Saturday, January 06, 2007
Well, this is now Day 2 of the Crisis Corps. I was officially sworn in today by the Country Director, along with the other inductee, Allana. So far the program has been mainly medical, security and procedural orientation. But we did watch and discuss an interesting video today giving background on the horrible Guatemalan civil war and its lingering aftermath. The Peace Accords of 1996 declared Guatemala to be a multi-ethnic, pluri-cultural society. But now, 10 years later, the details of what that means for the legal system, political power and economic development are still murky at best. There is a lot to study and learn here.
Allana has an interesting history. Her Peace Corps service was in Honduras. Then she was in the Crisis Corps in Micronesia, where the program was apparently a mismanaged disaster. Next, she was in a study program for a Masters in International Development, working to assist recovery from the tsunami in Sri Lanka. That program ended early due to political concern about the Tamil Tigers, and now she is here, back again with the Crisis Corps.
The ATMs still don't have any money to dispense. The news reports are that bills will be available again on Jan 15. How can it take a month and a half to simply print up some more paper money? Nobody thinks the country is bankrupt or anything, there is no inflation, it isn't like printing money with nothing to back it. Or is it? Where did all the bills from November suddenly disappear to? I don't understand much about economics.
Allana has an interesting history. Her Peace Corps service was in Honduras. Then she was in the Crisis Corps in Micronesia, where the program was apparently a mismanaged disaster. Next, she was in a study program for a Masters in International Development, working to assist recovery from the tsunami in Sri Lanka. That program ended early due to political concern about the Tamil Tigers, and now she is here, back again with the Crisis Corps.
The ATMs still don't have any money to dispense. The news reports are that bills will be available again on Jan 15. How can it take a month and a half to simply print up some more paper money? Nobody thinks the country is bankrupt or anything, there is no inflation, it isn't like printing money with nothing to back it. Or is it? Where did all the bills from November suddenly disappear to? I don't understand much about economics.
