From now on

After posting my last post last Monday, I received a message from one of my Opera friend. He wanted to share with me his personal experience(more precisely his friend's experience) with a humanitarian organization who was supposed to help people in need. But instead of spending money to help people, they were using their budget to pay big salaries to their employees and instead of working on the field, they were surfing on the net or drinking coffee and eating. His friend was very disgusted by what he has witnessed and anyone with a shred of conscience would have been too. On the other hand, it doesn't surprise me that much having working a big part of my life in the public service, I'm aware of all the wasting that could occur in these type of enterprises.

His message gave me the idea to write another post about what exactly is the humanitarian organization that organize my trip to the Guatemala and what exactly we are going to do there. This way you will have a better idea of what kind of engagement I took and how I will spend my 5 weeks there.

First of all, the name of the organization is C.A.S.I.R.A and it has been founded by a Catholic priest who has done a lot of humanitarian work in Central America and has decided to give the opportunity for interested Quebecois to make a concrete gesture of solidarity. But the main goal behind this organization is to elevate North Americans awareness of inequalities present in this world. I have met the priest twice so far and what I appreciate the most about him is that even if I don't believe in his God(or any Gods) I feel right at my place among his project.

The Organization only counts on private donations to operate and every participant who will take part in the Guatemala experience has to pay all their expenses(plane, food, lodging,etc.). For a 5 weeks trip, like mine, it represents about $3000 CAD(a part of it qualifies for a charitable donation tax credit.) and of course, the work we will do there is volunteer.

But not all of this money will go directly to help the people living there because in addition to the work, we have cultural visits on weekends and also the opportunity to stay with a Guatemalan family to learn Spanish and that is what I will do on my first week there. From Sunday to Friday, I'll be the single host of a middle class Guatemalan family and for $130, I will be feed, lodge and receive personal Spanish courses everyday, a bargain! This Spanish immersion will help to resume my Guatemalan adventure because the following two weeks, I'll be working in an agricultural co-op, side by side with Guatemalans. On this rare piece of land owned by Guatemalan farmers, I will do mostly some construction work but also help with the pineapple culture or the tilapia's breeding. I will stay in basic habitation with no running water and will eat typical Guatemalan food.

For my two weeks remaining(more one and a half week because we arrive and leave on Wednesdays), I haven't decided which working site I will choose but what I know is that I will be staying at the CASIRA's casa that is located in the highest criminal district of Guatemala City. There we will be among Quebecois, we will cook are own food, sleep in 4-8 beds bedrooms, with running water, electricity and internet connection(Maybe some Volkuro's blog Guatemalan updates! ). But among the possible work sites near the casa, the ones that interest me the most are a centre dedicated to help people who wants to get out of their street gangs or an AIDS orphan centre.


But since we are not working on weekends, we will use this precious free time to visit all the majestical sites that can be found in Guatemala. Among them are the Pacaya Valcano, Lake Atitlán, Tikal and Antigua. To travel to these places, we will use a veeery comfortable school bus(to go to Tikal it will be a 8 hours drive!) and we will stay in the cheapest hotels. Those cultural visit are no obligatory and we have to pay for every of them but I think it would be the dumbest thing to be in Guatemala and don't visit these places.

I will be back in Quebec on October 22 and I will probably give you a full and illustrated trip report in the following weeks but until then, I will try to study Spanish the most seriously as I can and read more on this country history.

photo source