Final Days in Santiago

Throughout my time in Santiago Atitlán, I’ve learned a lot about the challenges of microenterprise and small-scale development work. Working on a community-based project like Just Apparel requires a dedicated interest to the community, an ability to triage complicated issues, and most importantly, a capacity to communicate effectively and work together with individuals who come from a cultural background that is very different than your own. When I first came to Santiago, I didn’t realize how dependent I would be on Dolores for translating between Spanish and Tz’utujil, the indigenous language that all of the women speak. Communication would have been nearly impossible without a translator. Even with Dolores acting as translator, many of the specific details about the product designs were lost in translation as we began to come up with new product designs and ideas. Since the product designs had Western influences, many of the women were unfamiliar with why or how one would use, for example, a placemat or headband. These are items that the women themselves do not use. We had to be very patient and detailed in describing the products and actually using models and examples of what we had deemed marketable to an American consumer base. However, it is also important to make sure that by doing so we weren’t requiring our artisans to abandon their traditional techniques or individual style.

Natik has such a strong foundation in the Santiago Atitlán community, and something that I think has made the Just Apparel project different is how have incorporated the women’s insight in the creative process. While we did specify sizing details and fabric templates, the product color schemes and specific embroidery designs are all unique works of art created by each woman of the cooperative. A believe that a key component of the success of our Just Apparel project is this incorporation of this participatory development method that supports and respects local community traditions, while still encouraging economic empowerment opportunities.

Like I had realized at the beginning of my project, the problem in this community isn’t the lack of desire to work but instead the lack of opportunity to work. My time in Santiago Atitlán has shown that with a greater awareness and expansion to bigger markets, this project has great potential for genuine improvement in human livelihood in this community. I left Santiago on August 1, after a farewell party with new friends at the local bar and saying goodbye to my host family and Dolores. It was sad to say goodbye to Santiago—a town that I called home for two months—but I feel proud of the work that I have accomplished there in such a short time. I know I’ll come back someday! Next up, I spend 11 days traveling northern Guatemala and Belize with some friends that I have made in my time in Guatemala. Stay tuned for tales of cliff jumping, spelunking, volcano hikes and snorkeling with sting rays and sharks!

Only About One Week Left in Santiago!

You wish surprise, will never stop wonders

You wish sunrise, will never fall under

We should always know that we can do everything 

- “Go Do” by Jonsi

This weekend I visited the city of Quetzaltenango, known to locals as Xela, which is the second largest city in Guatemala. The town is known for its language schools, universities, cultural history and music scene, and what I had heard about the town proved to be a rather accurate assessment of the city. It really does seem like the perfect place to study Spanish and experience cultural immersion. While Antigua felt domineered by tourism, Xela is a much more workaday town, so there is an overwhelming sense that you are experiencing the "real Guatemala" when you are staying there. The city has the perfect mix of just enough infrastructure to make tourists and language learners feel welcome but the vibe isn’t overwhelmingly touristy. Instead of being outsiders looking at the Guatemalan way of life through the lens of an expensive camera or through the window of an air conditioned bus, Xela seems inviting and accessible for the international community that comes there to truly learn about life in Guatemala.

I arrived on Thursday night and indulged in some of the town's live music and restaurants in Xela's Zona Viva, which was within walking distance from my hostel. I highly recommend the Black Cat Hostel if you are looking for a hostel in Xela. It was clean with friendly staff, has good group of backpackers to connect with (at least on the weekend I was there), and is very centrally located. Your stay includes a huge breakfast, and the staff offers lots of tips for activities to do nearby.

Church in Parque Benito Jaurez

Parque Central

Parque Benito Juarez

On Friday morning I headed to Fuentes Georginas, a natural hot springs located in Zunil, Guatemala which is about a 30 min drive through the countryside from Xela. I met some new friends, Casey and Lisa who are studying Spanish in Xela, and spent the morning enjoying the pools with them and hiking around the jungle trails that surround the pools. It turns out that we will be traveling on about the same route in the beginning of August through northern Guatemala, so we have temporary plans to meet up again and travel together in a few weeks!

Enjoying the hot springs

Fuentes Georginas

Fuentes Georginas

 I did a two-hour walking tour of the city on Friday afternoon, and on Friday night I went to Salon Tecun, which claims to be the oldest bar in the country (opened in 1935), with another group of backpackers that I met at the Black Cat. I fulfilled my pizza and beer craving and had a lot of fun getting to know the group and sharing travel stories.

Saturday morning I hiked the ridge outside the city up to the church and enjoyed the view of the town.

Xela from the mountainside

I spent some time reading in the Central Park on Saturday afternoon, and was approached by a university student who was doing a survey of the international opinion on the land acquirement conflict between Belize and Guatemala. I agreed and answered her survey, but I was curious to learn more. First of all, this was a conflict that I didn't even know existed. Secondly, I had noticed that the map of Central America in the main municipal building close to the central park didn’t have Belize on the map. My Lonely Planet Book had the answer:

In 1859 Britain and Guatemala signed a treaty that gave Britain the rights to the (Belize) land provided that the British built a road from Guatemala to the Caribbean coast. The treaty still stands, but the road has never been built, and many Guatemalan-made maps show Guatemala—which has never formally accepted Belize as a separate territory— extending all the way through Belize to the coast. - “Central America on a Shoestring” pg. 219

It makes me think about the subjective nature of history, and how what we know about history is greatly dependent upon who wrote the history book. I wonder what Belizeans will say about the conflict when I visit Belize at the beginning of next month?

I returned to Santiago on Sunday to visit with the scholarship students at the Puerto Abierta Library. Natik sponsors 33 scholarship students, and I was able to interview several and take photos of the students. One of my last projects here in Santiago will be collecting letters from all of the students to send to the donors who have contributed to their scholarships. I'm working on collecting, scanning and translating the letters and then drafting emails to the donors to fill them in on the dreams and plans of the students that they sponsor.

Scholarship students working on their letters

I have less than two weeks left in Santiago, so I've begun to reflect upon my time here and have started to think about my work within the bigger scale of international development work as a whole. So here I am, having lived in this community for a little over 6 weeks now, with the best of intentions to assist members of this community and help improve the livelihoods of the people here. For me and for this trip, my success is measured in smiles and small-scale economic improvements. If I've shared a laugh and contributed to the employment opportunities for a few families, I have done what I came for. However, have I really made a large difference in the community? When I leave at the end of the month, will the project be sustainable? I hope that by applying for a grant funding, we will be able to hire a fellow who will be able to continue to manage the project on the ground in Santiago, as my time here has shown that this project really has so much positive potential. However, I’ve learned that development work is very delicate work. We need someone who has a dedicated interest in the community, and who is able to triage complicated issues, and most importantly, communicate effectively and work together with the community in order to actually make a difference.

I was sitting in the park the other day watching several dozen women do their weekly washing in the lake, and saw an example of something that clearly meant well but for some reason was poorly executed. A newly constructed washing station was left completely empty, and women were still using the lake and the rocks to do their washing. It made me think about how many development projects, though usually well intentioned, can easily fail for myriad reasons. I didn't ask any of the women why they weren't using the washing station. Maybe the development workers who built the station didn't ask the women about their washing needs before they built it, either.

Washing station- not occupied

Women washing in the lake

Development Dilemmas in Nicaragua (and in myself)

As a student of International and Intercultural Communication, a significant focus of my graduate education has been learning how to understand and work together with individuals from other countries and cultures. I came into the IIC program conversational in Spanish yet sometimes apprehensive about speaking, and I found myself challenged by the concept of truly connecting with people who don’t share my same background or language. I’ve always been interested in international volunteer work and have a passion for Latin American culture. So when I heard about the International Service Learning program in Nicaragua over Winter Interterm this year, I packed a guidebook and my courage into a backpack and set off for a month-long trip through Central America.

The International Service Learning course I took through the University of Denver was called ISL Nicaragua: Development Dilemmas. The four-credit course examined how increasing tourism development and political changes in a post-revolutionary society have affected the livelihood of Nicaraguans.

Students were able to observe the inner workings of various organizations on the southwest Nicaraguan coast, including a privately funded charity foundation, a luxury tourism resort, a vacation home community, and a local educational nonprofit. We were encouraged to befriend and interact with locals as much as possible, and stayed for the majority of the time at a small fishing village that is slowly and perhaps undeniably transforming to become a gringo surf town. The number of foreigners developing infrastructure on previously undeveloped landscapes in Nicaragua is growing at a really fast rate, so it was interesting to study the dynamics between the outside developers and the affects of these developments on the local people. The course also had a service component. Some students spent time volunteering for a US-based nonprofit doing ecological conservation and construction projects, while others taught English at a local school.

I spent nearly two weeks with DU classmates as a part of the course, but also backpacked independently through northwest Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama for a few weeks after the class. There, I was able to do some adventure travel activities, spend some time on the beach, and continue to practice my Spanish communication skills. Throughout the course of my time in Central America, I had several nights where I spoke entirely in Spanish. After having dinner and watching a futbol match one evening with my new Tico friends, I had an epiphany—I had just spent the entire night actually engaging in international and intercultural communication. It really felt amazing to be able to actually bond with others in a foreign environment and to be able to share small parts of our worlds with each other.

I’ve learned a lot, but I still have a lot to learn in both cultural and language fluency. However, I definitely believe that cultural immersion is an incredibly valuable experience for those of us who are studying international communication, and for me, this winter in Central America made the world a little bit smaller and more deeply connected.