Author: smith.11728

As we boarded the plane to travel from Guatemala City to Houston, it would have been difficult not to take a moment to reflect on what we all had experienced during this trip. From our plane first landing in Guatemala City eight days ago to driving through the Guatemalan mountains to sampling multiple versions of the local Mayan dish “Pepian,” I appreciate everything I learned from Guatemala, and I am excited to take a moment to reflect on my favorite experiences from the trip.

My first favorite experience was working with the local Mayan children during our STEM lessons. Originally, I was not very good at working with the children, but by the time we completed our last lesson, I felt I had improved astronomically. I was more comfortable and confident both working with the children and speaking Spanish. I enjoyed both STEM lessons, and I felt both did a good job of engaging with the children.

My second favorite experience occurred in San Antonio just after we had finished installing an Eco Filter into a local home. The Mayan Families’ representative Natalia lead us just around a corner to a small artisan shop known for their ceramics. Rachel has mentioned earlier on the trip just how exquisite the ceramics were, so I was excited to actually see the shop. Upon entering, I was blown away by all of the bright, dazingly colors delicately incorporated into each work of art. I was especially enthralled by a large jug that was intricately decorated by a hummingbird resting on a bed of flowers. This piece caught my eye, and after borrowing a few Quetzals, I purchased the jug and started thinking just how I would package this fine piece, so I would not break it when travelling home. At this point, I have safely made it home with the jug intact, and I am still very happy with the purchase.

Considering both of these experiences, and everything else we experienced this trip, I appreciate what I was able to learn about both humanitarian engineering and Mayan culture. I now feel significantly more confident planning how to enter a foreign community and conduct a needs assessment in a manner that promotes sustainable economic development of that community. Also, I recognize how difficult it was for the local people to preserve their Mayan culture because they had to overcome a genocide of their people and the westernization of their culture. Looking forward, I now have a much stronger frame of reference of how to practice humanitarian engineering in a Central American country, which will greatly help with any future humanitarian engineering I will do.

Thank you to Rachel and Adythia for taking the time to lead this trip. I appreciate how dedicated and flexible you were in supporting the Mayan Families’ cause.

-Tyler

It is hard to believe we have already spent three days in Guatemala as we are finishing our fourth day of our trip. From travelling to the Chichicastenango market to building cook stoves in local Guatemala homes, we have experienced a wide variety of new experiences that have made this trip fin and exciting.

To start Day 4, we quickly ate breakfast at the Hotel Kaqchiquel restaurant before getting in a van to travel around 45 minutes to the small Guatemalan community of Tierra Linda. Tierra Linda is located high in the mountain range surrounding Lake Atitlan, and Mayan Families has established a Pre-school Nutrition Center there to assist in developing the community. We volunteered at the pre-school today, teaching two separate classes about basic forces and how they are applied in soccer. The children were very excited to color and create their own soccer players, and they seemed to have an amazing time shooting pom-poms into small cardstock goals. It was a fun experience working with the children, and I am glad we had the opportunity to talk and play with the local children.

After teaching the children a short STEM lesson focused on forces, we split into two teams of five to install Onil cook stoves within four homes in Tierra Linda. These cook stoves are designed to be simple, small, and cost effective so that they can easily be implemented in small communities. Each team was responsible for installing a cook stove in two separate homes, and my team had a fun time talking and playing with the local women and children while we installed the stoves. At the first home we visited, we saw how one family raised a variety of animals, including chickens, ducks, dogs, rabbits, and a single kitten. At the second home we visited, we played with about ten of the local children visiting the home to see the stove be installed and we played a game of Duck Duck Goose (which translates to Pato Pato Ganso in Spanish). It was exciting to learn how to install such an important item, such as a stove, into a home, and I felt like we were adding value to the community through these stoves.

After installing the cook stoves, we traveled to a different Guatemalan community called Pena Blanca to visit another Mayan Families’ Pre-school Nutrition Center. While in Pena Blanca, we ate a light lunch consisting of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, potato chips, and a few Guatemalan cookies, then we interviewed three local mothers to ask them about their current situations regarding their water and agriculture. The three interviews went well, although the mothers only spoke a local dialect called Kaqchiquel, so three Mayan Families’ workers were required to translate the interview from Kaqchiquel to Spanish. From the Spanish translations, the workers were able to reiterate their responses in English, so we could include their responses in our technical report. To finish off the day, we played a small bit of hacky sack and soccer with two Mayan Families workers.

Overall, this trip has been a great experience so far, and I have enjoyed how much I have learned about both Guatemalan culture and humanitarian engineering! I am excited for the rest of the trip!

-Tyler