Tourist Time!

This past weekend, Sara and I joined an EcoLogic intern, another Sarah, on a trip to Lake Atitlán. This, if you didn't know, is one of Guatemala's (and all of Central America's) most impressive places and a major tourist destination. I've always had mixed feelings about major tourist destinations, as you can probably relate to - how unnatural it feels and the sea of all those "obnoxious tourists" (as if I'm not one myself). But as I've told many friends over the years, particularly those who swear to omit major tourist destinations in favor of going "off the beaten path" - the path is beaten for a reason. Places like Atitlán are popular and flocked to by people from all over the world because they're practically universally amazing. Don't get me wrong, I see the value in going off the beaten path. But I'll deal with a sea of other tourists any day for the opportunity to tour the Alhambra, hike the Grand Canyon, or take in Lake Atitlán. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

For me, the highlight was actually probably observing a ceremony worshiping (or at least praying to) Gran Abuelo (also called Maximón, but according to the Tz'utujil devotee who told us what house the ceremony was in, only people that don't understand and respect Gran Abuelo call him Maximón; I started calling him Gran Abuelo at that instant). I have no idea how to sum up the experience, but it was unreal and I encourage you to search for Gran Abuelo next time you find yourself in the town of Santiago Atitlan.

The lowlight was probably the mental and moral handcuffs I found myself in when thinking about the surplus of local people, almost all indigenous, trying to make a living off of selling their wares or a boat ride in the lake to us tourists. There was stall after stall of almost the exact same dresses, coin purses, flutes, hats, etc. and not nearly enough tourists to buy them, despite Atitlan's popularity. This just increases the pressure to make a sale and puts an aura of desperation in the air. We had a man walk with us for about 10 minutes then wait outside our hotel for another 15 just to see if we'd take a boat ride. Later on, Sara and I momentarily pointed at a blanket. Before we knew it, the woman selling it had given us the price, dropped it 50% and as we walked away yelled out lower and lower prices to try and get us to turn around. It makes me realize even more the crucial need for more dignified, non-tourist-dependent livelihoods, where women don't have to sell the beautiful results of hours of work for the equivalent of a few bucks.


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

St. Patrick's Day - in Guatemala

So I missed St. Patrick's Day in Boston! How was it? I did celebrate at work with a quesadilla and some fried plantains for lunch that Sara made. Isn't that how you celebrate St. Patrick's Day? The day doesn't appear to be too big of a deal here. If it was, I wasn't invited to the party. We did see some fireworks going off last night across the city, which had potential to have something to do w/ St. Patrick's Day. But we're not sure. Oh well. I hope you had a good one!


Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Things are pretty tranquilo around the office. Plenty going on around me, but I've just been plugging away at editing some proposals that are soon to go out. EcoLogic's Regional Director, Sebastian Charchalac, just returned to the office after spending a few days with colleagues at Oxfam, learning about their Savings for Change program they are implementing in central Guatemala and sharing some of our experiences regarding institutional capacity building. I'm interested to hear what he learned and what kind of lessons or experiences could be transferred to our work. Understanding some microsavings techniques could prove beneficial for some of our local partners.

This weekend, Sara and I will be heading to Lago Atitlan with another Sarah who is interning with EcoLogic. Expect some pictures of volcanoes and shiny water next week!


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

Home Sweet Home

It's Tuesday here in Xela (too easy to type to not go with Xela), and I'm sitting outside on the patio of our office. Don't get all that jealous just yet, with visions of a hammock, palm trees, and tropical birds on my

La Oficina

shoulder. It's more of a utility patio where there's a sink, trash and recycling cans, and cleaning supplies. I was actually told that there is no way to recycle here in Xela and that the program was eliminated several years ago. But we've at least got recycling bins here in our office. You can count on the environmental NGO to know how to pull it off! I just need to figure out how to recycle at my apartment.

I had a great first full weekend in Xela. Gaby, our Regional Director of Programs here at EcoLogic, took us on an afternoon-long tour of the city, which included lots of insider info - she was born and raised here! The parque central is so beautiful and there are a lot of great lookouts over the city because it's really hilly. One of the things I love the most about traveling/living in Latin America, and Xela is keeping the passion burning, are the local markets. There are several here - full of people, energy, and everything people with energy would want to buy: baskets, fresh produce, clothes, tortas and pupusas, toothpaste, baby supplies, auto parts, soccer balls, off the wall souvenirs, you name it. Gaby also took us to buy cell phones. Rest assured, cell phone madness is not limited to the States.

Flowers for sale in Xela

There are endless plans, phones, features, and deals to navigate through. My Spanish is totally fine if all I needed to do was get a phone and learn how the system works. But when they start trying to sell me all the promotions and deals, I'm lost. Come to think of it, I'm lost when it comes to stuff like that in English.

Besides the tour, we were able to spend a lot of time Skyping and calling people through Google. Which I still hardly understand but you should check it out - I think it's called Gtalk or Gcall. We've talked to all sorts of people in the States and even in Spain and haven't paid a cent yet. Really quite amazing to think about the ease of communication these days.

This week we've got several visitors here in the EcoLogic office from the States. And I'm having fun welcoming them to my country as if I've been living here my whole life. We have an intern, Sarah, who is currently in the Municipality of Huehuetenango to the north of Xela with Francisco, our Guatemala Program Officer. She's doing a study for her graduate work, focusing on our agroforestry work with our partner, the Mancomunidad de la Frontera Norte. And Melissa, our Director of Finance and Administration is in town as well for a series of meetings with our regional staff regarding budgeting and other administrative things that fortunately my job doesn't require me to know about in any great detail.

Hasta la proxima!


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

Welcome to town!




Photo: Steve Winter
National Geographic

 So I am a few hours away from the end of Week 1 working in our Quetzaltenango, I mean Xela, office. Wait, I mean Quetzaltenango. If you didn't know, Guatemala's second largest city has two names - the original Mayan name, Xela (shortened from Xelaju), and the more official name, Quetzaltenango. Don't worry, this brief history/etymology lesson has all been confirmed by Wikipedia. I haven't decided which name I'm going to stick with yet; you pretty much hear both of them used equally. Xela is easier, but with the other one you get to say "Quetzal" which makes you think of the majestic bird, and that makes you happy. I'm still looking all over the place for a quetzal. They wouldn't have named it Quetzaltenango without there being quetzals hanging out in every tree, right? Ooh, be right back, I heard a bird chirping outside! (this is foreshadowing for an inexplicable quetzal-obsessed theme that may or may not run throughout this entire blog)

Anyways, I'm really excited to have started working down here and I'm really appreciative of the opportunity. I'll be working out of this office for about four months, taking occasional field trips to sites where EcoLogic implements its projects. My main role at EcoLogic is to write about our work - what we do, what we're planning on doing, and what we've done. It's actually really exciting for me because I like what we do. I like knowing that we're addressing complex issues; issues that arise when you're concerned with both protecting unique ecosystems and improving people's lives. I like knowing we're tackling them head on. But usually, I'm writing at my desk in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Even though down here I'm still at a desk, in front of a computer, it feels different. There's something different about writing about our work from one of the countries where we actually do the work, being surrounded by my colleagues that make it happen on the ground. Being here makes our work come alive even more. More of that to come later, when I visit our project sites...

So overall, settling in here as been quite easy. Sara, my wife, and I have a great apartment, which is in walking distance to her language school and EcoLogic's office. And Skype and Logmein make working in another country a cinch. And wireless internet abounds. Pretty amazing. I'm really excited for what the next four months hold, and hope you enjoy following me along the journey. Even if the journey for now is me typing at a desk in an office. And occasionally running outside in search of quetzals. I'll have some photos coming your way soon, too!

Hasta luego!


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011.