Happy Easter

Well there are no bunnies running around Guatemala looking to hide easter eggs. Quite the contrary, here rabbits are raised to be slaughtered and eaten. That’s a whole different story that I won’t get into right now.
Well the whole American tradition of coloring eggs, hiding them and enjoying the park on a Sunday afternoon is far from Guatemala. In Guatemala, Sunday is the least important day of Holy week. I have yet to understand why from my Guatemalan friends. In spite of this, I must say Guatemalans take this holiday pretty seriously; the whole country takes the week off from work. Semana Santa or holy week is a time to travel to the beach and soak up the sun. I happen to go to Antigua which is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country. Antigua is usually packed, but this time of year people came in by the droves from all over the world. The catholic churches have elaborate processions depicting the account of Jesus from the time he entered Jerusalem on a donkey to his resurrection. It is quite interesting. Then there are also people creating carpets that run up and down the streets. Now these carpets are made of saw dust using stencils for different colors and designs. There are some pictures below, so you get an idea of what I’m talking about.
I honestly felt a little lost during Easter here. I went to church on Sunday ready for the celebration sermon of Jesus rising from the dead. Instead I hear a traditional sermon, which is fine, but not what I expected. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I missed Easter in the states. I miss the way we celebrate it, the joy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and all that is signifies. I missed leaving church on a Sunday morning and seeing families all dressed up in pastel colors. I missed going to the park and hiding Easter eggs with my nieces. I missed chocolate covered bunnies and the joy of coloring easter eggs. So if any of you have it in your heart to send me some discounted easter candy, I’m all for it, stale or not. Chocolate preferred.

The processions

The scene of Jesus dying on the cross 

The next scene of the procession

Removing Jesus' body from the cross 

Church and crowd.

In the background you can see the procession and then the droves of people 

Not all the carpets are made from sawdust. As you can see this one is made of fruits, pine needles and flowers. 

One of the many carpets

The middle section is sawdust of different colors surrounded by flowers.

First bible talk in Guatemala

From left to right, Mauricio, his wife Doris and their baby. Mitra and her daughter Maria Paula. Erma, Fabia, Marleni, Paulo, Ernesto, Tony, and Jackie. At the table Emillo, his wife Sonya and thier kids Otto and Belen

What do I really do here?

I know I don’t talk much about my actual project here, but I get asked all the time, “What exactly do you do there?” Well I’m here to explain. I work for a lending agency in Solola. We get money loaned to us from the Guatemalan government and other governments and then we lend that money out at 26% interest rate. We basically run the organization off the interest. We lend to small businesses, now that word is open ended when we are talking about Guatemala. For example a women selling tomatoes on the corner is considered a small business. Well these loans are given out on three levels, individuals, groups of 2 -5 and groups of women 5-20. The lending process is not as tedious and lengthy as it is in the states. There is no such thing as a fica score or any type of measurement to distinguish one borrower from another. There does have to be some type of guarantee, for example property or a co signer. This opens the door to problems in which our clients don’t pay. It’s not like in the states where our credit score follows us for the rest of our lives. Sometimes our clients run off with the money, never to be seen again.
There are two volunteers who work with AYNLA. Larry is in another office that is in another department about 3 hours away. Larry has far more extensive experience in the business world than I do, so I love working with him; I get to learn so much. So Larry and I have been working more as consultants with the management. We help them with the backbone of the business. For example Larry and I worked on the operations plan for 2006 and set up the budget for the business. We’ve also done training and we’ve also accessed the problem with the late payments. The most frustrating aspect of the process is how the agency responds. They don’t, so all the work and effort Larry and I put forth is basically nodded on when presented but nothing ever comes of it. Change rarely happens, and that is very frustrating. There is a huge lack of motivation to change on the part of the agency, so when it comes to our suggestions they don’t move on them. Now I have to admit I’m tempted at times to just do everything myself, but I stop when I remember the goal of Peace Corps, sustainable development. If I do all the work, then when I’m done with my service here, they won’t continue because they don’t know how. Sometimes I just want to scream and nock some sense into these people, but I never lose it in front of them. I just swallow it and end up calling Larry to vent my frustrations. Maybe that’s another reason why I don’t talk to you guys about my work here; it’s exciting but also very challenging.