GIS Hike

On my day off last week from GIS training we got to go on a quick hike. You are looking at a Laguna on the top of a Volcano and the rest are a series of me seeing a volcano erupt in the background. How beautiful is this country. DON¨T FORGET TO READ THE BLOG BELOW and POST IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE SCHOLARSHIP FUND.

Thanks and take care,

Drewski

Teaching GIS

Hola,

Sorry for the delay with my blog entries but I am forever grateful that I am busy here with work. I have decided to use this blog entry to explain what it is that I am doing here. So many of family and friends are seriously confused why I am not living in a MUD HUT and not teaching English. Today’s Peace Corps has given me an unbelievable experience that I seriously don’t know how it could compare to anything in the states. Sometimes I wonder how I found a job that combines my degrees in Geography, Geographic Information Science, Spanish, and Latin American studies. I feel very fortunate to participate in the NEW AGE of Peace Corps. When comparing myself with my Uncle Mike I can only respect him even more for his service in the 80´s. There were no computers and certainly no cell phones for him to call home on.

Peace Corps Guatemala has a partnership with a Geographic company located in the capital and I have the amazing job of traveling this beautiful country and giving work shops to planning offices. Here are some pictures of me in action sporting my very classy mustache. Besides teaching offices how to use GIS I am also working on a project to write grants and help fund education projects here in my site. That brings me to a very important question. I was wondering if any of you would like to donate money in the future to start a scholarship fund in my site. I am working on a way to set up Paypal on my blog so that all of the people that read this blog could donate and create opportunities for children. I am here donating my time so if we could combine that with money from home I really feel like together we could do some beautiful things here. Hopefully within the next 3 weeks I can set up this scholarship fund and we can get to work.
Till then take care,

Drewski

Perks of the JOB

Sorry it has taken me so long but Blogger keeps changing everything and it gets harder and harder to write on here. Anyway like all other jobs in the world being a volunteer here gives you the opportunity to take advantage of some perks. We had a big celebration in an Aldea where the Mayor funded a school.

(I feel it necessary to explain the school situation here in the developing world to all of you at home so that you appreciate the schools in the states. Here kids are only allowed to go to school for free until the 6th grade. After that they can look for scholarships but those are no guarantee and sadly many kids are forced to start working after the 6th grade. Anyway the reality of the situation here is that in developing countries there is a tremendous gap between the rich and the poor with little to no middle class. Therefore, rich families are always able to send there kids to school and poor families well never change. It is a vicious cycle sometimes where sadly many people will never be able to escape picking coffee 10 hours a day for less then 10 dollars only to be able to afford to eat beans and tortillas for every single meal. It just goes to show the tremendous opportunities that we sadly take for granted being GRINGOS en LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS.)

Here in Latin America it is tradition for everyone to show up way late so to kill time before the school celebration my friend Gabriel asked me to go for a hike. We went on about a 20 minute trip with my South Dakota lungs about to explode when I saw this. A beautiful waterfall hanging out. I love this country I mean all of the sudden there is a waterfall!!!

This is Gabriel and I at the waterfall. He is probably my best friend here in my site. He has an amazing ability to put a smile on any persons face and he is such a joy to be around. People are saying that my Spanish sounds just like his and that I act just like him.

Take care,

Drewski