Busting and Dusting out the SLR

The Billy Mays Effect

Gone are the days of staying home from secondary school sick, laying in bed with a high fever and watching endless hours of Billy Mays screaming at me, convincing me that my toilet bowl looked like it hadn't been cleaned since 1982, and then further convincing me of why I needed a product that could help me with that problem I never had- but then he would double the amount of OxiClean that would be sent to me, at half the price! Done.

All right, so I never actually watched infomercials (that much), but we have all seen, and skipped past, the pitch for MagneScribe, the pen that not only magnetically attaches to giant, nerd alarm-sounding lanyard (so not only do they convince you that you lose every pen you have ever owned, but that you need a giant digital clock hanging around your neck because you are always running behind). And all this with their "revolutionary magnetic technology." Coulda fooled me.

So then why on earth am I writing about infomercials in Guatemala? I don't own a television, thus ruling out any and all possibility of even having to think about them.

But the camioneta (bus) rides. Oh, the camioneta rides. The sixteen hour round-trip schlep it takes me to get from my site to the Peace Corps office. Whether it's food vendors or beggars, the rides are never quiet or relaxing. But inevitably, on almost every ride comes someone who is Guatemala's version of the Billy Mays-style infomercial (please read above disclaimer for sentence structure).

Step 1: Always wear sunglasses to avoid eye contact so you cannot feel like you are being as deceptive as you really are.

Step 2: Showing some kind of medicinal plant that is actually not in the product will automatically increase the likelihood of sales.

Step 3: Show a few grotesque photos of infections and fungi that none of us have probably ever had (this would be the convincing your audience of having an ailment that they do not actually, nor probably never will, have).

Step 4: Still focusing on keeping the attention of your potential clients, take out the product and perform an over-dramatized product example.

Step 5: After over-dramatized product example, state an overly-exorbitant price that they could get this phenomenal product for in the pharmacy, but hoy en día (today), the price will be slashed to one fifth of the retail value.

Accountability to Donors

I am in the midst of my biggest challenge in my Peace Corps service: trying to implement an actual micro-credit program that would actually remain functioning (hello, sustainability) after I finish my service at the end of this October. Scary (both implementing the micro-credit program and finishing my service).

There are ten groups of artisans who crochet, weave, tailor and embroider products- some groups only specialize in one area, while some of the more advanced groups specialize in more than one area. There are about 130 women all together, most of whom are illiterate / have not had much schooling, so that makes the whole "teaching business concepts" on my end of the deal that much more of a challenge... not to mention the language barrier (because most of the ladies have not gone to school, they have a poor level of Spanish- worse than mine ;-P). But they are all very lovely women who are very good at what they do... but they just don't "get" the business aspect of things.

The way the artisan component of AMMID works: they get funding from an outside organization for specific projects, workshops and outings (for certain groups of women to be able to see what other groups of other organizations from different parts of the country are doing and how they work).

The problem with the funding for the workshops is that the four intermediate groups receive funding (capital) for materials to make products. The idea behind this is that they will practice making specific products and designs, which they will then sell, keep the product for themselves and reinvest the capital (given by the donor organization) to purchase new materials, so they can keep on making products to sell, and continue to reinvest the base capital in new materials each and every time they sell their finished product.

Fíjense que, the women are not doing that- instead of reinvesting, they are keeping the capital (to buy whatever- food, clothing, etc.- they see it as a donation to them, for some reason) and wait for the next workshop to come around for them to get new capital for new materials, and it keeps going through this vicious cycle.

This is a huge error on part of AMMID, which I am trying to rectify. We just had our monthly meeting two weeks ago, and I am working on a micro-credit proposal plan. AMMID's funding will end in December 2011, and currently they are desperately searching for new future funders (which I am also helping them with- creating a blog and Facebook page explaining what AMMID is with Chico, the guy in charge of this project).

The way I see it (and I have told them this), is that if they don't have more control over the capital given by the donor organizations, they they will not receive funding from other future organizations (who will basically view them as being irresponsible with the previous funding).

AMMID's argument has been that if they do implement a micro-credit program, they they will lose a lot of the artisan members- well, if that's so, then at least the ones who are willing to do it the correct way will be the most successful in the end.

I am really pushing for this because the way it is right now is not sustainable, it's not being handled like a business, nor is it an ethical way they are handling the donor's money. I think they are just afraid they will lose numbers, but are not looking at the long-term affects, which I am trying to showcase.

It's quite a challenging situation, but it really is something that needs to be done if they want to continue on in the years to come. The idea would be to create an administrative change within the organization itself (more control of the donor money), which would need to be approved by the board of directors of AMMID, and then also do charlas, or "talks," to each group of artisans about the issue-related business concepts, i.e., how the entire process is administrated, reinvesting, repaying on time, cost of production, etc., for them to see why this would be beneficial for all parties involved, themselves included.

Time to go put on my game face.

I don't give a...

Basically, I've been letting my dog (did I mention I have a dog? I guess that calls for another post explaining) sleep in my room on the mat that my site mate, Kelly, had her dog sleep on. Chula has been sleeping in my room for at least two weeks now without incident.

House trained!

Or maybe not.

I have yet to clean up all the "stuff" Kelly left in the spare room, including the "I don't give a shit" note she taped up on her kitchen door a few frustrating months before her completion of service (this very well could have been around the same time her brand new MacBook, hidden under her bed, got flooded under eight inches of mud after her house flooded due to drainage problems that have since been fixed).

I woke up to a funk and wandered into the other room.

What can I say? At least Chula has a sense of humor (and good aim).

More training to come...

Apparently Chula didn't either.

Hungarian Polka

Sorry, I'm too lazy to rewrite this in English. Try Google translate if you're really itching to find out what I wrote- or just learn Hungarian.

Már egy jó ideje nem írtam egy magyar blog beszámolót, többnyire azért, mert mióta itt vagyok Guatemalában, alíg van alkalmom magyarul beszélni- esetleg hetente egyszer vagy kétszer anyukámmal telefonon eldumálunk, de azon kivül nagyon nem... legalább mostanáig.

Amikor először idejöttem november 2008-ban, akkor valahogyan idekerült egy olyan japán önkéntes, aki magyar szakot végzett egy japán egyetemen. Igazából nem tudom, hogy ki jobban lepődött meg azon, hogy másikunk magyarul beszél, de hát jó móka volt.

A srác azért nem csinált túlságosan sokat itt- ahhoz képest, hogy "önkéntes munkát" akart végezni és tanulni akart mezőgazdaságról, egyszer sem fogta magát kertészkedni- hanem inkább a szobájában ült egész nap és spanyolul tanult... egyedül.

Na, szóval az volt az első tapasztalatom egy magyar beszélő emberrel itt Guatemalában, de nem volt sok közös témánk! Hamarosan el is ment... és igazából nem mondhatnám, hogy az itteniek hiányolták!

Most fastforwardoljunk egy kicsikét (még teljesen folyékonyan beszélek mangolul / Hunglish)- egy közös ismerős révén találkoztam egy igazi magyar önkéntessel, Lilla, aki már egy ideje él Antigua, Guatemalában, de nem régen beköltözött egy házban, és meghívott, hogy maradjak náluk és csináljunk gulyás levest és pogácsát a szobatársainak, mivel már hónapok óta igérte, hogy csinálni fogja. Az első magyar tál, mióta Buffalo-ban voltam augusztusban és két héten keresztül tömtem magam az anyukam kosztjával (gondolom legtöbben tudjátok, hogy ez nem egy lehetetlen dolog... sőt!).

Magyarul beszélni, magyar kosztot készíteni, magyar zenét hallgatni egy magyar baratnővel... egy isteni álom volt!

Akkor jöttem rá, hogy mennyire fontos nekem az én magyarságom, amikor ezeket az apró kis dolgokat újra csinálhattam ennyi idő után.

Az elkészítés kép története:

Odaértem, amikor már egy ideje főzött a marha hús.

Csak is magyar paprikával lehet igazi gulyás levest főzni!

Az apróra vágott zöldségek.

Főzni nem lehet zene nélkül.

Jól megszortuk magyarországi paprikával.

Jól megkeverjük...

Házi tejföl a fokhagymás pogácsához.

Na... az történt, hogy valahogyan odaégett a paprika az edény aljára, és hát sajnos ki kellet szűrni az egészet mivel annyira keserű lett a gulyásnak az íze. Közben a Lillának kellett jóga órát tartania, úgyhogy rám maradt a gulyás főzés, pogácsa elkeszítés feladat. Életembe még nem készítettem gulyást, sem pogácsát. Nagy elszántsággal nekiálltam... de azért még előtte felhívtuk anyukámat, ne hogy kétszer rontsuk el. Lilla elindult. Rám maradt a feladat.

Füstölt szalonnát újra sütjük, amíg kijönn belöle a zsír. Kivesszük a szalonnát (és talán megesszük), és hozzáadunk jó sok apróra vágott hagymát, amíg üvegesre párol.

Füstölt szalonna.

Újra megszortam jó sok paprikával.

Frissen vágott fokhagyma a pogihoz.

Fokhagymás pogácsa massza.

Nagyon, nagyon sokáig hagyuk állni, amíg a hús nem fő meg.

Kár, hogy az illatát nem lehet feltölteni a blogspot-ra!

Időben jött a Lilla a pogácsát elkezdeni.

...és nagyon finom volt.

Egy álom valóra vált!

A társaság.

Az első kostolás előtt. Nagy volt az izgalom!

Ilyen pogácsa volt...

...meg olyan is!

Egy kis jó kis csípőssel annál finomabb.

Enélkül nem ment volna!