EIL Intercultural Learning

This was submitted by a volunteer in Guatemala working on a 12 week placement.  The project is called Proyecto Utzsamaj (meaning Good work in Kakchiquel).  It is a local not-for-profit organization in Tecpán, department of Chimaltenango. Their aim is to provide integral services to the farmers in Tecpán area for their personal, community and family development.

"It has been over 9 weeks (from 12 weeks in total) since I arrived in Guatemala, or better in San Salvador because I was greeted with a volcanic eruption that covered Guatemala City with a blanket of ash and closed the airport for a few days, and therefore my flight was redirected to San Salvador. Nevertheless, it was no problem to organise the change in schedule with the host organisation in Guatemala, and Continental Airlines have been really great as well.  For the first 4 weeks, during the Spanish course, I lived in Santa Lucia. I would recommend everybody to take this course it if you do not already speak Spanish.  Even though you will not be fluent after 4 weeks, it helps a lot and you will be able to communicate on a basic level and to get an idea about what is going on around you. Also it is great because you will meet other volunteers who you can travel with during the weekends and who will help you to get to know how everything works in Guatemala, like the camionettas (buses, just a lot more colourful!). Another advantage is that Santa Lucia is close to Antigua, which is a touristic town and a good place to start travelling. In Santa Lucia are also Gloria, Carlos and Alex who all speak very good English and who are the people behind the host organisation. They will help you with everything and make sure that you will settle in! So far I also never felt unsafe in Guatemala, when travelling or walking around in different places. I think when you stick to a few rules (do not walk around in the dark, do not show how much money you have with you, try to avoid Guatemala City...) Guatemala is a rather safe place to travel.

After the first 4 weeks, Alex introduced me to my new family in Tecpan and the place I would work in for 8 weeks. I really enjoy living with my host family, they are great, really patient when I try to say something and they take their time to talk to me a lot and make easy sentences so that I can understand them most of the times. For the volunteering work I applied for an environmental related project and was sent to Utz Samaj (which translates to Good Work). Utz Samaj is an agricultural centre, where they cultivate different kinds of vegetables and teach groups of local farmers, either in Utz Samaj or by visiting the communities. Some projects additionally distribute seedlings and other material. In the description of the project it was mentioned that they need somebody to establish a data base...well that part so far did not come true. My work is usually helping with different things whenever they need a hand but I also have some little projects on my own. Like everywhere there are good and interesting days that pass by quickly and boring days that can be quite long (the working hours are from 8 to 17). I also join the classes to learn a bit about agricultural practices (I especially like the practical parts as the presentations are sometimes a bit hard to follow...). They have two different classes that they teach, each one day a week: an agricultural class, including lectures and practical work in the greenhouses or outside, planting and taking care of different kinds of vegetables; and the Hongo Ostra class, where they teach 4 communities how to cultivate the mushroom Hongo Ostra, again including lectures and practical work (and the Hongo Ostra group is also the group I am working for in general). Once I had the chance to join a group visiting 3 communities somewhere in the mountains who distributed seedlings and other stuff for cultivation and taught them how to use the things they got. This was a very interesting experience as I would never visit those places otherwise and I could help a bit distributing the goods. Altogether I have to say that the people in Utz Samaj are really nice, it is more a language problem that I am not able to fully integrate. I think the existence of the language barrier is one thing that everybody should realise before taking part in a volunteering project. Sometimes I am not very patient with myself when it comes to saying something and I am not able to do it, and then I get frustrated. Other days I am amazed that I can already talk in Spanish and people actually understand me!"

Ann Koehler, Guatemala