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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know

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Speaker 1: from House Stuff works dot com. This episode of Stuff

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Speaker 1: you Should Know is brought to you by Go to Meeting.

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Speaker 1: Visit Go to Meeting dot com slash stuff. That's Go

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Speaker 1: to meeting dot com slash stuff give me your side podcast.

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Speaker 1: And what the heck was that? That was not you,

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Speaker 1: my friend? No, it wasn't. Clearly that was the booming

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Speaker 1: voice of our buddy that we met down there, who

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Speaker 1: had such an impressive voice for radio. We said, we've

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Speaker 1: got to get this guy to record our podcast intro

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Speaker 1: if we can use it. Yeah, he's ah. He works

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Speaker 1: at one of the schools we went to and he

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Speaker 1: was m seeing an event and we're like, holy cow,

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Speaker 1: he's the the Guatemalan meltor matvelvet. Yeah, and this is

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Speaker 1: a very special pair of podcasts, right, Chuck, Absolutely our

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Speaker 1: Guatemalan Adventures. Yes, our Guatemala not there. Yeah, so um

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Speaker 1: Chuck and I and Jerry went down to Guatemala. As

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Speaker 1: many of the listeners, no team s y Chuck Um,

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Speaker 1: and our eyes were open quite a bit, you could

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Speaker 1: say that, Yeah, we were originally going to go down. Uh,

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Speaker 1: we should probably tell the back story. Do you want

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Speaker 1: to take it? Chuck? Chuck loves emailing people back, especially

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Speaker 1: when they say, do you want to come to Guatemala

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Speaker 1: with this? Will take exactly? That's pretty much out went down.

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Speaker 1: We got an email from a fan name and Dempsey

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Speaker 1: our buddy now yes, and she emailed us so, I

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Speaker 1: don't know last year last fall and said, hey, I

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Speaker 1: worked for this nonprofit called Cooperative for Education and we

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Speaker 1: do work in Guatemala supplying school books and uh computer

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Speaker 1: centers for rural indigenous poor people in Guatemala. And check

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Speaker 1: out our video and our website and we'd love it

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Speaker 1: if you guys came down we'll we'll sponsor you to

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Speaker 1: come down on this trip and see what you think

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Speaker 1: about it. No strings attached, of course. We just think

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Speaker 1: you would enjoy it and you know, having a great experience. Right,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty much out happened, and we're like, what's the

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Speaker 1: catch and what's your what's your game here? Right? And

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Speaker 1: she really was like, no, really, we just want you

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Speaker 1: to see. I mean, if you guys want to mention

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Speaker 1: this on the podcast or something, that'd be awesome because

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Speaker 1: they are donor driven organization like all nonprofits exactly. Um,

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Speaker 1: because nonprofit can't turn a profit yeah, um. And uh

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Speaker 1: So we went down there initially with the idea of like, okay,

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Speaker 1: we can't just completely throw to this organization, let's do

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Speaker 1: one on can education alleviate poverty? Can it actually happen?

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Speaker 1: Because that's what CoA does well. Originally she just asked

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Speaker 1: for us to come down, and then we were like,

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Speaker 1: wait a minute, why don't we bring Jerry and then

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Speaker 1: we can record down there and do our first like

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Speaker 1: on the road, live recording type of deal. That was

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Speaker 1: your idea. I think I was snacking while you were

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Speaker 1: thinking of your way down with it though. Yeah, so Chuck,

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Speaker 1: we never go anywhere unprepared, or I should say, we

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Speaker 1: never do anything. I don't put on my pants without

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Speaker 1: doing a little research first to find out if overnight

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Speaker 1: while I was sleeping, somebody figured out a better way

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Speaker 1: to do it. And that is true. Um, so we

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Speaker 1: did some research on Guatemala, and UM, I actually have

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Speaker 1: a little story for you. The night before we left,

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Speaker 1: I secretly wrote a note to my dear Yumi, telling

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Speaker 1: her that I love her in case anything happens to me.

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Speaker 1: I really wanted to make sure she knew that I

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Speaker 1: went down thinking that there's a chance I was going

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Speaker 1: to lose my life in Guatemala. Yeah, here's a little tip.

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Speaker 1: If you guys are going to travel in some country

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Speaker 1: that's not you know, like France or Italy, don't go

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Speaker 1: to the State Department website and that where you found

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Speaker 1: it to read like the travel warnings and all, because

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Speaker 1: you got to some of these countries that are a

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Speaker 1: little off the beaten path, and they do they make

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Speaker 1: it sound like you will be lucky if you come

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Speaker 1: back alive. Yeah, and that's exactly what I thought. Um

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Speaker 1: there's about eighteen paragraphs. You're scared that detail kidnappings, Ransom's beheadings. Um,

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Speaker 1: straight up murder. Uh. Just it sounds like the country

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Speaker 1: is just overrun with criminals and disease, all manner of disease.

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Speaker 1: We got shots at the yin Yang. What do we get?

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Speaker 1: We got lockjaw, Yeah, I got a It wasn't dip ted,

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Speaker 1: it was ted something like that. I don't know what

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Speaker 1: they shot me full of. I just hold my arm

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Speaker 1: out when somebody presents me at the storringe. Jerry got

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Speaker 1: sick actually, um from the shots ahead of time and

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Speaker 1: a little bit of foreshadowing. A little chucky got sick

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Speaker 1: on the way back. Yeah, I think I ingested some

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Speaker 1: ice from a rum drink or two. Yeah, there's last

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Speaker 1: there's some precautions you have to take. Oh and to

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Speaker 1: finish my story, you we found the secret note within

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Speaker 1: hours of us leaving, so that worked out well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's great, Um, all right, Chuck. We also did some

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Speaker 1: background on the country, and one of the first things

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Speaker 1: you find out about Guatemala when you look into it

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Speaker 1: is that it had a pretty serious civil war. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: for about thirty years thirty six, my friend. Yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: why I said about Actually that's about forty years. But sure,

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Speaker 1: internal conflict. Uh formerly end in that's a long time

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Speaker 1: to be under a civil war. Yeah. And actually, um,

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Speaker 1: guatemala Is is is kind of this very put upon Latin

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Speaker 1: American state. Um. It was run by a dictator in

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Speaker 1: the up to the forties when there was a I

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Speaker 1: don't know if it was a bloodless revolution, but I

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Speaker 1: think it was one of the softer revolutions. And there

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Speaker 1: were some liberals running the show for about ten years,

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Speaker 1: and Guatemalan still referred to it as uh ten years

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Speaker 1: of Spring, right, Chuck. They referred to everything in regards

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Speaker 1: to spring. It's the land of eternal spring. The spring

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Speaker 1: is like the spring spring. Yeah. Um. It's so they

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Speaker 1: had this great this area this time of peace. Um.

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Speaker 1: And part of that was involved taking land from the

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Speaker 1: United Fruit Company, which owned a bunch of land it

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Speaker 1: wasn't using, and redistributing it to uh farmers, right. And

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Speaker 1: the United Fruit Company didn't like this, went to the

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Speaker 1: CIA and said, hey, you know, you've got some lefties

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Speaker 1: in your backyard. You should probably supply or to qu

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Speaker 1: CIA back to coup end of the ten Years of

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Speaker 1: Spring in the beginning of the civil war, which they

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Speaker 1: did not refer to you as ten years of summer

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Speaker 1: that followed the spring. No, No, it was pretty bad.

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Speaker 1: And we'll get into a couple of stories. We've got

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Speaker 1: a couple of stories while we were down there. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: a couple of like bad massacres that happened. Yeah, there were,

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Speaker 1: um I think a hundred thousand killed and a hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand disappeared is what they called them, which meant killed

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Speaker 1: that they didn't find your body, um, and they A

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Speaker 1: later Truth Commission report concluded that of the atrocities committed

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Speaker 1: in that in the civil war were done by government

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Speaker 1: soldiers and actually oftentimes they disguise them like to make

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Speaker 1: it look like the guerrillas had done it, to drum

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Speaker 1: up um resentment antipathy towards them. Yeah, it was a

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Speaker 1: It was a bad thirty six years for Guatemala, and

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Speaker 1: like you said, it ended in so they're still kind

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Speaker 1: of coming out of this right, very much. So. I

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Speaker 1: think more than half of Guatemalans are direct descendants of

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Speaker 1: the mind people, and they some of them, like you said,

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Speaker 1: speaking the mind tongue, still church. Some of them don't

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Speaker 1: speak Spanish, right, many of them, right, Yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: if if you run into a Guatemalan who speaks Spanish.

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Speaker 1: Likely they're bilingual because they speak their indigenous mind tongue

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Speaker 1: and Spanish as well. Right, they are one of the

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Speaker 1: most populous Central American countries. Most of their population is

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Speaker 1: rural and fifties six percent live below the poverty line.

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Speaker 1: And that's Guatemala's poverty line. Yeah. Well, that's a very

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Speaker 1: important thing to point out. None Americans very different and

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Speaker 1: they are mainly agricultural, uh, labor industry, services industries only

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Speaker 1: about Yeah, they're their economy. The top three um segments

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Speaker 1: of their economy are agriculture, remittances, and tourism. Yeah, let's

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Speaker 1: Remit says this. People that leave the country to go

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Speaker 1: make a decent wage and then send money back home.

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Speaker 1: And that's the number two segments of their economy. And

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Speaker 1: uh with them tourism as well, it's it's number three,

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Speaker 1: but it's not entirely enormous. I think it makes up

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Speaker 1: a pretty decent portion, but it's not that big of

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Speaker 1: a money maker. Again because of things like the State

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Speaker 1: Department website and the fact that the civil war only

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Speaker 1: ended fourteen years ago. Yeah, and I tell you, despite uh,

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Speaker 1: except for Antigua, which we'll get into, that was the

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Speaker 1: end of our trip. We didn't see any spurs where

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Speaker 1: we went. No, we went definitely off the beaten pathway. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: way in in country, weren't We weren't like hanging out

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Speaker 1: on the beach or anything like that. And check the

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Speaker 1: educational scene in't exactly happening down there. Yeah, which is

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Speaker 1: why we went and why ed is there clearly right?

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Speaker 1: And uh, you mentioned Anne, So here's a clip of

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Speaker 1: and explaining, Um, a couple of a stat that we

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Speaker 1: found a little staggering. We know that in rural indigenous

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Speaker 1: villages in guatemal Uh, three out of four students who

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Speaker 1: start first grade will drop out of school before they

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Speaker 1: complete sixth grade. So of the four of us standing here,

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Speaker 1: only one of us would actually complete sixth grade. That

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Speaker 1: would be Josh exactly. But that's good to know, Josh,

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Speaker 1: that you would have been the one to stay in school.

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Speaker 1: It's possible. I think you're the clear winner. I appreciate

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Speaker 1: that and seem to get a kick out of it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and um, most students who live in Guatemala, she also

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Speaker 1: told us during that interview, UM, don't learn to read

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Speaker 1: until maybe third grade. And um, the teachers don't really

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Speaker 1: feel it's a problem because they think that kids can't

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Speaker 1: learn to read until that age, so they don't teach them.

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Speaker 1: They're finding, thanks to groups like co ED that oh wait,

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Speaker 1: well kids can actually start to learn to read in

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Speaker 1: the first grade if they have books, right, which is

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Speaker 1: a big deal. So that's why they're there, the whole

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Speaker 1: thing that all of this hinges on. Yeah, but that's

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Speaker 1: one of their big programs. We'll break that down load

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Speaker 1: a little bit later, right, Yeah, So that's why co

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Speaker 1: Ed's there, that's why we got invited to see the

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Speaker 1: stuff firsthand. And so we begin our trip. So, Josh,

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Speaker 1: we meet the three of us early early at Heartsfield Jackson.

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Speaker 1: So early. What a bonus for us is there's a

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Speaker 1: direct flight to Guatemala from Atlanta, just scant what was

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Speaker 1: it like three hours maybe three hours? Three hours and

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Speaker 1: likes for air fair round trip. Yeah, it was a

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Speaker 1: pretty good deal. So we get on the plane, Jerry

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Speaker 1: and I are we sit together, Josh, Alex not to

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Speaker 1: sit with us, because I love the quote you gave

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Speaker 1: me when I was like, what's up with that? You

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Speaker 1: said you'd like to leave it to the gods. I'd

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Speaker 1: like to leave it to fate to determine whether I'm

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Speaker 1: going to die in an air or not. So Josh

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Speaker 1: is behind us, and a funny nickname came out of this.

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Speaker 1: Josh I turned around at one point because we all

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Speaker 1: know from previous podcasts you don't love to fly. It's

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Speaker 1: not your favorite thing in the world. No, it's not.

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Speaker 1: So you actually put the black blanket that kid you.

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Speaker 1: Jerry is so cracking up right now, the black blanket

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Speaker 1: that they give you over your entire body and head.

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Speaker 1: And I was like, Jerry, check it out. And we

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Speaker 1: started calling you, what the black ghost of the sky,

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Speaker 1: black Ghost of the skies. Yeah. I went to sleep.

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Speaker 1: I needed to sleep because I don't like to fly.

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Speaker 1: It was so funny. Um, and I had um taken

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Speaker 1: a painkiller right so that that did you right, right.

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Speaker 1: I didn't wake up until we landed. I think that

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Speaker 1: was pretty And I remember I, um when we did

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Speaker 1: land I actually woke up right before we landed. And

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Speaker 1: as we were coming in to the runway. Um, right

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Speaker 1: as we were touching down, I noticed there was like

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Speaker 1: a line of airplanes that had apparently been stripped for parts. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it runway, and I just thought, you've got to be

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Speaker 1: kidding me because I thought I was going to die.

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Speaker 1: Remember sure you probably thought that when we took off

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Speaker 1: from the same airport, but that I was gonna die.

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Speaker 1: Well not from the heading, no, but we're just reminded

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Speaker 1: when you say like, hey, we need a tire, go

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Speaker 1: get one off that plane. It was hilarious. So we

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Speaker 1: get there. The first like ten minutes in the airport

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Speaker 1: is literally like a three Stooges episode. We're just kind

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Speaker 1: of like walking in circles. We know we have to

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Speaker 1: go through uh and shore our passport, we know we

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Speaker 1: need to exchange some money Combio, we need to go

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Speaker 1: to Cambio. We eventually get outside and this is when

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Speaker 1: this is when co Ed shines. They really I can't

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Speaker 1: stress enough because we're gonna try and get some of

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Speaker 1: you people out there to go on one of these trips.

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Speaker 1: On these tours, they're so they really take care of you,

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Speaker 1: so there's no need to be worried about going to

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Speaker 1: a foreign scary land. Like the second we got out

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Speaker 1: to the airport, they had the signs and the bus

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Speaker 1: waiting for us. We met our cohorts and got on

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Speaker 1: the bus and went to Guatemala City. Yeah, and Chuck,

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Speaker 1: I think all three of us. I was um still groggy, uh,

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Speaker 1: and we we decided that we needed to kind of

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Speaker 1: um create some intro in the field that we could

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Speaker 1: use and um. We started drinking gaios, which is the

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Speaker 1: the national beer of Guatemala, and actually you can get

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Speaker 1: Guyo here. Guyo is uh rooster, right, yeah, it means rooster. Um,

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Speaker 1: so they call it famosa here, but it's the exact

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Speaker 1: same beer, right. Well. Coed hit the ground running, though,

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Speaker 1: remember they when we first got there. Oh yeah, Holly awesome.

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Speaker 1: Holly met us at the hotel and it was like,

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Speaker 1: here's the subway sandwich. We gotta go to our first school.

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Speaker 1: Do you guys want to go? It's your option, And

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Speaker 1: we're like, uh, we we want to like record an

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Speaker 1: intro here, so you guys go ahead and we'll meet

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Speaker 1: up later. So so that was time well spent because

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Speaker 1: we were thinking about what to record while we were

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Speaker 1: drinking gios, and eventually we got to the point where

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Speaker 1: everything we recorded was just kind of useless. So I

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Speaker 1: wish we could include some of that because it's really funny.

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Speaker 1: Jerry was so frustrated with us because we just we

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Speaker 1: were we were doing a good job. Yeah. So, um,

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Speaker 1: but it wasn't just that. It was also we didn't

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Speaker 1: really have a conception yet of what co Ed did

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Speaker 1: and um, that was about to change actually because we

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Speaker 1: remember we were still going down on the premise that

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Speaker 1: we were going to record a podcast, can uh Education

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Speaker 1: Alleviate Poverty? Um? And and this was about I think

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Speaker 1: it was in Guatemala City that night where the turning

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Speaker 1: point began and our eyes started to open more and

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Speaker 1: more like Holy cow at dinner, at dinner. Yes, So

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Speaker 1: they took us. They got back. I was setting us

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Speaker 1: up for a clip. We don't have a clip for that, okay,

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Speaker 1: so take it sounded very much like an MPR set up,

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Speaker 1: Thank you. Uh so yeah, we met up. They came

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Speaker 1: back to the hotel. We um had a couple of

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Speaker 1: beers at that point and failed miserably with our intro

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Speaker 1: and they all said, hey, let's uh walk down the

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Speaker 1: street here to this restaurant and we can talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit. And I thought, are we going to be

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Speaker 1: kidnapped at any point during this walk? Yeah? But we weren't. No,

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Speaker 1: we weren't. And we ended up hanging out with Joe

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Speaker 1: can I mention real quick our our kidnapping plan that

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Speaker 1: Jerry and I hatched, Yeah, because we we came up

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Speaker 1: with a plan. If the three of us were kidnapped,

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Speaker 1: then we were to tell them that Josh was a

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Speaker 1: a prince or a very rich man in the United States,

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Speaker 1: and that we worked for him, we were mere servants.

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Speaker 1: And I figured that probably would have gotten us off. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it would have gotten you too off. Thank you for

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Speaker 1: the Prince, Josh. Yes. Um, so we hung out with Joe. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Joe Burninger is one of the founders, along with his

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Speaker 1: brother Jeff. Yeah, and they Joe and Jeff used to

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Speaker 1: go down to Guatemala for spring break, right. Yeah, they

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Speaker 1: were going down there having a good time. But they

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Speaker 1: kind of they come from this like fairly uncommon family

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Speaker 1: where like they had tons of like values instilled in them.

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Speaker 1: So they're going down hanging out, and it was I

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Speaker 1: felt like a piece of trash. Jeff was telling us

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Speaker 1: all about his parents. I was like, wow, yeah, it

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Speaker 1: sounds like really great people. Yes, so much so that, Um,

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Speaker 1: I guess they kind of led to the to Joe

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Speaker 1: and Jeff being inspired to actually go back to Guatemala

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Speaker 1: and live there, right, to help this country and and

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Speaker 1: they've done it in a very clever way. Do you

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Speaker 1: like all this like um teasing that we're doing right? Right?

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Speaker 1: People like, what did they do? Exactly? Yeah, I told

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Speaker 1: you it hinges on books. It does. So we had

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Speaker 1: this awesome dinner Joe and Holly give us this really

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Speaker 1: really great rundown to where we finally feel like, all right,

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Speaker 1: we got a really good idea what's going on here,

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Speaker 1: and we're not ready to share that with you yet.

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Speaker 1: We're not ready to share that. We go to sleep.

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Speaker 1: We go Betty by, I watch a little uh Spanish

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Speaker 1: language signfeld. I watched Um, I think Law and Order

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Speaker 1: in English was on down there, and I was like, oh,

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Speaker 1: thank god. So we awake in our was the Radisson

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Speaker 1: at Guatemala City, and we they have a couple of

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Speaker 1: busses arranged for us. So it's like Mercedes, the small

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Speaker 1: sprinter busses, and I know they are not yeah, not

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Speaker 1: the huge chicken busses, although we saw plenty of those.

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Speaker 1: Those are rat They're brightly colored and a little aside.

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Speaker 1: Do you know why chicken busses are painted brightly, vividly

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Speaker 1: and differently? I do, but you should say so it's

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Speaker 1: because a significant amount of the Guatemalan population who used

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Speaker 1: those busses can't read where it's going, so they just know, oh,

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Speaker 1: this red bus with the Tasmanian devil on it is

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Speaker 1: going to and that's where I need to go, and

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Speaker 1: I'm going there. Pretty cool, nice little factive attention. So

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Speaker 1: we actually that's where we went. We went to uh Santiago, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: which is where Lake Atiflan is beautiful and actually you

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Speaker 1: should check out the coolest stuff on the planet, um

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Speaker 1: cast on lake. Yeah, footage that Jerry took while we

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Speaker 1: were down there. So we arrived there and it's like

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Speaker 1: I think it was a few hours by bus. We

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Speaker 1: got to see some of the countryside, tobacco farms, coffee, coffee, bananas, bananas, agriculture,

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Speaker 1: poor poor towns. Yeah. So we arrived there at the

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Speaker 1: lake and this is a volcanic formed a long long

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Speaker 1: time ago from a volcano, and I think three volcanoes

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Speaker 1: are surrounded, right, Yeah, those are dormant, but on the

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Speaker 1: way up we saw a couple of volcanoes that are

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Speaker 1: um active had smoke coming out of them. Yeah, the

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Speaker 1: first time for me ever, Yeah, me too, um and yeah,

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Speaker 1: I t line. I think was formed about eighty thousand

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Speaker 1: years ago. I learned from the coolest stuff cast Um.

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Speaker 1: And it was actually ridiculously polluted for many, many years,

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Speaker 1: which is kind of screwy because it's a major tourist

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Speaker 1: destination for Guatemala. So they actually bioremediated it and they

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Speaker 1: said it's all good now. Yeah. I saw people swimming

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Speaker 1: in chuck and I didn't. We thought maybe after a

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Speaker 1: couple more years of buyo remediation getting in it. But

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Speaker 1: it was gorgeous, man, unbelievable, and people um canoe standing up. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's the craziest thing I've ever seen. Very good balance. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so we're at this idyllic scene. We go to this

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Speaker 1: little uh place that this run by this hippie ex

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Speaker 1: pat American next bat, which is my dream to do

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Speaker 1: this one day. Yeah, you're jealous of that guy. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it going on. And actually there was the resort that

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Speaker 1: we stayed at was around in the sixties I think,

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Speaker 1: and it was taken over by the army and they

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Speaker 1: had to evacuate. The guy's mom had owned it originally, right,

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Speaker 1: And to call it a resort is like kind of

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Speaker 1: overstating things. It was really awesome, but there were little

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Speaker 1: huts like like stone cabanas, kind of peppered, like ten

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Speaker 1: or twelve of them peppered on the property. It was

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Speaker 1: called Pasada de Santiago. Yeah, and it was awesome. And

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Speaker 1: this was that we should point out. This is the

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Speaker 1: first first time on the trip and only time and

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Speaker 1: probably only time in our history, that we will all

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Speaker 1: stay in the same place. We had to share, not

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Speaker 1: a room. Jerry luckily had could close the door and

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Speaker 1: had her own room. But you and I were there

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Speaker 1: like New Hampshire, Vermont, on those little twin beds. Right.

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Speaker 1: And apparently Chuck confirms something that I've I've been told before,

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Speaker 1: or that snore really really really loud. Oh wow, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of a problem. Actually it sounded like a

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Speaker 1: sow being murdered with a spoon. Weird. It was bad,

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Speaker 1: you know. The first person who said that the room

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Speaker 1: was awesome though a little fireplace was very cool. So

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Speaker 1: we get there, we set up and had an awesome lunch.

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Speaker 1: All the food was great the whole trip. It's gonna

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Speaker 1: get old saying we had an awesome meal because it

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Speaker 1: was so delicious. Well, I noticed that in the in

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Speaker 1: the rundown you noted every single one of them. So

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Speaker 1: those things really stub good. You didn't, I'm all about

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Speaker 1: the awesome meal mentioned this, so U. One of the

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Speaker 1: first things we did was we went out. They took

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Speaker 1: us out for a little tour of the of the

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Speaker 1: main square in town. I saw a church from like

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Speaker 1: seventeen thirty or something, the church where Um the lead

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Speaker 1: I guess, priest, the head priest Um was murdered. He

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Speaker 1: was an American priest down there, and he was murdered

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Speaker 1: in the civil warrant. That was kind of a big deal. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: very big deal. And remember they had like the carpet

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Speaker 1: made of flowers from the from the doorway to the altar,

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Speaker 1: which had to be at least fifty sixty yards. And

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Speaker 1: it wasn't we should say, it wasn't just flat. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna put pictures of all this on the website, by

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Speaker 1: the way, so you can check it all out. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't just flowers. It was an intricate design made of

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Speaker 1: flower petals the entire way. It was astounding, actually, and

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Speaker 1: we found that it was It's considered, um, a very

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Speaker 1: gracious way to welcome people by putting down evergreen straws.

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Speaker 1: And then you got flowers over there like higher up.

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Speaker 1: But if you put down evergreen, then your guests feet

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Speaker 1: never touched the ground. Yeah, and they every school we

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Speaker 1: went to, they did that for us. And it was

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Speaker 1: I don't know, I've never had anyone do that before. No,

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Speaker 1: but I started doing it around my house. Yeah. I

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Speaker 1: felt very unworthy if I did that. Damily should be

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Speaker 1: I pick all that stuff up? What kind of invest

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Speaker 1: is this? So we take a tour around the main

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Speaker 1: town there, and then they set us up with a

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Speaker 1: visit to the home of a girl that had been um,

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Speaker 1: one of the co ed students and still is I

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Speaker 1: think at the Taxiquoi family. Yeah, and they invited us

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Speaker 1: into their home. And we've got a clip for this one.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, today um, we went, um, we did kind

425
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:19,800
Speaker 1: of a tour of the town here, which is very poor,

426
00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:23,000
Speaker 1: to say the least. Yeah, very eye opening for guys

427
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:27,960
Speaker 1: like us. And we met a family actually who's daughter

428
00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:34,240
Speaker 1: had has benefited from the from the co ed program. Yeah, Maria, Maria,

429
00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 1: and they invited us into their home. Yeah. It's a

430
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:40,439
Speaker 1: very small home. You walk in half of it maybe

431
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:44,000
Speaker 1: is roofed. Yeah, we went. We all assembled in this

432
00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:46,159
Speaker 1: one room and we found out that it was the

433
00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:49,200
Speaker 1: room they sleep in, so I mean, it was obviously

434
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,239
Speaker 1: a really big deal for them. They straightened everything up

435
00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:56,320
Speaker 1: for these gringo guests to come gawk and take pictures

436
00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:59,080
Speaker 1: and ask questions about them, but that you could tell them,

437
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:02,640
Speaker 1: they're very, very grateful, so welcoming to Yeah, and and

438
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:06,000
Speaker 1: the dad too, I mean, to put all of his

439
00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:09,600
Speaker 1: kids through school, and he's doing it at his own

440
00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:13,600
Speaker 1: detriment because he actually could use these kids to be

441
00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:17,160
Speaker 1: productive money makers for the house, but instead they're off

442
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:19,800
Speaker 1: at school, not making any money. And yet this guy

443
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:22,760
Speaker 1: was dedicated, and he didn't look like it to look

444
00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:26,120
Speaker 1: at him, he just looked like some normal Guatemalan guy.

445
00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:30,159
Speaker 1: But there was something in him that said, you know,

446
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,119
Speaker 1: when I'm I'm going to stop this with this generation,

447
00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:34,840
Speaker 1: I'm going to send all of my kids to school.

448
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:36,879
Speaker 1: And he has, Yeah, he wants, and that's kind of

449
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:39,000
Speaker 1: the whole thing. And he wants his kids to exceed

450
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:44,080
Speaker 1: their own expectations, even and what do they say, they

451
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:47,439
Speaker 1: the kids want to exceed themselves, exceed themselves. I'm not

452
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,200
Speaker 1: sure what that is in Spanish that it sounds a

453
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 1: lot better than that, but the only way to do.

454
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,440
Speaker 1: That we're learning is to be educated, because if you

455
00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:59,560
Speaker 1: don't have an education in Guatemala and really anywhere, your

456
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:03,240
Speaker 1: option are extremely limited, and here more so than than

457
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:09,240
Speaker 1: most places probably, So that was a real eye opener. Yeah,

458
00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:11,720
Speaker 1: it really was. And I just I can't get over

459
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 1: the dad. He was about three ft tall, all smiles.

460
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:20,080
Speaker 1: I don't think he's did they speak Spanish or did

461
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:23,199
Speaker 1: they speak now they're speaking Spanish because we were had

462
00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:25,920
Speaker 1: the translation going Okay, I thought was being translated into

463
00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:29,280
Speaker 1: like chichiko, wasn't I think I could just be making

464
00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 1: that up. But yeah, this guy lives in abject poverty.

465
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,199
Speaker 1: They actually rented the house that we visited them, and

466
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:37,080
Speaker 1: they rented a couple of rooms. The whole thing wasn't

467
00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 1: even there. Um and instead of like having his kids

468
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:44,280
Speaker 1: go work to to support the family like every other

469
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:47,359
Speaker 1: Guatemalan family, he's making sure all three of his kids

470
00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:50,240
Speaker 1: go through school. Yeah, it's it's just really once it

471
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:53,080
Speaker 1: sinks in, you know, the guy is the guy. What

472
00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 1: the guy is doing is really amazing. Yeah. That was

473
00:25:55,640 --> 00:26:00,400
Speaker 1: very touching. Yeah, and very gracious, actually, book, I like, yeah,

474
00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,720
Speaker 1: and he hugged you back. It's very nice. So after

475
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:06,439
Speaker 1: that we go back to the main town. They have

476
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:09,959
Speaker 1: set up some we we should set this up. They

477
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:12,679
Speaker 1: have what they haven't Guatemala, these little tiny little Toyota

478
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:15,240
Speaker 1: pickup trucks, the little ones, and they have these little

479
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 1: A frames, wide open A frames built in the beds

480
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:22,040
Speaker 1: of the trucks so they can carry around like twelve

481
00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 1: people back there standing up and you just kind of

482
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,760
Speaker 1: hold on standing up to this little A frame. So

483
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:30,760
Speaker 1: that they set us up with these trucks. Coed did

484
00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 1: so we could go out a little bit on the

485
00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:34,080
Speaker 1: outskirts of town and see a couple of cool things.

486
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:36,399
Speaker 1: And it was that's like I felt like it was

487
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:38,159
Speaker 1: a real adventure. Yeah, it was. I mean like we

488
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:40,800
Speaker 1: had the wind blowing our faces and that we were

489
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:43,879
Speaker 1: you know, hip to hip, Yes, hip to hip and

490
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,360
Speaker 1: the sexiest camp but well one of the sexiest cap

491
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:48,840
Speaker 1: ris I've ever been. That sounds good. Uh. And we

492
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 1: went to uh the first place we saw we went

493
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:53,560
Speaker 1: to was to see this and I'm gonna let you

494
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:55,439
Speaker 1: set this up because this obviously been a lot to you.

495
00:26:55,480 --> 00:27:05,440
Speaker 1: But we went to see someone or something called mushymn right,

496
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:07,400
Speaker 1: and um, we had a choice. We could have either

497
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:13,119
Speaker 1: gone shopping or going to see Mashiman rights, well, Mashimon.

498
00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:15,400
Speaker 1: We went to see him actually, because it turns out

499
00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:19,400
Speaker 1: he's my patron saint. He is um called the man

500
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:21,919
Speaker 1: in black at the Crossroads or the black Man at

501
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:25,720
Speaker 1: the Crossroads papal Legba and Western African culture. But basically

502
00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:29,440
Speaker 1: he's this guy, he's the god of vice. And actually

503
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:31,320
Speaker 1: this is hilarious because I went and I didn't know

504
00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:33,920
Speaker 1: this at the time, but they keep him locked up

505
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:37,800
Speaker 1: and every uh definitely every year, but I think like

506
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:39,639
Speaker 1: every couple of months they have a kind of a

507
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:43,440
Speaker 1: ceremony in his honor um and it moves from it's

508
00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,040
Speaker 1: every year, and it moves from house to house, and

509
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:48,480
Speaker 1: you never really know where Mashamon is. And they keep

510
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:53,160
Speaker 1: him locked up because his sexuality is too much. He's

511
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:58,480
Speaker 1: like the Antonio banderis of like uh gods, Yeah, so

512
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:02,560
Speaker 1: um what what what? What service he offers to his flock.

513
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:06,400
Speaker 1: Me included is that you can come bring him sacrifices

514
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:11,200
Speaker 1: and he'll help alleviate your vices. So we bought some

515
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:14,880
Speaker 1: or Josh paid what like twenty cents for a half

516
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:19,320
Speaker 1: pint of the local swell. They called it rum. No,

517
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 1: it was like sugarcane moonshine. Yeah, but they the local

518
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:26,520
Speaker 1: guys called it rama. That was no wrong. It was

519
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:29,600
Speaker 1: called I looked it up. It's called Guaro. It's actually

520
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:34,480
Speaker 1: Costa Rican. But there's a sugarcane rum, sugarcane moonshine down

521
00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 1: there is serious stuff. And actually, so I buy it,

522
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 1: and I'm like, well, Chuck, we should probably try this.

523
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:43,560
Speaker 1: Jerry declined. Chuck and I both tried it. Chuck shuttered.

524
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,480
Speaker 1: I didn't, which I think I think made it all

525
00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:48,600
Speaker 1: the more reason I should dry out a little bit,

526
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 1: because shutter from you got some cereal? I can pour

527
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:56,280
Speaker 1: this over. So I I I offer a cigarette to

528
00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 1: Mashamona is a sacrifice, and the guy takes it from

529
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:00,720
Speaker 1: me and puts it in mashamones off and lights it.

530
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 1: And I'm like, yes, I just knocked the cigar out

531
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 1: of his mouth, and now my cigarettes in there, right,

532
00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:06,880
Speaker 1: that's gonna be good for me. And then I go

533
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 1: and get the liquor and then go in there. And

534
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,920
Speaker 1: you have to be very quiet. This is quite sincere,

535
00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 1: and I was like I was very sincere too. I

536
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 1: was mocking in any ways in perform like I was

537
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 1: really help me. But it's it's this dark, strangely lit barn,

538
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 1: tiny barn you can put maybe a donkey and a

539
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 1: half in it, and there's this acrid incense burning I

540
00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:33,760
Speaker 1: think it was frankincense, and this crowded with sweaty people,

541
00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: and a couple of guys are running the show, and

542
00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:38,560
Speaker 1: people are on their knees and like just praying before

543
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 1: manshamone and he's just carved probably three and a half

544
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:47,680
Speaker 1: four ft tall figure pretty much all right, and um

545
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 1: so they put the cigarette in his in his mouth,

546
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:53,600
Speaker 1: and then when I brought the whiskey or the moonshine,

547
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:57,520
Speaker 1: they they actually put a funnel in his mouth, held

548
00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:00,560
Speaker 1: a little bandana underneath his carved lip, and it into

549
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 1: his mouth and they didn't pour at all. And another

550
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:06,160
Speaker 1: reason why I know that I needed Mashmon's help was

551
00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 1: because I waited around to see if they gave me

552
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:11,120
Speaker 1: the rest of the bottle back and they did not. Well,

553
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: that's part of the little not a wank you get

554
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:16,120
Speaker 1: as they take it very seriously. They also collect a

555
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 1: lot of liquor in the process. Yeah, I imagine if

556
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:23,400
Speaker 1: you're running the Mashamone ceremony, you get pretty lit yes, yeah, probably,

557
00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:26,720
Speaker 1: so that was a pretty big experience. Yeah, we're gonna

558
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:29,920
Speaker 1: have pictures of that up to Yeah, and um we

559
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 1: left there and that was pretty cool. Yeah, very cool

560
00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:34,600
Speaker 1: because I was doing that because I want to be

561
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:36,200
Speaker 1: a debt and I need to get in better health,

562
00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 1: you know. So it was cool. I felt good. And

563
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:42,960
Speaker 1: then we go straight to one of the most depressing

564
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 1: places I've ever been in my entire life. Yes, Josh,

565
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:49,000
Speaker 1: the mudslides, uh from Hurricane stand in two thousand five,

566
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:54,080
Speaker 1: devastating to this small town. But yeah, villa, like four

567
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:59,080
Speaker 1: hundred of the people who lived there, people, holy cow died.

568
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,800
Speaker 1: Wait and just just the village, Well, now that's all over.

569
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,680
Speaker 1: That's an all of Guatemala from the hurricanes. I think

570
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 1: this village is the worst hit though, because it was

571
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:12,040
Speaker 1: like five people that the four d people that died,

572
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:14,720
Speaker 1: and the people in the whole country died from it,

573
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:19,280
Speaker 1: right they recorded they recovered only seventy seven corpses, and

574
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:23,280
Speaker 1: three hundred people are still missing and presumed dead. Basically

575
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:27,240
Speaker 1: where we were standing was what they say, like fifteen

576
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:30,479
Speaker 1: feet higher than it used to be, and below us

577
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:33,520
Speaker 1: was a mass grave of bodies, a village and a

578
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 1: lot of people were um sleeping. It was pretty early

579
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:39,240
Speaker 1: in the morning, and you could actually look up the

580
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:43,360
Speaker 1: mountain and see still the trees hadn't fully grown back.

581
00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:46,040
Speaker 1: It was like a swath cut where the mud came.

582
00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 1: They came right down right over the village and just

583
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:51,920
Speaker 1: covered it. Man uh. And it was pretty um sobering

584
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:55,560
Speaker 1: because one of the kids that we were talking to

585
00:31:56,360 --> 00:31:59,600
Speaker 1: h well, we weren't, but our group was um was

586
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:03,080
Speaker 1: in or whose family was beneath his feet somewhere. And

587
00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 1: then to the right there was an old school police

588
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: station in hospital and they're gutted and abandoned, but you

589
00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 1: could still see the high mud mark. And this kid,

590
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:16,240
Speaker 1: I mean, he was he was all by himself. He

591
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:18,560
Speaker 1: lost all his brothers and sisters and his parents, and

592
00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:21,600
Speaker 1: he was now taking care of these other kids. And

593
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:24,720
Speaker 1: he looked to be about like seventeen. I remember they said, like, no,

594
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:27,400
Speaker 1: he's like thirteen. And he lost his parents when he

595
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:29,640
Speaker 1: was like eight, and he's been taking care of these

596
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:33,160
Speaker 1: kids ever since. Unbelievable. It really was very sad, Yes,

597
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 1: And actually so was the next place we visited to, Yes, Josh.

598
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:39,440
Speaker 1: The next sight we went to was the site of

599
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:44,320
Speaker 1: a massacre that happened during the Civil War in nineteen ninety,

600
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 1: the Guatemalan army opened fire on an unarmed crowd of

601
00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 1: between two thousand and fourth the four thousand protesters that

602
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:56,680
Speaker 1: had finally kind of had enough. Yeah, the army had

603
00:32:56,720 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 1: had a garrison in um Lin, and like just about

604
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 1: every other town over the population of ten thousand and

605
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:09,040
Speaker 1: um they used to just basically abuse the population. And

606
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:12,880
Speaker 1: one night these soldiers got drunk beat up some guys

607
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:16,720
Speaker 1: that at a bar started breaking into people's houses and

608
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 1: just basically being jerks and right. So this guy who

609
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:24,240
Speaker 1: was injured in the bar fight, um I guess, went

610
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,640
Speaker 1: and told the mayor something and and everybody got woken

611
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:32,120
Speaker 1: up and went to the army garrison demanded that they

612
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 1: stopped abusing the population, and so the the UM I

613
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:39,560
Speaker 1: guess one of the the guys who was heading the

614
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:42,479
Speaker 1: garrison said well, what do you have to say, and

615
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:46,200
Speaker 1: somebody shot into the air, and somebody else just started

616
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:50,920
Speaker 1: firing into the crowd. They ended up killing fourteen people

617
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: and the age range from ten to fifty three. Twenty

618
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:58,000
Speaker 1: one others were wounded, and uh, we visited there and

619
00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:00,959
Speaker 1: they literally have a sort of a little open plaza

620
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,400
Speaker 1: in the woods and they have a little memorial at

621
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:05,640
Speaker 1: each spot where each person was killed. Yeah, they have

622
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:08,480
Speaker 1: the original steps that were there. Yeah, and and you

623
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:12,920
Speaker 1: know there's it's pretty again so brink. They have harry

624
00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:16,080
Speaker 1: players um I think once a month or something. Yeah,

625
00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:18,120
Speaker 1: and they still do have mass there. But the good

626
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:20,640
Speaker 1: news is out of all that, two weeks later, as

627
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:23,880
Speaker 1: a result of the pressure and outcry over this, the

628
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:28,319
Speaker 1: army vacated the garrison there at least, and Atitlan became

629
00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:30,880
Speaker 1: one of the few communities that um didn't have a

630
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:33,920
Speaker 1: military base. Right. Yeah, this one, for some reason, just

631
00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:37,960
Speaker 1: stirred up, you know, the anger and resentment of everybody

632
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:40,480
Speaker 1: in Guatemala. Even the people who are running the military

633
00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:42,839
Speaker 1: turned down the military for this one. Right. So at

634
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:46,120
Speaker 1: this point we are like in Guatemala, I mean, we

635
00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:49,000
Speaker 1: are really feeling like we gotta handle on what's going

636
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:50,799
Speaker 1: on here? After this day, do you remember we were

637
00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:53,319
Speaker 1: walking around a Titlan and I was like, look, you know,

638
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:57,040
Speaker 1: like ten twenty years ago there were guerillas sitting here

639
00:34:57,040 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 1: with a K forty seven shooting it out with Moliss.

640
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:02,440
Speaker 1: Like where we're walking right now, you could feel it's

641
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:05,400
Speaker 1: still had left some sort of impression on the Yeah,

642
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:08,040
Speaker 1: it was very creepy and those little tight alleyways and

643
00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:10,400
Speaker 1: I was just trying to like wrap my head around

644
00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:12,799
Speaker 1: coming around a corner and seeing a gorilla with a

645
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:15,960
Speaker 1: gun and uh, you know, kids everywhere. It was just awful.

646
00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:18,960
Speaker 1: But at the same time it was a really really

647
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:22,080
Speaker 1: nice town too. Oh yeah, you know, like it was

648
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:26,600
Speaker 1: this kind of dual experience. Well, yeah, because Late Alan

649
00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:29,880
Speaker 1: is a place where Greeno tourists go because so gorgeous,

650
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:32,759
Speaker 1: it's it was a little weird. So we get back

651
00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:36,640
Speaker 1: to the place that our little hippie cabana and I

652
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:40,160
Speaker 1: have a little happy hour by the lake, which was

653
00:35:40,160 --> 00:35:42,080
Speaker 1: one of the other great things about these tours is

654
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:44,359
Speaker 1: they believe in unwinding at the end of the day

655
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 1: and fellowshipping with each other and having a cold one

656
00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:50,239
Speaker 1: called gayo. So it was just gorgeous setting. We have

657
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:54,160
Speaker 1: a great dinner once again, and we were able to

658
00:35:54,480 --> 00:35:59,040
Speaker 1: get co founder Jeff Burninger in the cabin afterward for

659
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:01,400
Speaker 1: a little We lured him in. We lured him in

660
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:03,440
Speaker 1: there with a fire and beer and said come in

661
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:06,759
Speaker 1: here and speak to us. And we got to talk

662
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:08,680
Speaker 1: to him a little bit more about co Ed and

663
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:11,080
Speaker 1: we have a clip here of his thoughts on his

664
00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:15,360
Speaker 1: initial inspiration to start this nonprofit. What when did the

665
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 1: first seed of UM I see a need here and

666
00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:21,440
Speaker 1: part of me wants to do something about it. When

667
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:24,839
Speaker 1: did that first here? That started? When I was looking

668
00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:27,600
Speaker 1: for a volunteer opportunity. I think a lot of us,

669
00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:30,800
Speaker 1: you know, we come down and we see a beautiful country,

670
00:36:31,160 --> 00:36:33,239
Speaker 1: we backpack, we try to learn a language, and we

671
00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:37,200
Speaker 1: see the poverty. So what can I do to help? Right? Well,

672
00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:40,280
Speaker 1: what I found out was that with my level of Spanish,

673
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:42,680
Speaker 1: there was very little I could do to help so

674
00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:46,560
Speaker 1: except maybe teach English. And I found a school that

675
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:48,440
Speaker 1: I was willing to allow me to come in and

676
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:50,880
Speaker 1: teach English. It was a volunteer opportunity and it was

677
00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:53,719
Speaker 1: something I thought I could do. Well. Of course I

678
00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:55,799
Speaker 1: learned that later that I learned later that I was

679
00:36:55,840 --> 00:37:00,440
Speaker 1: not um really cut out for teaching. But what what

680
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:03,800
Speaker 1: I learned in the classroom was that the kids didn't

681
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:07,480
Speaker 1: have books. And the way that started was since I

682
00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:10,560
Speaker 1: didn't know how to teach, I thought, well, the simplest

683
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:12,959
Speaker 1: way to teach would be just to get the book

684
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:15,000
Speaker 1: and follow it. You know, starting chapter one and go

685
00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:18,520
Speaker 1: to chapter two, chapter three, UM. But since there was

686
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:20,520
Speaker 1: no books, I'm like, well, you know, I've got to

687
00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:23,520
Speaker 1: find books. I'll ask the math teacher and the science

688
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:25,880
Speaker 1: teacher where they get their books, because obviously they being

689
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:29,160
Speaker 1: with books. It's just span speaking country. Well, I found

690
00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:31,439
Speaker 1: out the math and science teachers didn't have books either.

691
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:35,440
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, this is an outscite. You know, how

692
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:39,080
Speaker 1: do you teach? So, Josh, Here's how the textbook program works.

693
00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:41,080
Speaker 1: And I know you know this, but pretend that I'm

694
00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:44,160
Speaker 1: telling you for the first time, everybody in podcast land.

695
00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:45,799
Speaker 1: Here's how it works. What they do is it's a

696
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:49,680
Speaker 1: really cool program because it is self sustaining. They realized

697
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:53,359
Speaker 1: at some point that early on that dropping things off

698
00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:56,759
Speaker 1: and leaving they called the dropping go that's not the

699
00:37:56,800 --> 00:37:59,759
Speaker 1: way to go. I'm sure that people need supplies and

700
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 1: things like that, but in the end they feel like, uh,

701
00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:07,480
Speaker 1: just to have something dropped and leaving isn't really doing

702
00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:09,719
Speaker 1: them a lot of good. Well, it's not sustainable. And

703
00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:12,760
Speaker 1: that's the exactly that's the point of the textbook UM

704
00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:16,040
Speaker 1: program is that it is sustainable. Starting out with the

705
00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:20,600
Speaker 1: first bit of seed money, exactly. So what happens is, um,

706
00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:23,799
Speaker 1: they are able to buy books really cheap in bulk textbooks,

707
00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:27,000
Speaker 1: deliver them to these students, and these students, actually these

708
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:30,920
Speaker 1: very very poor poor students, actually pay money to rent

709
00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:34,239
Speaker 1: these textbooks for the year. Right and we should probably say, um,

710
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,960
Speaker 1: right here, it's like two bucks a year per student,

711
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:42,000
Speaker 1: per student, per book, per book. So what happens is

712
00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:45,240
Speaker 1: these kids they rent the books, that money goes into

713
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:49,160
Speaker 1: what they call revolving fund, an escrow account, and in

714
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:53,360
Speaker 1: five years, the money, the collective money has uh grown

715
00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:56,400
Speaker 1: to the point where they can now replace the original

716
00:38:56,400 --> 00:39:00,400
Speaker 1: set of textbooks, right or if they they we co

717
00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:04,160
Speaker 1: ed takes these books to these schools. There's a program.

718
00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:07,480
Speaker 1: A part of it is taking care of your textbook, right,

719
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 1: So these kids are taking care of their textbooks. And

720
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:13,880
Speaker 1: we'll hear why in a second. But um, it's so

721
00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:16,160
Speaker 1: if their books, if say the math books are in

722
00:39:16,200 --> 00:39:18,560
Speaker 1: really good shape still, they can use that money instead

723
00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:23,160
Speaker 1: of replacing those they can get another subject or they

724
00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:26,839
Speaker 1: will replace those books and then the use textbooks become

725
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:29,600
Speaker 1: part of their used textbook program and can go to

726
00:39:29,719 --> 00:39:31,920
Speaker 1: some of the scholarship kids who can't even afford the

727
00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:35,759
Speaker 1: two bucks, so it's a self sustaining program. Once these

728
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:39,960
Speaker 1: kids uh rent into the program, they've got textbooks for

729
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:42,560
Speaker 1: life basically or for their entire run of education. And

730
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:46,400
Speaker 1: here's Jeff talking about why he's found the program works.

731
00:39:47,520 --> 00:39:49,080
Speaker 1: Many people have told us that it did, it would

732
00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:53,439
Speaker 1: never work. They won't return the books. Um. And that's

733
00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:56,120
Speaker 1: actually a key piece of the of the of the

734
00:39:56,160 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 1: reason why that there's a the fee program works because

735
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:03,279
Speaker 1: we've seen it the school principles tell us that this

736
00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 1: is the case that when someone has to pay, even

737
00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:08,880
Speaker 1: if it's a small fee, that they that they respect

738
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 1: what they receive a lot more. If someone hands you

739
00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:14,600
Speaker 1: something in the street, a piece of paper, a small

740
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:20,640
Speaker 1: publication for free, the likelihood of you keeping it or

741
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:25,080
Speaker 1: valuing it versus tossing in the garbage can it is

742
00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 1: much higher, and it's much higher that you will not

743
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:32,120
Speaker 1: read it because you've not put anything into it. But

744
00:40:32,160 --> 00:40:35,359
Speaker 1: if you have to pay a small fee for it,

745
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:36,920
Speaker 1: it's much more likely that you're going to read it

746
00:40:37,080 --> 00:40:41,279
Speaker 1: or keep it and chuck um. Two bucks two bucks

747
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:43,960
Speaker 1: a year per books, say three books six bucks a year.

748
00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:47,560
Speaker 1: It's paltry, but at times how many kids sometimes though, right,

749
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:50,080
Speaker 1: But but you want to make sure that you're not

750
00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:53,000
Speaker 1: thinking it as an American like, is it really paltry?

751
00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:55,759
Speaker 1: So just said that coed Um did his study to

752
00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 1: find out how expensive it was to these families. Yeah,

753
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:01,760
Speaker 1: whether or not they could actually afford it. They struggle

754
00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:04,040
Speaker 1: with that for a long time. That's the question we've

755
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:08,640
Speaker 1: been asking ourselves for for the last twelve years. And

756
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:12,440
Speaker 1: we started by simply asking the school officials, and they

757
00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:15,040
Speaker 1: said the principle and the and the teachers and everything,

758
00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:18,879
Speaker 1: and they clearly believe that yes they can. But we're

759
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:21,640
Speaker 1: concerned about that because some people in the development community

760
00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:26,400
Speaker 1: believe that if there's any cost to education or the

761
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:29,560
Speaker 1: benefit that someone's receiving, that it becomes a barrier of

762
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:33,240
Speaker 1: entry into education, that you're keeping kids out of school

763
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:36,160
Speaker 1: because you're raising the costs of them going to school.

764
00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:38,560
Speaker 1: But we've we've actually found that not to be the case.

765
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:43,160
Speaker 1: With textbooks. We've gone so far as to interview the students.

766
00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:46,040
Speaker 1: UM we've through a third party organization through one of

767
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:50,160
Speaker 1: the universities in Clatamala City. UM interviewed the students receiving

768
00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:53,200
Speaker 1: the textbooks after they graduated from the program and asking

769
00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:54,799
Speaker 1: them on a simple scale, I'm one to five, are

770
00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:59,520
Speaker 1: they are the books very affordable? Kind of affordable, mediocre

771
00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:02,400
Speaker 1: ex sense of you know, on that scale and and

772
00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:05,799
Speaker 1: basically the results came back saying that the books were

773
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:10,880
Speaker 1: either either cheap or or or affordable. So that's good news.

774
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:13,319
Speaker 1: They put a lot of work into researching this, and

775
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:17,319
Speaker 1: they did find that, you know, they were validated and

776
00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:20,080
Speaker 1: that the parents can't afford it, and that they believe

777
00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:23,120
Speaker 1: in paying for it. And that's what really blew me

778
00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:27,399
Speaker 1: away about this whole thing is that something earned is

779
00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:30,680
Speaker 1: much more important than something given to you, right, And

780
00:42:30,719 --> 00:42:33,239
Speaker 1: then that's why the program has been so successful. Chuck,

781
00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:36,640
Speaker 1: So what we found this is this is when our

782
00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:39,400
Speaker 1: eyes were really starting to open to Jerry's too, Like

783
00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:41,680
Speaker 1: she was walking around there's like a little crusty drool

784
00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:43,719
Speaker 1: on the cydber mouth, Like she's like, what is going

785
00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:46,040
Speaker 1: on here? But what we found is this group that

786
00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:51,120
Speaker 1: we're with UM goes down to Guatemala. They rustle up

787
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:56,640
Speaker 1: American money. By they identify schools that say, yes, we

788
00:42:56,719 --> 00:43:00,720
Speaker 1: want to be part of your textbook program. It's contractual, UM,

789
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 1: and they buy these books, take them down to donate them,

790
00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:08,359
Speaker 1: and uh, the kids rent these books. All this money

791
00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:10,560
Speaker 1: is putting in an escrow account for the school, and

792
00:43:10,600 --> 00:43:12,799
Speaker 1: then after X number of years they can replace the

793
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:16,240
Speaker 1: books or add new books, and it's self sustaining because

794
00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:18,960
Speaker 1: those new books are rented and rented and rented and rented.

795
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:21,640
Speaker 1: So this bit of seed money that buys these two

796
00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:27,360
Speaker 1: books at first ends up spreading um throughout the community.

797
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:29,399
Speaker 1: And you know what, I just want to go ahead

798
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:32,920
Speaker 1: and say, now, five dollars is what it costs to

799
00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:36,040
Speaker 1: buy textbooks for one kid for a full school year.

800
00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:39,520
Speaker 1: And you will have your opportunity to give just five

801
00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:42,719
Speaker 1: dollars later on little teaser. You are going to take

802
00:43:42,760 --> 00:43:47,399
Speaker 1: over after Jerry Lewis retires for the telephone. Yeah I should. Uh.

803
00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:49,880
Speaker 1: So we had a great talk with Jeff. It was awesome,

804
00:43:50,239 --> 00:43:52,680
Speaker 1: filled us, filled us in and we were really felt

805
00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 1: like we knew what we were in in for. At

806
00:43:55,120 --> 00:43:57,560
Speaker 1: the end of day two, our first really big day

807
00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:00,800
Speaker 1: out and uh, we had a up some more gayos

808
00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:04,719
Speaker 1: and tumbled into slumber and it was time to go

809
00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:06,080
Speaker 1: to sleep, and it was time to go to sleep.

810
00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:19,080
Speaker 1: So the next morning, dude, we wake up and uh,

811
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 1: we have a boat ride in store for us across

812
00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:25,200
Speaker 1: the lake, which we're pretty excited about because, you know,

813
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:27,440
Speaker 1: just being on a boat on an awesome lake's exciting

814
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:29,960
Speaker 1: for me. Like a seat line which we described, and

815
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:32,799
Speaker 1: actually no one has any idea how deep it actually is.

816
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:35,680
Speaker 1: Oh really yeah, yeah, I think some say it's like

817
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:37,840
Speaker 1: as deep as it is at its widest point, but

818
00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:42,000
Speaker 1: it's like loer it sounds like lor right, so we uh,

819
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:44,279
Speaker 1: take off in the lake is actually much bigger than

820
00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:46,759
Speaker 1: what we were seeing from our our little cabania there.

821
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:51,080
Speaker 1: So it's like a thirty minute boat ride to a

822
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:54,440
Speaker 1: village called h I know we're gonna butcher this one.

823
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:56,719
Speaker 1: You're gonna butcher this one. I'm not even trying pan

824
00:44:56,920 --> 00:44:59,960
Speaker 1: panah nice. I think that's it. That's we're gonna go Pana.

825
00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:02,960
Speaker 1: And you pointed out that it looked like the little

826
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:05,520
Speaker 1: village in the movie Popeye. And if you look on

827
00:45:05,560 --> 00:45:07,600
Speaker 1: the internet under this, if you google that P A

828
00:45:07,719 --> 00:45:09,960
Speaker 1: and A J A C H E L, I think

829
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:12,319
Speaker 1: you might agree. Yes, it was very cool looking. Yeah

830
00:45:12,320 --> 00:45:16,399
Speaker 1: it was. And we disembarked. We disembarked. Uh, that wasn't

831
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:18,560
Speaker 1: actually where we were going. That was just where we landed.

832
00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:20,399
Speaker 1: Now I get the impression they just kind of wanted

833
00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:23,640
Speaker 1: to show off because we we went across the lake

834
00:45:23,680 --> 00:45:26,680
Speaker 1: by boat and then got off and then got on buses. Yeah,

835
00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:29,840
Speaker 1: so I think they're just like, hey, the factor. Yeah,

836
00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:32,319
Speaker 1: well it work And it did work for sure. And

837
00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:33,880
Speaker 1: we took pictures on the boat. Those will be up

838
00:45:33,880 --> 00:45:36,640
Speaker 1: on the website as well. Uh, we load up on

839
00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:39,799
Speaker 1: the buses again and we set out for the peach

840
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:43,879
Speaker 1: abaj Cooperative School. Yeah, because we were talking about how

841
00:45:43,960 --> 00:45:47,200
Speaker 1: they come down with the textbooks to to donate to

842
00:45:47,239 --> 00:45:50,560
Speaker 1: a school that agreed to enter into this program, and uh,

843
00:45:50,680 --> 00:45:52,880
Speaker 1: we got this is our first donation we got to

844
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:55,040
Speaker 1: see because they make up big to do out of it.

845
00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:57,759
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's like that's that's the main point of

846
00:45:57,800 --> 00:45:59,239
Speaker 1: these tours that you go on, is you got to

847
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:03,080
Speaker 1: the different school rules and they you know, you're welcome

848
00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:06,680
Speaker 1: with open arms, you're welcome with dance and song. And

849
00:46:07,080 --> 00:46:09,680
Speaker 1: uh we danced with you know, some of the little

850
00:46:09,719 --> 00:46:11,600
Speaker 1: girls there, they would come and grab our hands and dancing.

851
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:14,240
Speaker 1: It's a lot of fun, but you really feel special

852
00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:17,560
Speaker 1: and they really roll out the in this case evergreen carpet.

853
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:20,440
Speaker 1: I guess for you and at this school we were

854
00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:25,040
Speaker 1: able to learn about the Corpse program, the culture of

855
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:27,400
Speaker 1: Reading program right in Chuck. First, let me say this

856
00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:29,840
Speaker 1: was the poorest of the poor as far as the

857
00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:33,200
Speaker 1: schools in the areas we saw. There wasn't a discernible

858
00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:36,560
Speaker 1: town because this is like the highest highlands that we

859
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:40,960
Speaker 1: entered into, and it was like road mountain stepped farming

860
00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:43,200
Speaker 1: on the mountain, which is really cool. Exactly, there wasn't

861
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:45,400
Speaker 1: really a town. It was all along this road. It

862
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:49,960
Speaker 1: was wide rather than condensed in any way. UM. But

863
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:52,280
Speaker 1: the people were very very gracious and very very happy

864
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:54,360
Speaker 1: to see us. Yeah. So when we say poor school,

865
00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:57,880
Speaker 1: let's set up a mental image. I think, uh, cender

866
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:02,960
Speaker 1: block rooms, kind of this rantid smell in the air,

867
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:07,799
Speaker 1: dust everywhere, dust everywhere. Uh, desks that look like they

868
00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:10,480
Speaker 1: were donated from like you know, some of the atomic

869
00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:16,200
Speaker 1: experiments in New Mexico in the forties. Yeah, and uh,

870
00:47:16,560 --> 00:47:19,000
Speaker 1: it's just like beyond poor what you would think of

871
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:22,440
Speaker 1: as poor. It is. But again, the people came from

872
00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:26,319
Speaker 1: all over the community for this this UM donation. UM

873
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:29,080
Speaker 1: and the kids actually were with the young kids in

874
00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:32,399
Speaker 1: the early hours, and we were also there for when

875
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:35,680
Speaker 1: class is transferred because it's young kids in the same school.

876
00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:39,080
Speaker 1: Young kids in the morning, older kids in the afternoon.

877
00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:42,080
Speaker 1: And it's because number one, they only have one school,

878
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:44,560
Speaker 1: but number two because the older kids get up and

879
00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:47,239
Speaker 1: work in the fields in the morning and then go

880
00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:48,799
Speaker 1: to school. And when we say in the morning, they

881
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:52,200
Speaker 1: get up at like four am to make the tortillas

882
00:47:52,280 --> 00:47:54,560
Speaker 1: and then to work in the fields so they can

883
00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:59,440
Speaker 1: attend school. Yeah, unbelievable. Uh. The kids we got to

884
00:47:59,480 --> 00:48:03,360
Speaker 1: give out and pencils, which Jerry also brought some like

885
00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:07,400
Speaker 1: stickers and things. But she brought like seven stickers. I remember,

886
00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:11,560
Speaker 1: like a hundred kids off the I said, off the

887
00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:13,920
Speaker 1: day loose. Yeah. I grabbed one of the kids and

888
00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:16,920
Speaker 1: pointed and then pointed to like what Jerry was holding,

889
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:18,720
Speaker 1: and she just went over and all of a sudden,

890
00:48:18,719 --> 00:48:21,440
Speaker 1: they all just flocked. Jerry was hilarious. She took to

891
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:23,320
Speaker 1: it though she was kind of like trying to instill

892
00:48:23,360 --> 00:48:25,000
Speaker 1: some order. She was like, all right, all right, everyone

893
00:48:25,040 --> 00:48:27,200
Speaker 1: calmed down, let's let's get this done. Which is funny

894
00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:29,600
Speaker 1: too because a lot of these kids are a mono

895
00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:32,960
Speaker 1: lingual and just spoken their Mayan dialects. So Jerry is

896
00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:36,520
Speaker 1: sitting there speaking broken Spanish to them, and even if

897
00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:39,400
Speaker 1: they spoke in Spanish, they wouldn't know what she was saying.

898
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:41,680
Speaker 1: That they definitely had note to what she was saying,

899
00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:43,799
Speaker 1: and yet they still formed a line. Yeah, they did

900
00:48:44,560 --> 00:48:48,440
Speaker 1: the universal language line up. So uh. But I just

901
00:48:48,719 --> 00:48:50,799
Speaker 1: on a personal note, to see these kids clamoring over

902
00:48:50,840 --> 00:48:53,719
Speaker 1: these pens and pencils like it was a an xbox

903
00:48:55,160 --> 00:48:57,200
Speaker 1: made me want to slap American kids a little bit,

904
00:48:57,239 --> 00:48:59,239
Speaker 1: to be honest, what the kids are playing with these things?

905
00:48:59,239 --> 00:49:01,319
Speaker 1: That's what they're playing with, or that the p S three,

906
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:04,319
Speaker 1: I don't know the iPhone, but they were treating these

907
00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:06,319
Speaker 1: pins and pencils like they were, you know, precious and

908
00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:10,200
Speaker 1: then they are. So they had a little ceremony like

909
00:49:10,239 --> 00:49:13,560
Speaker 1: they did at all the schools, a little traditional symbolic

910
00:49:13,719 --> 00:49:17,960
Speaker 1: dancing and uh performing of uh you know what kind

911
00:49:17,960 --> 00:49:20,520
Speaker 1: of ceremony did there was the corn dance that they preferred.

912
00:49:20,840 --> 00:49:24,000
Speaker 1: The corn dance. Yeah, it was about how the corn

913
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:27,879
Speaker 1: was given to them by the gods, right, and it's

914
00:49:27,880 --> 00:49:33,239
Speaker 1: pretty cool. And actually by the last school we went to, Chuck,

915
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:36,279
Speaker 1: Jerry and I could have performed the corn dance every

916
00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:39,480
Speaker 1: single one. Yeah, I think I could probably roughly perform it, yea,

917
00:49:40,680 --> 00:49:43,080
Speaker 1: but you should uh. And then we got to meet

918
00:49:43,120 --> 00:49:47,040
Speaker 1: a lady named Caroline Johnson. She's in Portland, Maine's pretty

919
00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:51,400
Speaker 1: cool lifelong educator, principal school principle that went on a

920
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:54,160
Speaker 1: co ed tour and went back and said, I'm going

921
00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:57,400
Speaker 1: to quit my job. I'm gonna go to Guatemala because

922
00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:00,360
Speaker 1: they're not snotting. Those little brats, they don't have apreciate

923
00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:03,640
Speaker 1: things down there. This, this is the experience of Guatemala,

924
00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:06,719
Speaker 1: really alled you to disdain American kids. Didn't. Now that's

925
00:50:06,760 --> 00:50:10,279
Speaker 1: not true, but um, Caroline obviously didn't say anything like that.

926
00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:11,880
Speaker 1: She's like one of the sweetest ladies I ever met.

927
00:50:12,040 --> 00:50:15,399
Speaker 1: She's very kind and soft spoken, but with it and sharp.

928
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:19,239
Speaker 1: Actually went down on a tour like we were on

929
00:50:19,840 --> 00:50:23,840
Speaker 1: and joined up and actually ended up creating an entirely

930
00:50:23,880 --> 00:50:27,200
Speaker 1: new program that co had institutes right, And we asked

931
00:50:27,200 --> 00:50:30,080
Speaker 1: her what you know inspired her to leave her life

932
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:31,680
Speaker 1: behind and go to Guatemala. And here's what she had

933
00:50:31,719 --> 00:50:35,160
Speaker 1: to say. I think the thing that that really that

934
00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:37,240
Speaker 1: really spoke to me. And we went to an elementary

935
00:50:37,239 --> 00:50:40,440
Speaker 1: school just to deliver some some pencils and books and

936
00:50:40,800 --> 00:50:45,239
Speaker 1: miscellaneous kinds of things, and the principal found out that

937
00:50:45,280 --> 00:50:47,120
Speaker 1: I was also a principal in the US and came

938
00:50:47,200 --> 00:50:49,280
Speaker 1: up to me and said, can you help the teachers

939
00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:53,080
Speaker 1: don't know how to teach reading. Um, we appreciate all

940
00:50:53,080 --> 00:50:55,680
Speaker 1: this stuff, but we don't know what to do. So

941
00:50:55,719 --> 00:50:57,919
Speaker 1: I started talking to Joe and Jeff and they said, oh,

942
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:00,799
Speaker 1: we've looked into getting into education all kinds of things,

943
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:03,120
Speaker 1: but BASI, we're not educating or something. We need somebody

944
00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:06,799
Speaker 1: to help us. So I started volunteering with them, and

945
00:51:07,560 --> 00:51:09,600
Speaker 1: at one point decided, you know, working down here and

946
00:51:09,680 --> 00:51:11,399
Speaker 1: working with these kids would be a lot more fun

947
00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:14,640
Speaker 1: than continue to be a school administrator in the United States.

948
00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:17,719
Speaker 1: And so here I am. So how awesome was she?

949
00:51:18,080 --> 00:51:20,960
Speaker 1: She's very cool, very cool lady doing great work. And

950
00:51:21,080 --> 00:51:23,640
Speaker 1: how cool did the little birds in the background sound? Yeah,

951
00:51:23,680 --> 00:51:26,040
Speaker 1: you could actually kind of hear how beautiful a day

952
00:51:26,080 --> 00:51:28,440
Speaker 1: it was thanks to the birds. That wasn't sound designed

953
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:31,200
Speaker 1: by Jerry, although it could have been. It could have been.

954
00:51:31,560 --> 00:51:34,880
Speaker 1: So she works with the court the Culture of Reading program,

955
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:38,279
Speaker 1: and we why don't we get her to tell us

956
00:51:38,280 --> 00:51:40,600
Speaker 1: about what CORE is instead of us doing it? So

957
00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:42,799
Speaker 1: what does um, CORP stand for and what we are

958
00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:48,040
Speaker 1: the basic fundamentals of the program corpus Culture of Reading program. UM.

959
00:51:48,160 --> 00:51:50,719
Speaker 1: That culture of reading was something really important to us.

960
00:51:50,800 --> 00:51:53,319
Speaker 1: We we came to the schools and we saw that

961
00:51:53,360 --> 00:51:55,320
Speaker 1: if you gave a second grader a third grader of

962
00:51:55,680 --> 00:51:58,560
Speaker 1: a short piece of text, they could read the words

963
00:51:58,600 --> 00:52:03,920
Speaker 1: off the page. They essentially had no comprehension. They the

964
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:07,160
Speaker 1: words didn't have meaning. And without books in their homes,

965
00:52:07,239 --> 00:52:09,920
Speaker 1: without books in those schools, reading is not something they

966
00:52:09,960 --> 00:52:13,400
Speaker 1: do for enjoyment, and it's not something they see as valuable. UM.

967
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:17,320
Speaker 1: They don't see picking up a newspaper as as something

968
00:52:17,360 --> 00:52:19,960
Speaker 1: that will help them, that will assist them, or going

969
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:23,320
Speaker 1: to look for information and texts. So developing that culture

970
00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:25,520
Speaker 1: of reading, so we want the kids not only to

971
00:52:25,520 --> 00:52:28,240
Speaker 1: be able to read and develop those critical thinking skills,

972
00:52:28,320 --> 00:52:30,359
Speaker 1: we want them to want to read. The want them

973
00:52:30,400 --> 00:52:33,480
Speaker 1: to see that reading is something you do for pleasure

974
00:52:33,640 --> 00:52:37,320
Speaker 1: and it's something that you do that will enrichually. So Chuck.

975
00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:40,680
Speaker 1: What Caroline and UM the Cooperative for Education figured out

976
00:52:40,760 --> 00:52:45,640
Speaker 1: was that UM teachers were teaching kids to read basically

977
00:52:45,719 --> 00:52:49,000
Speaker 1: just writing their assignments on the board and then kids

978
00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:51,400
Speaker 1: had to scribble them down real quick before they were erased,

979
00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:55,360
Speaker 1: and there was no comprehension whatsoever. So the court program

980
00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:59,399
Speaker 1: that Carolyn created UM is part teaching kids to read,

981
00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:02,600
Speaker 1: but it's also a part teaching teachers how to teach

982
00:53:02,719 --> 00:53:05,719
Speaker 1: kids to read. So instead of just standing there and

983
00:53:05,800 --> 00:53:08,760
Speaker 1: reading very quickly from a book, it involves like reading

984
00:53:08,800 --> 00:53:11,600
Speaker 1: in a very big voice and like like you read

985
00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:15,239
Speaker 1: to kids, and then showing them the pictures so they're comprehending.

986
00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:18,200
Speaker 1: There's not just a string of letters. There's comprehension to

987
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:20,520
Speaker 1: the word. Sure. I mean, I wasn't any impression. It's

988
00:53:20,520 --> 00:53:23,800
Speaker 1: more for the teachers because they had never seen books either. Well, no,

989
00:53:23,920 --> 00:53:26,480
Speaker 1: it's part for the kids too, because remember the books

990
00:53:26,520 --> 00:53:31,399
Speaker 1: get translated into a UM a picture book, and then

991
00:53:31,440 --> 00:53:35,359
Speaker 1: a play and then I think another big book. So

992
00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:38,120
Speaker 1: technically this one book that they start off with, by

993
00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:40,640
Speaker 1: the end of the week they have three books and

994
00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:42,840
Speaker 1: they've made a play out of it. So they have

995
00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:46,680
Speaker 1: a book down flat in in in a week. Pretty awesome. Again.

996
00:53:52,280 --> 00:53:54,799
Speaker 1: So that's the end of part one of S Y

997
00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:58,440
Speaker 1: s K is Guatemalan Adventure. Uh, the exciting conclusion is

998
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:01,600
Speaker 1: coming up on Thursday, and stick around after these words

999
00:54:01,640 --> 00:54:04,600
Speaker 1: to hear how you can buy student textbooks for life

1000
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:09,000
Speaker 1: with just a five dollar text donation. This episode of

1001
00:54:09,120 --> 00:54:11,399
Speaker 1: Stuff you should know. It's brought to you by go

1002
00:54:11,520 --> 00:54:14,440
Speaker 1: to Meeting, the affordable way to meet with clients and

1003
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:17,560
Speaker 1: colleagues for your free thirty day trial is it go

1004
00:54:17,719 --> 00:54:23,600
Speaker 1: to meeting dot com slash stock. Okay, folks, if you

1005
00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:25,600
Speaker 1: like what you've heard so far about the co Opera

1006
00:54:25,680 --> 00:54:28,920
Speaker 1: for Education and you want to support them, you can

1007
00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:31,719
Speaker 1: do so with just a five dollar text donation. And

1008
00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:35,640
Speaker 1: here's how it works. Just text the words stuff stuff

1009
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:39,720
Speaker 1: to two zero two to two and you will donate

1010
00:54:39,840 --> 00:54:42,520
Speaker 1: five dollars to help put a textbook into the hands

1011
00:54:42,560 --> 00:54:45,879
Speaker 1: of a Guatemalan child. You will receive a text back

1012
00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:48,360
Speaker 1: asking you to confirm the donation and just reply with

1013
00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:51,440
Speaker 1: the word yes to complete the donation, and you will

1014
00:54:51,480 --> 00:54:54,920
Speaker 1: see a one time five dollar charge on your wireless

1015
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1016
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1017
00:55:00,520 --> 00:55:03,759
Speaker 1: your mind before confirming the donation, which you shouldn't do,

1018
00:55:04,320 --> 00:55:06,880
Speaker 1: you can reply the word s t O P stop

1019
00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:09,480
Speaker 1: the two zero two two two, or if you need help,

1020
00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:12,920
Speaker 1: reply with the Word Help h e LP donations are

1021
00:55:12,960 --> 00:55:15,560
Speaker 1: collected by the Mobile Giving Foundation. For more info, you

1022
00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:18,640
Speaker 1: can call eight six six eight one oh one two

1023
00:55:18,760 --> 00:55:22,520
Speaker 1: zero three or go to h m g F dot

1024
00:55:22,719 --> 00:55:27,200
Speaker 1: org slash t so tune in Thursday for for the

1025
00:55:27,320 --> 00:55:32,800
Speaker 1: conclusion the exciting conclusion of s Y s k's Guatemalan adventure. Audios.

1026
00:55:37,160 --> 00:55:39,560
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, is

1027
00:55:39,640 --> 00:55:43,080
Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works,

1028
00:55:43,400 --> 00:55:45,520
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1029
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1030
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