WSU students educate in Guatemala

On the shores of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, 20 women were taught about finances by students of Weber State University. For more than two weeks in May, 16 WSU students went on a trip to Guatemala to help teach the women there how to run businesses and take care of their finances. The students were from two main classes: Spanish for Micro Finances and Women of Guatemala. Alicia Giralt, Professor of Spanish at WSU, directed the group. Giralt wanted the students to gain a better understanding of the Guatemalan culture and an understanding of the women in Guatemala. She said students gained much more. "It made me feel so happy to have been born in the United States of America," said Justin Lane Harris, a freshman majoring in Spanish at WSU. "I never really understood how great the United States [are]. Their state of poverty that they're born into and their standard of just living which is so low, just because of the sole purpose that they were born there…really saddened me." The Mayas have a history of oppression. The Guatemalan Civil War ended in 1996, after 36 years. Comparatively, the current economic situation in the U.S. has only been going on the past few years. "It's just like day and night," Giralt said. "I mean, you cannot compare it. [These] people have never been in a good situation. This [going on in the United States] is very temporary; most people just are going through a hard time for a couple of years." Nevertheless, the Mayas are trying to reduce their poverty. The women that greeted the students were part of a group called the Mayan Women Project. Each student helped the group by donating $60 that he/she had raised or earned. Each of the women in the group thought up business ideas. Some wanted to make tamales for the schools, others wanted to make blouses or jewelry. The women could not have started these businesses before because they did not have the money they needed to buy the materials. Tamales needed pots and ingredients; blouses needed cloth; and jewelry needed beads and string. "There are just so many more opportunities to change your situation in the United States," said Katherine "Kaci" Crane, a recent Nursing graduate at WSU. "It does not matter as much the financial situation that you were born into; you still have a lot of power here to change your situation. Even when the economy is bad we still have a lot of control over our finances." Now with money, the women needed the knowledge. Students taught the women basic principles of finances. They gave lessons on how to take care of their money and business and how to invest their money. "We taught them super basic financial literacy principles, [such as] keeping a budget and balance sheet," Crane said. "Products [were shown to them] that they could make with the same materials that might be more time-efficient and money-wise. It was really basic because all of this information was so foreign to them." The students stayed with a family in a village home near a lake. They spoke to the villagers in Spanish or in their native tongue, Tz'utujil, which is one of the 22 Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala. Students were able to live among the people and see their everyday lives. "All of us were well off compared to them," Harris said. "It wasn't really like we had to live their situation. We lived among them but…I don't think we really experienced what they experience." An exhibit will be held in August to teach others about the Guatemalan culture. Pictures and presentations will be included in the exhibit. Donations will be taken to help start the Mayan Ecological Museum. "People who go see the display will vicariously get to know the women individually and be aware of those women who are there and their situation and what our project actually did for them," Harris said. The exhibit will be held August 28th at 5 p.m. at Universe City, a family operated art center located at 2556 Washington Boulevard in Ogden.