Halfway point!

So tomorrow marks exactly one month since I arrived in Guatemala. Bad news for all of you back home: I’m not sure I’m ever going to be able to leave. There’s something about Guatemala, and the people who live here, that just sticks with you and doesn’t let you ever forget.

Darcy and I have had a wonderful time over the past week spending time with new friends and exploring the lake. We’ve made a great group of friends here – locals, volunteers, visitors – and almost every evening, we gather at our friends café to play bilingual scrabble. We were considering taking some Spanish lessons at one point, but we realized that spending a few hours each evening playing scrabble and just talking with friends is about as good of language practice as we’re going to be able to get! Not to mention the amazing coffee that I’m slowly becoming addicted to…

!Hola de Pana!

Darcy and I overlooking Lake Atitlan, which borders Panajachel

After landing in Guatemala City this morning and and a three hour drive on winding mountainside highways, Darcy and I finally arrived in Panajachel this afternoon. We were greeted by Andrea, who showed us the beautiful little house where we will be living, with our own bedrooms, a sitting area with couches and a TV, a dining area, and a fully-outfitted kitchen, all surrounded by a beautiful garden. The whole place is clean, spacious, and just a short walk from Panajachel’s town center and from the OB office.

Two Weeks and Counting!

With only two weeks to go until I leave for Guatemala, I’m beginning to finalize my packing list and logistics for the trip! After meeting in Houston, Darcy and I will fly together to Guatemala City, and then drive about 3 hours to Panajachel, which will be our new home for the following two months. We will be met by Andrea, our site supervisor, who works with Nest’s partner organization in Panajachel, Oxlajuj B’atz’ (Thirteen Threads). Andrea will help us get settled in our apartment and get oriented with Oxlajuj B’atz’ and with Panajachel before we begin our work as Nest Fellows. 

From that point on, Darcy and I will be busy working through the different projects that we’ve been assigned for the summer. In Panajachel, Nest works with Oxlajuj B’atz in generating a more robust market for the goods produced by Mayan Indian weavers, in a sustainable manner and without the use of middlemen. Some of the projects I will be working on to support this mission include:

Whose Volunteer Experience is this Anyway?

Crystal Hayling, a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Effective Philanthropy, recently published an article on the Center for Effective Philanthropy's blog entitled, "Whose Volunteer Experience is this Anyway?" in which she considers who really benefits from service projects, and how much of the focus of service projects should be on "making a difference" and how much should be on personal growth.

Hayling writes:

“I love feeling that I’m making a difference, whether it is buying green products or volunteering or contributing to organizations I love. By doing these things I create a sense of community, connection, and empathy that benefits me as well as those on the other end of that support. The act of giving is mutually beneficial. But at the end of the day, it’s not only about me. Giving, volunteering, and the work done to support nonprofits becomes transformative when the goal is something much larger than just one person’s pride or fame or even self-actualization.”

3 Months until Guatemala!

Over the past two months, the pieces for my Nest Summer Fellowship have slowly been falling together, first with being selected for the amazing opportunity of serving as a Nest Summer Fellow in Panajachel, Guatemala, then with receiving a grant from UC Berkeley’s Global Poverty and Practice program covering the costs of nearly the entire Fellowship, and finally with extensive research about the site, health and safety measures, and position requirements. At this point, with three months remaining until I embark on my Summer Fellowship to Guatemala, I am both excited and anxious to learn more about the position and begin preparing for what is sure to be a life-changing experience.

As a student in the Global Poverty and Practice minor at UC Berkeley, I am currently enrolled in a course called “The Ethics, Methods, and Pragmatics of Global Practice,” along with 40 other students who will each be embarking on their own unique Global Poverty Practice Experience this coming summer. In addition to serving as a forum for each of us to share our thoughts, qualms, and excitements about each of our upcoming experiences, this course has challenged me to learn about (and practice!) a variety of research methods – including taking fieldnotes, conducting interviews and surveys, and taking visual documentation – all of which I’m sure will be incredibly beneficial to my experience as a Nest Fellow. I have also been working on an extensive literature review, exploring a vast mountain of literature related to the highlands of Guatemala, microfinance (and the context behind Nest’s unique microbarter model), and the effects of globalization and increased access to the global market on the indigenous communities that I will be working with in Guatemala. My research has been fascinating so far, and through preparing my literature review I hope to arrive in Guatemala will a rich background on the communities that I will be working with and on the context behind the work that I will be doing.

What most excites me about being selected as a Nest Summer Fellow is the opportunity to experience microfinance work firsthand, in the field, after nearly a year of researching and discussing microfinance and its role in international development in a classroom setting. I’ve learned that despite its immense promise, microfinance is not a panacea for development, and I am excited to work with an organization with such a unique and innovative form of microfinance that seeks to avoid the high interest rates, predatory lending practices, and exploitation that have been seen to characterize many traditional forms of microfinance.

I can’t claim to be completely worry-free about this experience, however. Though I have traveled extensively and spent entire summers in both Ecuador and Spain on language immersion programs, I have never traveled or lived independently for such an extended period of time in a completely foreign country. I am thrilled to be joined on my Fellowship by another Nest Summer Fellow, but I know that the two of us will have to take extra precautions traveling as two, young, American women in a foreign country, and I know that my Spanish language skills could definitely use some brushing-up before I leave in June! Nonetheless, I can’t wait to book my flights, pack my bags for Guatemala, and begin what is sure to be an incredibly fulfilling summer!