Education in Guatemala

Photo of a school in the pueblo Santa Maria de Jesus.

Last week Aaron and I wrapped up a very intensive six weeks of Spanish Language Study. Note that the peace corps mandates two months of language study before beginning an assignment to improve volunteer effectiveness, so we felt that at least six weeks were obligatory for us to truly make a difference in our work in Bolivia. How much can you really do if you barely speak the language...

Since early December, we have been attending between four and five hours per day of one-on-one Spanish courses, studying about three or four hours after that, and studying for tests. It's been a full-time venture, but has measurably improved our Spanish. We both advanced only one level away from being prepared to take the DELE (Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language) which is the official accreditation of the degree of fluency of the Spanish Language, issued and recognized by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of Spain. 

Aaron with his Spanish teacher at school.

Me with my Spanish teacher.

In light of all of our study here in Guatemala, it seems fitting to write a post about the general state of education in this country. Schools in Guatemala are divided into "primera" (elementary school), "secondaria" (middle school), and "escuela diversificada" (which is our equivalent of high school). Universities exist (called Universidades), but are not widely attended. "Colegio" doesn't mean "college" in Guatemala, it is actually used to refer to private schools, which are usually religiously affiliated and exist in droves throughout the country due to the state of public education. Anyone with money sends their kids to private school here.

Girls in a pueblo on the west coast of Guatemala, walking to their private "colegio"

The public school system in Guatemala has three major issues (that we've observed and talked with locals about).

1) Funding and cost

Public school is supposed to be free in Guatemala. However, just like school in the US, supplies are required and often uniforms are required. Many poor families in rural areas cannot afford these things and therefore are not permitted to attend school (unless an NGO helps them get the needed supplies. According to "Common Hope" (an NGO in the area), supplies can cost about $150 per year per child. While this may not sound like a lot to us, for a family with four to five kids who only makes an average of $2-$5 per day, this is not affordable. To top that off, funding has been cut dramatically for the public school system. We were told by several locals and NGOs that it is common to have 60 to 70 children in a classroom with one teacher. This brings me to the next problem....

2) Teacher preparation/policies

Anyone who completes "escuela diversificada" (high school) here is allowed to become a teacher in a public school system. Teaching is a common job for young women (many of whom have their own children by the time they graduate from high school...if they graduate at all). This means that classes of 60 or 70 are being handled by a young teacher who typically has never had "in the field" training and may have little experience. Teachers use a "national curriculum" to teach from, which often does not account for differences in learning styles or abilities. 

The Country Director for Common Hope told us that all teachers are required to belong to a union. This sounds like a great thing, right? Unfortunately, the unions strike a couple times per year, often delaying the start of public schools each year by a few weeks. The school system has no way to make up lost time that occurs from strikes, which means that the school year here can be surprisingly short! Kids are usually in school from mid to late January until the end of September (they have October, November, December and...depending on strikes, much of January off). Unions also mean that it is virtually impossible to fire a teacher. Common Hope told us that even teachers who sexually abuse students are, at most, transferred to another district. 

Furthermore, there is NO national substitute teacher system. As we learned from Common Hope, if a teacher is ill or needs to stay home to care for one of her own children, class does not occur that day. Common Hope has recently started to experiment with a substitute system in the pueblos surrounding Antigua. 

3) Factors at Home

While it is clear that most families in Guatemala understand the importance of education, they are also trying to stay alive. Those who are poor and live in rural areas work making and selling crafts or in agricultural areas. Families face the choice of either sending children to school or keeping them at home to help make a little more money (so many children seem to "work" on the streets selling textiles, offering shoe shines, etc.). 

Furthermore, poor nutrition from infancy through childhood (a diet of tortillas and coffee - yes, even for babies) often causes delayed or limited cognitive development in children, leading to concentration problems when they begin school. According to NGOs like Common Hope, up to 40% of guatemala children repeat first grade, primarily because of a lack of educational preparation, language barriers (e.g., class is not in their native language) and a lack of individual attention to help them learn (class sizes are so large...). 

Research suggests that those who have access to education before first grade (e.g., pre-school, reading at home, etc.) are more likely to succeed in (and stay in) school. However, as the country director for Common Hope shared with us, many adults in rural areas of Guatemala are illiterate, making something as simple as reading to a child hard to do. Guatemalan children usually do not have access to pre-school, making first-grade the first exposure they have had to education. 

The Guatemalan government is recognizing the problem and in 2005, they began training pre-elementary teachers.  However, the lack of quality schools, particularly in rural villages, remains an overwhelming problem that needs to be tackled if the children and the communities they reside in are to thrive and the cycle of poverty is to be broken.

The Great Coffee Bean

Time in Guatemala wouldn't be complete without a stop at one of it's most important economic engines: The Coffee Bean. And I decided to give Gillian a break from the posting task for a day.

Last week with our Spanish school, we visited a working coffee farm in the town of Jocotenango, just north of Antigua. La Finca Azotea (Azotea Farm) gave us a close look at the coffee process, from start to finish along with insight into the ever-changing coffee landscape present throughout the world.

Azotea is situated in the "Antigua" coffee region of Guatemala, a country that has 7 distinct coffee growing areas, each unique in their beans' taste and aroma. While only producing the 8th highest amount of coffee in the world, Guatemala specializes in producing a higher quality coffee bean as opposed to most of the non-shade grown, mechanical-style cultivation of Brazil or, more recently, Vietnam. More on that later.....

La Finca Azotea with its "rows of beans"

The finca had a great presentation set-up showing the coffee process from seed, to plant, to processing to cup.
While our good friend Mr. Wikipedia can give you a plethora of info about the coffee process, I'll just hit on some highlights:

After 8-9 months, a coffee plant will begin to show red berries, which, in Guatemala are then hand-picked based on ripeness. In other countries that  utilize mechanical harvest methods, a coffee plant is "stripped", whereby all of the beans are picked, regardless of their ripeness level at the same time. The hand-picking obviously is more labor-intensive, but results in a higher quality harvest, and thus is typically used for specialty coffee blends, such as those exported from Guatemala.
In addition, almost all of the farms in Guatemala only utilize "shade-grown" methods, in which the coffee plants (which only reach upwards of 5-8 feet in height) are grown among trees of much taller height, thereby improving the soil's nutrient levels and thus decreasing the need for pesticides and fertilizer. In addition, the trees provide a better environment for the farmers and also help sustain the natural wildlife throughout the farm in a naturally grown habitat.

Regardless of growing method, after harvest, the red berries are then brought to a processor and the farm is paid based on weight.

Farmer bringing in a truckload of red coffee berries. Each bag is about 150 lbs.

After unloading, the red berry skin is taken off and the resulting seeds are left to "ferment"

After fermenting, the beans go throw a "wet-wash" in order to remove another layer of skin

After the wet-wash, they are laid out in rows on pavement to dry under the hot sun. A worker goes through with a wooden paddle to create those rows you see below for exposing all of the bean. These beans have one more process remaining to remove that beige parchment layer.

After all of these steps of "de-hulling",  drying and de-hulling again eventually all that is left is the "green" coffee bean, ready for roasting or transport.
The green coffee bean is either roasted on site at the processor or, as is typically the case, shipped off to another site for roasting, most likely a large importer in the consuming country.

To get a sense of how many coffee plants are required to support the world's appetite for coffee, one coffee plant will produce 6.5 lbs of red cherries. After the de-hulling and drying process, eventually you will end up with 1.5 lbs of green coffee beans which will translate to 1 lb of roasted coffee beans. Of that, 40 cups of coffee are produced by 1 lb of roasted coffee beans.  Keep in mind that 2.25 billion cups were consumed in 2009.

The final result in a long process

There were plenty of other stats that were eye-opening regarding the economics of coffee.
Because the bulk of the importing is now controlled by only a few multi-national companies - Nestle, Phillip Morris (Maxwell House), and Proctor and Gamble (Folgers) - who mostly work off the NYSE commodity pricing for coffee, the economic spigot is obviously regulated by a select few.

For every dollar that is spent on coffee by the end consumer:

The producing country receives $.16
$.08 to the farm labor
$.05 to the farm
$.03 to the exporter
$.06 for transport

The importing country receives $.84
$.64 for the importer
$.08 for the retailer

There are a host of reasons that have caused this imbalance, so if you haven't seen the documentary, "Black Gold", I highly recommend it for expanding on this inequality. Link. Granted it is filmed in Ethiopia, but it touches on the benefits of fair-trade coffee, co-ops and other progressive ideas for the coffee industry.

Because coffee is one of the top 3 exports for Guatemala, the constant fluctuation of world coffee prices obviously has had a tremendous effect on it's economy throughout the past 150 years.
In the end, when purchasing your coffee, always try and buy fair trade.

Oh, one other note. Guatemala will be receiving their first Starbucks in the next month or two. There was a very interesting article in the newspaper about how it will be received. They don't yet know how their coffee will be priced (a typical cup here at most is a buck) or how it will fit in with what already appears to be a pretty crowded specialty coffee market. But they do expect it to be successful, similar to what Starbucks has seen in its 6 other Latin American countries that it currently has operations in: Brazil,  Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru and Argentia. As always "vamos a ver".

Prensa Libre Article

Fast Food and the Third World

Last weekend, Aaron and I took the public bus up to a tiny city called Santa Maria de Jesus on the shoulder of the volcano. As the only non Guatemaltecos in the city, it was clear that we had entered a different world. People passed by us with mules and horses carrying grasses or hay, men walked by with pitch forks and machetes as women washed clothes in the city center. A small market with produce was set up outside of the center church.

A girl counting her earnings from market day.

 A father and son transporting firewood.

Check out the Quaker sign in the background...

 Some kids help sweep outside of a store.

Just as it seemed like we were witnessing life in Guatemala as it has been for years, we saw a small girl in traditional clothes carrying a giant 2 liter bottle of Fanta orange pop. Yes, the "first world" has had a dramatic impression on all peoples - whether they live in cities or rural areas. Unfortunately, the largest "export" seems to be packaged or fast food. While fast food is more expensive here and typically not accessible to rural and/or poor families, packaged foods from chips and candy to pop are available in every one-room store. Even in the most remote areas, you are sure to find a man with a hand-trunk selling "Helado" (ice cream). The fast food/junk food revolution has hit this country in full force and has produced some problematic bi-products.

View of the streets in Santa Maria de Jesus.

Note the prominent Quaker sign...

The introduction and uptake of packaged foods has happened far to rapidly for infrastructure to keep up. While people may have access to the foods, they do not have access to a waste management system (e.g., garbage pick up, etc.). Particularly in rural areas, the roads are strewn with garbage and pueblos may be marked on the outskirts by an unofficial "garbage dump" where people just through things over the side of a hill. In the city, garbage pick up is slightly more organized. Every week, a truck drives through town and people can run bags of garbage out for pick up. In a country where you still cannot throw ANYTHING in the toilet, it will take a long time to get a "first world" waste management system.

Garbage pick up.

A lack of education plagues remote areas Guatemala, and I'm not just talking about school based education. I'm talking about things that many in more developed countries would consider "common knowledge." In remote villages, people have been living the same way for centuries, learning from elders to cook, care for children, and survive. Little education has been provided to improve nutrition, maternal child care, or basic health. Until recently....Enter technology. With internet cafes in even the most remote places, television, and international news and magazines, young adults and kids are seeing an image of what they think life should be like. That image always includes fast or convenient foods and brand names. While poor people can rarely buy enough junk food to cause obesity, this lack of education coupled with the availability of "first world" junk food has led to serious malnutrition and major dental problems among the children who are raised on pop, coffee and tortillas and little else (largely because their parents just don't know any better). Serious malnutrition among rural/poor families is juxtaposed by a growing obesity epidemic among middle and upper class.


Those with money in Guatemala can afford to eat at any of the number of fast food chains here...from the local and ever-popular "Pollo Campero" to McDonalds, Burger King, or Domino's Pizza. Note that fast food in Guatemala is not cheap. It costs the same as in the US, but people here make only $4.00 per day minimum wage and many make far less than that. It seems that fast food is even more popular in Guatemala because it is "American." It is consumed in great quantities not just because of the "convenience" but because of what it represents. Beyond the apparent growing obesity problem among those who are more well off, we have also heard from locals that diabetes is on the rise. However, because of the extremely low utilization of health care here, people are not tested and treated as often as needed. (Note that even middle class people only go to the doctor in the case of a serious problem - I will do another post on the health care system in Guate).

There do not appear to be any groups providing basic nutritional education to those in rural areas. Based on our research, most NGO's seem to be addressing the effects of poor nutrition in a more "downstream" manner. I'm hoping that this education is the next "export" from the U.S...and quickly.

Girl in Santa Maria eating an helado.

A little girl having "dinner" in the central square.

Two Mayan women eating ice cream on the church steps.

The one "supermarket" in town. 

Note the quantities of junk food on the left and booze on the right.

 A little "Pepsi" stand at the market/bus stop.

"Familias de Esperanza"

As we sit in our favorite local bar (Micho's), Aaron is drinking a Gallo and watching soccer and I have some time to catch up on blogging.

This past week, we spent some time between studies (we're taking 5 to 6 hours of Spanish classes every day to get our language up to speed) to visit with an NGO called Familias de Esperanza. They provide a lot of the social service support to families in poor pueblos in the department of Sacatepequez (where we are living). We had heard a lot about their work and were excited to visit the organization, talk with the families they work with, and see their library and clinic.

We went to the village of San Pedro with a local employee from the organization. We were "lucky" enough to arrive in the midst of a traditional funeral - which is very rare to see in the more developed area where we live. The entire village seemed to be participating, carrying a brownish gold casket though the streets of the town to the church (which is usually located in the village center by the public washing areas). A small band including a tuba and some horns (very old looking instruments) followed in the back of the procession. All traffic through the city was stopped until the procession completed. In traditional ceremonies like this, anyone can join the procession and the church service for the funeral is open to anyone from the town. As our host dad here explained to us, "If you happen upon a funeral, you can walk in, see if you know the family, and give them your blessings." The type of procession takes place after a "sitting" in the house of the family which lasts nine days. Again, anyone is welcome to attend the sitting, though it usually comprises extended family.

A discrete view of the front of the procession.

 The church in this small village. Note that many churches here are yellowish in color and the churches are ALWAYS the much more lavish than anything else in the area.

After respectfully letting the procession pass and watching them enter the church, we learned more about the work that Familias de Esperanza does in this town. Poor families with four children or more can fill out and application at the nearby clinic/library office to receive social support from Familias. After their application has been received, Familias assesses the family's situation (how many children they have, how many are school age, what their housing and food needs are, etc.) and provides qualified families with regular visits from a Guatemalteco social worker who has been trained to help identify ways the organization can help the family. Social workers facilitate housing requests (simple houses are built for qualifying families by both ConstruCasa and by Familias de Esperanza). Families are required to "pay for" houses, efficient stoves, and other supplies they receive by volunteering a certain number of hours with the NGO (usually helping to clean the clinic, library, daycare, etc.).

We visited a family that received a house three years ago and continues to receive social service visits to check on the wellbeing of the family/children. They house was very clean. The couple (with only two kids currently at home) works baking bread for others in the city. This provides a small wage so they can keep their children in school and maintain their one-room house. (I will comment further on the school situation here in another post). The proud father allowed us to see the room they live in. It had two single beds, one for the couple, one for the two kids. There were no windows, but the father was excited to tell us that they were one of the only families in the city with electricity. They still do not have clean water though. 

What struck me when we went in the house was that one of the few shelves they had inside was filled with about twenty packs of cigarettes. Here this family can barely get by and the father smokes. In so many ways it was similar to what I have seen in poor families in the US. If their is any addiction, be it smoking, drinking, etc., it takes money away from food. Unfortunately, Familias de Esperanza does not address smoking or drinking among the males in the Guatemaleco population. Addressing behavior change in this culture is especially have in part due to the "machismo" attitude that males traditionally have...In addition, I have observed that interventions to help people quit smoking or drinking often take a back seat to more "immediate" problems like housing and clean water. Though clearly both addictions take a lot of money from families that don't have money to spend. However, when rural families selling crafts, produce or (in this case) bread make an average of 25 Quetzales per day and a pack of cigarettes costs about 30 Quetzales...you can see the problem. 

The house of the family that we visited with.

(Notice that their neighbors behind them have the traditional house made of cane/bamboo).

The couple with in their bread store.

The local social worker discussing the date for the next visit. 

After visiting the family, we went to see the main Familias de Esperanza location, which includes a playground, a health clinic, a library, and a daycare. All facilities are basic and simple, but clean. A number of women were waiting with their children to see the doctor on staff. The clinic offers regular check ups (though I do not believe they are mandated for any families receiving support). They also provide acute care. I asked the doctor about family planning discussions and he said they do not provide much because often it is a challenge enough to get the men in the family to allow the women to come in for check ups. They don't want to lose the opportunity to provide basic services. The center also has a small library with books and a volunteer on hand to help kids learn to read, as well as a daycare to support parents who work daily and have small children. 

The clinic at Familias de Esperanza.

 Women waiting outside the clinic.

 Front desk of the clinic (and the doctor on staff).

 One of the patient rooms.

One of the most interesting things we learned about were the efficient "safety stoves" that the "build crew" helps supply to families. They had several models, from mobil stoves (consisting of a number of cinder blocks and a metal heating area, to stoves that must be permanently assembled as part of the house. Such a simple idea that can make such a difference. It not only prevents heightened CO2 exposure inside houses where families cook, it also saves them money because they need so much less wood. 

 Aaron checking out the "build" area where cement was drying for houses.

 Efficient safety stove models.

The library at the center.

While we were impressed with a lot of the work Familias for Esperanza is doing, there is always room for improvement (more prevention, family planning, and support helping families find and maintain jobs could make a difference here...). Interestingly enough, while we would have liked to volunteer with the organization during the last couple weeks that we are here, they were more interested in talking to us about donating to sponsor a child, family, etc. This has been a trend we have observed in almost all of the NGOs we have talked to in this department in Guatemala. While most could benefit greatly from having volunteers that understand community development and can help them assess and create future plans for their delivery of services, they are all more interested in money. This may result from reduced support both from donors abroad and from the government (similar to what we see happening in the US). 

Climbing Pacaya

Wow - the weeks fly by here and I cannot believe that we still haven´t posted the photos from our volcano climb last weekend. The climb was beautiful. We climbed it in the late afternoon so we could see the sunset from the top and climbed down in the dark. While we had heard that it was a tough climb, it went fast and seemed much easier than climbs in the cascades. I suppose many of the people we had talked to may not have been climatized (Guatemala is much higher up than many US cities...).

We climbed with a guide (the trails are not always well marked and it is an ACTIVE volcano...in case I did not mention that. Most guides live in the pueblos around the volcano and track the activity very closely. From the top, we could see Guatemala City, the other three major volcanos in this part of the country, and several small pueblos. Amazing. Photos will speak much louder than my words in this case.

Us at the trailhead.

View of some trekkers ahead of us on the trail.

"Skiing" down the Ash fields to check out a heat vent.

Heading into the heat vent.

Aaron roasting marshmallows. 

I should have taken an "after" photo too...they were a perfect brown crisp.

The two of us at the top.

 Aaron at the top.

 Sunset.

View from the top at sunset.

 Heading down at dusk.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Happy New Year from Guatemala! Just a quick post to wish everyone a happy and healthy 2011. Aaron and I spent the New Year in Antigua, along with what seemed like the whole of Guatemala. This is THE place to be on December 31st. In fact, last year, there were so many people on the main street (Calle del Arco) that the city decided to end the music and try to break up the party at 10PM this year. They were unsuccessful though, and we ushered in 2011 in a packed street with old and new friends from Guatemala, El Salvador, England, Scotland, and Seattle. Fireworks ("bombas") which are quite the obsession here went off on every side ("de todos lados") and restaurants and clubs stayed open until 5 or 6 in the morning. One of our highlights was meeting some wonderful friends from Guatemala City and San Salvador. We had so much fun talking to them (in Spanish of course) that we met up the following day to relax in the central park. Here's to a year of new friends and new experiences!

Our friend Olly with Guatemalan Champagne...

let's just say Guatemala is NOT known for Champagne

 Ready to watch the fireworks! LOTS of them...

 New friends from Guatemala and El Salvador.

Tomorrow I'll post photos from the volcano we climbed the day after New Year's....every year must include a little exercise to start things out on the "right foot" :)

Birthday, Christmas, and Quite a View

I can't believe how quickly time is passing here in Guatemala. Last week was Aaron's birthday and Christmas. At breakfast on Christmas eve day, our wonderful host family surprised Aaron with a birthday cake that our host mom Elvira had stayed up until one in the morning making. She loves to cook and has exposed us to some wonderful and traditional food here.

Aaron with our host Mom and the birthday cake she made him.

We left in the afternoon for the famous Lago (lake) Atitlan to spend Christmas and celebrate Aaron's birthday. Unlike New Year's, Christmas here in Guatemala is a time to be with family. There are no big fiestas or parties that happen in the streets, so we figured we wouldn't miss a lot leaving the city for the weekend. We traveled three hours north via shuttle. Our trip to the lake on Christmas eve day was an experience in itself. While crosses marking the spots of deadly accidents dot the highway, drivers still ignore the "Curva Peligroso" signs indicating dangerous and steep curves in the road. All along the sides of the highway Guatemalan women sitting with their children by the side of the road waved to passing cars. Many times the children were playing in the median on the highway...We asked our host family about this new and somewhat unusual phenomenon. They suggested that this was the way families in remote areas of the country "relaxed". I certainly cannot imagine a similar scene in the United States, though I have to say the kids all seemed to enjoy the diversion of "watching traffic". Here are some of my blurry photos from the drive.

This car was driving about 70 mph with 20 + people in the back!

 View of a typical rural farm here.

We arrived in Panajachel, the biggest city on the lake, near dusk. After negotiating our transportation to our hotel across the lake, we got in a small wooden boat for the thirty minute trip. As we stepped aboard the tiny vessel, the driver was using a coke bottle to bail out the water from the last trip. The boat, which looked about forty years old, was very low to the water and plastic covered the little windows to try to keep dry as waves crashed against the sides. After loading about twenty other people aboard, some tourists, some locals going home for the night, we were off. It was quite a rocky ride as the afternoon wind causes a surprisingly big current on the lake. 

Me at the front of the boat before it loaded up with people.

We arrived at our hotel in Zuzuna, a small village on the lake. Because the lake was formed by a variety of volcanic activity over the years (and is surrounded by three active volcanos), nothing is flat. We climbed 350 stairs from the dock up to our hotel. We chose the hotel in part because we were intrigued by the owners who met on a UN Peacemaking Mission in Guatemala (he's Belgium and she's Uruguayan). They used to retreat to the lake on weekends and often encountered backpackers hiking around the lake who needed a place to stay or something to drink. Hence - the hotel they now run. All of the people who work at the hotel are locals from the nearby Mayan village.

 Lago Atitlan (daytime)

 Lago Atitlan (dusk)

 View from our hotel.

It is a beautiful retreat. Unfortunately, Aaron woke up on Christmas day (his birthday!) pretty ill. Suffice it to say that our "invincible stomachs" were conquered by something we must have eaten on the street in the prior days. While he had to spend the day recovering, we were able to kayak to a local village on Sunday and spent some time exploring Panajachel before leaving on Monday. Panajachel is a very mellow city filled with beautiful local artwork and crafts (like much of Guatemala). It is a must see if you are traveling to Guatemala. While we only visited San Marcos and Tzuzuna, we have also heard that San Pedro (another pueblo on the lake) is wonderful. Despite the wonderful "vacation" - it was nice to return "home" on Monday. Traveling while you are traveling is such an unusual thing...

 Aaron on the "road" into the town of Tzuzuna.

 Tzuzuna.

 Laundry day in Tzuzuna.

 Kayaking on the Lago.