Donde pone el ojo, pone la bala: Chacarra! Chacarra! Cinco! Chacarra!

Life Update #4:

In some ways a LOT has happened over the last week and a half…and in some ways we really haven’t done much.

Last week, our first week in Guate, we met with Claudia & Maria José, who run Shalom down here, to make sure we were all on the same page, do a little brainstorming, and make a few connections in the city. A couple days later we met with Donaldo, the Director/Principal of the primary school in Las Conchas. He is excited at the prospect of moving forward and finally, after several years on his end, getting some houses built for families in the town. But he’s also anxious because so many different attempts have been made and so little progress achieved.

We’ve also been reaching out to anyone and everyone that would be relevant to the community’s needs, primarily around housing and water filters. We’re hoping to move beyond simply the microfinance model we started with earlier this year, but to provide a continuum of options that might help a broader swath of people gain a safe, durable home. The microfinance option with the government subsidy pairing provides most likely the largest and one of the more timely options but it is also more expensive than some can afford.

Our first success has been with Un Techo Para Mi Pais, an amazing organization that works throughout Latin America, started in Chile and began operations in Guatemala in 2008. They build transitional houses for families in extreme poverty (I believe the “line” is less than Q800/month or just over $100). These homes are small, wooden, and intended to last at most 8-10years. They cost $1300 and the family pays a 10% fee. But not only do these wonderful people build homes, they stay involved in the community doing education, health and vocational work tailored to the situation of the community. By the time we finished the meeting they’d arranged time to come to Las Conchas with us the next week. They’d never worked in an “urban” setting and had been looking for places in the City that were safe…a bigger challenge than it sounds!

So the next Wednesday five of us traveled to LC to talk to Donalgo and Camilo – President of the town and an endearingly strong but compassionate man – for Techo to present themselves and their work. Then we walked around the newer, and poorer, part of LC with Camilo so they could assess the situation and if it looked like something they wanted to investigate more. What a great trip! The word “ideal” was used more than once. And these guys are great – once they see a viable project they get started; and once the interviews and family assessments are done, they start building. They’re pretty much my ideal. See pics below for current state of affairs.

In other news, we’ve reached out to several major banks that deal in microfinance to investigate how operations are run here and what options we may have. Genésis has been difficult to nail down and we can’t wait for them, though we continue to hope that that relationship will bear some fruit in the next weeks. We have meetings with several banks, both in the City and in Xela. We’ve also contacted another housing organization based outside of Antigua to see what their projects are like and if they can support an income bracket that perhaps Un Techo would not, in hopes of reaching yet more people. Constru Casa has its own micro-credit like operation to build homes, requiring a moderate but manageable contribution by families for their homes. We don’t know if this will bear any tangible fruit, but the meeting is exciting regardless. Finally, we are pondering solutions to water, inspired by Cody & Omar’s work and our resesarch on various types of filters used in areas like LC.

So it is a lot. And yet, we’ve done it from our computers and phones (first from the “home office” and now the Guate version of Sbux “& Café”). None of it is set in stone but there is building momentum I can get excited about. Un Techo has reinvigorated me in the project and Mario’s connections to MFIs are deep, so there is hope yet there. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can bring to this community in such a short time. We will finally start some manual work and interacting directly with families through home-builds this weekend with Shalom. In a few weeks we’ll get to work in another town with Techo to build their homes and see their program in action.

The rest of life in the City has been much better than anticipated. Zone 10 is lively and relatively safe. The only drawback, other than the currently unusable wifi, is that we are feet from a chickenbus stop where the ayudantes have an impressive capacity to yell “CHACARRA!!!!!” for hours (it seems all the buses at this stop go there, why must we yell so much?!). Drowning out even the horns and whistles and rivaling the planes taking off overhead. Sleeping in is a feat I have yet to achieve. And there are certainly more guns than I’ve ever seen in my life (private security outnumber the police). We are continually told stories of violence and crime…but within several blocks of our place I feel quite safe. We do also live next to the Westin, InterContinental and a few other major hotels, so security is above average. But we’ve met up with friends a few times, explored the neighborhood and found some offices we’re trying to schedule meetings with, all on foot with no problems. Outside of this Zone is a different story, but that’s why we’re living where we are. We even have our cabbie, Vitelio, as we have been all but forbidden to ride the chickenbuses. So far so good, keep your fingers crossed!