Greg: Que Chapin

Chapin is a slang word for Guatemalan. A few other cultural notes before I recount some tales and describe my work so far: Tigo is the main phone provider and is everywhere; a testament to how much sugar Guatemalans consume, soda is referred to as "agua" and real water is "agua pura;" a pila is a water basin that is often used to wash clothes and dishes and is often in houses and parks; seemingly unrelated, "que pilas" means "how clever."
My last blog post covered up to Monday night, so I have to cover the highlights of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and tell you my plans for the weekend. Everyday this week (with the exception of today) I have had training in the morning, getting a feel for the workings of the model Soluciones Comunitarias uses, the organization of the enterprise, and information specific to Nebaj.
A little about the organization. The founder, Greg Van Kirk, worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nebaj at the beginning of the decade. He noticed that Nebaj receives many visitors and tourists but that they didn't contribute to the local economy at all, so he worked to start a restaurant to cater to tourists: el Descanso was born. The restaurant was a success, and profits were used to distribute wood-burning stoves that were more efficient that the dangerous ones found in many homes. He then developed a system in which the stoves could be provided upfront to families, and then the families would pay for the stoves over the course of six months. Next, Greg worked with another Peace Corps volunteer, George (Bucky) Glickley, to distribute glasses in a manner similar to the distribution of the stoves. This marked the beginning of the Micro-Consignment model.
Van Kirk and Glickley started Community Enterprise Solutions to be an American firm to provide a legal framework for their work in Guatemala in 2004. It is here that my understanding of the workings of things begins to become vague, as I have no knowledge whatsoever of business law or corporate organization. What I know is that CE Solutions is an American firm that "fathered" Soluciones Comunitarias, a Guatemalan social entreprise. Soluciones Comunitarias is owned by eight native Guatemalans (my home-stay mother is one of them actually) and is the entity that conducts operations in Guatemala. Based in Antigua, Soluciones Comunitarias has satellite sites in Nebaj, Xela, Huehuetenango, Solola, and Coban (activity in Coban has actually been stunted as it has experienced a lot of Narco attention). The Social Entrepreneur Corps, the organization that I have mentioned in earlier posts, is a sister organization to CE Solutions that provides interns and volunteers, such as myself, to work for Soluciones Comunitarias.
I realize that that description was rather quick and not very specific, and I apologize, but I need to write this blog post rather hastily as I will need to leave soon and won't have Internet again until Monday. Allow me to briefly throw out the fact that this weekend, I am climbing and camping on Acatenango Volcano. Hopefully, I will have a good view of Fuego Volcano, which is active and may be spewing lava and all that good stuff.
When I return on Monday, I hope to provide you all with a better description of the organization of Soluciones Comunitarias as well as the work I will be doing here.
Adios,
Goyo