This weekend will be my first weekend alone in Guatemala as my teammates are traveling in other parts of the country. I am extremely excited to be on my own schedule doing my own things, eating at the restaurants I like, having some down time to read and relax, perhaps meeting some other travelers, and of course having some adventures of my own. Tomorrow I plan on climbing an active volcano nearby (Pacaya) and perhaps visiting some of the local churches. I may even splurge and get myself some crafts or clothing, though I am now living out of a normal size backpack for the next 4 weeks so I don’t know that anything else will fit…

Picture update coming soon. Happy weekend!

I am currently feeling very ridiculous as I am enjoying a pineapple smoothie, free wifi, and bagel surrounded by white people in “Bagel Barn” in Antigua, Guatemala. This city is the tourist hub of the country and feels like a completely different world than the Guatemala I’ve been seeing for the past month. Things are expensive and prices are listed in USD (always a bad sign), there are salons and spas on every corner, and I had lunch at a very hip eatery that seems like it belongs in Portland, Oregon. Not that any of these things are bad, in fact for me it’s a much needed break from tortillas and beans. It’s just so far from the reality of Guatemala that it’s ridiculous.

The kind of tourists that are here are the bad kinds of tourists in my opinion– the large packs traipsing around with safari gear, huge cameras, backpacks on the front, etc. They’re the ones playing with little indigenous children and giving them money. They’re the ones who don’t speak a word of Spanish and think that if they speak really loud English the locals will understand them (and if they don’t, they’re shocked that people here don’t speak English). They’re the ones who are just generally make me embarrassed to also be a gringa. It’s disturbing to think that for many people, this is the only part of Guatemala they will see and will come back thinking it reflects the reality. But oh well, at least it provides for some good people watching in the town’s central park.

I will be enjoying a few more days here and commuting to nearby Guatemala City for the beginning of our second assignment. As much as I think this place is absolutely ridiculous, it’s a heck of a lot better than the high murder rate and other violent crime associated with Guatemala City…

Thumbs up for Independence!

Happy Independence Day! Today I am not only celebrating the independence day of our wonderful U S of A but also my independence from the insane work hours of assignment 1.  This morning, my teammates and I presented our findings to in country branch managers, select loan officers, central office staff, and the Executive Director of the organization. Our two hour and 65 slide presentation contained a very thorough analysis of the very same data that WE collected over 3.5 weeks across the entire country. My blood, sweat, tears, and vomit are in the data collected and analysis (yes, perhaps too much information, but alas…).  We presented information on client profiles, poverty statistics, social metrics, loan information and satisfaction, business operations of clients, and a whole slew of other important information. The organization will be using our presentation and 50 page long final report for marketing purposes, for donor events, and in order to improve their products for future clients. It is really quite exciting to have done such a thorough study that will be used for years to come. I am so proud of us!!!

So, tonight will be full of celebration of independence in all its forms. Naturally we will be celebrating at the home of a middle aged British woman who works with the organization with whom we have became good friends in the past month. I believe the main event will be re enacting the Revolutionary War…

Other than work, things here have been going well lately. Decent sleep hours, great food (as the town we are located in currently is full of tourists and ex pats), only a few cockroaches in my hotel room, bonding with my teammates, and the weather has been stunning. Finally I could see the very large and mystical volcanoes that surround the dramatic blue lake at the edge of main street.

Nice nearby city on the lake.

Where I´ve been staying the past week.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Antigua, another tourist hub outside of Guatemala City. I will be staying there with my study abroad friend (Peace Corps friend) and hopefully doing some shopping, relaxing, and perhaps even check out some discotecas. Then Monday morning begins assignment number 2 with another microfinance institution. I dont know what to expect for the second assignment as we will actually be doing a follow up to a U.S. agency grant from two years ago. The plan is to interview the very same clients as in 2006 in order to see if microcredit has helped them rise out of poverty or improve key social indicators. Apparently these clients are mostly native Spanish speakers in the eastern part of the country so it could be potentially polar opposite of assignment 1. We shall see…

Hope that everyone has a great weekend of BBQs and other good ole American Independence Day fun.

Lost in translation? I have absolutely no idea what this is, but it´s hilarious.

Hello all,

Writing to you all from Panajachel, Guatemala during our final week of assignment #1. It’s nearly 11 pm and I’ve been staring at an Excel spreadsheet for 14 hours. Yes, that’s right. Most of my friends who are staring at Excel spreadsheets this summer are getting paid a good $15/hour or more, but I’m getting a nice stipend. We figured it out: with the number of hours we work , we are getting paid some $2/hour. But this just covers costs. Not that I am bitter at the moment or anything…

Complaining aside, what we are doing right now is actually quite exciting. We have just (between the three of us) collected 286 client interviews across the entire country of Guatemala in only 3 1/2 weeks. Now we are analyzing our very own data in order to write a report and present key findings to in country staff, branch managers, and even the organization’s director from the U.S. office. Though data and numbers really aren’t my thing (at least I thought they weren’t), I am thinking this information and analysis could be the starting point for a pretty incredible senior thesis. WOOO HOOOO!

Other than the excitement of this data and our findings, things have been not so great lately. For some reason my immune system has decided it officially hates me– I have had food poisoning twice now in 4 weeks as well as a nasty virus which left me in bed and miserable for 3 full days. I am also seven pounds lighter than when I arrived! I have never encountered so many troubles while traveling, but I’m fairly certain I jinxed myself the first week when boasting about never getting sick in all my developing country travels. Serves me right I suppose!!

In other news I am eagerly awaiting the visit of a friend from my study abroad experience in the Dominican Republic. She is actually doing the Peace Corps nearby in a city called Xela (where we spent a few days earlier) but we have managed to miss each other every other week. I am so excited to see a familiar face and old friend. I feel as though everyday here I’ve been meeting tons of new people but haven’t had the time (or been in a place long enough) to really develop a relationship with them. I may even crash a Peace Corps 4th of July party…

That’s all for the time being. Surely more to come soon… now back to the data…

Client making huipile, traditional indigenous blouse.

The city of Xela at dusk.

The entire town making stew to celebrate the arrival of a new water pipeline. Later that day, my stomach revolted. Apparently the water is still not clean…

The coolest loan officer and translator I worked with… they spoke something called Ma´m.

Megan, Rathi and I hanging out in Xela. Megan is a Kiva Fellow and Rathi is one of my teammates.

 

 

Here are a few photos from my last 3 weeks in Guatemala.

Being the only white person in small town Guatemala leads to some awkward situations. Today, for example, I was taking a three-wheeled moto taxi to get to a woman’s house to interview her and next thing I know, I’m smack dab in the middle of a funeral procession full of indigenous and ladinos alike. It was a very uncomfortable situation as I’m sitting there in this taxi, literally surrounded by crying women and children, then the casket passed by, and then came the marching band. It was just a very weird feeling, and they were clearly uncomfortable with the fact that there was a random blond girl in the middle of their funeral procession.

Another (frequent) awkward situation I have to deal with is beggars, usually extremely thin and wrinkly old women, or street children. Through all of my experiences in developing countries I have learned that giving is a definite no – it just furthers the generalization that all white people have ample money to throw away and continues the dependence mentality. However, it is still really hard for me to resist at times when these people tell me tragic life stories and how they need the money for this or that operation.

On a lighter note, we’re leaving the industrial park/concrete block factory hotel we’re currently staying at in Mazatenango tomorrow morning (bright and early) and heading to a nice city called Xela for the next few days. There is a ton of nice restaurants and beautiful architecture in this city, plus we might even do some hiking or go relax in some hot springs. A much deserved break for sure…

In case you all were wondering (I know you have been) here’s an idea of what my life looks like this summer.

6 am- Wakeup. This is the worst part of the day. 6 am is about 5 hours earlier than I’d ideally like to get up.

645 am- Out the door. Pick up baked good and juice if anything’s open that early.

7 am- Get on bus/pickup #1. Generally it takes about 3-4 forms of transport to get to my loan meetings. More than likely meet several curious people on the buses wondering why in the world there’s a gringa going to these isolated communities.

9 – 930 am- Finally arrive at loan meeting. Meet loan officer.  Meet translator if I have one for the day. Meet women. Start interviews. Each interview is 126 questions. Yes, you read that right. Thankfully I’ve gotten it down to about 40 minutes per interview, though of course there’s always those nice indigenous ladies who’ve just been waiting to have someone to talk to about their loans and businesses. These interviews could take 1 1/2 hours.

1230 pm- Lunch? Or travel to the next town. Usually lunch consists of street food, mango, or crackers.

2 pm – Interviewing round 2, or shall I say, round “dos”.

5 pm- Try to figure out how the heck to get back to my hostel. Again, this usually involves asking tons of people (and getting tons of different suggestions), waiting on the side of the highway, and putting a lot of faith in the busdrivers or pickup drivers that they’re in fact telling me the truth. Make even more curious friends on the ride back.

7 pm – Arrive back at the hostel. Shower. Eat, usually the only decent meal all day.

8 pm- Use internet (if there is internet), print out client sample lists for the following day, logistics for the following day.

9 pm- The best part of the day: Data cleaning! (And by best part of the day, I mean worst. Going through 8 interviews at 126 questions each is not fun). However, my teammates and I always share our hilarious stories from the day which is very entertaining.

11 pm – Bedtime. Mentally prep for next day.

So there’s my life in a nutshell.

This past week was incredible… I have been learning so much from these women about their lives, families, businesses, and even some very personal issues. Though the first week was rather rough, we are finally getting a system down and really starting to enjoy our time speaking with these incredibly hard-working entrepreneurs. It’s also been great getting to know the loan officers we shadow and the translators we work with… in all my travels in Latin America I’ve never really gotten the opportunity to meet young women like myself.

Anyways, that’s all for now. Perhaps another post will be coming soon as I have internet here in my hotel (which is located in an industrial park).

I absolutely cannot believe I’ve been here for only a week! In just a few days, I’ve traveled to many different areas of the country, interviewed several female entrepreneurs, suffered (and recovered from) some sort of food poisoning/parasite (too much information? too bad!), met some great people, bonded with my teammates, trained translators who will be helping us translate between native Mayan languages and Spanish, and have generally become comfortable back in Latin America and the chaos inherent in the region. What an re-introduction. I also have yet to see the sun thanks to tropical storm season. My clothes and shoes still have not dried since the first day I arrived and so our very small triple room smells horribly of mildew. And I fear that soon my teammates will get tired of me wearing the exact same pants everyday.

But, aside from my petty complaints about weather and clothing, it’s been great so far learning more about microfinance from my teammates, from the microfinance institution we’re working with, and from the women themselves who are benefiting from these loans. I haven’t done quite as much traveling to rural communities yet as I was sick and then did interviews in a slum-ish city outside of the capital (the armpit of Guatemala). However, I anticipate some adventures in the rural highlands in the coming weeks, hitchhiking in the back of pick-ups or waiting on the side of the road for buses that more than likely won’t come. The logistics of our travel has been one of the more difficult tasks so far as Guatemala is known for violent crime and highway bandits, especially scary when you are carrying a laptop, camera, palm pilot, and all of the clothes you have for 10 weeks. But alas, it’s all part of the adventure.

This past week, we’ve basically been working from about 7 am til 11 pm (yes, you read that correctly), which is another slight issue for me as I’m accustomed to a more leisurely undergrad schedule of 10 am – 2pm of classes, then random extracurriculars. I’m hoping that this schedule changes as we get the hang of things and create our own system of organization and logistics, cleaning and loading our data into Excel, and become able to do the interviews more quickly than 1 hour for each woman. I’m definitely looking forward to a more relaxing weekend in Panajachel, a nice lake-side town full of Mayan handicrafts and hippies, before next week begins bright and early Monday morning.

Alright well that’s about all for now… Hasta luego!

Well hello friends, family, prospective students, and creepy internet stalkers,

Welcome to my life. I’m going to be blogging this summer about my adventures working with an international micro-finance institution in Guatemala as a summer fellow.  This summer, I have been assigned to interview small business loan recipients throughout Guatemala to find out a bit about the loan usage, the business itself, family information, economic information, and many more factors. Then my team and I will do some basic data analysis in STATA and Excel (which I should probably learn/brush up on before work begins!).

I just arrived in Washington DC, eager to begin a very long week of training and head off to Guatemala in 6 days. I’m also a bit nervous at this point as I am pretty unfamiliar with the DC area and the whole concept of public transportation, being from boondocks small-town Ohio and going to school in Southern California where, unfortunately, public transport is only slightly functional. I am also just a tad bit nervous (read: very nervous) about my qualifications for the job itself as my two teammates are both in their late 20s, have extensive experience with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in Latin America and micro-finance in particular, and are graduate students. That could be interesting. Another thing that could be interesting is the actual interview process. Apparently I will be interviewing 6-7 loan recipients per day in southeastern Guatemala. However, as Guatemala is full of indigenous Maya, I am not exactly sure if the people I will be working with speak Spanish as a first language or if they will speak an indigenous language…

Anyways, enough with the worries. This week’s whirlwind of training should clear a few things up for me. I hope to be posting twice a week or so and will try to not go into all the details of my life as I often tend to do on other online venues like Facebook and AIM. Please leave me comments or shoot me a personal email if you’re interested in finding out more about what I’m up to or if you have any questions or suggestions.

Until next time…