meeting

Ok, so things are more exciting nowadays. Allow me to explain. It turns out I speak Spanish well enough that I don’t have to take any more classes. This means I have several days of the week where I get to plan out my training. It is great because I am already getting a better taste of what life is going to be like when I am assigned my site.

This past week, I met with el Licenciado Ingeniero Virgilio Borrayo. Everyone who has a college degree gets the title Licenciado (licensed) and is instantly given a ton of respect. I guess that is because less than 10% of Guatemalans who are old enough to have a college degree have one. Ingeniero just means engineer. Anyway, Virgilio had the honor of meeting with Licenciados Joseph ( me), Sotirou (my buddy Giorgio), and Boggiss (my other friend/ecotourism worker). He is the the boss of the ecological park near and run by the municipality ofSan Lucas. The park is called Parque Ecologico Senderos de Alux. We met to see if there was some stuff we could work together on to help out the park. He was very excited about the possibilities and we scheduled another meeting for this Tuesday. At that time, we plan to meet at the park to exchange ideas. We have already been up there and saw about half the park. It is beautiful. It has lots of trails that are in good shape, a bbq area with a playground, and several lookouts with sweet views of Guatemala City. From what I have seen, the park is in good shape. It just needs some more visitors.

That is where we come in. We are going to come up with a marketing plan. The idea is to work with Virgilio and the park rangers together so we can combine ideas and so they can continue the plan after we leave here in two months. Right now, it seems like it might succeed, but I have learned that working in development in the developing world can be quite frustrating. We shall see. If the idea doesn’t catch on with the locals, we will be spending more time in the park learning the plant and animal life, how the park functions, and carrying out various maintenance/improvement projects. Either way, I will be getting some good experience.
Ill let you know how it goes.

Sorry no pictures or videos, this computer is too slow.

Times this week someone pointed at me and made some sort of motion demonstrating they thought I was tall: 3