05/26/19- Leslie Palomares Today is our last day in Guatemala. Although, we are very sad is over, we are really grateful and happy we had such a successful and amazing trip. Now, I can carry many memories from Antigua and Santiago with me to New York. I will share our experience with my family, friends, and co-workers and even recommend them some places to visit in Guatemala. I also want to mention the Guatemalan people; from the staff working at the hotel, loan applicants, daughters of charity, waivers and coffee farmers we met at the different organizations to most of the people we met on the street markets, they made us feel very welcomed and were always eager to help us.  Lago Atitlan  I am going to miss Gabriel and his lovely wife, Elsa, and will not forget the meal she cooked for us and how patient Gabriel was with us and how hard working he is. I cannot imagine climbing the Volcan of Water twice a day or more during the coffee season like he does. His work ...

Dylan Hawxhurst - 05/24/2019 Starting off the day in the surrounding area of Lake Atitlán, we had the plan to visit Maya Traditions. This organization was wonderful and had a similar mission and vision to Cojolya. They are an organization who looks to better the lives of Guatemalan weavers. They believe in fair trade and paying the women as they work and not after the items are complete (some factories or people pay the women once their pieces sell). Upon arrival we received a tour of their beautiful little premises and were introduced to several women who weaves for Maya Traditions. After explaining their personal stories and fulfilled any question we had, they showed us their beautiful art; displayed both as woven cloths and accessories, and pine bowls. The pieces were beyond beautiful, I knew instantly I was going to purchase a bunch of items for my family. And I did just that, I got items for my mom, girlfriend, and sister! After leaving this wonderful organization we had a lit...

Written By: Emily Inzero 1. We have six loan applications! This means that there are six people who want to start/pursue their business. It gives GLOBE a great opportunity to help people of Guatemala alleviate poverty. This is huge! It has been multiple semesters in the making with the help of the Daughters of Charity.  2. Got Lunch with the Daughters of Charity.   We enjoyed a day with the wonderful Daughters. They showed us around Guatemala from the past destruction to the future hope. They are the sweetest people. For Globe, they are our connection to our borrowers. They also have connections in other places of central America...expansion to El Salvador? You never know. 😉 3. Roasted Coffee with Gabriel and his wife.  We learned the ins and outs of coffee which is essential because many of our borrowers work in the coffee industry. NGO’s like De La Gente make the coffee business more stable by making sure the prices are fair and by having a stro...

Written by: Esther A. Nature (Friday, May 24, 2019) Location:  Nature Reserve Atitlan Antigua finca San Buenaventura, Panajachel On of the activities we did today was go to the Nature Reserve where the highlight for me was the botanical garden with butterflies.  Quick side note and unpopular opinion: butterflies are actually kind of ugly. The pretty thing about them are the their wings. I do not know how many of you watch SpongeBob, but there was an episode where they zoomed in really close to the butterfly and you could see their actually face. One could say that scarred me.  The beauty in butterflies is they transform and go from one state to another state like many of the women who are involved with organizations like Maya Tradition and Cojoyla. Many of these women who partner with this organizations are able to provide for their family, assist in alleviating the financial burden, and are empowered while doing so. 

Leslie Palomares - 5/24/19 Today, we went to Maya Traditions where we met 3 women weavers. The 3 are from different provinces of Guatemala. They told us about the process of weaving in their communities and working with Maya Traditions, an NGO certified by the US.  They also told us that their husbands used to get angry at them because they arrived around 5 in the afternoon after work. Their husbands would tell them that it was too late to come back home as they did not have the time to take care of them and even question them for their tardiness. Their main reason for working late was that, in the morning, they had to take care of the house and their children. These mothers were worried and unhappy that their children did not have shoes to go to school. Now, their husbands are still not happy with them working late but they support them because they have seen the economic benefit their work brings to the household. At the same time, it empowers the wives to make mor...

Day four was probably the most intensive day when it comes to traveling. To begin our day off bright and early, we left the hotel with Keara (from De La Gente) at 6 A.M. to travel towards Lake Atitlán. The drive there was estimated to be three hours so I got comfy and started reading my book to help time go by faster! About two hours and fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the cooperative in San Lucas Tolimán where we would be introduced to Arnulfo and Roberto. This cooperative works directly (but not solely) with De La Gente with selling coffee beans. With warm welcomes, the two of them explained their entire process from start to finish. Following the explanation, the showed us where the processes occur and it was great to visualize it. To end off our visit, Arnulfo’s wife prepared a traditional snack that was similar to empanada (which was delicious). After visiting the cooperative, we traveled to visit Pueblo a Pueblo. With a mission similar to Common Hope, they wanted student...