The purpose of this blog is to document my trip to Mazatenango, Guatemala for two reasons. 1) So my family and friends can follow what I am doing down here and 2) To help me write a report on my trip for BYU. I will try to keep a balance between the technical/business side of what we are doing and the interesting/personal side.
Purpose of the Trip
As this is the first post, I will also discuss the purpose of my trip to Mazatenango (it is going to be a long post...sorry!). Me and a friend of mine from school, Tim Hart, were selected for a mini internship with the Cause for Hope. Please take a look at their web site:
http://www.causeforhope.org/
We will be working with the Mazatenango manager to help teach business classes, write business plans, and help people start businesses, including micro-finance loans (think perpetual education fund for starting businesses). See the programs at the following link:
http://www.causeforhope.org/programs.htm
http://www.causeforhope.org/mazatenango.htm
The Trip
Yesterday (Friday) we flew from SLC to Houston and then to Guatemala City. We arrived after 9:00 pm. President Donis, the stake president from Mazatenango and also the Manager of the Cause for Hope in Mazatenango, was there waiting for us and drove us to Hotel Aeropuerto. We stayed the night and took off for Mazatenango early this morning. We arrived in Mazatenanto around 10:30 am and got our stuff loaded in to our office/apartment. The place where we are stying is actually pretty nice.
After we got our stuff loaded in, we headed off to see the Center of Mazatenango where we also ate a pretty tasty Guatemalan lunch. We then got some cash, Quetzales (exchange rate is about 8 Quetzales to 1 US dollar), and then picked up some groceries.
Digging the Well
After that, we headed off to Reu, a local town about 40 minutes away, to attempt to dig a well. The idea is that if we can do it, we can then interview candidates and find someone who could dig wells as a business. He would need to hire a few other guys so it would be great for what we are trying to accomplish. There are some pretty cheap tools you can use to dig a well and the materials to build it, including building a hand pump, are fairly inexpensive. We worked at digging the well for about 2 hours and got down about 4 to 5 feet. It was very rocky so it was tough work. We figure we need to get down about 5 meters or 15 feet to have a successful well. We will head back over there on Tuesday or Wednesday to see if we can get any deeper. (On a side note, I read a book about well digging on the plane in preparation. According to the book, well digging is a great way to build self-esteem and can be as fun as laying lenoluem!)
It was funny to see the reactions of the people in Reu as we walked around looking at a couple of existing wells to get a feel for how deep they are, etc. Our group consisted of President Donis and his assistant, the Manager of the Reu office and his assistant, Tim Evans, the Director of Operations for the Cause for Hope, Tim Hart and myself. I guess we looked pretty important walking through their little town because everyone started following us around. They then stayed and watched as we attempted to dig the well. There were some pretty cute little kids playing with kites made out of newspaper (that flew surprising well). I joked around with the people in between my turns on the auger. They are really humble, sweet people.
Mazatenango
Mazatenango (and Guatemala in general) is extremely poor. I am shocked at the living conditions of most of the people. It appears that most homes are not fully enclosed. There is garbage everywhere and it smells horrible. I don't say this to bag on Guatemala. It is just sad to see people living in these conditions and it humbles me to see how much we are blessed in the United States. It makes me respect our county and what we have been able to accomplish that much more.
Other
- Drivers here are CRAZY (I thought Utah was bad)
- This is the most humid place I have every been
- The fruit here is GOOD
- This place has the worst smell ever and it doesn't go away!
- I've never seen so much garbage and filth in my life
- Spanish is HARD (I am already doing a lot better but I have forgotten muchisimo!)
- Coca Cola dominates this area
- There are stray, sickly, skinny dogs everywhere
- I miss my wife and kids!
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Yay for your first post! It was so fun to actually see pictures of what you've been telling me about! Can't wait to see more of the Guatemalan people and kids, and the city and streets. Keep working hard, you are making a difference!
ReplyDeleteLove you!
I updated the first post...take a look again. Thanks for the encouragement honey. I love you and miss you!
ReplyDeleteyeah, that is good, I liked that last part. Good to hear about everyday life and conditions of the country and people. So interesting! Smells like clean rain here! :)
ReplyDeleteRyan:
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you have this little blog! I feel like I am there - but without having to smell the garbage! What a great opportunity to serve. You are a good man.
Yay for another blog to follow! I love seeing whatceveryone is doing!
ReplyDeleteearthquake? Sickness? Waters of Mormon?
ReplyDeleteYou better be careful or this trip will turn into one of those cheesy, church missionary movies..."Other side of Mazatenango"...I can feel it already..
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Lorenzo Trujillo and I am the owner of mezzo investors,LLC in albuquerque NM. I am interested in your work out in Guatemala and want to learn more. I am planning on heading over to Guatemala in about 4 months to do some market research regarding the housing deficit among the poor. I too want to invest in the future of the poor in Guatemala by providing sustainable state of the art housing through green design and affordability. I want to give the poor access to all the amenities that you and I enjoy here in the states. I created a corporation called Critical Mass Structures Inc that will design and develop and potentially finance structures for consumers at the lower bottom of the economic pyramid. I too was astonished by conditions in which these people live and figured that most Guatemalan people need more options to deal with the cards that were dealt to them. I will be working diligently on getting out there to help you and others engage in this opportunity to give back to humanity. My business model is strong and the confidence is high. I'm not sure how long you will be out there but I do look forward to meeting you.