UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

We made it to Uspantan, our first stop, last night after a 5 hour drive from Antigua. Since we´re trying to make it to a lot of places in a short amount of time, we hired a driver for the trip. His wife is the cousin of the host mom of a former Peace Corps Volunteer who is now studying hort and ag at UC Davis.  (Thanks Cara!) I¨m really starting to believe all roads lead to Davis... Anyway, Ovidio is from Uspantan, and he nicely made the very long drive to come get us in Antigua and then bring us back up to the mountains.  Luckily for us, this meant we got an extra morning in Antigua! It was a beautiful day, with good views of all three volcanoes. We wandered around town and checked out both the traditional textile center and the choco museo. The Choco Museo had a cool exhibit about cacao production (trees grow 40-50 feet tall, and produce for about 25 years!).  When we arrived, a group was in the middle of a chocolate making workshop. It smelled amazing!  To m...

June 24, 2013 We have safely arrived in Antigua! Our trip was fairly smooth despite the less than ideal schedule (leaving at midnight and arriving at 11 am). The only casualty along the was was our $20 dollars of peanut butter (presents for peace corps volunteers), which was confiscated at the airport. Apparently peanut butter classifies as a liquid, gel or aerosol...who knew? Luckily we were able to replace our loss at a bagel shop in Houston.  Leaving the airport in Guatemala three imposing volcanoes came into view as we climbed into the green hills towards Antigua. The volcanoes are called El Volcan de Agua (the water volcano), El Volcan de Fuego (the fire volcano) and the third one maintains it's indigenous name that neither Kelsey nor I remember. The fire volcano gets its name from the fact that it is still active-still spitting smoke and lava on a regular basis. The water volcano takes its name from its history, however. Apparently in the 17th or 18th century Guatemal...

I have arrived safely in Uganda after about 35 hours of traveling. All of my flights went very smoothly and my baggage made it with no problem! AND I got my visa without any trouble! I think all of the locals were laughing at how many bags I had, but I promised them most of it wasn’t my stuff. When I made it to Ethiopia, I made friends with a girl who was from Uganda but studying in the USA. It was nice to have someone to talk to and laugh with since I had been traveling alone for so long. We were the same age and she was getting her degree in nursing so we had a lot in common. We spent a good amount of time giggling over a newly wedded Swedish couple that was traveling to Africa for the first time. The couple apparently thought we all wanted to watch them make-out and give each other “butterfly” kisses. The best part was when the couple complained to the people at the check-in desk for Ethiopian Airlines that the toilets in the airport were only “squat toilets” and ...

June 21 8:39pm "The lake is the source of water for most of Santiago." These were the words spoken by Tina, a young foreigner who was volunteering at a school in Santiago, one of the largest cities near Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. Our project team met her and several others on a 4 hour bus ride from Guatemala City to Lake Atitlan.  Tina also mentioned that her school had "banana rings" in their garden and are looking for wastewater treatment expertise. So we scheduled a visit with her for Tuesday.  The bus ride and seeing the countryside between the lake and the city reminded me of visit to Honduras. Tropical plants galore and Mayan women walking everywhere. The bus played Bachata music almost the entire way there and I recognized many songs, including the Bachata remix of "Stand by me".  We are finally here and boy, it is absolutely beautiful. I am going to see the lake up close for pics tomorrow since our hotel is a bit ...

The Project: This project aims to effect sustainable change in Guatemalan smallholder farming practices by improving the dissemination of agricultural information. We believe that this can be done by improving the knowledge of project planners and agricultural extension agents about the current information transfer chain and new potential opportunities within that chain.      How? We will use small working group discussions and key informant interviews to assess how farmers obtain agricultural information, which methods of information transfer are most trusted and effective, and the potential of information communication technologies to improve the spread of agricultural information.  Following our work with farmers, we will conduct further participatory research with Guatemalan agricultural professionals to learn how they share information, and identify areas of overlap with the tools we have evaluated.  We will then develop a set of co...

June 21, 2013 My journey begins again in 36 hours as I depart the United States to head back to my second home! I am anxiously waiting my return and can’t wait to see all of my friends again that I made last year. Thank you so much to those who have donated to the Women’s Centre! A special thank you to: The Blum Center For Developing Economies for funding my trip to Bwindi The two anonymous donations of thimbles I received Blaire, Mimi, Stu, Austin, Ansley, Phoebe, Camille and Jeff for their donation to buy supplies Cal and Marsha Allen for a donation towards a new chicken coop Trish Manners and the ZTA sisters for their large donation of sewing supplies Can this really all fit?? Sutter Allen, undergraduate, Human Ecology, UC Davis

  Talking to lady I know from my village who is selling eggs to pay for tetanus shot - I bought 10 eggs from her The months before I ended my service in the Peace Corps I thought, "Savor everything.  This is a time and a place that won't be the same."  That is not entirely true.  Sure I may never feel the excitement and fear that I did when I first came to Morocco.  It seems my senses were so heightened to every sight and smell at that time. However, on my first day being picked up by a friend at the airport after dozing off in the car I woke up and knew that Taza was close and that soon I would be home.  This time around it only took me a few days to adjust and most of that I attribute to jet lag.  Returning to Sidi Majbeur, not much has changed I wanted to come back to Morocco after 2 years of being back in the US.  I was finally ready.  It took that long to account for all the lessons learned, get to know the person I ...

Thursday, June 20, 2013 I write my blogs on my cell phone, so bear with me as my grammar may reflect that :P Wow. We had meetings with Hugo and Vicky today, two students at universities in Guatemala City who have been working in Lake Atitlan. We learned so much.  Hugo was recommended to us by UC Davis aquatic ecologist, Prof. Eliska Rejmankova. Hugo is working on finishing up his thesis on the lake's ecosystem. He spoke about his experiences and what he knew about the lake. He also suggested a number of contacts we will pursue. We asked questions about the different communities and we laid out the intentions of Engineers Without Borders-Davis for providing engineering expertise in an effort to help clean up nitrates and phosphates now leaching into the late.  Impromptu we invited him to lunch where we spoke of things such as the difference in the educational experience between Guatemala and the USA. He was sporting a Barcelona shirt so we spo...

Wednesday, June 19, 2013 We arrived at the Villa Toscana, near the airport in Guatemala City an hour ago. The going rate per person for the triple we requested is $25 which is darn cheap for the quality of hotel. Due to Guatemala City's danger at night, we ordered from the hotel's delivery service. I write this blog on an empty stomach as my $9 chicken ceasar sandwich is on its way. Tomorrow we plan on meeting with Hugo, a student at a university in Guatemala City, who has offered to translate and provide us answers to a lot of our general gringo questions like how much tip and what's the cost for tuk tuks, a small cart transportation that's common in Guatemala.  After meeting with Hugo we are going to meet with Vicky, whom we believe is also a student and is connecting us with ERIS, a group of engineering students who have taken it upon themselves to study the Lake Atitlan's transformation in hopes of developing solutions to the envir...

Wednesday, June 19, 2013  In about half an hour I will be getting on board an airplane that will take me to Dallas and then Guatemala. I confess that I don't really know how to mentally prepare for such a hands-on and open-ended trip. Let me first describe the intention of this trip rather generally. The Engineers Without Borders, Davis Chapter (EWB-Davis), Guatemala Team was made aware of the situation at Lake Atitlan by Eliska Rejmankova, a professor specializing in aquatic ecology at UC Davis. For the past year we have delved into a variety of technologies and pilot projects in an attempt to deal with the extensive greywater that runs off from local homes into the lake. We are attempting to develop a filtration system that will slow the deterioration of the lake ecosystem caused by phosphates and other residential contaminants. With funding through the UC Davis Blum Center's Poverty Alleviation Through Action undergraduate grants program, and research completed ...