9/10/2009
Hi there,
Update 3:
I've been here for a week and a half now. I'm learning all the time. I'm quite proud of the fact that I can find my way to and from Antigua from my host family's house. There was a while when I thought I just wasn't going to get it and it really seemed like Guatemalans are somehow born with an instinct knowing where their bus stops are, which foreigners like me clearly lack. Ok, enough of that, yes, I can navigate that route. =D
There is a three week orientation period where I get to learn about the programs and go on campaigns and publicity events as an observer to learn. I must admit this "training" process is something new to me. At Apple, we hit the ground running. There is no training process. This summer with the Stanford project, Erik and I had a quick handoff before he left for vacation. So, orientation is cool, but I'm programmed for a faster pace; I feel weird that I'm not contributing anything to the group yet. I guess my time will come. The tadpole, well, I'm older than a tadpole, so the frog will have to wait and be patient... Frog's time will come. =)
My working hours are severely limited since my host family's house is in Santo Tomaso. I have to leave Antigua, which means leaving wifi access (through the office or cafes), by 6:30 pm at the latest. I'm told it's unsafe after dark; it's getting dark earlier now, so it's already nightfall by 6:30, but because I've been going on these organizational visits, and the internet has not been working in the office, my actual time on a computer accessing the internet, downloading emails or reading news has been very limited. Don't worry! I'm safe. I feel very comfortable here in the towns. The people are nice and help me when I get lost. I navigate respectably and so don't get bothered at all.
So, update 2 talked about the weekend. Mon/ Tue were uneventful with some meetings to prep and understand projects/ work scope in Nebaj. Actually, those meetings were fun, because Nebaj sounds like it will be a great area to work in, but will wait until I get there to actually talk about it. Wed/ Thu were interesting "cultural" experiences so I'm going to share those.
In the states, I had a high school friend who coined the phrase "color people time". We had talked about how many the different ethnic groups: Vietnamese, Indian, Chinese, Latin American, African had a tendency to be late. They recognize their culture tends to be late. In Guatemala, they call it la hora Chapin. I know patience is a huge part of international development work, so I'm really keeping my eyes open in all experiences to "wait and see" what will happen instead of try to force a certain outcome especially now since I'm in this learning phase.
On Wednesday, we were supposed to go do some publicity in one of the small towns of Escuintla. I was with Yoli and Clara Luz again. After four buses (leaving at 7:45 am), we made it to this small rural area. I don't know the name of the area. We were lost when we arrived and the contact person didn't answer her cell phone. Apparently she's a teacher with classes in the morning. Not being able to meet the contact didn't faze Yoli or Clara Luz. They started asking people in the community if they knew of the contact and where she lived. I guess that's the benefit of having a small community where everyone knows everyone's business. Because finally one person said our contact was probably working at the office of the municipality, but we could try to talk to her daughter, and directed us to that person's place. As we walked a few steps, another neighbor said, "are you looking for the daughter? She's gone to school already." So Yoli and Clara Luz started to ask about other community leaders. They were directed to someone name Francisco's home. Next thing I know they're knocking on his door. A few minutes later, we're in his home and the two are explaining the mission of Soluciones Comunitarias and that we're going to have a campaign this Saturday. He was cool with it and then he led us to another local leader's home; a pastor in the community whose family is running a small program to help the kids in the community; help educate them, feed them, care for them. The pastor was a truly kind hearted man. Some of his family has emigrated to the states, and he lived in the San Bernadino area for a few years, but he said Guatemala called him back because there is so much need. We ended up filling out the details of the campaign on full sized posters and small hand outs to put up in the community and share with the leaders to share in their church. It was an eye opening experience for me. To see the goodwill, support and acceptance of our team's mission. Yoli told me that although we have the main contact's support, it's always good to meet other leaders in the community who are involved with public works and let them know we're coming to foster good relationships with all. A good experience in seeing how perseverance is important in doing this kind of work. Yoli and Clara Luz are dedicated and won't let setbacks hold them back. They push forward and leverage the community to find contacts. So many times, they just approach strangers to ask where people live, addresses are located, etc. and they are successful with the results. (When I say successful, I am taking out the time component).
Today (thu) Yoli, Clara and I visited three NGOs (cities in bold below, others are transit cities) to better understand their mission statement and talk to them about their programs and see if they can use volunteers. A group of teenagers in their last year of high school are coming here to volunteer with SolCom in October, so we were looking for youth programs. We rode so many buses today, I lost count.
Santo Tomaso [home] --> Santa Lucia --> San Lucas --> San Miguel Mar (something) --> Chimaltenango (transit) --> Jocotenango --> Antigua --> Ciudad Vieja --> Antigua [office]
The groups were really amazing and I was so impressed to see all these groups who are passionate about serving the community. All these people had rich stories to share and they had real passion about trying to help the people.
The first man is trying to train local community members how to make shampoos, lotions, etc. to be able to sell to stores. He has his own family business where they make brick, and spanish style tiles for roofs.
Ok, the truth has to come out now. I clearly was way off target with the whole "I understand 95% spanish". =) When the Guatemalans talk to me, they slow things down, so then I understand 95%. When they talk amongst themselves, their speed goes up big time, and then I'm lucky to get 50% plus learning new vocab. So, well, it's a good learning experience, but yea, I'm working hard too.
The second non-profit was really cool. It's called Los Pantojos. A young guy, 27ish, now, decided to convert his family home to a community center in Jocotenango. He said that drug trafficking is a huge issue here, so he wanted to create daily programs for kids to keep them occupied off the streets. It's really cool, how he's turned the place into a great kid-friendly place. They have extra classes the kids won't get in the public system like classes about the government, geography, business (with small business teams). They also teach computer classes and English classes. He's passionate about the work and has a lot of energy. And I could feel his energy and commitment and humility. He just wants to help his community. They also have night time english classes for adults and just started a small medical clinic.
The third one is a supplemental school being built to support kids who are really poor. I'm not sure how they find their students. At this point, the school is still being built, so they only have one first grade class of 69 students. Their goal is to support first through sixth grade. I need to google the Guatemalan school system, because there is more to it than just elementary school, middle school, high school, and university. I haven't figured it out yet. But if someone knows offhand what tercer primario basico is, I'd really appreciate it if you tell me. =)
Gotta go back to Santo Tomas. They say the city is dangerous after dark. So gotta go.
9/12/09 Day 12
Hi there,
finished my second campaign today in a rural area of Escuintla called Prado del Rio. Unfortunately it wasn't really successful. The publicity/ outreach that Yoli, Clara and I did on Wed turned out to be ineffective.
I have a bit of a problem here, where I'm not sure how much I can believe what people say. Yoli had explained to me that it was good that we talked to different "leaders" in the community from our main contact. One thing she said that I didn't get is that some times the different leaders can get jealous of each other so it's better for us to independently contact the different leaders and get their buy in, so that they don't sabotage our campaign as a result of not giving them a courtesy call.
For our Wed publicity event, we left most of our outreach material with those "new" leaders. The pastor's wife came by on Sat afternoon and told me that they weren't able to reach a lot of people because there wasn't enough time between Wed and Sat to be able to reach people. Makes sense to me. So, I was still fine and taking a mental note that next time we need more time between publicity event and actual campaign. However, when she left, the daughter of our main contact was telling us that that person is a leader who talks big and doesn't really help the community. Sigh... It's hard for me to tell. With respect to how much I could understand, she was talking about how that other group did an outreach to the community to request their help to support "150 families with no food". She said after they finished the drive, they didn't hand out the food. In her words, "and they didn't hand out a single black bean (frijoles negroes - staple food here in Guatemala with tortillas -- work with me here)." And she continued. Thing is, I picked up a good vibe from the pastor and his wife on Wed. They seemed very kind. Now, I don't know. Oh well, I guess I can't judge yet. It just takes longer to develop good relationships I think.
Back to the campaign, even though now you know the punch line.
Woke up at 6, left the house at 6:50. Took a tuk tuk to the second stop. I met Yoli's sister, Julia there. We took the second bus to Antigua. We met Angelika there. She's Clara Luz's daughter. We took a third bus to Escuintla, main bus terminal. Then we took a fourth bus to the remote town of Rio Del Prado. We arrived at 9:50.
The products: reading glasses (to help people who do detailed work sewing, etc, or reading), sun glasses to protect eyes from the harsh Guatemalan sun, eye drops. Secondary products that don't get discussed: water purifiers, improved stoves, seeds, and energy saving light bulbs. All those products have a health or economic benefit. The stoves have an extra environmental benefit too.
I gave one eye exam for reading glasses today. Apparently they are simple. They have them in pharmacies in the US for people to do themselves. I didn't know that. However, giving the exams to people while speaking Spanish is more challenging since you have all these special circumstances that crop up too. The gentleman I worked with was very precise about what he wanted, definitely got his machismo vibe that he wanted things his way. He asked a lot of questions, he double checked which lens type he was getting many times. I thought it was fine since I felt like maybe he had been cheated before so it was valid that he was just confirming five times that the +3.00 lenses were working for him. He was telling me that his wife needed reading glasses too, but their family didn't have enough money so he took our address in Antigua so he can contact us later if they want more glasses. Actual, he was my second client. I had to pass my first client onto the experienced team members because the first person had a real problem that couldn't be solved by reading glasses. Turns out he had severe cataracts (again) and his right eye was almost blind. Angelika tried to give him a referral to the clinic in Guatemala city, but again, since he can't get there, he turned her down and walked away.
I'm attaching a group picture and I have some really awesome hat hair. =)
We ended up leaving early, at 1:45 instead of 3 pm, because people stopped coming at noon. So again, publicity didn't work so well this time. Oh well. We'll keep improving things.
So, I stopped in Antigua at an internet cafe to write about everything today because I'll be offline for the next few days. Sun - Tue, I will be with Yoli's family celebrating the Independence Day festivities. So, I won't have any access at all. On Wed, I'll be moving from Antigua to Xela (Quetzaltenango). I'll spend four days there before going to Nebaj.
Oh quickly, I helped our team members make soap on friday morning. We had to stir it for 3 hours (the engineer told us one hour). So here's a pic of me stirring soap (after 40 min of stirring).
I stirred for a good 45 minutes. Doh. =) Now we wait a month before the soda caustica somehow loses its toxicity. Again, another thing I need to google.
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