Sunday Snapshot

Jump for joy, it's the rainy season!

PDs and Summer Interns standing on the Inter-American Highway in Chaquijyá, waiting for a minibus back to Sololá.

Sunday Snapshot

Chaquijyá Central's 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classes filled over 650 bottles in last week's bottle stuffing competition for our school addition! Congrats to Willy's 5th graders for winning with 272 bottles!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all those near and far! As per usual, we were asked to choreograph and perform a dance for the celebration in Chaquijyá. Luckily we had 7 volunteers from Jackson Hole, WY that could easily find work as music video dancers. Check out these superstars redefine the shuffle!

Don't you wish this is how we celebrated Mother's Day in the USA?

Higher resolution video found here.

Preservation on the Lake Atitlan Front

One of the best parts about MPIG is the view. The Manna house is situated overlooking beautiful Lake Atitlan, with a view of its three surrounding volcanoes from every window in our house.

Just a few days ago the Authority for the Sustainable Management of Lake Atitlan became official. Finally, there is a government entity set up whose sole mission is to preserve the beauty and nature wonder that is the lake.

The Prensa Libre reports,

The authority aims to plan, coordinate and implement the measures and actions, both public and private, necessary to conserve, preserve and protect the ecosystem of the lake and its surrounding areas. 

This Authority is under the direction of the vice presidency with funds from the general budget of the nation and is constituted as the governing body of the various projects for the hydrographic feature and environmental education.

If specific programs for this lake are not applied in the coming years it could suffer irreversible damage due to high pollution affecting it, because it does not have the necessary wastewater treatment plants.

Waste from chemical factories and waste generated by more than a dozen villages in its surroundings are dumped there. Located at an altitude of 1 560 meters above sea level in the department of Solola, the lake is one of its main economic and trade sources, it is also a place of great attraction for international and domestic tourism.

It is about time that Guatemala made Lake Atitlan a priority. Hazzza!

Sunday Snapshot

MPIG went on a retreat to beautiful Monterrico last weekend!

Sunday Snapshot: Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to those near and far! We're all excited to get back to work this week!

Spotlight on Aid & Global Poverty

Happy Semana Santa! We may be on vacation, but if you're still fiending for some development talk, let me recommend to you the following podcast discussion:

Global development podcast: spotlight on the battle against global poverty

Since the conception of the millennium development goals and before, experts have discussed the pros and cons of aid to alleviate global poverty. Many nations rely wholly on foreign aid, but as stated by John Hilary, "countries that have successfully tackled poverty and inequality have done so not through foreign assistance but through the liberation of their own social, human and economic forces." So what role does foreign aid play, where should it come from, and how much should we rely on it?

One of the millennium goals is to cut the extreme global poverty rate in half by 2015. Though almost 1 billion people are still living on less than $1.25 a day, The World Bank claims this goal has been met. This can mean one of two things: Either the goals need to be more ambitious, or something fishy is going on at the World Bank.

The short podcast above is a debate between the Global Development site editor, Lucy Lamble, and an array of experts in the development field. We've got Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and a regular columnist on the Global development site; Abhijit Banerjee, an economist from MIT and co-author of the acclaimed book Poor Economics; the Guardian's health editor Sarah Boseley; and Global Development reporter Mark Tran."

So listen up, read on, and educate yourself, and on a final note, when the millennium development goals expire in 2015, what should replace them?

Deep thoughts from the beach,

Dana

(Be back in Guate next week!)

Sunday Snapshot

Paige and Marissa of University of Alabama at Birmingham administering fluoride to over 300 children and teachers in Chaquijyá!

After three weeks of hosting Spring breakers from Vanderbilt University, Emory, Tulane, UGA, and UAB, we finally had to say goodbye to our final group today. We're sad to see them all go! For more information about each of their projects, visit their blog tabs above, labeled by college.

International Women's Day

“You think we’re victims, because we cover our hair and wear modest clothing. But we think that it’s Western women who are repressed, because they have to show their bodies–even go through surgery to change their bodies–to please men.” - A female Saudi doctor interviewed in Half the Sky. (A pertinent, yet off topic, quote stolen from Megan Gokey.

Today is International Women's Day (IWD). For the occasion I had the pleasure of interviewing two incredible women from Chaquijyá, Delmy and Lidia. Delmy is the director of the new Basico school, El Instituto, in Chaquijyá Central that started just this year. Lidia teaches social studies in El Instituo (7th & 8th grades) alongside Delmy. Below are the consolidated transcripts from their interviews:

Delmy

"Throughout the year there is a lot of discrimination but today, March 8th, we celebrate women especially, which makes everyone remember that we're important too. It's just a special day that the word 'woman' means something more. The rest of the days we suffer such hardships, and it's nice that we have one day where you have to think and talk about that. I consider it very important. MPI partnered with us to teach English in our Institute, which has 75% girls, and so together we are opening doors for all them. MPI is teaching English to all our students and that gives them all greater opportunities for the future that they wouldn't have had."

Lidia

"We give March 8th to women because women give us all life. It's a showing of appreciation to women but it's not enough. However, at least we have one, and it's international! It's not just for the rich either, nor just for the poor, it's for all women of all social classes, because a woman is a woman. Here in Guatemala we don't really celebrate it, we tell each other "happy women's day," and sometimes it's on the radio or television, but that's it. Here in the school it'd be nice to celebrate it, but we haven't done it in the past. We need to help empower girls by showing them that they can do anything they want, that they aren't limited to the same lives their mothers have. That is such a problem, especially with Mayan women where there is so much discrimination and such a divide between the sexes, and between ladino Guatemalans (non-indigenous). Our reality is, we don't know our rights as women or as an indigenous people, so how can we defend our rights? It's a day to strengthen our self-esteem, or at least to start. Now we're uniting your cultures and our culture, cultivating a friendship, and you (MPI) don't discriminate and the kids can see that and learn from that. MPI is teaching English in the Institute which is so important for the kids to learn because many will go to the USA looking for work and this helps them, and others are just learning a love for learning."

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We are lucky to work alongside Delmy, Lidia, and many other inspirational women on a daily basis in El Instituto, and in the other primary schools in Chaquijyá. Today especially we appreciate them, but it shouldn't stop at midnight. Through education and empowerment, we can work to promote the ideals of IWD everyday.

How are you celebrating?

-Dana

Sunday Snapshot

Test time in Beginner's English in Cooperativa

Photo Credit: Dana Zichlin

Work vs. Play

Valentine's Day soul train!

The month of February has been incredible. We started off with a bang exploring bat caves in Semuc Champey (see pictures in last post), followed it up with a lively boat cruise, Valentine's Day dance-off, hike to a Mayan altar, and confetti-filled Carnaval celebration. Dream vacation, no? Try, dream job. Let me paint you a little picture:
We're all invited to the Valentine's Day celebration in El Basico (high school) in Caserio Central. We come bearing varied mugs and candy for the friendship gift swap. Cam is put in charge of the kids' dance contest. However, it's not surprising that these shy, angsty teenagers are repulsed by the idea of dancing in front of their peers. (Let's take a moment and reflect back to our own awkward teenage years and then compound that by a large factor due to the fact that we are in a small indigenous village.) Cam's brilliant solution? The PDs will have a dance battle instead. Well, I can tell you that we are great at making fools of ourselves, and that I may have done "the lawnmower" a few times too many. The day continued with a more familiar teenage dance scene where boys and girls occupy different sides of the room and walking across to the opposite territory is like committing treason. Emily confessed that she herself was an 8 out of 10 on the uncomfortable scale.

Tomas explaining the significance of the four altars

One of the most interesting things about living in Guatemala is the Maya influence. It's a religion, lifestyle, and culture--all three unique to this region, so we're always eager to learn more about it. On Tuesday we hiked up to a Mayan ceremonial altar with Celso, the principal of La Primaría (elementary school) in Caserio Cooperativa, and Tomas, the local mayor. Tomas is a spiritual Maya priest and helped build the altar himself.

After a short hike up, we listened to his impressive knowledge about the Mayan calendar and rituals. The next day happened to be the start of the new year! We descended through Cooperativa talking about MPI, Chaquijyá, all we've done together, and what more could be done in the future.

Carnaval is Halloween, a circus, tag, and a dance party all rolled up into a ball... and then rolled in confetti and flour. Immediately upon passing through the front doors we were assaulted with bits of paper, glitter, and unidentifiable powders. Confetti-filled eggs were smashed on our heads and kids of all ages used us as jungle gyms. The costumes were incredible, the laughter unceasing.

What's funny about life here is that all these events, and many others, are mandatory. I'm sorry, but you must participate in the dance off, you must attend the costume party, and you must hike up to see a beautiful view of Chaquijyá...

It seems a bit odd, but these community events are where our best relationships are made, with teachers and kids alike. And we count on these relationships. These relationships are the foundation of all our programs, current and future.

The best and hardest part about the PD position is that the line between work and play is blurry at best.

Mama D

Sunday Snapshot

On a walkabout of Chaquijyá Guadalupana/Cooperativa with the principal of one of our schools.

From left to right: Emily, Celso, Cameron, and Lorena

Sunday Snapshot

The view into Sololá from our balcony this lovely afternoon.

Tell Your Friends

Manna is a very small organization. There are 6 full time staff members spread between four countries, nineteen Programs Directors, and in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, MPI operated on a budget of about $427,000. To give you some means of comparison of annual budgets in the non-profit sector:

Pencils of Promise: $1.1 million; WorldTeach: $3.15 million; Invisible Children: $8 million; Charity Water: $11.6 million; Falling Whistles: $104.7 million; Habitat for Humanity: $285 million.

The point is we're small in almost every way. We don't have the manpower or resources to publicize and market ourselves with the big guys. Even when it comes to recruitment, truth is, the majority of our volunteers hear about Manna from one of our current or past volunteers, and we rely on that. I personally found out about Manna from my high school friend, Jackie Weidman who was a PD in Ecuador before MPI Guatemala ever existed. I remember reading MPI's website and wondering why I had never heard about the experience before, and MPI isn't the only one. There are so many life-changing opportunities out there looking for candidates, but seldom do the interested candidates and opportunities meet.

In a few days MPI Guatemala will welcome a new PD named Lorena Zamarelli, who--you guessed it--is also a friend from high school, and Manna is currently recruiting summer and 13-month volunteers for 2012-2013.  Posting to Facebook and other social networking sites does help, but it's not enough. We need a grander advertisement, a broader PSA.

These are my best friends from high school. 75% of them have either volunteered themselves with MPI, visited an MPI international site, or donated to the cause.

So do me a favor, tell your friends. Share our story, and spread the word. To beef up your Manna knowledge, visit our "about us" page, or our volunteer page.

Gracias,

Dana

Sunday Snapshot

Class is back in session in Chaquijyá, and so are our programs!

Dora the Explora looks excited!

Second graders all lined up to go to class!

Sunday Snapshot

Following a $10,000 anonymous donation to our bottle project, the roof comes off! We've begun reinforcing the first floor in preparation for the second floor bottle addition. Onwards and upwards in 2012!

Photo Credit: Dana Zichlin

Sunday Snapshot

I can't believe it's already the 4th week of camp! Urban Week!

Building our own cities in Science!

Making graffiti in art!

The girls' team after the epic dance off! (video is embedded 2 posts down)

Sunday Snapshot

It's Oceans week at Summer Camp in Chaquijyá!

Delia learning about food webs & ocean salinity.

Making beautiful kites in art class with Emily

Bayron was plankton is our oceans-themed, and food web inspired game of cat and mouse.

Learn Spanish or Bust

One of the hardest, most daunting parts of this job is the language barrier. I'd consider myself an advanced Spanish speaker now, but when I first got here I was terrified to open my mouth. Terrified. Proper communication is all about timing, so when I had to first sing a song in my head to pinpoint the correct past tense ending, I often ended up contributing an anecdote to an old topic (Q: Isn't the weather beautiful today? A: Yes, my food was very good...) My coping mechanism? Keeping my mouth shut.

Thanks for your impeccable Spanish skills, Maddie!

One day too soon, my feasibility trip partners left and I was still in Guatemala charged with the task of creating MPI's newest international volunteer site--cementing local partnerships, attending meetings, convincing people that I wasn't a mute American with no personality. And as you've probably already guessed, all of that required Spanish. What was MPI thinking right? Well, when I first broke my promise to myself and opened my mouth to a foreign tongue, it was not pretty. I butchered even the simplest of statements, if not grammatically, absolutely in pronunciation. But out of the need to speak, I spoke. You know the drill--hurdle, jump; water, swim; fire, stop, drop and roll.. or run? I'm still unclear on that.

The point being, trying to speak a foreign language does make you feel stupid, embarrassed, and the butt of many a joke (and trust me, I was. I once blurted out some unintelligible question at a restaurant and when prodded to repeat I just froze like a deer in headlights, didn't say another word, turned around, and made my friend take over). It's like doing anything as a novice in front of seasoned professionals: singing, dancing, cooking, anything. So why should we try? There are a lot of Guatemalan English speakers that would love to accept your money in return for relaying meeting notes to you. Aaron Ausland of Staying for Tea offers this poignant response,

"Because language is a bit like food. People just love it when you make an effort to eat their food...I was talking with some community volunteers who were recalling the last time they had an American visit their village from World Vision. "Hey, do you know so-n-so?" they asked me, a bit naïve to the size of my organization. But, in fact I did know this person. "He's such a great guy!" they exuded. "Why do you say that?" I asked, curious. "He ate everything we gave him," one exclaimed. And the rest all nodded vigorously and happily at this. "Do you know who this man was?" I asked, pressing the point a bit. They recalled that he was an American and from World Vision and again applauded his culinary enthusiasm. What they didn't recall about this person was that he was the International President of World Vision.

What left a lasting impression on these folks was not the man’s position, but his willingness to lift his fork and dive into their culture. He embraced part of what defined them without hesitation or judgment. He received from them without turning up his nose at what they had to offer. Language is a bit like this. A willingness to learn and use even a few words demonstrates a willingness to be vulnerable and to make an effort to accept and use what is local. It recognizes that you are the visitor and honors your host."

Olga & Jose are learning their third language!

The two terrifying things that I take away from this short excerpt are 1) I need to start eating more corn tortillas and atoll loaded with sugar. 2) If the goal is simple communication, Spanish will suffice, but if ultimate goal is honoring your host, shouldn't the PDs and I be learning Kaqchikel?

The good news? Learning a new language can stave off alzheimers!

Till next time,

Dana

Sunday Snapshot

Our summer camp theme this year is ecosystems: deserts, rainforests, urban, ocean and tundra. Each week we will "travel" to a new one! Week one of summer camp: Check!

Making binoculars in art!

Quicksand in science!

Treasure Hunt!

Any guesses as to which ecosystem we did first?