Volunteer Site Visit

I’ve just returned from my PC Volunteer Site visit, for which I traveled to a site not far from my home department, near the city of Chimaltenango, or as a friend calls it, “Dirt-mal-tenango.” (“Tenango” is a Guatemalan suffix that means, “place of”) Needless to say, the city itself is not particularly scenic. Just a fin little tid-bit; I’ve also heard the title “Gringo-tenango” thrown around to describe several tourist hubs and most recently a friend of mine told me of his plans to found “Deffet-tenango,” in honor of himself.

Anyway, from the city of Chimaltenango, a fellow marketing trainee, Barbara, and I traveled to a smaller town about 45 minutes away by chicken bus to visit a volunteer stationed there. Mackenzie, the volunteer, received us upon arrival and showed us around the town a little before we settled in for the evening to cook a leisurely dinner and enjoy a pirated movie on her laptop. We even had popcorn, talk about luxury…

The following day we accompanied her to the office of her host country agency, Strategies for International Development, or SID, which works with community leaders in the area to develop the sales and promotion of coffee, among other crops. There we observed a meeting held among her two counterparts and various promoters employed by the agency which offered us a peek into the inner workings of the Guatemalan business culture. The meeting, like most meetings regardless of size or intimacy of attendees, began with a one to two minute introduction from each person present, give or take a few minutes depending on their seniority in the group. Throughout the meeting, it seemed as though the same message was often repeated countless times, only blatantly rephrased and stated slower to reiterate certain points. Being very American, thus time and efficiency oriented, it was a little tough to endure.

After the meeting and a lunch, where a sizeable bottle of rum was shared among the attendees (not including the three of us), we traveled to a nearby aldea, or small village, where we met with a women’s group also associated with SID, to make jam. Now, at this point I’ve only been at the jam business for a few weeks, thus my routine is a little spotty and my proportions are never consistent (I assure you, this jam thing is a very complicated science). But these women looked at us as if we were holding the key to the Smuckers family recipe vault. In two short months, I’ve found myself in this position multiple times, and the scary thing is, it gets remarkably easy to repeatedly feign wisdom.

After the first session with the women’s group, we worked up the courage to go back without our volunteer guide, and it went just as well the second time. After finishing with the women’s group, we returned to the town and attempted to visit Chimaltenango (the department's capital) to fill some down time, but got horribly lost by boarding the wrong chicken bus, which was headed to a different, far-out aldea. With painfully full bladders riding on what promised to be a consistently rocky road for at least two more hours, Barbara and I were saved by the ayudante of the bus, when he arranged a ride back to the town for us with a friendly pickup driver. Lesson learned; always ask where the bus is headed. We returned home to Mackenzie's house, humbled.

The visit was a great peek into the life of a volunteer, and I’ll be able to give more information on my own site when I get it this Wednesday, October 9th.

Until next time..