Today was our day off from classes so we decided to take a tour of the Iximche (corn-tree in Kaqchikel) ruins. They were built in the 1500s by the Kaqchikel Maya but destroyed within 20 years by the Spanish. However, you are still able to see the outline of the pyramids, the traditional ball game court and the irrigation system. I personally have a hard time envisioning what the town actually looked like just from the skeleton but I still appreciate the history and significance of the site. The Maya continue to make pilgrimages to the Iximche ruins for rituals or healings and today we were able to observe two very important and unique ceremonies. On one side of the pyramid we saw a huge celebration ceremony that included a fire, dancing, music, incense, and the slaughtering of a chicken to feed the guests. I took a few pictures from a distance but they do NOT do justice to the incredible experience. I felt like I was watching something out of a movie because it was so surreal to actually be in the presence of shamans practicing their very ancient traditions.

On the other side of the pyramid there was a very different ceremony taking place. We first noticed a baby swaddled in the moms arms crying the cry that means pain. Next to them was a fire and a curandara (healer) kneeling on the ground with burning incense, blue, red and yellow candles, as well as eggs and alcohol. I moved closer to get a better view, still keeping a respectful distance, just in time to see the curandera cleanse the beak of the chicken with liquor and then slice the neck of the chicken with a knife. She was speaking in prayer as she poured the chicken blood over the fire. She continued to pray and shake the chicken upside down as the mom held the baby in her arms a safe distance from the fire.

As all of this was happening, I noticed two little kids sitting off to the side so I went over to them to see if I could get a better understanding of what was going on. The 6 year old little girl said “we were 5 hermanos and now we are 3 and our baby brother is sick.” Many Maya believe that illness occurs when energies are imbalanced or when someone deserves punishment (like karma). In this case, the curandera was trying to rid the child of Mal Ojo or the evil curse so he could get better and the family wouldn’t have to suffer the loss of a third child. I was going to ask the little girl some more questions but she was more interested in hearing how I got to Guatemala, if I came in a plane, if there were mountains in the states and if I was going to stay in Guatemala. Our question exchange reminded me that we are all curious to understand the world outside our own and no matter how different our spiritual worlds may be, we all suffer when loved ones are ill. I could feel the family’s pain and hope they don’t have to endure the loss or a third child.

After our ruins tour we went back to explore more of Antigua and to shop a bit at the local market. The textiles here are so spectacular I just want to take a trunk full of things home with me.  After our market adventure we were all exhausted from bargaining so we went and enjoyed a beer on the rooftop and rested before our jam packed chicken bus ride home.

Okay, that’s all for now. There are three flies buzzing around me and I can’t handle having one more annoyance while I try to sleep. The roosters, dogs, parrots, and neighbors are enough!

Pictures will come later- internet is too slow to upload.

I woke up this morning at 4:30 in order to catch the first bus out of Santa Tomas (current homestay) toward Chimaltenago. From there we took another hour chicken bus ride to a remote highland community where we then had to take 3 mototaxis or TukTuks to arrive at our final destination for the Entrepreneur campaign. There were 3 men in one taxi and once we hit the really steep hill, I looked back and saw that they were walking alongside the taxi and actually pushing it up the hill!

It was a beautiful Tuk-tuk ride up to the top of the mountain where we set up the water filters, glasses and other various social products for sale. Paula was the Maya Katchequel  entrepreneur that was trained by the Corps to promote and sell the projects . The two Guatemalan women who trained Paula were also there to help her with the eye exams and organizing the people. It was really neat to see a Maya woman confidently educating other Maya in their native language and working in partnership with Ladino Guatemalan women and of course- we American! I enjoyed watching the women work seamlessly together as they explained the products and their health and economic benefits.

Eye exams

Testing the glasses to see if she can sow to make the trajes she is wearing

Little neighbor girl giving us a tour

Meanwhile, I was attempting to visit with the women in line and register them by name. However, it was a challenge since most only speak a bit of Spanish and many are illiterate.  I noticed a younger girl there with her mom who looked eager to help me (thank goodness) with writing registration information. Her name was Maria, she spoke perfect Spanish had an amazing spirit and disposition. She started off by shadowing me but by the end I was shadowing her! She took me around town (2 streets up steep hills) to remind the people of the free eye exams and items for sale. She also took Shawn and me on a spectacular tour of their family garden. She also showed me how to carry water on my head and I couldn’t do it even when the bucket was empty! Every morning the women walk to the river to do laundry and collect water. We all got tired just walking the hill so I can’t imagine doing that every day with water or laundry on my head.

Maria showing us how its done!



Pushing the taxi!



Garden tour

Day 4 in Guate

Egg green bean tortilla and whisquil



Host brother and foam computer we made for school



Bean mustash



Day 4
One of my favorite parts of the day is riding the chicken bus for a ½ hour into Antigua while telling host family stories and experiences from the night before. I love it because most of what I am seeing and experiencing here is very similar to my 2 years in Peace Corps so the novelty of it all has worn off but the other student’s perspectives keeps things fresh.

This morning Andrew said that he was sitting at the dinner table the previous night and everyone was laughing and talking super-fast to him at the same time. He had no idea what was being said but he just enjoyed sitting there as if he were a fly on the wall watching them be a family. Other slightly less heartwarming stories (but entertaining) also came up like Shane trying to explain to his family his love for goat cheese. He was making goat noises and using his fingers as horns. Then he took a guess at the word goat and said "queso del gato" but he said they all looked very confused. We informed him this morning that gato is cat and that he had therefore told his family he likes cat cheese. As I passed by their house tonight I reassured the family that we do not eat cat cheese in the America! There was also Daryl’s story about his host family asking if the kids were "molestandole" which means "bothering you" but Daryl thought his dad was saying something about molesting kids!?!

I reassured everyone that we all have Spanish mistakes and that when I was first living with a family I told them I loved their homemade bread because it didn’t have "preservativos" in it. I later found out that preservativos is not preservatives but rather condoms! That was the last time I tried to guess a word in Spanish and stick to the dictionary.

Today during Spanish class I decided to really take advantage of the one on one tutoring with my teacher Marta. We got some great conversation in and she helped me brush up on my imperfect subjunctive. After Spanish class we all ate our boxed lunches from home and enjoyed sampling different family’s culinary creations. We found the egg fried green beans and whiskel to be the most interesting dish of them all!

After lunch the social entrepreneurship lesson continued. We went over the micro consignment model and compared it to micro financing and other forms of development work. Despite my plan to just sit back and observe this time, I of course got caught up in some discussions about how far back in the value chain the Corps should really be responsible for investigating, what percentage of the profits go to the American and Australian product manufactures compared to the Guatemalan sales people and how we measure the social impact or the value of the products. I am the one usually asking these questions and I felt very alone in my concerns and almost as if I wasn’t supposed to be questioning anything about the consignment process. I was reminded by another student that this is a business model, and that wholesalers always operate with profits being the bottom line and that not everything has to be fair trade or equal. I replied back that I too was looking at it from a business perspective but this model is also a social business that is growing very rapidly and therefore, has a huge responsibility of ensuring that it is operating as responsible as possible. Meaning, one should inquire about the cash flow, product wholesalers, profit distributions, real social impact and overall business model. Great business models are not created by like- minded complacent people but rather by people who dig deep to work through the nitty gritty of the process. Granted, we only have a few weeks here but that doesn’t mean we just take in the information without questioning anything, does it?

I want to know that there is a real need for the products being sold and that the consumers ARE benefiting. What good does it do to convince a family to spend 3 months’ salary on a water filter if they don’t use it or on sun glasses if they are not worn? I am not saying that is the case, I am just saying I would like to know if each product is having a positive impact on the consumers and not just the wholesalers and Guatemalan entrepreneurs/sales people.
I would hate to see a company like GE, who makes the light bulbs the entreprenuers sell, being the biggest winner out of the process especially since these products are being marketed toward people living in extreme poverty. I mean it’s a great deal for companies like GE who get to expand their market to rural and hard to access areas without paying for marketing, logistics, retail or labor costs but is it what’s best of people living on less than a few dollars a day?

Trust me when I say, I more than anyone, want to find a solution to things like contaminated water. I have held extremely malnourished babies in my arms that are dying from contaminated water and food. I have seen a baby cry but because he was so dehydrated he couldn’t produce tears. So I truly want this organization to succeed and that is the exact reason why I am going to keep asking questions even if I am told I get too emotional about the topic and need to think of it like a business. This model has enormous potential and has already proven to be successful in multiple areas but that’s not a reason to stop trying to perfect it!

Solar lamps







Day 2

I am in bed at my new host family's home and can name a few reasons I know I am no longer in America...I hear dogs barking non-stop, a telenovela echoing in the house and some claw-like squeaky animal crawling on the tin roof. My surrounding walls are cement with seafoam green paint and I just killed a crunchy quarter sized bug on the floor. My shirt is tucked into my pants and my pants are tucked into my socks to avoid potential bed bugs. Cute huh?!?

I also know this is foreign land when I look outside and see rows of bright green lettuce, milpas (corn fields) and beautiful volcanoes in the near distance. And, earlier today when we were trekking to meet our host families, the cobblestone streets were filled with barefoot kids playing soccer, women laughing outside the tiendas and a group of little girls practicing some self-choreographed dance/song act. The town was alive and the entertainment was organic (no x-boxes or computerized pass times).

 My 3 week adventure so far feels a lot like Peace Corps again and the Entrepreneur Corps experience provides everything from Spanish classes, home stays, cultural training, development work and of course, the touristy excursions on occasion. I must admit, I wasn't quite prepared for this level of intensity again and envisioned my trip being a bit more like a vacation (I should have known better considering I am getting 6 class credits!) Four hours a day of Spanish, riding a chicken bus and a complete lack of control over everything however is far from a vacation. Tomorrow my spanish teacher and I are going to the market since my spanish level doesn't require verb conjugation classes but rather just proactive brushing up on vocab and grammatical details. I am looking forward to exploring since my patience with school-like settings is limited after finals.


Yet, despite all of the challenges that come along with total immersion and the developing world, I am happy to be here and I know great things are going to come from this trip. I just need a day or two to get adjusted again and then I will let the journey will begin.
Well, I gotta get some sleep! After a full day, I worked for an hour on homework with my 8 year old host brother Javier and my host mom Lesley took me to her uncle's house located on a lettuce plantation. From the looks of the huge house- lettuce must be profitable?!?


Buenas noches!!

Social Entrepreneur Corps day 1

We arrived safely in Guatemala city around noon today and hopped into a little micro-bus to Antigua. This is my third time here in Guatemala but it has been a few years so it was fun to see new and familiar scenery.

We started with the most important part of traveling- the food! We had some tacos al pastor with fresh corn tortillas. After we wondered the cobble stone streets a bit and then everyone else went back to take a short nap since we had been up since 3:30 am. I continued to explore the hidden markets and endless picturesque views. Its always suprising when you enter through a little doorway and find a huge market inside lined with bright colored fabrics and art work. I made my way back to the hotel just before the rain came crashing down and sat under the coverd balcony listening to what I guess was the first big thunderstorm in months.

Tonight we are staying in a cute hotel and tomorrow we are off to our homestays with families. The Corps model is based on the Peace Corps model so it all should feel familiar to me but despite my abroad travels, I still get a little anxious to meet the famly I will be living with for the next week. I recieved a bio on them and I know they have a little kid and the dad is a human rights activist. Sounds like a good match for me!

We will be right outside of Antigua for a week and then migrate north to the rural highlands of Nebaj next week. So, my blog posts might be few and far between but I will be writing daily to keep up with the details and post when I can.

I am currently reading Malcolm Gladwells' latest book and I liked his line about good writing- "Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head- even if in the end you conclude that someone else's head is not a place you'd like to be." So, with that in mind, I hope this blog engages you and gives you a glimps into the Maya-Guate world.

Tortilla Making

Tacos al Pastor meat (I ate chicken!)

Antigua streets

Hotel room for the night-no roommate since I am the only girl!

PS only spell check in spanish and VERY slow internet so ignore the poor editing!

To my mother...

These are a few of the things my mom has done for me...
 

• Baked a birthday cake the shape of a gumball machine
• Decorated our kitchen with balloons and streamers every birthday eve
• Hosted brownie scout meetings, neighborhood swim parties and my friends sleepovers
• Sowed my holiday dresses 
• Manually attached hundreds of rhinestones to my dance costumes 
• Attended way too many dance recitals, soccer games, track meets, and basketball games
• Took my brother and I on a road trip to DC
• Packed all my school lunches and wrote on my napkin nice messages
• Created family traditions I will always cherish and continue (TV tray dinner nights and star gazing on the roof) 
• Drove me to tour the University of Madison to encourage my dreams
• Motivated me to travel and see the world outside of Minnesota
• Listens when I am stressed or homesick and lifts me when I feel defeated
• Continues being a mom to me even though I am 28! Yep, I still get my velvet cake.

Gumball Red Velvet Cake

The list of things my mom has done for me could fill more blog space than this site contains. And the incredible thing is that this list could be repeated for my brother and for all of the families my mom works with. My mom makes Thanksgiving dinners for her families with empty fridges and volunteers her time and energy even when she is drained at the end of a long week. 


Her supermom powers are even more substantial when you consider that she did all of this while overcoming the loss of her youngest child, a divorce with my dad and the stress from continuing her education and working.

On days when I am stressed taking care of just myself, I think of how much she did for my brother and I while at the same time never compromising her goals. Even when she broke her ribs and leg in a car accident, she hobbled to the University of Minnesota to finish her degree so she could provide a better life for my brother and me.

Yep, she is pretty amazing and I am so honored to be her daughter. I am grateful for her support, love, and perspective. My mom has taught me more than any text book could ever teach me.


My daily intention today and on this mothers day is to let her know just how amazing she really is. I love you mom!!

Traveling above the clouds...

 

On Monday I begin another adventure, personal development opportunity and service learning course. For 2 1/2 weeks 5 Kennesaw State MBA guys and I will be traveling around Guatemala working hand in hand with the non-profit Social Entrepreneur Corps.

The organization is a social enterprise whose mission is to design and implement innovative, practical, efficient and effective entrepreneurial and educational solutions with and for our constituents in rural, developing world communities.  I hope this trip gives me another perspective and approach to development work as well as a nice little vacation. I will be living with various families just like in Peace Corps so I should be able to practice my Spanish and fill up on some good old rice, beans and tortillas.

I can't wait and I will keep you all updated. Below is a general outline of what we will be doing and the website if you want to learn more about the Corps.

http://www.socialentrepreneurcorps.com/ 

Arch in Antigua Guatemala by ~juan-arita

Antigua

• Country, History and Culture OverviewOrganization Overview
• Reading AssignmentsSimulation Small BusinessRelief Work
• Development Work and Social Entrepreneurship Discussion
• Development Discussions/Activity-Desired Outcomes (Logic Model)APF, PLC, etc.
• Best Practices
• Social Entrepreneurship: Guiding Principles and the MCM
• Para Su Bien estar
• Village Visit: Sales Campaign

Travel to Nebaj

• Village Visit: Publicity Campaign
• Field Work
• Centro Explorativo
• Centro Explorativo
• Village Visit: Sales Campaign

Hike Acul
Travel to Lake Atitlan

• Lake/Cultural Activity
• Morning at Lake/ Adventure Activity

Afternoon in Antigua

Guatemala City