Nothing to exciting to report from today. Luckily I slept well last night even though I did hear cats again. For breakfast I had mango! banana and sweet bread which was a perfect start to my day. I had my spanish tutor for 4 hours again then lunch. It was not my favorite meal yet...was some kind of mystery meat patty, a bowl of rice, mango again!, and a bowl of steamed vegetables!. We then started to learn about the work we are going to be doing once we go into the field. These first two weeks in Antigua are to train us on how to do the work we are going to be doing, so for the next week and a half most days are going to be about the same: wake up, Spanish tutor, lunch, learning something as a group, then back to our home stays.
We had a really great discussion about ways that NGOs come into countries to try to help. We read two articles that basically outlined two different approaches: one giving and one teaching. The expression "you can give a man a fish or you can teach him how to fish" was commonly used. It was a pretty interesting discussion when people started to say whether they thought temporarily coming into a country providing them with goods and services they need and then leaving is a better way to address needs than coming in and trying to work with the people in the community to create a sustainable way that the impact an organization makes will last once the organization is gone. There are two types of aid: relief and development. Relief being temporary, providing necessary goods, and leaving in a set amount of time. Development being a longer process involving restructuring for a sustainable change. I concluded that the type of aid necessary is always dependent on circumstance and usually a combination of both types is what is best for the country.
Soluciones Comunitarios, the organization I am going to be working with, creates a developmental impact on communities in Guatemala. The organization uses the MicroConsignment model to do this. The MicroConsignment model is a way of finding local entrepreneurs and giving them products to sell without any initial investment risk. If the person sells the item they then pay for the original item but items they do not sell they give back and do not have to pay for. This is different from microfranchising because there is risk involved in buying a good to sell because you cannot predict the demand for the product, so there is an inherent risk in buying the product without being sure it will be sold. Products that are sold include eye glasses, water filters, stoves, and baskets. Not only will these entrepreneurs benefit from selling these items the recipients who were in such small villages and before this had no access to such necessities will have clean water or better eye sight or a working stove. This simply uses the power of the market to meet the necessary demands of the people of Guatemala in a way that is sustainable and empowers the community.
After learning about the organization we walked around Antigua for an hour until we returned to our home stays. I took a cold shower again and changed and Daneysa brought her finished artwork into my room! There was a large love letter written on the heart and it was sign love, tu amor. Daneysa and I were in my room for the rest of the night. She showed me all of her dresses from her quincenera, her graduation, a wedding, and more. She also told me that there is a wedding on June 2nd, the last day I am in my home stay and she invited me to come! I am really excited to go and it is on the second to last day I am in Antigua. She told me I was the first foreigner girl that has been close to her age and her family has been hosting people for 23 years, for the whole year! Her whole life there has been a foreigner just like myself sleeping in this bedroom but only now, that she is 18, has there been a girl close to her age. I really like talking with Daneysa and wish my spanish was better so that it wasn't such an effort every time I wanted to say something and especially anytime I attempted to crack a joke (not that I really can in English either). We then had dinner which was soup, rice, beans, and tortillas and I think I am officially sick of beans already...but I cannot complain I was definitely full! During dinner we watched disney channel in Spanish which I could not understand and then the whole family except me went to church. I definitely am enjoying my alone time because I really am interacting with people ALL day and attempting to speak Spanish is a huge effort! About to do my homework for my tutor and go to sleep early!
Sorry this was a long a pretty boring post but I don't think anything can really compete with the bat story (or I hope nothing like that happens again!). Tomorrow and Friday are really going to be very similiar posts as I continue to form relationships with my home stay and learn more about what I am going to be doing once we start our field work.
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