Real World: Xela

This week Team Esperanza is in Quetzaltenango, more familiarly known as Xela. Xela is the 2nd biggest city in Guatemala, and we're living right in the center, so its fun to be in an urban (and thus very different!) environment. Our group gets one big apartment, and everyone gets their own room. Its a pretty big apartment! Anyway, I like to think of our week here as the third world country version of the Real World - put a bunch of 20 year olds together in an apartment and make them work together, and see how they get along. Haha. So far, so good.

Since we have a kitchen, people want to cook their own food. Buying breakfast food, fine, buying yogurt for snacks and stuff, fine ... but cooking dinner is getting to be too difficult! First of all, if we want anything but dried foods (pasta) you have to go the actual market where you buy food from indigenous people. Then its a pain to disinfect and or boil (likely both) all the food to get rid of parasites and stuff. The kitchen is like 50 years old ... you have to light the stove with a lighter (which somehow I ended up being the only one who knows how to do it, and you also end up burning your hands trying to do it) .... no one really knows how to cook anything, either. Example, last night as our appetizer we had "nachos" - slices of questionable cheese melted in the microwave over stale chips! Haha. Its sort of fun though, having to figure everything out ourselves! Oh, also, we don't have utensils. See left picture. I'm looking forward to our dinner out tomorrow night though. The convenience is certainly worth 4 to 5 dollars to me. Ha.

Today we visited a Spanish school called El Portal. This activity sort of falls under SolCom's program called AsesorPorFavor - which is basically a free consulting service. Theres a bunch of Spanish language schools throughout Xela, but this specific one is nonprofit, and uses the proceeds to provide scholarships to very poor children with single mothers. Its a good concept, but since theyre fairly new and somewhat out of the way, they don't have a ton of business. Anyway, we were there giving them some ideas on publicity and marketing as well as some cost cutting tips. (We want to sell them a water filter to save money on buying agua pura). This week we're going to make up a more attractive brochure to pass out to hostels and such.

Anyway, the water I put on to boil about 30 minutes ago is starting to bubble, so its time to put in the pasta (yay). I think we have leftover "nachos" tonight too. Yay, again.


Xela is a really awesome city though, very authentic, so so far I'm really liking it!

Weekend Trip to the Jungle!

This past weekend, because we had both Saturday and Sunday free, a group of 10 of us traveled to Coban, which is a region (and a city, too) to the north and to the east of Antigua.   It was actually a pretty impractical trip, because it was 7 hours each way in a little microbus, and we did only have 2 days.  We left at 5 am on Saturday to get there at noon, and then had exactly 24 hours until we had to drive back.  The trip was soo worth it though, definitely the coolest place I've been so far I think.

One of the best parts of the mini-vacation was the place we stayed, El Retiro Lodge. For only 35Q a night too (about 4 dollars!). We slept in little bungalows - they had a great restaurant with a really good Mexican buffet for dinner ... direct access to the Lanquin River, and just a really cool atmosphere.  

On Saturday we went to the Lanquin Caves - a bat cave really close to El Retiro.  (Picture to the left). It was really incredible, to walk through this huge, really extensive, cave system.  There were also Mayan altars throughout the caves which was awesome.  At 5:30 all the bats come out of the cave, which unfortunately I didn't get to see but we did see a couple bats in the cave above our heads. 

The Lanquin River starts in the Caves, and El Retiro offers tubing trips starting at the river and going down to their property.  It was really really fun - definitely something that might not be allowed in the US...no waiver forms, no life vests, likely highly contaminated water, no safety brief ... just sort of like throw your tube in the river and go!  Coban is a jungle area too, so I thought it was really really cool to just be tubing on this river through the jungle!

We woke up early on Sunday morning to go to Semuc Champey - a national park in Guate. It was really beautiful, we did a hike through the turquoise pools and then up a mountain to a lookout point.  I'm in better shape than I thought I was, for not having exercised (except for walking a bunch of places) at all since I left!  Again, just hiking thro

ugh the jungle was really worth it!

After coming back from Semuc, we ordered a quick breakfast and coffee, and then got right back into the microbus for 7 hours to come back home to Antigua.  Definitely worth it! The entire weekend ended up being on the expensive side .. I think I paid a total of like $60 for the entire time, everything included. (Which is actually cheap if you think about it...entrance into 2 parks, tubing, meals, lodging, transportation for 14 hrs, but still, its a lot in terms of quetzales!)

Definitely worth it! If I ever come back to Guate, I would want to go back to El Retiro and spend more time there!

Beans + Beans + Beans + Whole Milk

The Guatemalan typical dinner (which I know QUITE well by now....):
Black beans.
Tortillas.
Maybe some rice?

That's about it. Haha. Actually no joke the last 3 nights for dinner I've had a plate of beans (last night they were red beans, so a little different) and tortillas. Oh well. Usually Guatemalans have a bigger lunch, and then just eat something simple for dinner. The typical breakfast includes all the above plus some fried plantains, so at least I get to eat cereal for breakfast instead of repeating my meal from the night before!

Speaking of said cereal - it is always Corn Flakes (I think this stems from Guatemalans obsession with corn, also they're pretty cheap, and the only other option that isn't imported and thus wildly expensive is Choco-Krispies, kind of random). It's kind of a luxury that my family buys me cereal - they usually don't eat breakfast. The very first day I ate breakfast with my family in Antigua they gave me a full bowl of (warm-ish) instant milk, with a box of cereal on the side. Usually at home I only use a little bit of milk and don't ever drink it, so there was no way I was finishing a whole bowl of instant milk. So they took my left-over instant milk as a sign I hated instant milk (not really true, I would definitely eat it, just less of it!) and started buying real milk. Except I feel very bad about their milk purchases - it costs 40Q, which is expensive, and they only buy whole milk in gallon sizes, which I like almost less than instant milk. So then I don't use a lot of it - it goes bad after a week or so, and thus doesn't get finished. Haha, just a bad milk situation. I think they are kind of proud of buying real milk for me though, it's almost a status thing (my family has a fridge, which is uncommon), so I wouldn't want to tell them I don't like it at the almost-end of my trip. So anyway, I'm looking forward to 2% milk when I get back!

Macademia Farm + more Antigua

This week all the 4 groups are back in Antigua, to sort of recap the first half our of time and do more Spanish lessons. It´s fun to have everyone back in the same location, although I´m definitely looking forward to traveling again. Antigua is still fun, and I like being with my homestay, although it´s definitely a little old.

On Monday, while the other groups were traveling back here, my group went to a macademia nut farm right outside of Antigua, near Ciudad Vieja. It was really really cool, probably one of my favorite mornings here! We ate delicious macademia nut pancakes (with blueberries), got a tour of the farm, heard about their organization a bit, and got to sample some things. In addition to just growing macademia nuts, they also sort of function as a development group, because they provide up to 100 macademia trees to rural farmers at a really reduced price, and then give counsel about how to grow them, so that farmers can make an extra income. I think macademia nuts also pull in a higher amount than more traditional crops. They also paid for the morning, which was nice! I wasn´t expecting them to pay for anything here, but they pay for quite a bit, and give up daily stipends also. It makes sense for the people who paid to come here, but for us from Duke it´s really just extra-extra money being given to us. Haha.

Today I had my last Spanish lesson with my tutor, which was sort of sad but not actually sad....I really like her, she had a lot of interesting things to tell me about, but the lessons themselves kind of dragged on (4 hrs of straight conversation!). This afternoon we all gave presentations on our experience with each product at the campaigns, and general tips to share about how to have good publicity and good campaigns.

I found a good Internet cafe in Magdalena (where I live) which is faster and cheaper (only 5Q an hour instead of 8Q, so thats like 60 cents an hour instead of a dollar haha). I´m about to look up places to go this weekend (we have Saturday and Sunday off) and then go back home, so thats about it!

CrediCapaz - A Savings Project

One of my team´s projects for our 4 weeks is helping SolCom with one of their (very) new initiatives, called CrediCapaz. Basically all that exists now is a name and the desired outcomes of the project. So each team is charged with doing market research, surveys, and formulating a potential plan that we´ll eventually present for review. CrediCapaz is aimed at encouraging good savings habits among poorer Guatemalans by setting up community savings-based ¨banks¨.

Savings really can have a lot of good repercussions for the poor - they can use their savings as a buffer for unexpected things, or save for larger planned investments. Also, its a lot easier and better to make an investment out of your savings than to take out a high-interest microfinance loan (some go up to mid 30s% interest).

So far my team has done a lot of research into existing financial options for Guatemalans in different areas and surveying into the current savings patterns. My friend Chris and I walked around Nebaj and talked with owners of cooperatives and banks to see what sort of rates they offer and incentives and disincentives for using each type. I thought that was really interesting - a good opportunity to use my Spanish and talk directly to the administration of those places. We also developed a survey for regular people to ask about their savings - we´ve found so far that people are interested in savings, often don´t have enough money to do so, and generally distrust banks (apparently they fail w/o warning!).

The rest of this might be somewhat technical? I don´t know. It´s interesting.

Our plan is based on an existing structure in Guatemalan society - the cuchubal, which the word for a ROSCA. A ROSCA is really not complicated at all - basically a group of people that contribute a fixed amount each month (or a set term), and one member of the group takes all the money each month. It could kind of be looked as a 0% interest loan. Read the Wiki for more detail.

Our plan modifies the ROSCA´s shortcomings, which are lack of savings interest and unknown withdrawal time. We are trying to modify it so people can plan their withdrawal time, so they can plan investment, and also offer initial interest (from SolCom, via an Asesora) to entice people to join. I won´t go into all the details here because it would take awhile, but it´s really interesting to go to the grassroots level when designing a project like this, and seeing what people really want, what they would actually take advantage of, what incentives they need, etc. It´s also good for practicing Spanish!

Monterrico - A Volcanic Beach

Yesterday we sort of had an off day, and they took our whole team to the beach for the day. We went to Monterrico, which I think is one of the more touristy beaches in the country, probably one of the nicer ones. By touristy, it was by no means more developed or anything, I think that just means there were a few foreigners (not really even Americans) and the prices were slightly higher (this one ice cream cone that we buy all the time cost 6Q instead of 5Q..a whole 12 cents more). It was a really nice day though - sort of cloudy in the morning but by 11 or so it got sunny and really hot. Because it´s a volcanic beach, the sand was black(ish) which was pretty cool. The waves were really high and the undertow was really strong, so I didn´t actually swim in the ocean. Even people that really wanted to swim in the ocean couldn´t....there was a pool right off the sand though, so that was nice. My first pool of the summer!

Hike to the cascadas!

On Sunday, we had a free day, so my team did a short hike to a waterfall that was outside of Nebaj.
I guess the waterfall itself wasn{t that spectacular - nothing that couldn{t be seen in the US, but I thought the hike there was pretty interesting:

1) We went with an Ixil guide who pointed out a bunch of small villages that were formed in the 80s for displaced people. Basically during the civil war people were forced out of their homes in Nebaj and forced to live in shantytowns, kind of. And people still live there ... you can almost tell they were makeshift villages - badly constructed houses and all crammed together.

2) Garbage everywhere!! Guatemalans have no sense that littering is bad! Rivers would be almost blocked up by piles and piles of plastic cans ... water was ridiculously contaminated ... wrappers everywhere! It was kind of sad to see really, that the pretty landscape was so overridden by trash! (The picture below is of garbage in a river, its sort of hard to see)

Our First "Campaña"

On Saturday, our team did our first campaign with Ana, a local "entrepreneur" who works with SolCom, in a pretty small and very rural town called Xexuxcap (actually an Ixil word pronounced with lots of "sh" sounds). We had come into Xexuxcap on Wednesday to do publicity for the campaign - which basically was going to find the mayor of the town, getting his permission, finding a spot, and walking around all the streets of the town putting up posters and talking to people and passing out flyers.

Basically campaigns are one of the biggest focuses of our work here - its where we actually go into a smaller "aldea" (village) and bring products, and the entrepreneur sells them. We gave free eye exams, and then sold reading glasses, as well as water filters, seeds, water purifying drops, and some other things. Since our village was pretty small, we sold a little under the average - but it was really awesome to be able to out in a really remote part of the country and interacting with people and giving them things that people really need. When we{re just talking about the products, there{s a disconnect that makes the products seem kind of uninteresting - but when youre out helping an entrepreneur, you can really see how needed everything is. We sell eyedrops (kind of like Visine I think), and since everyone is always really exposed to dust and dirt and lots of sun, peoples eyes are actually really irritated, and people actually came with bright red eyes, which I guess I wasn{t really expecting.

Also we{re testing out a new solar light, which back in Antigua in the discussion phase, I thought was kind of small and wouldn{t actually be popular. But when you take the product out to the aldea, people went crazy for them, because a lot of people spend money each day on multiple candles to light their house. So it was really awesome to get to connect discussion with actual practical use.

We just got back from Nebaj, and now Im back in Magdalena, the town I live in outside of Antigua. Im glad to be back in Antigua with my original family - Ive missed their food! Also, Ive missed their (warm) bucket showers (never thought I would say that!), but cold real showers are much worse!

Unexpected things I´ve taken for granted in the US...

1) Decent plumbing systems. As in, here, you can´t put toilet paper in the toilet because it would clog up the pipes. (Toilet paper itself is somewhat uncommon apparently too!) Also, a lot of toilets you can´t lift a handle to flush, you have to dump a bucket of water in to make it flush via a gravity-feed system.

2) Strawberries. Can´t eat them here because they grow underground and are thus really susceptible to bacteria and stuff.

3) Window screens. Lots of flies around here!

4) Desserts in general. Families don´t really eat dessert! I guess that´s actually

not so bad (for me) really...

5) The ability to travel in general. Most people I´ve talked to haven´t really been outside of their own department, and definitely not the country. I almost feel a little guilty telling them where I´ve traveled! They are all likely wondering what we´re all doing visiting them when we have so many options. As one of my friends pointed out though, maybe that´s actully a good feeling for them, to know that their home is worth visiting even though we Americans have so many other options!

All I can think of for now!

Nebaj

We drove to Nebaj on Monday from Antigua - a ridiculously harrowing drive up and down and around the mountains. Not sure of the altitude here but itś definitely higher - maybe 8000? The views from our bus were really amazing though so the constant hairpin turns were worth it!

We split up into four groups of nine people each, so for the rest of the time here (minus a regroup in the middle and a conclusion at the end) we¨re only with a small group.

Nebaj has a really really interesting history and culture...it is in the Ixil region and has a pretty distinct food and dress from the other parts of the Western Highlands. ALmost everyone speaks Ixil, a Mayan language, and Spanish is only a 2nd language. During the civil war inthe 80s most of the area was wiped out, but you can tell that everyone here is still really proud of their Ixil culture.

Im living with a new homestay family for the week that Im here - this time there are 2 little boys (who dont really speak to me that much, oh well), and one mother (who is actually only 24 or 25 I forget which). The dad works in a far away city and comes home on weekends. I think I like my family back in Antigua better, but this house is basically a mansion compared to Antigua. It is all indoors, to start, real roofs, and I actually have my own bathroom and shower and sink. None of which work, actually, but just the fact that they exist is good enough ... haha. Also, the bed is essentially some plywood covered with sheets (although there are somehow lumps in it...), which is by far less comfy than my bed in Antigua. But oh well, you win some you lose some....

I really like Nebaj so far. Itś very authentic and definitely more rustic than the Spanish-inspired Antigua. There are really no tourists here (well some, we met a girl who is living in southern Guatemala for a year making a documentary, does she count as a tourist?) and certainly no English speakers except for us. I like the vibe here, its just very real.

PS - this picture is from the top of our hostel the first night looking over one part of the city - Soluciones Comunitarias owns a restaurant/hostel/guide service here, and we use those places all the time.

Soluciones Comunitarias

So what am I actually doing here in Guatemala? (Besides touring cities and hiking!)

We´re all working as interns for Social Entrepreneur Corps, which is an American-based company that sends college students to Guatemala or Ecuador to, very broadly, work in development. We are specifically working for Soluciones Comunitarias (website in Spanish!), which is a Guatemalan-based development company which tries to provide access to services and products to rural Guatemala. SolCom has a bunch of different projects that they run that are pretty diverse but are all focused on that (broad) goal. SolCom is under an American nonprofit Community Enterprise Solutions (confusing structure...I could explain better in person!) ... that website gives the best overview of the programs that actually exist in Guatemala.

SolCom´s method of development work is social entrepreneurship, which is basically finding innovative and entrepreneurial solutions to development problems. So they´ve come up with some really interesting ways to go about working on development issues.

The main project SolCom is sort of known for is their microconsignment model, and we´ll be working a lot with that. Basically, SolCom provides local women entrepreneurs with products that the community needs (eyeglasses, water filters, wood burning stoves, seeds, etc), then trains the women to go out and sell the products to the community. The women keep profits minus a small share which goes back to SolCom to buy more products. We basically help the women advertise, promote their campaign, and sell the products in a bunch of different locations throughout Guatemala.

Besides microconsignment, SolCom also offers consulting services to local businesses that want them...we´ll also be working as business consultants, basically. There´s a couple other projects they´re working on - from savings-based microcredit (link is to info about a ROSCA, a really simple form of savings based microfinance) to publishing a free brochure with business insights.

We´ll be traveling to 4 different locations in Guatemala (Nebaj, Solola, Xela, and Antigua) to help with SolCom´s projects. We´ll really be doing lots of different things in each region, so it´s kind of hard to say exactly what I´ll be working one each week - but oh well I´ll keep updated.

Hope that wasn´t too confusing. There is a pretty complicated structure they have set up, but in general Soluciones Comunitarias is the umbrella organization based in Guatemala, and they fall under CESolutions, which is the nonprofit in the States which raises money to support the effort.

These first 2 weeks in Antigua (which are almost over!) have been 4 hours in the morning of Spanish tutoring, and then 4 hours in the afternoon of development training - learning about social entrepreneurship and the models they have set up in Guatemala. So starting next week we´re actually going out and doing our field work!

Climbing Pacaya

On Sunday we all climbed Volcan Pacaya, which is about an hour outside of Antigua. It wasn´t a very intense hike - only for the first hour or so was it steep. (They also drive you about halfway up the volcano) It was really awesome once you got to the volcanic rock part, though ... you were basically climbing over cooled lava. Pacaya is also active, so every week the landscape slightly changes, and there is tons of hot lava around. You couldn´t get very close to the lava because it was literally burning hot. Our guide´s shoes actually burned off, he got so close! It was really incredible though to be so close to a volcano! We also got to ´ski´down a volcanic field ... it is basically loose ash and rock that you can slide down on your feet! Overall, really cool and different hike!