First week in Guatemala!

Hi Everyone!

Warning that these posts may be boring. I'm just documenting what I'm doing and general observations. I'm not parsing "deep thoughts and insights" from the general experiences.

I arrived on 9/1 evening in Guatemala city and was escorted to Antigua by two awesome team members Lydia and Mary Claire. We hit it off immediately as they introduced me to the city and learned more about my background. I stayed in a simple hotel near the the Soluciones Comunitarias (SolCom) office on the first night. I hear that Antigua is a grid, but I'm still having trouble getting my bearings straight. I think I'll need to walk around a little more and get lost a little more to get a better sense of the town. We ate together in a small taqueria. I tried the local cuisine immediately with a dish called "pollo pepian". It was a chicken stew of sorts with rice. Stew not bad, chicken was a little underdone, so I didn't finish it. When it still bleeds a little, I'm thinking it's better not to eat it.

Day 2, I met the rest of the team (12 members - US folks: Mary Claire, Lydia, Tim, Beck, Izzy, Luke; Guatemalan: Miguel, presidente, Ricardo, Yoli, Clara Luz, Juana, Marta Lidia) and completed introductions in Spanish. Normally the team is disbursed among the different sites. I'm happy to report I'm understanding about 95% of all Spanish conversation and learning new vocabulary in the process. The team is quite young, but very energetic. I'm so excited to meet more like-minded people dedicated to social entrepreneurship. It's energizing to meet the team. Also, it's really incredible that Soluciones Comunitarias is a Guatemalan social business and the leaders in the group are some of the original entrepreneurs who first sold the reading glasses. My host mom, Yoli, is one of the original entrepreneurs. She is now the director of the Antigua area and she manages and coordinates the activities of the other entrepreneurs in Antigua. This Saturday, I'll have a chance to go on my first "campaign." The campaign is an actual session with the entrepreneurs who are going out to a particular village to sell products. It sounds like when the entrepreneurs go to a new town, they approach the mayor or a member of the clergy to explain the group's mission and ask for a room and table to be able to set up and sell products. I'm told the members usually have a good response from mayor/ clergy member and are given a lot of support. Also, it's a two day process: the first day is marketing and outreach where the entrepreneurs advertise and explain they'll be selling products in the community and explaining how the products have a health and economic benefit for the people. I am really interested to see what their social marketing material looks like. On the second day, they set up shop and sell products. This Saturday I'll be participating in the second day process. Next week, I get to see the whole thing.
Back to the end of day 2, I left the office early with my host mom and all my baggage to head to her home in Santo Tomaso. We get to take one chicken bus and one smaller bus (they repurposed school buses) to get to the house. It's quite an experience. These drivers fly through the mountainous curvy roads. I tell myself I'm on a roller coaster ride. It's better that way. As the driver makes the crazy turns you can see all the passengers tightly gripping the hold in front of them to avoid being thrown on the passengers beside them. I like to think it's a bonding experience. =) I'm not sure how long it will take before I recognize the route, because even though I understand Spanish I'm having difficulty figuring out when there is an actual bus stop. It looks very organic to me. Folks are definitely creative with seating and putting three folks per bench. I've already been sandwiched on each side on the chicken bus ride to Antigua this morning (day 3). It's not so bad. It just means I don't need to be thrown sideways with the driver's crazy driving. One can say it's a more secure ride. =)

What else can I say? My host family is kind. My host mom is a great cook too. She is really inspirational. She has so much energy and a real joy for life. She loves her job with SolCom and she loves cooking and taking care of her family. She works incredibly hard and is trying to create a better life for her kids. She has three children: a daughter who is a teacher, a son who is in high school, and another son in sixth grade. [quick note: all conversations with my host mom and family are in spanish]

Tonight (day 3) we had a really great conversation where she was sharing her story with me. She explained that she never had a chance to get an education, but she was blessed to begin working with a government organization when she was 18 that focused on health outreach for the community. The organization specifically was looking to train women without an education to teach them new skills. She learned about good health practices and helped support public health clinics by teaching the people about good hygiene practices, e.g. hand washing, sanitation, about nutrition. They also helped to immunize kids, etc. She worked with them for 8 years and loved her job. After she had her daughter, she stopped working to take care of her children. Six years ago she saw that peace corps was looking for families to host their trainees. She decided to try it. Although her husband was a little concerned about the work and the fact that she was also taking care of their three children, he let her try it. She said their first home stay trainee had a great time and gave them great reviews. George, one of the co-founders of SolCom, was her third home stay trainee. She considers him to be like a son. It's really clear they have a deep bond. I have a lot of respect for it. When George and Greg decided to try the idea for SolCom, they asked Yoli to be one of the first entrepreneurs and she agreed. She has a passion to help the community as well, so she really loves this outreach to sell products to help the community. She was telling me sometimes she can't believe how wonderful her life is. Sometimes she pinches herself to ask herself if her life is real since she has a wonderful family and she loves her work so much. She feels very blessed. She said the two co-founders, George and Greg, are like angels to the Guatemalan community who care about them and have taught them so much and empowered them to do so much. Last year, SolCom set up computers in the office and she needed to learn how to use the computer for work. Initially she was really scared she would mess it up and the computer would explode, but they had another great trainer from the US who taught them the ropes. Now she feels really comfortable with using the computer and accessing the internet. She sets many goals for herself in her life. She wanted to have a good husband and three kids (check, check), find a meaningful job (check). She wished that her daughter would become a teacher (check). Her next goal is to buy a computer for the house, which she says, although she doesn't know when she'll meet this goal, she is confident she can achieve it because anything is possible. This lesson is one she shares with her kids all the time. I love it. She's amazing. She works really hard and her enthusiasm and passion for life is incredible. It's so hard for me to believe she never received an education.

Moving on - I have my own room with a key to my room. It's a nice simple room. I've got a bed, a couch and a table. There's no shower, so I get to take a bucket bath. Training from Viet Nam has prepared me for this one (Yay! Training in developing countries). Yoli helps me to heat a lot of water in the morning in a bucket. Then I use a scoop to pour the water where needed and voila, I'm taking a bucket bath. It works. For now I'll be commuting back and forth with my host mom, but I hope to learn the ropes quickly.

For the long term (the rest of the three plus months), I'll be assigned to a small town called Nebaj. It's in the western highlands. Apparently, it's the home/ original site of SolCom. I'll be there with Mary Claire, though it sounds like she's working on so many different projects she doesn't spend much time in Nebaj. I guess I'll see what I end up doing there. I'm excited by Nebaj because it has more projects there in addition to microconsignment. There is a small tourism business to generate income: restaurant, hostel and internet cafe. Apparently there is also a small school program. I can't wait to get out there. Sounds like it's a small town. Around there are many small towns (called "aldeas") of indigenous people with Mayan roots which are extremely poor. The closest market which sells basic items like rice and beans is in Nebaj, so those villagers have to walk many hours (between 1-6 depending on the village) to get to Nebaj. Those towns are small and remote and there are no paved roads to get to them. At this point, I'm just parroting what I learned in my orientation today. I'll let you know when I actually get to experience the towns for myself. Did I mention I'm excited? I'm excited about everything. I love the intensive spanish classes. I enjoy learning about this group's mission and outreach methodology. I had to learn the expression "Estoy emocionada de...." because I'm just excited about everything. =) I can't wait to jump into it. The team is glad that I speak spanish well, but I may be geeking them out a bit with my love for verb conjugations. It's ok, I feel like I can be very open with this group. I've already confessed some of my weaknesses: 1. I'm going to have a tough time adjusting to life without constant access to the internet/ iphone (gasp!) and 2. that I'm a little slow in the morning without coffee.

Quick note: the office is a cute little space with a nice open garden. For the spanish class, I have a one on one session with Marta Lidia at a table outside in the garden. i was hearing that there are volcanoes all around Antigua but because of the cloud cover, I haven't seen them. Today (day 3), I had the pleasure of looking up from my notebook and seeing clear sky and amazing volcano. Lydia said there are cool hikes and she can help arrange for me to do a hike to Pacaya. Can't wait!!!

Also, 9/15 is the independence day so the Guatemalans celebrate on 9/14 and 9/15 so I get to spend some time with the family and enjoy the festivities.

I'm out of time for now. Hope to spend my free day on Sunday in Antigua going to a gym with Beck for a workout and going to an internet cafe.