Thursday, February 15, 2007
Saturday, February 10
It has been a week largely of work at the computer. I completed a fairly comprehensive and highly critical review of the municipality’s plan to minimize the damage during the next natural disaster. I’ve given a draft version to my counterpart in the office, Tomás, for his review and comments. Tomás is the guy who wrote the existing plan, as an assignment from the Mayor. Of course I’ve worded my review as gently as I could, with praise for the few parts he got right. He’s seen some of it, and seems open to suggestions.
My fear is that he will simply want to re-write the plan himself and then feel the issue has been handled. The objective is to get all the people who have responsibilities to contribute to creating the plan, so they will “buy into” it. That will require both Tomás and the Mayor to understand and support the effort. We will have to see if that is possible.
The existing plan came about at the prodding of the central government. Guatemala is highly vulnerable to a variety of disasters – earthquakes, tropical storms, hurricanes and their associated floods, landslides and land erosion, and volcanoes. After the calamity of Tropical Storm Stan, the government decided to decentralize the responsibility for planning, and required each municipality to create their own plan for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. Many municipalities, including mine, appear to have simply filled out a bunch of forms so they could say they have complied with the requirements. Our Plan hasn’t been updated since it was created in May of last year. There is no system to contact the communities when danger threatens, and the “Center of Operations” does not even have a home, much less equipment. Details, details....
I took the bus to Xela today to restock my snack food, use the internet, and buy a newspaper. Xela, (Shay-la) is the K’iche’ name for Guatemala’s second largest city, Quetzaltenango. It is an attractive place that has retained its historical architecture and feel, with a spacious Parque Centrál and several active street markets. It has developed into a center for Spanish lessons, so there are quite a few US and European students with backpacks frequenting the parque, cafés, and bars. Café Luna especially is noted for its fabulous chocolate drinks, and I try to get there as often as I can.
It has been a week largely of work at the computer. I completed a fairly comprehensive and highly critical review of the municipality’s plan to minimize the damage during the next natural disaster. I’ve given a draft version to my counterpart in the office, Tomás, for his review and comments. Tomás is the guy who wrote the existing plan, as an assignment from the Mayor. Of course I’ve worded my review as gently as I could, with praise for the few parts he got right. He’s seen some of it, and seems open to suggestions.
My fear is that he will simply want to re-write the plan himself and then feel the issue has been handled. The objective is to get all the people who have responsibilities to contribute to creating the plan, so they will “buy into” it. That will require both Tomás and the Mayor to understand and support the effort. We will have to see if that is possible.
The existing plan came about at the prodding of the central government. Guatemala is highly vulnerable to a variety of disasters – earthquakes, tropical storms, hurricanes and their associated floods, landslides and land erosion, and volcanoes. After the calamity of Tropical Storm Stan, the government decided to decentralize the responsibility for planning, and required each municipality to create their own plan for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. Many municipalities, including mine, appear to have simply filled out a bunch of forms so they could say they have complied with the requirements. Our Plan hasn’t been updated since it was created in May of last year. There is no system to contact the communities when danger threatens, and the “Center of Operations” does not even have a home, much less equipment. Details, details....
I took the bus to Xela today to restock my snack food, use the internet, and buy a newspaper. Xela, (Shay-la) is the K’iche’ name for Guatemala’s second largest city, Quetzaltenango. It is an attractive place that has retained its historical architecture and feel, with a spacious Parque Centrál and several active street markets. It has developed into a center for Spanish lessons, so there are quite a few US and European students with backpacks frequenting the parque, cafés, and bars. Café Luna especially is noted for its fabulous chocolate drinks, and I try to get there as often as I can.
A corner of the Central Park in Quetzaltenango (or Xela, as it is usually known). The corner by the Stop Sign (ALTO) is a good place to buy a newspaper.
Cafe Luna, where you can spend an hour or two reading a book or reviewing a Spanish lesson over a cup of delicious hot French Chocolate.
Prices of things. The bus to Xela takes an hour, and costs between 65 cents and a dollar, depending on the conductor’s mood. It is invariably a large US School Bus with a rack on the top, repainted in primary colors with the chrome trim highly polished and a religious slogan printed on the windshield, and it still wears its Blue Bird insignia. There will be three or four people in every seat, hanging onto the seat in front to keep from sliding off as the bus careens around sharp mountain curves at high speed. Busses absolutely have the right of way, and pass other vehicles going uphill, around curves, whatever.
Xela has a decent shopping mall with typical shopping mall prices. It features excellent internet access at about a dollar an hour, typical mall clothing stores, a fast food area, even a computer store and an overpriced Radio Shack. Also a HiperPaiz which looks very much like a Walmart and is, in fact, a subsidiary of Walmart. It is stocked with the same stuff you find in a Walmart in the US, with similar prices. It is where I buy my snack food – yoghurt, apples, cheese, canned tuna, Oreos....
A decent meal in Xela will cost about $5.00, a beer about $1.75. But a basic meal in my community is only $1.60 – fried chicken and rice or beans, or a soup with fresh vegetables and boiled chicken or beef, always with fresh hot tortillas, plus a soda or other drink. My town also has a one-room post office, several variety stores, a hardware that is also really a variety store, a stationery store for school supplies, and a couple of canteens (bars). Several women in front of the market – empty except for Thursday and Sunday – sell freshly peeled oranges at 13 cents each, delicious watermelon slices for only 6 cents, and peanuts. They say there was an internet café here in the past, but it closed because nobody used it.
