey felt bad for a dog who came to visit us and insisted on giving her a granola bar. The dog very much appreciated it but proceeded to follow us and started to get a little pushy.

Then we headed back to Antigua for a night before heading out to Lago Atitlan where we took a tour of three villages and got to see the damage caused by the algae bloom that has turned the beautiful clear lake brown and chunky. In Santiago Atitlan (one of the villages) we were talked into taking a '5 site tour' and despite my reluctance to do it, it was well worth it. We got to see the Peace Park where 13 people were killed on December 2, 1990 by the army that was occupying the town. We also got to see an area of town where 1500 people were killed at the base of 2 volcanos when landslides caused by Hurricaine Stan (2005) covered the town.

The next morning we were off to the Chichi market, this largest and most popular market in Guatemala. After a week of waiting, Honey was finally able to do some shopping for the artisan goods that she had been admiring all week. I was her translator/price negotiator...we were usually able to cut down prices by 30-50%.

Heading back to Antigua for her last couple of days in town, we went to the AWARE sterilization clinic on Friday then finished up with a few more souvenir purchases at the Antigua Mercado Artesenia and visited all of the churches/tourist sites in Antigua on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, Honey had to head back to the snow and 20 degree temperatures in Michigan today and I will be headed that way in less than three weeks!

I'm Ba-ack

2009-11-25T23:39:00.003-05:00

Excited to come home to

Guatemala

after a quick month filled with work, Health in Action meetings, and wonderful weekends, I got to work right away. Since I got back two weeks ago, I’ve started to build the garden/compost area for the volunteer’s house with housemate Danielle, prepared for and attended a flower sale/CasaSito fundraiser, spent a week in Samox San Lucas, went on a vacation planning spree for Honey’s visit, and started fostering a dog.

Garden

While I was away Danielle was busy drinking…I mean…collecting almost 200 wine bottles from local eateries and constructing a compost box to house our pet worms. When I got back, we set to work on weaving together the wine bottles to form the ‘recycled’ wall of our garden. With both of us busy, we stopped there and plan to get to work today to get the rest of the garden together because we have lots of plants lined up and waiting for their place in the soil…

CasaSito fundraiser/flower sale

The plants came from the flower sale that CasaSito was beneficiary of on Saturday the 14^th of November. The American ex-pat who co-owns the local restaraunt, La Peña del Sol Latino, wanted to sell plants and flowers from her garden to benefit one of Antigua’s many NGOs. The sale, named Festival de Semilla de Education (The Seed of Education Festival), was a fun event with over 2000 plants for sale (hearing about the awesome festival, other businesses and ex-pats from around Antigua were eager to donate their own plants for the sale) and live music and food from the restaurant.

Samox San Lucas

After a month of HiA meetings and project selection in the States, it was time to do some follow up research and make a proposal to the community about the type of work we planned on doing. HiA was interested in picking up on the community’s interest in an agriculture educational/reform program linked into a business module which would be accompanied by sanitation education and follow up research for future programs in Samox. I entered the community with a list of questions to investigate throughout the week and with a plan to follow-up with the committee that we had started during my last visit.

I dove right into getting my questions answered by just hanging out with families, observing habits, and asking endless questions as we went about daily life in the community. While I felt like I was making great progress in the research portion of my trip, I was barely making any progress with the committee we created last time. In fact, only one committee member came to the first meeting and only two to the second. We tried a third time to hold a meeting to invite all of the committee members in the community (20-30 people) and no one come. I felt terribly unsuccessful by the end and a little frustrated with the community’s response to HiA’s attempts to work on educational programs in the community. I received an email today from a community contact who said they did end up having the meeting and are interested in the idea for community gardens…it’s a start but will need some significant follow up.

Coffee drying. Families grow it in their yards to drink and to sell.

Cleaning cardamom.

Washing ixtamal (corn for tortillas).

Rubber trees.

Cardamom.

At the same time, I spent the first two days with a representative, Alex, from Sustainable Horizons which is a for-profit organization that finds week-long projects around the world and proposes them as spring break and summer trips to American high school students. The students offer to implement a small development project with a price range of $1000-2000 (a good sum of money for a developing community…the community was particularly interested in this opportunity). Also, on the third day, CasaSito representatives came to move forward with the plans for the construction of a middle school. Following up that meeting, I met with the widowed, divorced, and single women in the community to look into the possibility of offering snack to the middle school students to encourage their attendance.

After seeing the community response to Alex and CasaSito’s projects, I was a little discouraged about the future of HiA in the community. As an organization that has tried to make a commitment to offering only educational resources (and no money), we are struggling to motivate the community to view education as an asset and to move forward on their own development projects (especially since they continue to have big projects just donated to them).

What I think the community needs is an overseer that coordinates all of the outside hands that do work or could potentially do work in their town. I feel like I have begun to serve that role but struggle to balance that and my intentions for HiA. I think where I can make progress in the community is to manage the groups that do work there and emphasize how important it is for them to do some sort of work before having the project implemented. For example, while Sustainable Horizons would have been satisfied with a report from me explaining potential projects in Samox, we have asked the community to write their own set of proposals and budgets. At the same time, this overseer could bridge the projects happening in the community so each organization will know what other organizations are already doing. For example, HiA often works on educational health modules in the community and not until I spent some time learning about the other programs there did I learn about the health worker who educates women monthly. After spending some time in Samox, I am beginning to realize that I have not really found a niche for HiA’s work there that both HiA and the community could agree on.

Vacation planning

The access to Guatemalan vacation planning online is basically non-existent. For all of the forums about past Guatemalan travels, very few of the travel agencies and hotels have websites on which you can plan and book trips. Honey and I finally got things planned out for her trip that starts THIS Friday! We will be traveling to Semuc Champey, Rio Dulce, Lago Atitlan, and the Chichi market with a possibility of checking out Pacaya Volcano if we feel up to it.

Foster mom

Patches is a mangy (literally) mutt from the streets of Guatemala who has been living at AWARE for a few months. He has a family ready and excited to adopt him in the US but he needs to get there and we need to be sure that he is well-mannered and used to living in a house. So far, he has been great with people and other animals and has only had one accident in the house…but he learned quickly.

I don’t understand how people can have dogs in the city…we went to the park to go potty and the groundskeeper told me that he wasn’t allowed to go on the grass…when asked where he was supposed to go to the bathroom, the man just pointed to the cement ground he was standing on. I had seen many dogs just go on the sidewalk before but that concept doesn’t make any sense to me. Most of the homes in the city have only cement floors…how are the dogs supposed to know the difference between going outside on the cement or going inside on the cement floor!?

Anyway, Patches has to go back to AWARE when Honey and I head off for our travels this weekend but I think he’s ready and excited to hop on the plane that will take him to his new family in the States.

What's next

The rest of this week will be filled with report writing for the fellowship I received from CICS. Honey arrives on Friday and we head out immediately for a week of travels. Once she leaves, I will have a week of down time again to finish reports and prepare for my final trip to Samox San Lucas during my fellowship period. Then CasaSito has a Christmas party, Brad comes, we make some progress in Samox, we have the CasaSito art festival, then it's already time to come home! Somewhere in there, I will have time to breathe...it'll be a relief to get back to the daily routine in Winter 2010!

Happy World Animal Day!

2009-10-04T12:27:00.003-04:00

Today is Dia Mundial del Animal. It is a day to think about animal welfare and offer education. Have you hugged a dog today? There are many dogs in Guatemala that have never and will never be hugged.

I had planned on making an event for Animal AWARE today until we found out that AWARE has recently grown a group of supporters that had already planned an event for October 7th. The are holding a trova concert in the capital with a raffle, a flea market, and lots of information about AWARE donations and adoptions. I'm sad I can't be at the event but I wish them the best of luck and hope that many AWARE dogs will either be adopted or sponsored as a result of the festival!

The new support group also has big plans for the future including restarting educational programs for children to encourage animal sterilization and human treatment, sponsorship follow-up photos so sponsoring families can see updates on their dog every month, AWARE tours, and continued sterilization clinics all over Guatemala. I am really excited to see some organization coming to the AWARE system and hope that this group will consider making themselves sustainable by planning a long-term future for AWARE administration.

Check out AWARE's website on how you can help on World Animal Day: http://www.animalaware.org/en/kids01.htm!

Life Since Samox

2009-10-04T11:37:00.005-04:00

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of computer work. When I first got back I spent a week typing up my notes from the 10 day journey, following up with the community on some internet research, writing my the blog, and trying to start my report.

Volunteers' House Project
In the second week, I found myself unproductive with computer work and started to get antsy to do something. So, I spent the beginning of the week hunting for materials for and making a present (pictures to come after the gift has been delivered). Then, Danielle, a new housemate, and I started making plans to build a compost box and vegetable garden in the CasaSito yard.

Compost:
Here in Antigua fruit and vegetables are soooo cheap that it's hard to not eat fresh produce for every meal and snack. However, as a by-product of this healthy eating, we also produce a lot of food waste when we peel our bananas, core our apples, scrape seeds out of our papayas, or find an unrecognizable rotted eggplant in the back of the fridge. Being accustomed to having a compost pile, it pained me every time I had to throw perfectly decomposable food waste in the garbage (I don't even know where the garbage here goes when it leaves our front door). Danielle had the same trouble throwing away food. Together, we decided that we were in desperate need of a compost pile and we started researching how to get the worms and how to build the box.

Garden:
But what would we do with all the compost. We could sell it as a CasaSito fundraiser...who's going to buy rotten food? Well, what can you do with compost other than fertilize a garden anyway...we decided to also build ourselves a garden so we could grow staple fruits and veggies like limes, beans, tomatoes, and strawberries. I had been really excited about the plastic bottle wall I had seen implemented in Santa Cruz and wanted to use that as the model. After starting to think about materials and how we would have to buy wood anyway to make the mold to pour the cement (defeating the purpose of only using recycled materials since we could just use the wood to build a box instead of using the bottles and cement), we decided to change the method a little bit. In the end, we decided to alternate between wine bottles and cans. The wine bottles would be filled with trash and the cans would hold flowers intended to keep the bugs away.

Recycling:
We were so excited to get started that we went out to all the bars in Antigua in search of their empty wine bottles that would have otherwise been thrown away. I am going to pick up all the bottles today. We also went to the local vivero (the English Gardens of Antigua) to start pricing plants and soil. We also visited a local construction site rumored to have a mountain of used wood that we could use to construct our compost box (sure enough...literally a mountain). Danielle is going to hunt down some worms while I'm home for a month.

Proposal:
In the midst of the excitement we submitted an official proposal to Alice and Amanda, the CasaSito team and they loved it. In the end, the only garden materials we will need to pay for are the wire to attach the bottles, the wire mesh for the compost box, the plastic lining for the garden, some nails and staples, prepared dirt (although we will get most from the construction site), and the plants themselves. The whole project should cost less than $40.

Unfortunately, the project may be put on hold while I'm home for a month but hopefully we can get the compost box started so the worms can start working.

Moon Festival
Yesterday happened to be the Chinese Moon Festival which is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the year. Therefore, there is a full moon. The story is that a woman stole her husbands elixir and flew to the moon where she continues to live in a palace with a rabbit and can be seen dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival.

The celebration is much like 4th of July with family gatherings, grilling, and fireworks. We started cooking at 5PM and the celebration went on for hours. Melissa, my Taiwanese housemate invited her friends and I invited Julio. We grilled veggies and meat and stuffed peppers and followed up the meal with way too much sugar. It is tradition to eat Moon Cake while watching the full moon. It also happened to be Agnes' birthday so we had cheesecake and chocolate cake too!
I am really excited to be going home tomorrow for a month! I will be able move forward with HiA so I can go back to Samox in November with a proposal to move forward with a project.

Samox San Lucas

2009-09-24T11:06:00.016-04:00

It’s been noted that my blogs are too long. So I will post only a short summary of my past two weeks in Samox San Lucas but I would be thrilled to talk about it more (please).

So, I left the beautiful, volcano views of Antigua for the rainy, rural, unelectrified, waterless community of Samox San Lucas in Alta Verapaz, approximately an hour outside of Coban.

I
I
V

Community

Samox San Lucas is a community of 86 families with about 500 people split across three zones. They came to their current land as refugees in search of farmland in the mid ‘80s. While the government was responsible for finding and supporting land for the refugees, the land is still owned by a woman in Coban who lets them live and farm there until they can figure out a way to officially buy it.

While some community members have stores or grow food animals, most of the community members are farmers harvesting corn, beans, coffee, and cardamom.

They are only crops to harvest between September and April. One amazing community member sold two cows in order to construct the towns first 'pescaderia' (tilapia fish farm).

The community appears to be super organized with their six community committees but that brings along its fair share of politics and chaos which I got to experience while I was visiting.

New committee: Comite Consejos de la Comuindad

Used a modification of the Logical Framework Analysis to list and prioritize community problems, potential solutions, and the necessary resources. Top three to investigate first.

§ Business/agriculture

§ Water infrastructure

§ Improved Stoves

My biggest challenge in Samox was getting the community to appreciate sustainability and not develop dependency. They just started receiving outside aid over the past few years from several organizations including CasaSito, FONAPAZ, Centro de Salud and Asociacion Bautista K’ekchi’, the Peace Corps, Mi Familia Progressa, Euro-Solar, Rotary International, and Health in Action. They are starting to take advantage of these organizations and seem to be losing the energy to make change for themselves. The work I did with the committee aimed to reverse the growing paternalism by asking them to make their own goals and determine how to achieve them. By the end of the week, I think the message started to reach a few community members who had been frequently asking what HiA was going to bring to the community.

Telesegundaria

I went to SSL partially as a CasaSito representative to support the secondary school. A community committee of concerned fathers have struggled to get a secondary school up and running for their kids and others from surrounding communities. They have been fortunate to received support from CasaSito and a local man who has experience in school development projects.

CasaSito has helped to secure funds for the TV and DVD player that define a secondary school, teacher funding, some classroom supplies, and are currently in the progress of securing land and funds for a new secondary school and teacher salaries. They are struggling especially with enrollment. In order to receive funding from the government, they need to maintain a minimum of 25 students in each class.

Water updates

Back in February, HiA implemented some Biosand filters in the schools to encourage tooth-brushing and hand-washing with purified water. Since then, the elementary school has stopped using their filter because it started smelling like gas (that have students bring the influent and oftentimes water containers may be reused gasoline containers). The middle school still uses their filter daily but only for hand-washing since they don’t brush their teeth at school. It would be great to know if the filter is drinking quality so they could drink water after recess. I unsuccessfully tried to test the filters (I didn’t have the right Petri dishes for the test kits).

Since HiA was in town, Rotary International donated water filters for every classroom in the primary school. They consist of stacked buckets with 2 ‘candelas’ (activated carbon filters). The filters need to be cleaned at least once a month and the ‘candelas’ replaced annually. This is the reason they are unsustainable and not practical for this community…the community has been told that the candelas cost Q365 each (x2/filterx8filters=Q5840/year)…a ridiculous expense for a community of farmers that make about Q15/day.

Independence Day

On September 15, 1821 Guatemala gained its independence from Spain. Guatemalans go all out to celebrate their freedom. Two weeks before the event, street vendors took advantage of the patriotic season by selling Guatemalan flags for all purposes. The week leading up to I-day, SSL-ians started spending their entire school days doing patriotic art projects.

Finally, the I-day events started the night before with the Niña y Señorita de Independencia pageant. The men spent the whole day building and decorating a stage on the school grounds which would have a large stereo and lights powered by a generator for the special occasion.

The competition, the girls basically need to wear traditional clothing and do the slow, lonely Marimba dance up to the stage where they explain their message to the audience. I served on the judge’s panel for the Señoritas and my favorite (2^nd place winner) had a great message for the community, saying that women have the same rights and abilities as men.

The competition was interluded with performances from students in each grade including poetry, a Mayan futbol match (the kind where they light a soccer ball on fire and kick it at each other), dances, a reenactment of Guatemalan parties (with pushy millitary-men and police, drunkards, and all), and song...Samox is definitely not known for its Grammy winning singers...

The event was followed by some festive merengue dancing...

...and, much to my dismay, the slaughter of a one year old bull...

After the music stopped around 2AM, the children stayed up through the night playing fútbol in the schoolyard while the men started cooking the meat and chicharrones to share with the community the during the I-day festivities.

I-day itself was a big day for SSL because it would be the culmination of a month-long fútbol tournament where two SSL teams would compete for the trophy and pride. While miscommunication caused me to miss the game itself, the important part of that day was that people from communities all around SSL came to watch. With this, the telesegundaria had the opportunity advertise the middle school in hopes of increasing enrollment.

Following the fútbol game there was more music and the community chowed down on the 1000 pound bull.

I offered to help wash the dishes in the pila with the women…only to realize that the job entailed scraping lard (which reminded me of the butter mixture they sell for popcorn) off of bowls.

A local family

During my 10 days in Samox, I gradually made myself at home with a local family and they were a good resource for a lot of community information. Olivia is a 32 year old mother of 5 very unique children ranging in age from 2 to 16 and wife of a sawmill worker who has attempted some international travel but was kicked out of Spain and never made it to the States.

And the dog...Ca'an (he was just a puppy when HiA came in February)

With this family, I learned to bathe in the river, wash clothes in the river...

...desgranar corn...

...and tortillear (make tortillas)...Sharing nearly every meal with Olivia and her family, I left SSL craving homemade tortillas and beans.

ABK-Asociacion Bautista K’ekchi’/Ministerio de Salud collaboration

I met and worked with Rosaura (who happens to be the sister of Olivia), the field technician that offers monthly health classes to over 90 mothers in the community. The organization aims to promote socio-economic development in the country. Rosaura’s health lessons aim to teach the most basic hygiene and nutrition and the women seem to enjoy them. Some issues with the COCODE have made Rosaura threaten not to return. This partnership also brings a nurse to the Centro de Comvergencia in the community once a month to offer clinic services to mothers and children under 5 years of age. During the rest of the month, the associations keep the room well stocked with preventative medicines and antibiotics for the children. They have trained a community member on how to assess basic illnesses and distribute the free medications and conduct a monthly weigh-in of children under 2.

The association has also set up an emergency plan for the community including a fund where community members donate Q2/month and can borrow money in case of emergency.

SOSEP (Secretary of Social Works by the President’s Wife, http://www.sosep.gob.gt/perfil.php?codigo=11)

· Formed in 1991 to implement social development programs to benefit kids, families, and communities in general especially kids under 5, rural women, older adults, and the disabled. Colom’s wife and her team have developed new programs and re-vamped the old to bring a large scale sustainable and self-sustaining change to these populations to combat poverty and underdevelopment.

· SOSEP has two sectors: Hogares Comunitarios which provides home, education, and food for street children and Creciendo Bien which promotes improvements in health, education, and nutrition and opportunities for women through community self-management to be able to support the family.

· To use the programs offered by SOSEP, the community would need to take a written proposal for funds, materials, or education. We have considered requesting help from SOSEP for improved stoves but I really think the community needs to know why they need them first in order to write a powerful proposal.

Euro-Solar (http://www.programaeuro-solar.eu/eng/kit.php, http://www.mem.gob.gt/Portal/Documents/ImgLinks/2008-09/731/EUROSOLAR%20-%20INFORMACI%C3%93N%20GENERAL.pdf, http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/latin-america/regional-cooperation/euro-solar/index_es.htm)

The program is funded by the European Union and the Guatemalan Ministry of Energy and Mines. The goal is to bring sun and wind energy to rural communities while supporting education and health. The participating communities (of which Samox is one) will receive:

· Electricity and communication

o Solar panels

o Satellite antenna for Internet connection

o Satellite telephone

· Education:

o 5 laptop computers

o Printer

o Projecter

o Lights

· Health

o Refrigerator for vaccines

o Water filter

o Lights

FONAPAZ (El Fondo Nacional para la Paz, http://www.fonapaz.gob.gt/)

Created in 1991, it’s goal is to develop and implement projects to eradicate poverty and extreme poverty. It aims to construct homes in rural areas, government buildings, community meeting centers, sport fields, develop educational and recreational programs, donate roofing material and accessories for rural construction, provide nutritional aid, build and supply schools, aid Peace projects, and other projects requested by President Colom or his wife. They serve as a direct link between COCODEs in the rural communities and the President of Guatemala because communities used to have to go to their local Municipality for support and would often be rejected because of the extreme racism and corruption on the regional government level.

In Samox specifically they have started donating something annually. The women’s committee secretary fills out the application and gets it stamped by the COCODE. This year they applied for pilas and haven’t heard anything back yet. They can only apply for one project at a time. In 2008, each family was given a gas stove and a tank of gas. (Alice told me that they often receive material donations from foreign countries rather than funds so FONAPAZ sometimes just hands out what they receive even if it’s not best suited for a particular community. However, when they do have funds to spend, they seem to do a good job.) Earlier this year, they donated hand mills.

Mi Familia Progresa (http://www.mifamiliaprogresa.gob.gt/)

A government program to bring financial aid to impoverished famlies so they may receive a primary school education, preventitive health care, and proper nutrition. The vision is ‘a nation where every Guatemalan man and women may have the opportunity for a better life.’ They are currently supporting 41/86 families in SSL with Q300/month for the children. The program requires that the children attend school and the money can only be used for schooling and medicine and food for the children.

Other achievements

Rode standing up in the back of a pickup truck. Climbed a tree in the river to pick guava-like fruit. Reprimanded older men for abusing a dog.

Ate meals with only tortillas for silverware. Wore traje típico...

Camped alone in a village with no electricity or running water, ate PB&J dinners by candlelight (Lit matches!)... ...lived side-by-side with the creatures who made their home near my tent (Herded a cockroach out of my tent).

Castration Station

2009-09-21T13:44:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in a ‘campana’ for animal sterilization in Sumpango (near AWARE).

They work with vets from a program called the McKee Project (http://www.mckeeproject.org/newsletters.html#) which trains vets in a less invasive method of sterilization specialized for trap-neuter-release protocols. In exchange, the vets agree to participate in these low cost or free clinics for sterilization, consult, and vaccination of animals in Latin American countries. This is they sort of project that I would like to make a career out of so I was happy to see that there was an organization already working on it.

There were two vets and about 6 assistants who were all vet students in Guatemala City. Vet school is 6 years here but you go straight to vet school from ‘carerra’ which is like high school where you get your bachelors.

Dogs and cats were anesthetized by the assistants and prepared for surgery. Then the doctor performed the sterilization and the dogs were taken to a recuperating area until they woke up. When they started to wake up, the assistants would give them their post-op, vaccines, and antibiotics and/or antiparasitics.

They sterilized about 20 dogs and cats yesterday. A few were from the shelter, a few more were captured on the street, and some were brought in by people who live in Sumpango. They are really clear about the sterilization process and do their best to educate visitors and children about the importance of sterilizing dogs. While it’s what I always wanted to do, I kind of felt weird about stalking dogs on the street to sterilize with the intent of releasing them again. We had pretty bad luck with the dogs we grabbed: the first was really slow to wake up after surgery so she couldn’t be released; the second was pregnant so she had a pretty traumatizing surgery that involved aborting her puppies;

and the third had an undescended testicle making for a slightly more invasive surgery and recovery process (he is my favorite, very well mannered and brindle with shepherd ears).

I asked about Neutersol (http://www.caribbeananimalwelfare.org/images/Neutersol_FAQ_CAWC08.pdf, a newer method of sterilization that had a rocky start and has undergone much criticism that involves injection of a zinc compound directly into the testicles causing them to scar and sterilize the male dog). It wasn’t until I started to defend the idea of an alternative contraception that I realized he was probably the Guatemalan equivalent of a PETA person and may have had me lynched for suggesting that I was interested in this new technology that required some animal testing.

I was put at ease though when he said he didn’t have a problem with the testing of animals but, he said that the Neutersol company (Addison Labs and Pet Health, now taken over by Abbott) came to Guatemala last year to do some sterilization clinics. They were really still testing the product and conducting experiments on the stray dogs and dogs of low-income families. Sure, I think it would be a great idea to use these populations who would not otherwise be neutered anyway to test the product. However, their approach was terribly immoral. They paid off the government to give them permission to test the product without having to go through the steps of registering it and advertising it as research. Thus, they were able to tell community members that they had a full functioning product and people had their dogs sterilized with this technique thinking everything would go smoothly. Rather, many people noticed the secondary effects of the drug including a really bad odor. This is bad for two reasons: 1) the company lied to get people, who are already hesitant to neuter, to sterilize their dogs and 2) this made people think that sterilization was a bad thing because it would make their dogs have these side-effect…thus reversing the work of the other organizations that promote animal sterilization using education and the old-fashioned safe, surgical method of castration.

(More to come on the past two weeks in Samox later...it will take a while to write all that up.)

The story of an ex-guerrilla

2009-09-04T14:56:00.002-04:00

As promised, here is a little bit about ‘Salou’, the ex-guerrilla who is leading the construction of the community radio training center. He is a charismatic middle-aged man who is passionate about community radio because he wants to educate and believes that women, youth, and the indigenous should have a voice and a power. Salou has a 17-year-old son in Mexico living with his mother (Salou’s ex-wife). He also currently lives with his ‘wife,’ Betty, though they are not technically married, and a 3-year-old daughter named Estefany. Betty is one of five and we got to meet her youngest sister, Marlou who is 14 (she’s 20 years younger), and her youngest brother, Walter (24, who was working with us on construction but wants to be a teacher). We also got to get to know Elvia who is the outgoing, loving neighbor who is also Estafany’s nanny while Betty and Salou are working. It was with this crew (with the exception of Walter since he was off doing a site practical for school), that we spent the day at Laguna Chicabal.

When Salou was 7 years old, he remembers that all of his uncles and older cousins were guerrillas camping out in the mountains near Chicabal. He loved to go hang out with them and hear their war stories. He was fascinated by their big weapons and dreamed of being just like them even though he didn’t actually understand what they were fighting for.

What were they fighting for? I’m not sure that I can do the complete history justice but here’s a pretty rough summary of the Civil War (with a little help from Wikipedia):

In the ‘40s and ‘50s the Guatemalan government took a swing to the left. They supported reforms that would benefit the working class and the rural poor including a land reform that would re-distribute land to the peasants so they could grow and trade bananas. The problem here is that the United Fruit Company had largely dominated the land in Guatemala and was not willing to give it up. The UFCO was a huge US company that relied on special treatment from Latin American governments to monopolize the foreign trade of fruit.

This attempt to reform the land rights sent a red flag to the US. At that point, the Cold War was just getting underway so the US was pretty antsy about communism. Not only did this redistribution of land seem like a communist move to the US, it was also threatening the power of the UFCO which was a huge US interest. At the same time, there was a host of relationships in the U.S. government at the time that made the disapproval of the Guatemalan liberal reforms even stronger. Basically, the current Secretary of State had a law firm that defended the UFCO. His brother was not only the head of the CIA, he was also a board member for the UFCO. The Assistant Secretary of State for International Affairs had been president of the UFCO. And…to top it all off…the main lobbyist for the UFCO was married to President Eisenhower’s personal assistant.

Anyway, all of these factors combined led the US and the CIA used the financial backing of the UFCO to overthrow the democratically elected (liberal) Guatemalan president in 1954. They supported a conservative president who quickly started to undo everything that the liberal leaders of the ‘40s had started including outlawing labor unions (a major threat to the UFCO).

This was followed by a power struggle with a series of overthrows that was largely characterized by the ‘fair’ elections where all of the candidates were military men. In 1960, a group of military-men tried to revolt but failed and set up a base in Cuba where they would help to organize guerrilla troops during the subsequent 36 years of fighting. In the ‘60s the fight was largely the anti-communist right wing/military trained by the US and CIA versus the urban workers and students who had no military experience. The fighting alone would have been enough to convince the poor that communism, which theoretically offered equal land rights and wealth, was better than what they were currently facing.

In the late ‘70s though, there was a transition. What followed was literally genocide. Those which were once typical battles where one side would provoke the other was turning into massacres on the indigenous populations. The war turned to the rural mountainsides where campesinos (rural poor) were beginning to take action. It was really mass chaos though. People within the same communities, even within the same families, would be banded against each other when some would join the guerrilla side and some would join the military. The side the campesinos would join was really a matter of chance. Military troops would come through and demand information about guerrilla armies. If there were suspected guerrilla troops in a village, they would ravage it, committing uncountable human rights offenses and killing innocent people. One way to survive these massacres was to join the military. At the same time, the campesinos knew they would either be forced to join the military and kill their own people or be killed in a massacre. At the same time, the guerrilla forces often threatened violence when demanding food, clothing, or weapons from rural communities. Many figured that, if they were going to be killed anyway, it would be best to join the guerrilla forces so they could at least fight for their rights and for peace.

While the war was mainly among Guatemalans, the US played a major role. Not only did they promote the initial coup d’etat, they provided $30million in aid during the initial years of the war. At the same time, the US sent their own troops in to fight and they were training Guatemalan soldiers at the School of the Americas. The SOA was based in Panama since 1946 until 1984 when it moved to US soil in Fort Benning in Columbus, GA. During the war, the SOA trained over 1500 Guatemalans. Many of the largest massacres and most heinous human rights abuses were performed under the command of SOA trained soldiers.

And so this continued until the Peace Accords were signed in 1996. In the end, 626 villages were massacred; an estimated 50,000 leftists were killed in the ‘70s; over 200,000 people were killed, mostly Mayan; countless innocent people were tortured and brutally murdered; 93% of the reported human rights offenses were pinned on the military while 3% belonged to guerrillas.

For more information:
• On the war in general:
o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemalan_Civil_War
o http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/guatemala.htm
o http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/305724in.html
o http://www.mit.edu/~thistle/v9/9.06/7genocide.html
• On CIA involvement
o http://www.ciponline.org/iob.htm#EXECUTIVE
o https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/docs/v44i5a03p.htm
• On the UFCO:
o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company#cite_note-9
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5FEXDPal_4
• On the SOA:
o http://www.soaw.org/sub.php?id=25
o http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escuela_de_las_Am%C3%A9ricas
o http://www.nisgua.org/themes_campaigns/impunity/The%20School%20of%20the%20Americas%20and%20Guatemala.pdf

So where does Salou fit into all of this? Well, at the end of our trip to Chicabal, we settled in on a hill overlooking the Laguna Seca and I translated his story to the rest of the group. He as a very enthusiastic and emotional story-teller and I remember the feelings of pain and surprise as we explained his history. Here is all that I can remember about his rocky past and empowering present and inspiring future...

Before the explanation of the civil war, I explained how Salou was 7 and spending much of his time in the mountains with his guerrilla uncles and cousins being fascinated by big guns and war stories. It was all a dream world for him; he wanted to be just like them when he grew up. It was all just aspirations until it became really real for him. When Salou was 12, his father was ‘disappeared’ and most likely tortured and killed by the military. This event gave him the courage and the hatred to insist upon joining his older friends in the mountains. He had the urge to hold a gun and kill the people who had taken his father. While his family told him he was still too young, he insisted that he was ready.

He remembers the war being a very sad and hard time but, also, some of his best memories were had during the war. He built lasting friendships with his partners in the mountains. His adolescence was spent in a guerrilla troop. Since the guerrilla troops were fighting for equality among all people, women were allowed to join as well. Salou recalled the competition among his friends at a time when there were 25 young women and 100 growing boys in this group. The training he received also served as his schooling; he was given assignments. While he didn’t entirely understand the reason for the war initially, Salou learned about international politics alongside his basic military training.

One of his early assignments was to go the Mexican-American border where an unnamed man would fill hidden compartments in their ‘latest model’ car with weapons. Other weapons were won or stolen from the military. The guerrillas would also get funding and support from what Salou called the ‘war tax.’ Unfortunately, the way that guerrillas obtained this aid was to go to the homes of the rich sugar cane plantation owners and demand food, clothing, weapons, or money. It was fairly easy to get what they needed. If the owners did not oblige, the guerrillas would threaten to burn down their farm.

It wasn’t all theft though. Salou explained how he got food in the more peaceful times when he was with his friends in the mountains. They would descend from the mountains into the surrounding communities in pairs very quickly. They would spend no more than 15 minutes loading their bags with rice, beans, pastas, and oatmeal. One man would go inside to buy the food and the other would stand out front keeping guard to 1) protect themselves and 2) protect the store owner who would be killed if the military found out he was supporting guerrillas. Then, just as quickly as they came, they would ascend back up into the mountains with 80-100 pounds of food on their backs. Not only did they carry large amounts of food, their backpacks were also stuffed with their plates and silverware as well as a spare set of clothes. Additionally, the clothes they wore weighed more than 25 pounds because they were always loaded down with guns and grenades. (And WE thought OUR hike was hard!)

Salou had a lot of military training in his younger years. He was also a fountain of knowledge, ambition, and motivation. For this, he quickly excelled to the status of ‘tenante’ and was put in charge of a group of 15 guerrillas (5 women and 10 men). He remembers the added difficulty of this new responsibility. Now, it was even harder because he had to worry about 15 others before worrying about himself. The war was already hard for him because, at this point, he new it was indigenous families fighting for the military against indigenous families fighting for the guerrillas. But, he knew that the war meant sacrificing himself to create opportunities for others.

In his first battle as the leader, his 15 member troop was up against a 100 member military brigade. He painfully retold the story of his partner being shot 6 times across his abdomen. His partner went down but was still alive. The battle was brutal, uneven, and would mean certain death for all of them so they retreated. They watched as the enemy forces picked up his living friend and carried him 1km away to their base camp. There, they had a gathering around their fire pit. The slit the throat of Salou’s partner and drained it into a bottle and proceeded to pass it around and drink it one-by-one. After he was dead, two men got a large stick and impaled the man from his groin to his throat. The roasted him on a spit over the fire like he was meat and ate him.

And so his guerrilla career continued for 14 years. During his time fighting, he never saw his family. In fact, he assumed that his mother and siblings had been killed by the military in the early years of fighting because he had received news that his hometown had been massacred.

After 14 years, he received a little note from a man who had traveled down from Mexico. His commander called him over and handed him the note that just said, ‘Salou, Tienes una sorpresa esperando en Mexico.’ (Salou, you have a surprise waiting in Mexico.) His friends were all so excited that he would be traveling to Mexico so they sent him with plenty of money for food, drinks, and movies. Salou wondered what the surprise could be and kept thinking that it might be a trip to Cuba or Nicaragua, places he’d always wanted to visit. When he got to Mexico, he was taken to a five-star hotel where he spent three months losing wondering what his surprise was. During this time he remembers ‘fattening up’ and slowly losing his muscular guerrilla figure. After three months, a man came in a fancy, latest model car to tell him that his grandparents were alive and well and they lived just six hours away. Salou made the six hour journey to visit what he thought was the only family he had left. When he arrived, his mother was outside washing clothes. She looked at him, picked up her clothes, and casually turned to walk inside not realizing who she had just seen. Salou had been a 12-year-old when he last saw his mom, now he was 26-year-old grown man. His family had not received news that he was alive and would be coming to visit. Then, his grandfather came out, saw him, and called for his mother to come out and greet her son.

Salou remembers this very emotional time fondly. He asked his family about his siblings. They were thought to all still be alive and had been fighting in the war for 12 years. All of his cousins and relatives had fought in the war. Even his mother fought for 9 years. In the end, one sibling died, 2 were captured and tortured as prisoners of war. One of the captured was Manuel, Salou’s brother but quite different in appearance. While Salou is rather short and clean cut, Manuel was tall, bearded, and in control making him look more powerful. Manuel was indeed very knowledgeable and very powerful on the guerrilla side; he was a captain and a strategist. So, when he was captured after nine years of fighting alongside the guerrillas he was subjected to the most horrific tortures because he was the beholder of some very valuable information. He was subject to electric shocks and lie detector tests. He had an ability to control his mind. He was impenetrable and he overcame the torture and the tests for four years. His resistance did not come without consequence. During his four years in prison camps, he saw countless guerrillas come in and out, being tortured, and giving up valuable information. With this, he felt defeated. He agreed to join the military, justifying his choice by saying that he would only serve as a law enforcer, that he would only punish criminals who stole from liquor stores or harmed people. The problem with this is that he was under total manipulation by the military because they could tell him anything about anyone and order him to kill that person. He fought for the military for four more years until the signing of the Peace Accords in 1996.

Everything was not cured for the ravaged indigenous populations and the fight for indigenous rights did not end when the war ended. Salou and many others traded their guns for a microphone which he states, ‘is more powerful because his words can reach hundreds or thousands of people including women, children, and indigenous populations.’

Salou explained his personal emotional battle after the war. One thing he has not been able to recover from is the insomnia. He still has nightmares about his partners who are living, dead, disappeared. He has nightmares that he is back in battle where he had to ‘kill or be killed.’ He finds talking to groups like ours about his life like a therapeutic session and thanked us for our support not only of his projects but of him as well.

At the same time, he has a few aspirations. He explained how EGL was helping him to attain one of these dreams by assisting in the construction of a training center where youth and women can have a chance to succeed and have their voices be heard. Another dream has been to write a book about the history of his family. Amanda, the CasaSito coordinator, is helping him do this by transcribing conversations with him and his family and editing it into the form of a book. When the book is complete, it will be promoted internationally and you will be able to get the more detailed, well-written story of Salou (and maybe even learn his real name)...

EGL helps Mujb'ab'l yol give a Voice to the underrepresented

2009-09-03T14:51:00.016-04:00

Over the past week, I had the opportunity to travel to Quetzaltenango (Xela) with EGL (Engineering Global Leadership: http://www.eglsociety.engin.umich.edu/). EGL is an engineering honor society that combines allows students to obtain both a bachelors in engineering and a masters in business. In addition to finding internships, EGL organizes an annual volunteer abroad trip to learn about another culture, make an impact on a community, and get to know each other a little better. Last year they were in Costa Rica pulling all-nighters to rescue sea turtle eggs from poachers and the year before they were clearing out invasive species in the Galapagos Islands. This year, they chose to work with CasaSito here in Guatemala. After they spent a week exploring Guatemala at Rio Dulce, Livingston, and Tikal, we headed off to Xela to work on the construction of a training center for community radio leaders. It was an amazing experience and I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. So…from the beginning…

Lauren and I arrived before everyone else on Tuesday morning since we took our own shuttle. We had a little bit of time to explore and settle in before the EGL-ers came. After lunch we ran to the little used bookstore (see previous post) before heading off to the hot springs called Fuentes Georginas (http://www.lasfuentesgeorginas.com/). The water is heated by the hot sulfur from beneath the nearby volcano then the steaming water is pushed underground and way up into the mountain where it escapes into a pool. Tourists pay Q40 to take a shuttle up the mountain and lounge around in the hot mineral baths that are said to heal arthritis, acne, and fractures as well as maintaining a healthy digestive system if you drink the water straight from the fuente (probably wouldn’t be smart to drink out of the pool that everyone is swimming in…).

On the way back from the Fuentes, the driver explained to me rather animatedly the consequences of coasting in a manual ‘turbo’ vehicle after I explained how I drove during the HiA spring break trip and he said that it was better that I don’t drive anymore in Guatemala. But, he also pointed out a church that was built by the Spaniards in the 17^th century. The altar and crucifix are covered in silver and the church is still in use today. The first church built by the Spaniards in Guate was constructed in a nearby village in 1542. The Mayans were using the church for their sacrifices (rather than solely for Christian uses) so the Spaniards came back and put walls on the building.

On Wednesday, it was time to get to work. After an incredible, huge breakfast of French toast at the Black Cat hostel, we hopped in a minibus out to San Mateo to meet the project leader and learn about his project. Because he was part of a rather controversial history, I will call him 'Salou' here.

When we got there, Salou and Amanda showed us a video about the history of the community radio project and explained the current issues. A law was proposed on August 3^rd that would legalize community radio (http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/news/article/community-media-bill-introduced-guatemalan-congress).

During the 36-year (1960-1996) Guatemalan Civil War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala_Civil_War), radio was the only way for news, political information about the peace accords, and music to reach the rural indigenous populations since the newspapers could not be delivered and very few had access to the electricity needed for a television. This movement came to be known as 'Voz Popular'. When the war ended, the Peace Accords included an agreement that community radios would be granted a certain amount of bandwidth. While they COULD legally broadcast today, they would need to scrounge up $28,000 to compete with the international commercial stations in a public auction…an expense that isn’t even fathomable by the rural poor who make less than $80/month. (http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/a-question-frequency-community-radio-guatemala) Thus, the radio stations that were a source of information that helped to pull people through the end of the Civil War are still being broadcast today on illegal ‘pirate’ frequencies. Now they play mostly music which pauses only for PSA-style announcements about topics such as boiling water and women’s rights. A major goal of the stations is to empower women, youth, and the indigenous populations so oftentimes the announcements will be made by teenagers or children in Spanish and an indigenous dialect like Mam or Kiche. The stations are even used by police and local governments to relay health, education, and political information to the rural communities. Most stations are privately funded, where leaders of the cause giving up what little money they have to start their own station. Some stations charge a few Quetzales to make a private announcement or ask for support from their listeners which can hardly pay for operating expenses. A few of the fortunate groups are supported by international organizations. So that they can support each other, there are community radio organizations that work together to support local stations and lobby in the Capital for reform.

Mujb’ab’l yol (http://www.mujbablyol.com/) is one of these community radio associations that works with 26 radio stations in rural western Guatemala. Salou is the ex-guerrilla who heads the association and is a voice with the overarching Guatemalan Community Communications Council is lobbying for the legalization of the bill that would de-criminalize their community radios. A current goal of Mujb’ab’l yol is to build a training center for youth, women, and indigenous populations to learn how to use community radio. The center will be two-stories with a double conference room, a museum, a broadcasting room, a kitchen, and dining room on the first floor and bedrooms for overnight trainees on the second floor. (http://www.mujbablyol.com/files/Plano_de_la_construccion.pdf)

The building is in its earliest stages and work is very slow since it is all done manually (that’s right…no CATs, no table saws, no cement mixers). One group from Holland went previously to help with construction. Otherwise, two men, Walter (Salou’s brother-in-law) and Selvin, donate their time on the weekends with no pay to move forward with construction. They can only work when materials are available (they only have materials when they have funding). CasaSito helped Mujb’ab’l yol obtain the land for the building and ConstruCasa (http://www.construcasa.org/nuevo/index.php) has helped some with the funding for materials. EGL’s donation purchased a significant amount of materials so there was plenty of work to be done.

Our 12 person team (which dropped to 11 when Lauren left on Thursday L), was running all over the construction site and working hard for 4.5 days. We successfully tied a whole lot of lead coated wire for the Rebar, moved TONS of dirt, and mixed loads of cement to pour another layer on the walls. Throughout the week, we got to build bridges, tear ground with pick-axes, shovel barrow-fulls of rocks and sand and watch our own progress as land was flattened and rooms were filled with dirt floors. It makes you truly appreciate the resources that we, in the US, often take for granted when we spent 30 hours picking, shoveling, and transporting dirt that would take have taken 1-2 hours to move using a backhoe. We hope to continue to watch the process progress as walls go up, floors are poured, plumbing is added, and furnishings are put into their places.

At the training center, there is a ton of work left to do and no funding or manpower to do it. Mujb’ab’l yol is trying to partner with CasaSito to find student groups in the US who would be willing to make a trip to Xela and donate materials to continue construction. If you know of any groups who may be interested or would like more information on this opportunity, please email me at cricketd33@gmail.com.

Other highlights of the week:

· On Wednesday night we headed out for salsa lessons at a club. Mid-way through the night, the dancing was interrupted for a fire spinning performance. A troupe of foreigners took the stage (indoors) with kerosene dipped torches and ropes to put on quite a show. They were good but one member dropped his stick once and scorched the sleeve of an unlucky audience member and a second time he nearly caught his own pants on fire until an audience member ran out and stomped it out.

· On Thursday EGL-ers (and UofM) became internationally famous. They chanted the UM fight song live on Mujb’ab’l yol radio including a ¡Vamos Azul! at the end and everything. Typical of Guatemalan men, the deejay had to slip in a question to Brian about Chapinas (Guatemalan ladies). But Estafany (Salou’s 3-year-old daughter) is his only muchacha:

· After working long days, EGL-ers would come together to play some hard core games of rummy and Scopa, an Italian card game that they learned on last year’s volunteer abroad trip.

During our commutes between Xela and San Mateo, we also learned why we need to wash our food before we eat it...

· On Saturday we had the opportunity to meet with an assembly of leaders from the Mujb’ab’l yol community radio stations. They were having a meeting and we gave a short presentation then they each introduced themselves and the work that they do in their communities. They mostly thanked us for the work we do, blessed EGL’s journey home, and expressed that they really appreciate our willingness to lend a hand to the rural villages that need the most help rather than doing ‘office volunteering’ like the Guatemalan university students. During the meeting, we also got to explore the current 'training center' which is really just Salou's office with a small station for recording programs (but not broadcasting) and a pretty tight meeting room downstairs.

After the meeting, a representative from Cultural Survival came to speak with our group and drop off a donation for Mujb’ab’l yol. They are a US-based organization that aims to save indigenous languages that are quickly being lost. One of the organizations they support is Mujb’ab’l yol since these community radios broadcast in 23 different indigenous languages, thus providing a way for indigenous Mayan’s to hang on to their language and culture. They send monetary donations to Guatemala and the Guatemalan office purchases equipment for the stations.

We had our fair share of visitors on the construction site...and they weren't all just Mayan community radio leaders...

· Also on Saturday we went to see Malacates Trebol Shop (this is the same band I saw the first week I got here). This time the experience was much better. We all packed into a little club called La Sahara with hundreds of Guatemalans. We may very well have been the only Americans there. Since Malacates is one of the most famous Guatemalan bands…there was a lot of Guatemalan pride and we got a lot of stares. It didn’t help that all of the Guatemalans were dancing peacefully in pairs and we were dancing like idiots in a circle as if we were in a club back home. In all, the music was great and we got in and out safely. (Amanda warned us before we left that shoot-outs tend to happen at concerts making the experience that much more exciting.)

· Sunday was a side-trip of its own value. We woke up early to hop in a van, pick up Salou’s family, and head out to Laguna Chicabal. Chicabal is a sacred Mayan crater lake. Legend says there was a lake on the other side of the volcanic ridge but the Mayan powers got mad that there were so many tourists and Mayans washing clothes in the lake that they sucked up the lake and moved it inside the volcano. Still today, sacerdotes (Mayan priests) come in March and April to make sacrifices of food and animals at the altars where they ask for blessings from the nuhuales (the gods of elements of nature…there are 20…just like there are 20 days in the Mayan calendar). They burn the sacrifices so the smoke will rise to the gods. It is also prohibited to bathe or swim in the lake since it is considered sacred. They say there is a hole in the middle of Chicabal that goes to the center of the earth so it will suck you in if you get to close. It was a super difficult hour and a half hike up a hill, and down again into La Laguna Seca (where the lake used to be, they now have bungalows for overnight visitors), and up and over again to the lake. The lake is really beautiful with a forest of clouds coming in and covering the lake on and off throughout the day.

Once we arrived we built a fire using wood that is particularly flammable because of the chemical it contains; so you can burn it even when it’s wet.

Over the fire, we roasted marshmallows then heated tortillas to eat with our ‘guerrilla lunch’ of beans, eggs, and cheese. Salou was a guerrilla in the civil war for 14 years and lived in the mountains on Volcano Chicabal and the nearby Tajumulco.

After lunch we relaxed for a bit then took a hike around the lake to see the 23 altars, each of which is used for a different request from a different god. After we rounded the lake, we headed up a flight of 600 stairs to exit the crater and descended on the other side back to the Laguna Seca.

On the edge of the Laguna Seca we sat down for the most powerful of all story times. We heard Salou’s story. See the next post for my best recollection of the history. After hearing Salou’s story on Sunday, we were even more inspired and reenergized to work hard for our last few hours on Monday.

We parted ways with Salou and his family on Monday for the long bus ride back to Antigua. We got back just in time to run (literally) to the market to buy food for our Monday night event. After dinner one night in Xela, I asked for EGL to do a reflection of the week, set goals, and give suggestions. One of the comments that came up (whether it was serious or not), was to meet some of the kids that CasaSito supports.

So, for Monday night, we planned to join Cris and his group of students for dinner in Santiago Zamora. They meet every night from 7-8PM to learn art, music, and English and they have access to a library. This is the group of students that won the music festival. So we rushed to the Bodegona to pick up enough chips, beans, and salsa for up to 60 children then over to the market to load up on fruit to make a giant fruit salad. We were already late for our shuttle to SZ so we ran home as fast as possible to cut up the fruit, heat up the beans, and stick everything in giant bowls with serving utensils. We loaded into the car and I called Cris to let him know that we would be late. Well…little did I know we wouldn’t just be late…we actually wouldn’t be able to make it…We were almost to SZ when we saw mounds of dirt entirely blocking the road leaving no way to pass. There was an alternative road but only tuc tucs could cross because there was such a huge ditch that the van we were in would have bottomed out. I called Cris to find out if there were another way to go around and he said we would have to take a tuc tuc from San Antonio (the nearest town). I explained to him that I didn’t feel safe taking 11 Americans in tuc tucs when it was dark and that we simply were prohibited from doing so. We felt so bad that we had enough food for 60 children and they would not get to eat it. I was also really sad that EGL would not get to meet and talk with the children. Instead, we returned to CasaSito and ate 2/3 of the fruit and did some damage on the beans and chips while playing charades. The rest of the fruit was gone the next morning with EGL donated it to the children at the bottom of Pacaya but I am still eating beans for every meal.

Anyway, since EGL left I have been rather lonely and have completely immersed myself in computer work for two days. I made a Facebook group for Mujb’ab’l yol (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=147683549594&ref=ts) so student groups and interested parties can follow the progress at the training center and stay up to date on news about the proposed law to de-criminalize community radio. Over the past week, I think I have learned and retained more information about history and politics than in all of my K-12 education and am actually interested and eager to learn more. Talk to me about it sometime…

Losing hope at Common Hope and Reflection

2009-09-03T14:00:00.006-04:00

Hoping to gain some valuable insight into stove projects in rural Guatemala, I set up a meeting with the clean stove project leader, Narciso, at Common Hope just outside of Antigua last Monday. I had heard great things about the organization’s appropriate technology implementation methods and was hoping to get some ideas for HiA. I knew that they offered tours of their projects and weren’t hesitant to take guests to the project sites with them. I wanted to find out:

How they chose their communities
What kind of assessments they started with to determined what the communities needed
Exactly how they implemented their technologies
If they did any follow up assessments
What kind of stoves they were using/how they were built

My new buddy, Julio, who has been my chauffer to and from Animal AWARE, joined me for the meeting because he is writing his thesis on the amount of usable wood you can get from a tree and how it can be used. We arrived to find a huge ‘compound’ with buildings and playgrounds and random booths with women displaying textiles and a construction zone. Common Hope (‘Familias de Esperanza’) has a huge community program with its own schools and teachers and everything.

Because of an internal miscommunication, Narciso did not know we were coming and was on his way out to a project site to deliver some materials. Fortunately, he offered for us to join him on the quick trip so we got to see a school where they were in the process of constructing a stove. The school project was out of the ordinary for Common Hope because they typically work with communities only and they ask that the community members build their own stoves with the provided materials. At the school, they had to deliver the materials AND build the stove…and when Narciso asked the women who worked at the school to mix some mortar; they complained that he should be doing the work because they didn’t know how to do it. Fortunately Narciso stood by the agreement that they had made with the school and insisted that they at least help with that.

While we were visiting the school I set out to get my questions answered. I found out that they just work with any and every community near Antigua to implement the stoves. I’m not sure I agree with this method. They have implemented 500 stoves in and around Antigua. While it seems that they are doing great things for these communities, it was not the community members themselves who sought out the help for improvements. At the same time, while they have an exceptional implementation method, they don’t seem to have a follow-up assessment beyond an 8 day period immediately following the construction where they check to make sure the stoves are working. Because of this, there is no way to get feedback on the stoves or to find out if the families are actually using them. This problem was made clear by the school that we visited. They already had a stove previously but it was too high for the women to use because they move heavy pots that are half as tall as they are when they are cooking so they were burning themselves. They requested that Common Hope come back in and rebuild the stove a foot lower. Sure, a school may be bold enough to make this kind of request, but how many of the 500 families with Common Hope stoves would actually come forward with a complaint about the donation and how many would just stop using them because they don’t want to complain about what they’ve been given.

Their initial implementation, however, is quite clever. They require that each family donate 10-20 hours of service at the Common Hope compound in exchange for a stove. Additionally, the family needs to build their own stove provided the material donation from Common Hope. This way it is not just a gift for the family but rather a business exchange. In order to train the families in a community, they hold a training session where they pay about 15 community members from different families Q100 each to learn how to construct stoves. In turn, each trainee needs to hold a training session to teach 15 other community members how to construct the stove. This method is effective at spreading the knowledge and it seems to work out really well for Common Hope. The expenses are high though because the organization has to shell out Q900-1700 per stove, an expense that the community members themselves could never afford if an organization like Common Hope were not around.

There are two types of stoves that they implement. The cheaper of the two is called an Onil stove and it is constructed of 12 blocks, some mortar, some bricks, a metal chimney, and a very expensive ‘plancha’ (the stove top part). These are considered the most simple of the stove designs and they are quite effective at conserving wood. A measure of wood that normally lasts less than a month will last around 7 months using these stoves.

They also have a more expensive stove called the Lorena designed and purchased from HELPS International (for up to Q1700) and the height of this stove can be adjusted to accommodate the short stature of most Mayan women.
Common Hope is working on a design for a third type of stove that would be constructed in the bottom half of a metal barrel and would function similarly to the others. While the design is simpler and a little cheaper, it would still run over Q700 (still not affordable by the average family who makes next to nothing). Regardless of cost and other issues, it is a fact that many women and children die of lung related diseases because they cook over open fires in their homes. These stoves certainly diminish that risk and they also reduce burns from accidents around the open fires and minimize the need for a constant supply of firewood.

Leaving Common Hope, I was mildly discouraged by the outrageous cost of the stoves as I knew HiA could never implement these stoves community wide because we don’t have the funding sources for such a large project and the community we work with has next to no income. It was a great experience, though, to learn about the construction of such stoves so I have a better understanding of their function and structure as we continue to research more sustainable designs.

As it was Lauren’s last day in Antigua so we made the big hike up the hill that overlooks Antigua to La Cruz. From there, we had the best view of the whole city and Volcan de Agua.

Then we passed by La Pila (where they wash their clothes) and went to the roof of Cafe Sky for a great panoramic view of the clearing skies over Volcan de Fuego to the west, Agua to the south, and Acatenango to the north.

We also hit up Yogen Fruz one final time...she was an addict...
Later that night, we went out to dinner with Julio and had some pretty heavy conversation about the war followed by a review about our favorite and least favorite things about Guatemala so far.

Good

Camionetas: I love trying to fit in with the locals on these buses. It makes me feel just a little daring to ride the notorious ‘chicken buses.’
Antigua: I feel at home here in Antigua. One of the safer cities in Latin America because it is geared toward tourists, sometimes I feel like I’m in Kerrytown, Ann Arbor. Everything is within walking distance and easy to find, the roads and sidewalks are impossible to walk or drive on, and there is always something to do.
Lago Atitlan: Not only is this one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, I simply had a good experience there. It is incredibly relaxed when you’re not in Pana, they have some serious community development projects underway that will serve as excellent resources in the future, and when you want the cheap souvenirs (how about a $12 hammock) Pana is the place to go.
Xela Bookstore: One thing I love about staying at backpackers hostels is that they always have a table full of brochures of the coolest attractions around. From a 13-meter burrito fundraiser to a hole-in-the-wall English bookstoreto the free salsa classes and the Xela Who that explained the way to say “I have to pee/poop” in multiple degrees of vulgarity. The bookstore though was an amazing little 8 foot by 10 foot room that looked like a scene from Beauty and the Beast. There were ladders leading you up to the 7th and 8th and 9th shelves of books. Books were categorized into classics, politics, regional, and more. I went in looking for two of the most popular books about the Guatemalan Civil War and was disappointed to find that they only had new copies of those books because they were in such high demand. However, I did leave with a bargain book: an incredibly written biography of Father Roy Bourgeois called ‘Disturbing the Peace’ (http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=861). More about Xela coming soon.
Mercado: I have always been addicted to fruits and vegetables. The problems with having that addiction at home in Michigan are numerous:

they are more expensive than peanut butter and macaroni and cheese
they are only available during certain seasons
they are usually imported from chile and peru which just makes me feel guilty about all the carbon required to bring me my apple (especially when we have an overabundance of apples in the orchard for 2 months out of the year)
since we have to drive a half hour to get to the grocery store we only buy them once a week and they’re usually bad by the time you go to eat them
farmers markets are only offered on select days, they’re only available in the summer, and their cost is inhibitory
BUT: In the Antigua Mercado, my addiction is always satisfied and I can feel great about my purchases. You simply can’t buy a pair of mangoes for less than $3 at home; here you can buy a bag of 5 for Q5 (about 60 cents). I was disappointed to find that many of the apples in the market still come from the USA and Chile but I always have the option of purchasing Guatemalteca and it’s even cheaper: 10-15 apples for Q10 ($1.20). I can buy a local broccoli head for Q2 (25 cents). While the mangoes are starting to go out of season, there is still plenty of pineapple to be had. And, I can go to the market 2-3 times per week because it is only a 15 minute walk and there are hundreds of vendors with fresh fruits and veggies every day. This is the epitome of a farmers market and it’s done really well. It’s always colorful and lively and there is always a fresh selection.

Bad

Machismo and creepy old men: They’re everywhere. At 8AM, they stand outside their stores, at 12AM watching everyone else dance while hanging on the bar because they’re too old to keep up with the young crowd. You can be wearing long pants and a sweatshirt and they’ll still make comments. “Hey baby.” “Hola Barbie.” “Ay mamita.” Honestly, we’ve heard it all.
The flyer hander-outers: They too are everywhere. They will come at you and shove paper in your face. They are like pests trying to sell trips to Pacaya or holistic itch relief. Seriously…one man has commented on the number of mosquito bites on my legs every time I’ve walked by; he also commented on Lauren’s sunburn and peeling. Some people are tempted to just take the paper and toss it aside so they can get rid of the nuisance which only increases the already elevated litter problem in the city. Which brings me to my next point…
Trash: It too is everywhere. Unavoidable. In fact, it’s so common that it’s an endless cycle of litter-ers. Just because it’s everywhere, everyone thinks it’s okay to just toss their trash aside when they don’t want it anymore. Recycling service is also terribly expensive so no one does it. While I have heard that they have a similar method to Peru…people will pick through the trash in search of recyclable materials that they can sell to recycling companies to make a profit. Only tin and paper and glass are of any value. Plastic is worth next to nothing and it seems to be the most common trash. This is why I think recycled art and plastic bottle walls are such a great idea.

Santa Cruz Inspirations

2009-08-16T23:08:00.009-04:00

It was 4:45AM when my alarm went off telling me to get up and get ready for the 6AM shuttle to El Lago Atitlan. The shuttle was 45 minutes late ('Guatemalan time' is a little more lenient than 'Michigan time'). After a half hour (of a two and a half hour journey) we were already stopping at Burger King (yes, they have BK here too with the familiar french toast sticks and the local 'plato tipico' of beans, eggs, bread, etc.). We filed out to get breakfast and use the bathroom but when everyone was picking up their bags of food at the end of the counter the driver said there was no hurry and that we should sit and eat, take our time...typical. So, Lauren and I ate breakfast with a Nicaraguan doctor and a local Panajachel artisan (the main pueblo on Lago Atitlan) who were speaking pretty fast Spanish making it difficult to keep up and participate in their conversations. So this is how it went and we finally arrived to Pana just before 10:30 on the bus that was supposed to arrive around 9.

We really had no plans for what to do at Lago Atitlan except for the travel agent's recommendations to go to Santiago Atitlan which is the second largest town on the lake. We had reservations at hotel in Santa Cruz but figured we wouldn't be able to check in until afternoon.

We didn't want to carry all of our luggage around Santiago, so we decided to get some food then explore Pana which is basically streets lined with artisans selling their wares. When we stopped to take our first set of pictures of the lake from above the boat docks, Lauren realized her digital camera was missing and we thought she just left it at home...but it really is a tragedy for a photographer to be without her camera...so she reluctantly used mine.

All she had with her was her giant, ancient technique film camera that she used to take pictures at breakfast...

After breakfast, we spent far too much money on souveniers including hammocks which we just realized will probably not fit in our luggage! Lauren wouldn't let me buy this hat for some reason...

After spending what seemed like a fortune and before we spent the rest of the money that we would need to pay for the hotel, we caught a lancha publica (public boat shuttle) to Santa Cruz.

We were going to stay at La Iguana Perdida as recommended by other CasaSito friends.

It is an eco-friendly hotel that even has recycled toilet paper. We got to our room just in time for the torrential rains to hit. We tried to wait out the rain before heading off to relax in the main lodge/restaraunt/bar/game room but it never seemed to end. Here's Lauren enjoying the soggy weather...

Once we made it to the lodge...we made a cat friend and enjoyed playing with her until we realized that were weren't alone...giant spiders (2") covered the walls above our heads.

So we went in and played Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit...

Rory also got be excited about the Saturday night BBQ and cross-dressing party at La Iguana. Excited to play dress-up, Lauren and I hit the used clothes room in search of some manly outfits...unfortunately the cross-'dress'ing is geared more toward men so we had limited options for mens outfits and decided just to put on something a little crazy.

The dinner was incredible with beet burgers and 7 types of vegetarian salads. Dinner was followed by a dance party that was opened by the owner and his son playing some Iguana classics on the guitar and hand drum including a song about the story of the lost iguana and a song about riding the chicken bus! The dance party got pretty loco when a kind of crazy older woman started dancing with us to 'you can do it, put your back into it' and 'sexy back.' Can you tell which one is the crazy lady...?

This morning we got up super early so Lauren could shoot some pictures with her 15-minute-to-set-up film camera.

After taking pictures, Lauren went back to sleep and I went back down to the main lodge to learn a little more about some projects that they work with the organization Amigos de Santa Cruz (http://www.amigosdesantacruz.org/Amigos_de_Santa_Cruz/HOME.html). Without boring you with the (exciting) details, I was getting ideas for Health in Action and CasaSito projects. My favorite project is this plastic bottle wall. The organization had children go out and pick up plastic bottles, fill them with other trash like the over-abundant snack sized chip bags, and bring them to the center in exchange for a pair of shoes. These bottles would then become an internal structure for cement walls of buildings and homes. The benefits are incredible: http://www.puravidaatitlan.org/english.html. The same organization has also improved stove project to improve ventilation in homes and reduce firewood comsumption: http://www.onilstove.com/

My understanding for the need for recycling and waste disposal projects in Guatemala was reinforced by the views on my climb up to the little town of Santa Cruz.

By the time we were done walking around Santa Cruz and relaxing at La Iguana Perdida, it was just about time to get back on the shuttle so we went straight to Pana, did a little more shopping, ate an amazing vegetarian meal at a real vegetarian restaurant, and got to the bus just in time for the downpour of the day. The ride home to Antigua was long, bumpy, curvy, and up-and-down...there was even a carsick passenger. We finally made it home after too many hours of driving and we're ready to get to work on our volunteer projects this week. Lauren will be painting a mural at a local school and I will be splitting my time between Animal AWARE, Health in Action research, and hopefully another organization from Antigua called Common Hope.

For 10 pictures she took on this weekend trip, I took 220 (I took far too many pictures to load in here...if you want to see any of my Guatemala pictures, check out my Picasa uploads at http://picasaweb.google.com/cricketd33). Here are a few:

Travel, travel, travel

2009-08-12T01:18:00.023-04:00

Well, as it turns out, health care is super cheap down here ($4 for a lab test and $15ish for a doctor's visit) but medicine is suuuper expensive. 4 cipro for Q140=more than $3/pill and 2 anti-parasitics for Q150. If it weren't for the high cost of the meds, I wouldn't send in my insurance forms because it would cost almost as much to send the mail! Felt better almost instantly after taking the meds and was ready for some work and traveling.

I was in great shape and I got to do some more work with the groomer at Huellas here in Antigua: this work consisted of blow drying and picking at about 50 ticks off of one giant yellow lab and blowing fleas off of another. Needless to say, I was pretty itchy all day.
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Sadly, Honey was having complications that landed her in the ER the day before she was due to fly out for a Guatemalan getaway. Making the best of the situation, Lauren and I went unaccompanied on the trip doing out best to take pictures of everything so Honey could feel like she were there. We started with a luxurious night at the Westin Camino Real in Guatemala City.

After exploring the mall and food joints, we went back to the hotel to live the ritzy life for a night.

We even went as far as to consume a strawberry smoothie at the pool and...we charged it to the room!

We especially enjoyed the 'heavenly' dual shower head and we spread out in the giant cloud-like beds to watch the movie channel and fall asleep in the cool air conditioned room.

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Reluctant to leave the hotel at 5:00AM, we were excited to start our whirlwind tour of the ancient ruins at Tikal. Much to Lauren's dismay, we hopped on a puddle-jumper plane for the half hour flight to Flores International Airport.

In Flores, we met up with our tour guide who shuttled our group into the buses headed for The Tikal Inn where we got checked in and immediately headed off for a 4 hour tour of the Tikal ruins.

Having known nearly nothing about Mayan history, I gained a lot of knowledge about the constructions and lifestyles of the ancient Mayans who inhabited Tikal from around 600B.C. to 800A.D. The restored ruins of Tikal were once the home to religious temples, pyramids, and acropoli where noblemen lived. Much of Tikal still lays buried and eroded but universities and other organizations are slowly working to uncover and restore the ancient ruins. Climbing up a 70m ruin, Temple IV, was quite exhausting and we were all ready for lunch.

After lunch, we had a relaxing afternoon in the pool followed by a silent, starry night when all of the generators are turned off and all you can hear are the cicadas, birds, and monkeys.

On Sunday, I again awoke in the wee hours of the morning to see the sunrise and go on the 'mananero tour' where we would see spider monkeys, howler monkeys, purple parrots, toucans, a raccoon-like creature, a guinea pig-like creature, and some native plants that are used for food, textiles, and traditional healing. The guide even told me of a leaf that is supposed to help dissolve kidney stones when it's boiled into a tea.

We also saw an all-spice tree which smells incredible and made a really great syrup for the pancakes we ate for breakfast afterwards. Although the morning was cloudy, the view from atop Temple IV (yes, climbed the tallest temple in Tikal a second time) in the morning was breath-taking as the mist slowly rose from the top of the canopy.

We also learned about a game of life or death (in the most literal sense) where, depending on the celebration, either the winner or the loser would be sacrificed to the gods or to hell, respectively. This game was sometimes played on the mini-month of the Mayan calendar (after 18 months of 20 days, they would have an extra month of 5 days to finish off the 365 days in a year) when they would go to neighboring villages, capture a ruler and bring him back to 'play with him' for a few days then sacrifice him. Contrary to popular belief, the residents of Tikal only performed human sacrifices on 'special occasions' like the beginning of the rainy season. While we were on the subject of life and death, I tried to get some insider knowledge on the end of the Mayan calendar (12/12/2012) but the guide had no solid answers other than to say that it's the end of the long count of 5125 years (8/11/3114-12/12/2012) and that the Great Cycle should start over.

Also, when we entered on Sunday, we were not permitted to enter the main plaza because the President of Guatemala flew in on his helicopter to visit the historical Mayan village for the International Day of the World's Indigenous People and to partake in some Mayan rituals (http://www.elperiodico.com.gt/es/20090810/pais/109924/...the Mayan tour guide belives that Colom's expressed interest in Mayan shamanism is a purely political move since he was not raised Mayan and only 'practices' when it's conveneint).

(notice the prez's helicopter)

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After the quick weekend trip to Tikal, Lauren and I spent Monday and Tuesday in Spanish classes and planning our trips for the rest of the week. Since I was planning on Honey's trip, I had already 'taken the week off' so Lauren and I decided we wanted to travel to Monterrico and Panajachel.
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We headed off to Monterrico early on Wednesday morning and tried to convert to relaxed beach mode. However, in the midst of planning, I went to get an ear piercing which requires almost an hour's worth of maintenance each day and will keep me out of the ocean and pools for a couple of months. It was Lauren's first time ever to the Pacific and she was quite surprised to learn about the strength of the waves and the undertow. Also, it was a black sand beach making it nearly impossible to walk on the sand without burning the soles of your feet. Thus, we spent most of our time lazing in the hammocks and Adirondack chairs of our hotel, Johnny's Place.

Since it is impossible for me to 'chill and do nothing', I spent most of my time falling asleep while studying genetics. Laying in a hammock trying to attain the same nearly comatose state as everyone else at Johnny's I realized that people love to relax at the beach because it makes them feel free. On the contrary, I felt oddly restrained by the freedom, like it was inhibiting me from doing something productive, like I wasn't being useful.

There's never a shortage of food or dogs in this country for a animal loving vegetarian!

Monterrico is also known for it's sea turtle reserve (sea turtle=tortuga or parlama) that takes in and hatches the turtle eggs then releases the tortugitas to the sea after 5 days of hand-feeding fish. Since turtle eggs are a delicacy in Guatemala, they used to be hunted by humans who would sell them to the cities for Q30/dozen...each turtle can lay up to 12 dozen twice a year. There is now a law stating that all gathered eggs need to be taken to the hatchery which has helped the decline in the turtle population. However, the eggs are also sought out by hungry dogs and birds so these tours help to save the eggs before they get eaten or sold.

Immediately when we got off the bus, we were approached by men telling us about the reserve and offering turtle tours in the afternoon. Throughout the morning, we were approached by men over and over again until we went for a walk and booked the trip at the 'eco-tourism office'.

Still not actually sure who was fake and who was actually certified since they all had 'identification' and only one was obviously falsified. The tour was supposed to offer us a 3 hour walk on the beach in search of turtles laying eggs.at which time we would be able to take pictures and catch the eggs to take to the hatchery. We also bought into the morning tour through the mangroves to see birds and iguanas and the sunrise.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures to show of the night time turtle walk because we saw zero turtles. I did enjoy a nice three hour conversation with the guide in Spanish though. (He sold us the tour by saying that he could speak some English for Lauren...he didn't speak ANY.) But, he was raised in Monterrico and has experience as a fisherman, construction worker, farmer, and now a tour guide who likes to 'help teach the tourists Spanish' (his excuse for not being willing to speak in English with Lauren...not the only time we heard this one). Also learned that the turtles usually come in around 1/2 hour before the moon rises (around 10PM) but if they don't come in, that means that they will wait on the other side of the waves until around 1 or 2 AM (the case on our tour night). We walked up and down the beach 4 times for a total of 3 hours and about 5km in the heavy night. We saw lots of cangrejos (crabs) and had a really beautiful view of the stars.

Heading back to our room we realized that the heat of the day did not break with the sun and we asked for air in our room. Paying an extra $10, a man plugged in the unit and we cranked it down for the night...unfortunately the rooves are just thatched palms which aren't exactly attached to the walls so most of cool air escaped before cooling the musty room (one great step toward advancing global warming, I know).

We got up at 5A to meet for our morning tour. On the way to the office to meet, we encountered a pack of dogs blocking the road that...are just a little more intimidating in the middle of the night...so we walked around on the beach instead of the main road.

The sunrise was really colorful as it came up over the forest.

The morning tour was in a 'lancha' through a stagnant river/lagoon/swamp filled with mangrove trees and aquatic plants.

*We were a little nervous to see this man (and others) scooping water out of his boat.*

We saw a few herons and the guide (again using the excuse that he wanted to 'teach us Spanish') explained the uses for the different kinds of mangrove trees. The boat ride was incredible even though we didn't see any iguanas or tropical birds. We did however see gigantic spiders...see if you can find him...

We tried to relax more and eat breakfast (it's hard to want to eat when you're so hot...). We were downing the licuados with fruit, juices, ginger, and mint. We were pretty excited to catch the bus back to Antigua and waited at the stop for a couple of hours hoping that the bus would come with air conditioning (it came but did not have air conditioning). The ride home was enjoyable talking to other travelers and anticipating the cool Antigua night.

Then..we got back on Thursday night just in time to meet Rory and his friends, Jackie (left) and Sofia (right), from the city. Rory is heading home to Ireland tomorrow after a 7 month volunteering position as CasaSito's water project coordinator. We are all really sad to see him go but we had a great time last night.

Lauren and I went this morning to plan one final travel adventure before we get back to the real volunteering business next week. We're going to Lago Atitlan for the weekend and will hopefully meet up with Cible, a friend we met in Tikal who just finished her residency and is hanging out in Guatemala taking Spanish classes, volunteering at clinics, and traveling before heading out to the real working world.

Don't drink the water!

2009-08-05T03:46:00.002-04:00

I know, I know....don't drink the water, ask for 'sin hielo', check to be sure the fruits and veggies have been rinsed with 'agua pura,' and don't eat anything off the street. Well, I must say my pride has been hurt the past few days since I have had my first ever stomach illness in a foreign country. To my defense...everyone does it and I have never been overly careful south of the border...but I really have not been careful for my first 2 weeks in the country and I'm sure my immune system has had enough.

I'm fairly sure we, Health in Action, taught the children of Samox San Lucas, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala that they should brush their teeth with purified water. Eating mango from stands in the market nearly every day probably doesn't help...especially that fruit cup that tasted like alcohol because the pineapple and strawberries had already started to ferment. Additionally, eating immense amounts of food every day for the entire weekend, whether they were healthy vegetables or the sweet local desserts at the music festival, was probably not the best idea. With the amount of food I ate at the music festival, I was probably statistically doomed to eat at least one disease carrying food.

Anyway...Lauren and I are both sick and headed off to the clinica in the morning. Good thing I got that travellers' insurance!

This week wasn't just a day at the beach...

2009-08-03T20:21:00.010-04:00

Ok, so it did START with a day at the beach but the remainder of the week was filled with much music festival preparation and the festival itself!

On Sunday we loaded up early and headed out to Sipacate, a beautiful black sand beach only reachable by lancha.

We spent the day lounging around, boogie boarding, playing frisbee and volleyball, and soaking up the sun.

We made it back to Antigua just in time for a budget meal at a little illegal Japanese restaraunt that only serves 20 people every Sunday night. Once they have sold 20 tickets, they close up shop. The food is made 2 servings at a time so serving 12 people took a little time but the wait was worth it!
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After a stress-relieving day at the beach, we jumped right back into music festival mode with a 2 hour long Monday morning meeting to assess our progress and get in the zone for the week. We met up with a man named Brooks who works for a men's magazine in the States and is willing to do some major publicity work for CasaSito, starting with an article on the festival!

As the Music Festival Volunteer Coordinator, my week was spattered with email after email trying to recruit volunteers to help with advertising. (This is more difficult that you would think considering we had 30ish volunteers on the email list but many had to work on other volunteer projects during the day.) Also in charge of advertising, much of the week involved lots and lots of walking around Antigua. My trusty sidekick, Lorenz, and I talked to employees at almost every store, travel agency, and hotel on the west side of Antigua. We let them know about the festival and asked to post 'afiches' and leave mini 'afiches' to pass out to their clients. "Somos de la organizacion CasaSito y tenemos un festival de muscia este fin de semana en Santiago Zamora...blah blah blah...podemos colocar este afiche aqui en la puerta?"

We were trying to offer for the travel agents to make a tour out of the music festival by organizing and charging for a shuttle since the festival was held about 25 minutes outside of Antigua. Most of them are too lazy to design any tours because the hundreds of travel agents in Antigua all share the same tours and packages. By the time the weekend came, we'd exhausted our supply of flyers 5 times over and had to keep copying more so the weekend volunteers would be able to recruit more people to get on the free shuttle out to Santiago Zamora.
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On Thursday we got the volunteers together for a dinner/drinks at Kafka and went out for ladies night again at La Sala (which means I have officially attended every La Sala ladies night since I got here...also meaning I'm getting pretty good at this salsa thing...or not).
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Lauren finally arrive on Friday afternoon after a loooong delay in Ft. Lauderdale. No time for settling in, we had to go say bye to Jill (a CasaSito English teacher) on her 21st birthday and her last night in Guatemala.
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We put the volunteers to work all day Saturday blowing up 300 balloons, making posters, cutting up streamers, and picking up the endless amounts of trash along the road between San Antonio (where the chicken bus ends) and Santiago Zamora (where the festival was held).

Lauren and I took a group of students from GlobeMed at Loyola out to dinner on Friday night, recruited them to volunteer at the festival, and learned about their CasaSito project in Primavera Ixcan where they taught clinic staff how to properly sterilize equipment and the procedure rooms.
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Sunday, the day of the festival, turned out to be a beautiful day (the audience got to use their umbrellas for shade rather than rain protection!).

With no major disasters and no rain at all, the happy visitors spent the day listening to children singing for first place which would land them a keyboard and Q5000, second place which raked in Q3000 and a guitar, or one of the three participation places which still got them Q1000 and a guitar. All of the groups also got a pink or army styled backpacks and a book of songs from the Yale Alumni Chorus (the sponsors of the event). The home team won the big prize and were quite thrilled at that.

After the children sang festival attendees got a preview of the Yale Alumni Chorus which would be performing a free concert again in Monday night.

Then there were three local bands: a marimba...the group with the most difficult equipment to move, Las Estrellas...only two of the three chicas could come but they really tried to get the audience moving with some salsa and poppy music, and Non Plus...the group of high school boys that...well, sounded like a group of high school boys.

Meanwhile, everyone had the opportunity to shop around at the organization booths which were advertising their work and selling jewelry, art, and other cositas for fundraising. The women of Santioguito had worked full force for weeks to produce textiles of every style and color for the festival.

Other families from around the community came together to keep everyone at the event happy by making and selling all kinds of food from fruit to local desserts to traditional tostadas and crazy corn (which comes loaded with a 3-day supply worth of salt, ketchup, mayo, and parmesean cheese to taste).

Other entertainment included 'gigantes' (stilt people), 'tambores' (drum and flute players to announce the festival), facepainting, and 'hula-hulas.' The 'gigantes' and 'tambores' were hired by the women of Santioguito (the womens' association that organized the festival) to make the festival 'official'. Our volunteers enjoyed spending the day painting CasaSito logos and rainbows on the faces of every child at the festival.

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No slowing down now! The first two days of August set the precedent...this is guaranteed to be a busy month. With Lauren here, this week we're going to tour some of the CasaSito projects this week and start working on one, check out Animal AWARE (so we can send her home with a new furry friend), perhaps get some piercings. Next week, Honey will be here so the days will be packed with Tikal, Lago Atitlan, y mucho mas. The week after will be more project working and preparation for the EGL trip and, for the final week in August, we will be in Xela working on the radio center construction with EGL. Finally, in September, I will be able to breathe but that also means that all of the excitement that August is bound to bring will be over. In Spetember though, I will make a trip or three up to Samox San Lucas to move forward with Health in Action's relationship building and community assessment within the community!

Animal AWARE

2009-07-26T01:18:00.004-04:00

I don't even know where to start with an explanation of the past two days. I have taken in so much and my mind has been going constantly at a mile a minute.

I have been in e-mail contact with Xenii (shay-nee), the founder of an animal rescue and education association outside of Antigua called Animal AWARE (http://www.animalaware.org/index.htm), since April. She recently asked me to organize an event for the Day of the Animals (http://www.mascotamigas.com/dia_mundial.htm) on October 4th. Really excited to get to work, I decided to go check out Animal AWARE this weekend.

Just a little nervous, I stalled my way through Friday morning. I had not yet gotten to experience one of the colorful 'chicken buses' (camionetas) of Guatemala that are notorious for burning oil and being held up and extremely cramped. I was frankly a little terrified of getting on the bus full of locals jabbering in Spanish and Kaqichel that was headed down unfamiliar roads to a small town, Sumpango, where I would have to, in turn, walk a half mile up a rutty dirt road to find Animal AWARE. It turned out to be extremely exciting (even the part where the man came on and whipped his not empty catheter bag out of his pants to prove that he truly needed some donations in order to survive). However...I admit...the ayudantes thought I was a bit of a nerd (or a Gringa) squishing between 5 other people into the front seat so I wouldn't miss my 2 stops. While I was sitting in the front though, I did find myself terrible jealous of the driver who was shifting through the gears like he was driving a sports car (he took the turns in much the same way which sent passengers pressed up against the windows much like you'd see in a cartoon).

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I'm not sure exactly why I expected to find a fine-tuned operation with volunteers running the office and frequent educational programs (perhaps it's because CasaSito is very good at this) but, that is exactly the opposite of what I found. It turns out that Xenii (American?) and her husband, Martin (English), started AWARE almost 10 years ago with a few rescued dogs. By 2005 their operation had grown to 50 dogs and a cageful of cats. It was in that year that they set an upper limit on the number of animals they would accept...60. Today they have over 270 dogs, over 100 cats, and presently 2 rabbits.

The operation as it runs today: Xenii cannot say no to an animal in need. She takes them all in. A majority of the animals are from the street and nearly all of them come in with severe cases of giardia (the parasite that is in the water...the reason no one can drink the water in Latin America) and fleas. Many also have severe skin infections like mange and/or some sort of genetic disfiguration (a squinty eye or a deformed leg). She fixes them up, has them sterilized by one of her vet connections, and tries to place them in homes. I was honestly expecting the dogs to be mean but 99% of them are like totally tame although most are extremely fearful and only come near for kibble treats. Every dog makes daily progress though with the help of Xenii and the few helpers that she has. Many of the dogs that Xenii places head off to the USA which is partially a wonderful practice because most dogs will be going to great homes (one dog is in the finals for a pet competition in San Francisco) but it is very, very expensive and does not prove to local people that sterilized street dogs can make great family pets.

Xenii has things very well organized with a few hired staff who feed the animals and let them out twice daily but they are in desperate need of help. They occasionally get a volunteer or two out to help them socialize the dogs but other than that, Xenii and her Guatemalan assistant, Sep, run everything from treating minor illnesses to PR to communication with the 5-10 half-dedicated vets that they have out to help out with surgeries and such.

When I got there Xenii and Martin were out on a food run...can you even imagine how much Purina Puppy Chow and Beneful a pack of nearly 300 dogs eats!? Martin said the pick-up truck full of food would last them no more than 10 days. A good portion of their food used to be donated by Purina but this year they have only recieved about 4 food donations which really puts a strain on their budget which I presume to be entirely donor funded (I asked Xenii about grants and she chuckled and said 'I just don't have the time for writing grants.')

Fun fact: Animal AWARE was the first member organization of the WSPA (the World Society for the Protection of Animals: http://www.wspa-international.org/).

In my conversations with Xenii yesterday and today, I could see that, while she loves what she's doing and has the type of personality that NEEDS to stay busy, she was visibly stressed and is beginning to recognize that she needs help. Her hilarious husband, Martin, who claims his job at Hound Heights is to complain because people always say, 'do what you're good at.' He is expressively worried about his wife who is not young and the future of AWARE. His main concern is that she tries to run the whole show on her own and refuses to hire a manager or anyone who can help coordinate the organization. Being there for just over 24 hours, I am concerned, too. Almost 500 animals are completely dependent on a single dedicated woman.

I have always dreamed of running an organization much like AWARE with a greater emphasis on education and sustainable sterilization clinics (this is presently the topic of my personal statement for my vet school application). AWARE does offer vaccine and sterilization clinics on a monthly basis but they have trouble maintaining an education program since they rarely have long term volunteers. I am partially inspired and partially intimidated by the struggles of this organization. I had thoughts running through my mind all weekend of what I could do to help Xenii...be there to take over the organization for her...work on major PR in the USA and Guate...have everyone I know who is traveling to the US from Guatemala transport a dog or two to the shelters there. Well, these are all grand ideas but, to start, I am going to make up a little flier in search of volunteers for the International Day of the Animal event so I do not have to plan the whole parade and vaccine clinic in Spanish, by myself.
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I spent my time at AWARE working with a few dogs to get used to leash walks (i.e. not totally freak out and/or not pull me up or down the hills) and to sit so they are more adoptable. When I first got there I toured the entire facility, up and down the paths carved into the dusty hills, from kennel to kennel, from literally mangy dog to mangy dog, from little tiny puppies to an old bug-eyed dog...it was incredible.

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There happened to be another volunteer at AWARE this weekend, Anna, who had been working there and with an organization in Antigua from October to April when she headed off by herself for adventures in Argentina. Anna's stories about Argentina were incredible. She just graduated from high school last year and she spend two months hitch-hiking with some happy and scary experiences from Buenos Aires, down to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, then back up to Cordoba (a German town), to Che's birthplace in Rosario, and back to Buenos Aires to finish it up. ...And I felt pretty wild today riding in the back of a pick-up with Anna on the way into Sumpango for some lunch...hmmm...

Anyway, she was just back for a couple of weeks to pick up a super sweet, 2-year old dog, Camilla, who she was adopting to take back to Germany with her. She worked all weekend getting Camilla to not be nervous on the leash and to go in the crate she will need to ride in on the plane...by the end of the day today, I was finally able to pet Camilla.

I spent my last couple of hours at AWARE chatting with a Guatemalan about sexism in Guatemala (which he thought was a characteristic exclusive to Latin American men until I explained otherwise) and the pressures to conform to society through music and social activities. He had endless questions about life in the USA and my opinions on pretty important topics including organic farming and development work. I hope that I learned as much from him as he from me. I am still processing the content of this conversation; he gave me a lot to think about.
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Anyway, headed off to the beach tomorrow for a relaxing day with CasaSito and the housemates!

Gallo Girls

2009-07-25T23:51:00.005-04:00

Thursday night the housemates and I went to check out a free concert in the stadium. Turns out free also means that it was entirely sponsored by Gallo (the pride of Guatemala...a super cheap beer). This means that the concert, which was supposed to start at 7, actually began with a TWO-HOUR intro of parading the four "Gallo Girls" around the stage and tossing merchandise into the crowd of 12-16 year old Guatemalan boys who were likely only enthused for about an hour by the Gringa-looking models on the stage. Finally at 9PM a Guatemalan band came on (they were the openers for the main event, Malacates) that opened with an Incubus song, 'Wish You Were Here.' It was followed with 3 other covers one of which was a rather garbled version of Buckcherry's 'Crazy B****.' Now, it was not only the band's fault that they were having empty (or full?) Gallo cans chucked at them...the sound engineers clearly did not know how to turn the vocals up and the guitar down...and...one of the connections was bad so there was a rather loud static throughout the entire set. Somewhat intrigued by the disaster of a concert, we stuck around just to see the headliner after another half hour of Gallo girl torture. They turned out to be a Guatemalan ska band but it was too hard to tell through the terrible sound system so we left for La Sala where it was ladies night and we...attempted to...dance salsa all night (well, I must say housemate Guido and I got pret-ty good by the end). This is us leaving... R->L: Melissa (here 'til November or December), Brian (moving in in a couple weeks), Guido (moving out this weekend).

If I can say one thing good about Guatemalan concerts though...it's that it is always really easy to see the stage because Guatemalans are so short!

Almost a week in...

2009-07-22T19:04:00.006-04:00

So, I've been here for almost a week and it already feels like home. I am really excited for the next couple of months.
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Here are some more pictures and stories...
While we were out looking for voluntarios on Monday, I got to stop by CasaAzul which is the other CasaSito house in Antigua. This is the gorgeous view from the room of the surrounding volcanoes. The one on the right is Agua.

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Yesterday morning I had my first meeting with all of the CasaSito music festival staff. It was really long but I could not believe how organized it was. The staff made a 2 month plan at the beginning of the festival planning period with deadlines for each week and outlines for each person . We went through the plan to make sure everything was on track and reviewed the plan for using the voluntarios that we recruited. I am officially in charge of contact with the volunteers for the next two weeks.
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In the afternoon, we got to go out to Santiago Zamora where we will be holding the music festival next weekend. We had a meeting with the womens' organization of the town to finalize some plans. They are selling textiles at the event and have organized all of the food vendors. But, they are also notorious for taking the festival plans into their own hands...they thought we needed a stage for the bands so they got one (although we already had one). This time they decided it would be cool to hire 'gigantes' (those creepy guys on stilts) and tambores (drums and traditional celebration music) for the festival...

Well, so the festival is supposed to be in the open dirt patch in front of the church...much to everyones' surprise, when we arrived in Santiago Zamora...we found the dirt patch had been filled in with a garden and rickety amusement rides.

The garden, I think, will be a nice addition to the festival. The amusement park rides on the other hand...

Notice the shocked stances of my partners (Estima on the left, Paul, and Natalie).

Well, we found out that the rides at least were only in town for the festival of Santiago which is this weekend and they will be gone by next Wednesday. The rides were really scary though. They are all manual and I guess they make the kids go really, really fast. Natalie pushed on the character in front of Shrek in the picture on the right...and they are not attached to the platforms they sit one! They are just like sleds on a wooden platform! The ferris wheel is what really scares me!
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Today I was really excited to go to a natural tie-dying workshop that I had seen in Que Pasa (the monthly magazine with everything for tourists to do in Antigua). So, I got up early and went to a little cafe on the way to the Parque Central to get un plato tipico (beans, scrambled eggs, platanos, cream, cheese, bread, and tea...yes...all that food for Q24<$3). I arrived at the Parque in plenty of time to catch the shuttle...made my first phone call in Spanish(!!!). Anyway, I met some cool people on the bus. One lady is here for 5 weeks just to learn Spanish so she can talk to her ESL students (who often have social problems and she would like to be able to council them). She was traveling with her maestra (the lady who spends every day with her, one-on-one, traveling in Antigua, just practicing Spanish). Anyway, we arrived and paid and it wasn't until the transportation stage of the coffee tour that I realized I was in the wrong place. I learned all about the growth of little shade grown coffee plants and ended up on a tour of an organic farm.

It was actually really cool until they tried to get me to eat a freshly roasted coffee bean...ew. It was not the place for a non-coffee drinker.

So, the coffee workers first have to fill little bags with dirt. Then, they hand splice coffee seedlings together. They take two little baby coffee plants (one that just grows fast and one that's a really good quality...small facts: Guatemala is #11 in the world for coffee production and #3 in quality), cut off their roots, make a slice up the center of each stem, tape the two intertwined stems together, then plant them in the dirt-filled bags. There they grow for a couple of months (2 wks on the right, below) then they are transplanted by hand into big manure filled holes. It takes 3 years for a coffee plant to start bearing fruit but after that they can provide fruit for 40 years.

They have the tall trees Silky Oak trees imported from Australia to provide shade for the plants. The coffee fruit starts as little red fruits that they call the cherry stage. We got to see some in the green stage today, they will be ready to harvest at the end of November (the women have the job of picking the fruit). Then they use lots of water and gas powered machines to take off the red stuff. Then they put them out on big patios to dry for 1-2 weeks and they bag it (this is the man's job). Then there are more machines to husk and sort the sizes and they have a big electronic scanner to pick out the bad beans (or this can be done manually by women on an assembly line in a coffee factory). Then they are usually sent to the destination country before they are roasted. The beans are roasted at different temperatures for different lengths of time depending on the medium or dark roast (this is where he passed out free samples to see the difference between the regular coffee bean and the darker 'espresso' bean). Then, they are put into little plasticy metal bags to preserve freshness but there is also a hole-like feature on the bag that releases the aroma for better sales :) Then you drink it! (yuk!)

Anyway, while the plants are growing for 45 years, you may wonder if they encounter bugs or how they grow so well. Well, this particular finca was an organic farm. (Although, they claim there is no difference in the end product since all of the chemicals would be husked off anyway. Just the detrimental effects of the chemicals on the environment and workers...) They basically use manure and organic leaf material mixed with soil to fertilize. So, how do they get rid of the bugs?...PETA people, beware (see below)...they cut a hole in the top of a two liter, fill the bottom with kerosene, and fill a little eye dropper bottle with alcohol and tape that to the side. The little bugs are attracted to the alcohol for some reason then they get in there, get drunk and fall to the bottom to drown in kerosene.

Once we got to the gift shop (where I spent way to much money for being a non-cafe drinker), I asked about my tie-dying workshop.
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When I got to Indigo Artes Textiles y Populares they said that 5 people didn't come for class so they weren't going to hold it anyway. They took my name to call when they have enough people. (Meanwhile, I found out that it would cost Q400...a fortune here...about $50.) They still gave me a tour of all of the textiles and the foot-powered and belt weaving machines, a gallery of textiles from Coban (they are all pure white but they use a green liquid to bleach them...almost makes sense), and the natural dyes.
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Anyway, applied for another job today...Kafka (this bar/restaraunt/hostel) was looking for bartenders and waitresses. The average pay here is Q8/hour<$1. We didn't have water tonight so we went to Kafka for dinner. A friend of a housemate works there so he taught me the ins-and-outs of bartending. I think I'm ready to serve Ron Zacapa y Cuba Libres.

Vacation is over...they put me to work!

2009-07-20T20:14:00.002-04:00

After a long weekend of working on vet school applications, planning trips to Tikal and Lago Atitlan, and studying (yes...studying) for my online genetics course, I was finally given some work today!

I will be helping with a music festical in a nearby village called Santiago Zamora. The festival will have a choir competition in the morning where 5 of the schools supported by CasaSito and their partners will send a choir from their music program. Each program will receive a small donation and a musical instrument for their growing collections. On the afternoon of the festival, we have found 3 local bands to play some indigenous, salsa, and rock music. Local women will be selling textiles and organizing all of the food for the festival. Several local NGOs will also set up booths. This festival is not a fundraiser for CasaSito, rather a way to get our name out there.

So, today, I went arond to local Spanish schools where tourists take classes while they are in town. We are looking for volunteers to help us set up and work on the day of the festival. We are having a mass meeting tonight for volunteers interested in helping out. Then, after lunch, I went back out to the Parque Central and passed out fliers. I felt like I was totally profiling...1) only talked to white/non-Guatemalan looking people and 2) started by asking if they spoke English. At times I placed myself next to the many people on the streets passing out fliers about various tours and shuttles...everyone just walked right by them but paid me full attention when I asked for it. Totally not fair, I know. If only the travel agencies would hire white, English speakers, they would get a lot more attention I think. I'm actually really excited to do some more advertising. Anyway, I got to meet a lot of cool people including some Peace Corps volunteers, a dude who plays in a drum circle in the Parque Central on the weekends, and a girl who's been working at an orphanage for children with AIDS.

Anyway, that's all the time I have. Off to the meeting to see if we can get some volunteers to help us with the awesome music festival!

Your donations are officially official!

2009-07-20T20:07:00.002-04:00

Thank you so much to everyone who donated to my CasaSito letter drive. I sat down with Alice on Friday and discussed where all of the donations will be going, being sure to specify those donations that had specific purposes. For those of you who checked "wherever it is needed," the donations will be supporting CasaSito's scholarship program.

Learning more about the scholarship program. In the morning I awake to really slow, basic sentences, half in English and half in Spanish in the room next door to mine. Volunteers are here to help CasaSito's scholarship recipients practice English before and after their school. School here is only a half day so they either come before they go to school or after. Students come Monday and Wedesday or Tuesday and Thursday. The funds of the scholarship program help support students from the villages outside of Antigua so they can come to school in Antigua. One of the main reasons that students do not continue their education is that they cannot afford the transportation to Antigua where the education is offered. Part of CasaSito's funds support their transport from their home villages to CasaSito.

So, I officially handed over the donations to Alice today! Two giant wads of money (it looked like a lot a lot because the exchange rate right now is 8 Quetzales for 1 USD...so I had 8 times the amount of bills I would have otherwise had!)

Thanks again to those of you who dontaed. If anyone else is interested in making a donation toward the work here in Guatemala, please visit CasaSito's website at www.casasito.org (or send me an email and I can tell you more about it: cricketd33@gmail.com :))

USA gets recognition

2009-07-18T21:46:00.006-04:00

There are so many things here that make me feel like I'm still in the US. It all started when I disembarked from the plane at the airport in Guatemala city. The airport had developed immensely since my last trip to Guatemala when it was basically empty. Since, they have added not only a McDonalds but also a Pizza Hut. And they added ambient music...and by that, I mean cheesy '80s hits.

Even in Antigua, it's inescapable. The pre-packaged food, the Coke trucks,

the McDonalds (the only difference is that the McD's here is guarded by a soldier with a big gun like it's the most important establishment in the city),

the Michael Jackson legacy living on as the subtle music playing in every tienda and every other travel agency....

Then, I am reminded of the strong local culture that peeks through the thick blanket of American and European offerings that are in place to please tourists. A majority of the women on the street sport the indigenous garb and there is a GIGANTIC mercado on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays where hundreds of families emerge with fresh fruits and vegetables and meats for sale, huge bags of beans and rice and corn, cheap clothing and shoes, and the local artisan goods like handbags and jewelry. The market is expansive and quite impressive. Be sure to show up on a market day though or you'll be sold expensive fruits imported from the United States (just when I thought I could get away...).

I look forward to learning more about the culture and finding ways to dig through the American and European influence on the city. I got to see a Guatemalan funeral procession on Thursday. It was surprising but encouraging to see. Rather than a line of cars with lights and flags, it was a long scattered line of people following a set of ushers carrying a casket. They were solemn but still chatting among themselves.

In the meantime...here are some photos of CasaSito's Volunteer House where I am living...

From time crunch to time crunch...who handles it better?

2009-07-16T23:01:00.003-04:00

As my anticipation to arrive in Guatemala was escalating, my excitement and desire to experience a new culture was growing without bound. Leaving the country I realized why this break is much needed. 1) Even in my last conversations with my family, I found myself arguing about pointless details. 2) The Americans in the airport were visibly 1000 times more stressed than the Guatemalans. 3) On the plane I sat next to an uncle and little boy who spoke English and Spanish so interchangeably that sometimes they were speaking every other word naturally in both languages. This is a skill I am terribly envious of but I find myself wondering if that child actually knows the difference between the two languages.
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I'm officially here and am already busy and learning a ton. I got the airport and through customs in no time...walked right out of the airport into a shuttle which had me to Antigua within 45 minutes. I got to sit in the front seat of the van so I got to talk to the driver who didn't speak English rather than the Americans and Irishman in the back.

Got to CasaSito where I will be working and no one was there! Luckily some of the other volunteers showed up within 2 minutes and they showed me my room. Super tiny but I have already spread out and flooded the entire room with my stuff. By the time I was half done packing, another volunteer came so I went out to talk to them. It turned out that they were 3 of the 4 people I will be working with on a music festival in a nearby village.

The music festival will be on August 2 and it's mainly a choir competition. There will be 5 choirs competing but each will win a donation toward their music program and a musical instrument. After the competition, there will be live music. There will also be some local artisans and food vendors set up. The goal of the festival is to promote extracurriculars in education and to get publicity for CasaSito and the local womens' orgs that will be setting up booths. We'll be advertising a lot this week for it.

Anyway, the other volunteers were practicing for a presentation they were giving tonight for a big Antigua Network meeting where all the NGOs in Antigua get together and update each other on their work and their needs. They warned me not to go because it would be long and boring and they almost had me convinced...then Alice (the head honcho at CasaSito) came and started introducing me to the volunteer's house and she said I should go with them.

I'm really really glad I did. They had presentations from almost 20 orgs in Antigua..some were less interesting but there were a few sustainable development, education, and health programs that were pretty interesting. Afterwards, there was a snack and time to network with the other groups.

I talked with one group, CREA, that does almost the same work as Health in Action (the UM org that I work with...plughia.com) and I started asking the presenter about how he decides what the community needs. He will be a really valuable resource while I'm here I think. He started to explain that they spend about a month or two getting to know the community putting on fun programs for the kids and adults to really gain their respect and confidence. Then, they set up a town meeting and it's easy to get them to tell you what they need and want. CREA offers what they can and serve as a link to the resources the community needs to get their other problems solved.

Another group put out pamphlets (but they didn't present) on the Estufas Mejoradas (the reason I got the grants I got) so I have contact info for them and another organization that uses them and water filters. Hopefully I will be able to get in contact with them while I'm here and they will be a really good resource for HiA as we move into our planning for next year.

Another set of guys work for a group called Encountours which links US university students to volunteer opps in Guatemala. They're also good resources because they know about a lot of the projects going on. For example, they just sent a group to Xela to start the construction of the radio station training center where EGL and I will be going in August. I asked them about how it works...meaning are they just doing construction work or do they be able to get something more out of the experience. They said the group that just got back had an excellent experience and they loved the coordinator. I guess, they got to hear endless stories about the history of the war between the indigenous populations and the newbees. The coordinator even set up a 'guerrilla lunch' where they ate what would have been eaten during the war and got to hear all about the history and talk to a lot of local people. So, I'm really excited for that program.

Anyway, finished with that and back at the house now. Just met the other girls living here. We're going out tonight to an American bar where it's ladies night and they have lots of salsa music.

Tomorrow, I'm going to take the morning to get acquainted with Antigua, do some grocery shopping and stuff. Then in the afternoon, I'm going to check out one of the girl bands who may be playing at the music festival.

There's a lot of flexibility to do what I want so I need to make sure I can keep myself structured. I will work on that tomorrow morning too...start to set some schedule. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

June...anticipation

2009-06-08T18:59:00.000-04:00

It's June. I booked my first Guatemala ticket for July 16-October 2 (since I will need to leave after the 90 day visa anyway and October is a slow month for CasaSito, I plan to return for November and December).

Thanks to Brad, I have begun to set some personal goals as well as goals that I have for Health in Action, Samox San Lucas, and CasaSito. This has gotten me pretty excited for the trip and led me to focus on fundraising.

A brief summary:

personal: learn about and partake in alternative methods of volunteerism and community development, learn about the way a non-profit organization is managed, share my own knowledge and time to make a lasting impact on people who seek help
Samox San Lucas: provide a source of continuity mid-year between Samox and HiA so that they may gain confidence in our programs and intentions, help them carry out a more thorough needs assessment to make goals to reach all of the community's needs (not only those that can be addressed by HiA)
HiA: continue to develop a relationship with CasaSito and Samox San Lucas, find answers to any questions that arise in the development of future programs
CasaSito: serve as an additional helping hand in projects where coordinators and volunteers are essential including a music festival and English teaching programs, act as a liason between CasaSito and UM for both HiA and EGL (with whom I will be traveling in August to construct a radio station)

Today I drafted a letter to send to family and friends. CasaSito has posed a campaign to get 1000 people to donate $20. All of the money I raise will help CasaSito fund an anticipated 70 middle and high school students in their 2010 scholarship program.