Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe it’s a start of a new decade. Since August, I have probably spent more consecutive days living in Antigua, Guatemala than I have in Austin, TX, and I couldn’t have asked for a better place to end and start a new year. I’m sitting next to the beautiful private annexed pool in Porta Antigua Hotel, reflecting upon the projects and programs Cultural Embrace has accomplished in 2009, and motivated for a better 2010.

In 2009, we have sent over 40 participants to teach English (and other subjects, such as: history,  American culture, physics, computers, math, etc) in Chile, China, Mexico, Spain, and Thailand for at least a committed semester or school year.

We have organized dozens of volunteers to help at-need communities in Africa, Asia, Australia, Latin America, and Austin, TX from 1-52 weeks. Sample projects have included: building schools in Guatemala, helping with reforestation projects throughout Australia, the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, and Thailand, training at health/HIV clinics in Kenya, Thailand, Ecuador, and India, and tutoring kids and orphans in Argentina, Austin, China, Kenya, Nicaragua, Peru, South Africa, and Thailand.

Over 50 students or recent graduates have interned abroad gaining professional development in their field of study. Some of the interns’ needs were to earn academic credit, but all of them were focused on developing practical work skills in the global market. Examples of where and what some of these interns did are: working as an assistant for the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, coordinating events and cultural exchanges for Brazilian students to go abroad, marketing for businesses in the software, auto, language schools, radio/media, engineering, biotech, etc in Argentina, Spain, Australia, China, France, Costa Rica, and Brazil. Interns have also shadowed doctors in clinics and hospitals in Costa Rica, Ecuador, India, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Peru.

We have had over 25 young adults work in the hospitality and non-technical fields in Australia, Spain, France, and New Zealand. They have worked in hotels, restaurants, chateaus, golf and ski resorts, farms, and families as au pair/nannies. This is a great chance for them to earn a local wage, afford to live, work, and travel abroad, make new friends and professional contacts, and gain a sense of independence, responsibility, and global mindset.

Every business needs to set daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual goals. The New Year is an obvious time to lay down new resolutions and aspirations, and to increase and improve our services to encourage people to recognize and appreciate cultural diversity. We plan to build deeper relationships with at-need communities, by ‘sponsoring’ and facilitating their projects. I am starting with Guatemala, and developing relationships with several project leaders to discuss ways that Cultural Embrace may assist with marketing, fundraising, and providing awareness and guidance in building sustainability within their village. Plans to sponsor communities in Kenya, and India in 2010 are in the works.

I encourage you to put international travel on your New Year’s resolution list for 2010. There is no better way to balance your personal, professional, and spiritual state of mind than by going abroad. Cultural Embrace and I are committed to provide you the service that will allow you to have a safe, healthy, and memorable experience to...“Discover the Similarities…Share the Differences” of this beautiful world.  Feliz Ano! I look forward to making this the best year and decade!    

Feliz Navidad desde Guatemala! I’m currently curled up in bed, on a chilly Christmas morning in Antigua, listening to one of my favorite classic Christmas song, “Silent Night,” and thought this would be a perfect theme for a blog. I’m celebrating my first Guatemalan Christmas, which began last night.

Guatemala is a Christian dominated country, with ~50-60% Catholics and ~40% Protestants, so Christmas is celebrated throughout the nation. Although it doesn't feel like Christmas, without the "White Christmas” that most of you in North America are experiencing, I have been reminded of Christmas through the singing lights, daily evening processions around town, Santas that walk around Parque Centrale, and…the bombas!

Families, particularly the kids, light firecrackers and firework to celebrate the holiday season (I’m still trying to figure out what day it starts, but more importantly, when it will end!) I thought I was a veteran with pyromaniacs setting off loud and fearsome firecrackers during my travels in China during Lunar New Year 1997, but last night’s Christmas Eve in Guatemala 2009 topped the charts.

Most businesses close early on Christmas Eve and all day on Christmas, so employees are able to spend the holidays with their friends and families, while churches offer several services throughout the day and night. I thought it was going to be a 'silent' and mellow night being away from home and family, so I joined my new foreign friends as we wandered around town, found the sparse restaurants, bars and cafes that were open, and attended a 10pm mass at the main Cathedral.

It was a beautiful service, even though we couldn’t understand 98% of it, due to language barrier and unfamiliarity of Catholicism, but the spirit of the mass, people, and the occasion filled the overflowing cathedral. After church service, we ended up walking around a park that still had street vendors, and enjoyed their poncho--a hot drink, that is traditionally made and served at Christmas. It is filled with all different types of fruit (pineapple, coconut, papaya, apples, grapes, oranges, plums, etc) cooked and simmered for several hours to bring a natural and delicious sweet and fruity taste. Guatemalans often spike it with rum to make a delicious Christmas cocktail.

We were sitting on a park bench, talking about life and solving world’s problems, when suddenly every street was filled with torpedo sounding, fireworks spraying, bee buzzin’, bomba blasting away! It was midnight and that’s when everyone lit firecrackers together… and that was just the beginning of their celebration! Midnight is when the families get together, eat a festive meal (usually tamales, ham, and lots of other yummy goodness), open their presents, sing, dance, and celebrate the birth of Jesus!

The streets and town were filled with clouds of smoke from the firecrackers, and I could hear cheers, music, and laughter. Although it may have been the antithesis of a “Silent Night,” but definitely a MERRY Christmas!!

I wish this blog finds you with a day full of peace, love, happiness, generosity, kindness and goodwill.

PS: While typing this blog up, the streets of Antigua were filled with yet another set of bomba blasts! It's noon...so let the festivities begin each time both hands reaches to the top of the clock!! :-D 

It’s hard to believe that I left Austin less than a week ago. I feel like every day is packed with a month (at least) long worth of memories. I have to admit, it is hard for me to express in words some of the sites that I’m seeing, as well as what I am thinking, because it’s hard to digest some of the living conditions of the people in this beautiful country.

One of the villages that I visited on Sunday and Tuesday is called San Mateo Milpas Altas. It is located ~15 minutes car ride, or 30 minutes by bus (about 2-3 buses a day) from Antigua. I met an amazing woman, Judith Lopez, who I felt immediately comfortable with in my broken Spanish (it helps that she is a Spanish teacher and VERY patient), just from our initial handshake and hug. Judith fought (literally, physically) with her parents, as well with social norms, to be the first woman in her village to graduate, let alone attend, University.  She studied socioeconomics, and returned back to San Mateo to use her studies to improve her own community. In 1999, she heard a knock at the door, and there were two poor children, asking for food and a place to sleep. Judith and her husband, Juan, opened their doors to these kids, and haven’t closed it since. Prodesenh was created, now helping over 120 children in a day, as well as the adults in San Mateo, to support and improve their education, life skills, and living conditions.

Many of the children are orphans living at Prodesenh or with neighbors or relatives. Some have at least one parent, but are unable or unwilling to care for their own children. Financial burden, alcoholism, lack of education and resources are common reasons these children are neglected at home (and school). Many of the parents are not available, either because they are seeking work, or they are alcoholics (prevalent of fathers in the rural areas). However, if and when the fathers return home, many are physically, mentally, sexually, verbally, and emotionally abusive to their wife and children. Many of the children and woman go to Prodesenh to find solace and love.

This past Sunday, Judith and Juan invited two American volunteers from South Jersey, USA, an intern from Quebec, Canada, and I to attend Prodesenh’s Christmas party. There were about 60 children, from infants to 13 years old, and about 10 adults from San Mateo all sitting in a room, probably no bigger than my living room back in Austin. Not only was it warm and cozy due to the tight sitting quarters, but you could feel the warmth and love between the children, Judith and Juan. I would have never imagined that I could spend over 5 hours in a roomful of 60 children, but for some reason, time flew by, and I everyone had a great night. The children were so well behaved, eager for the next performance, enthusiastic to hold our hands, and listen to Judith and Juan emcee the program. They put on a whole production--with songs, poems, dances, games, piñatas, gifts, food, and a Christmas play. The children’s smiles were from ear to ear…my smile was spread across my face!

My friends and staff often say that I work too much...which is probably true, but I love what I do, so I hardly consider it ‘work’…I mean, working in Antigua, Guatemala for a month, isn’t too shabby, huh? But I try to balance my mind, body, and spirit by reading, exercising, and embracing my faith. For me, there is nothing better to end a day than with a good workout. It gives me time to process the day, and relieves some of the ‘unforeseen fires’ that happens in an international service-industry. Plus, the calories inhaled from the boxes of Wheat Thins, bags of Twizzlers, and cans of cashews that I snack on at my desk needs to be burned. Today is no different, and I would like to share how I 'unwind' at the gym in Antigua.

There are two gyms in Antigua city. I joined La Fabrica, just two blocks from my apartment, and it reminds me of the ‘old school’ boxing gyms. Second hand Lifecycle equipments, rusted free weights, and some other ropey-hung apparatus that I’m too afraid to know. There was a salsa dance class in session when I got there. Even though it was a principiantes (beginners) class, it seemed A LOT harder than my best Shakira shimmy efforts could EVER handle. So, I got on the elliptical, pressed some buttons that I couldn’t understand, and trotted along. From across the room, I noticed this middle-aged professional lady scrambling in to the gym. She apparently was having a Manic Monday, and late for the salsa class. I noticed her not only because of her frazzled state, but because she was wearing 3-inch stiletto heels! I don’t understand how she is able to walk in them on leveled floor, let alone on Antigua’s cobble-stoned streets. But then, she rushed in to the exercise group room, stepped in line, and joined the class, not missing a single beat…business attire, stiletto heels, and all!

After about an hour, I was wrapping up my workout, and in came a local guy, wearing Ivan Lendl replicated wristbands, hair greased back similar to Danny Zucco of Grease, and parachute pants that MC Hammer could never touch. I HAD to stay and see what this class was all about. I asked the customer service rep behind the gated front desk what class was next, and he said, “Tae Bo!”

Pinch me!! Boxing was one of my favorite workouts back in Austin, until I tore some cartilage this past summer, and Tae Bo…seriously?!?! Billy Blanks was my best friend in the late nineties, and worked out to his VHS tapes daily! It was meant to be…my first Guatemalan group exercise class…with Rico Suave serving as the Guatemalan Billy Blanks.

In the beginning, I was guarding my left knee and trying to be careful on it, but once you got salsa and merengue music blaring at the loudest volume (unfortunately the louder the better in Guate...), and Guatemalan Billy shouting “mas rapido”, I was flailing my legs and arms just trying to keep up.  I recall Billy Blank’s “double time,” but here, the pace seemed to be at quadruple speed. The music was so fast it sounded like the Chipmunks on steroids.

Low and behold, I survived my first Guatemalan group exercise class. I hobbled back home, not sure if it was because my knee is inflamed, or the difficulties of walking on the cobble-stoned streets (plus without street lights), but then I thought of that lady, and how she mastered walking on the streets, and taking salsa class in those heels. We’ll see if I am able ‘shake a bon bon’ in the salsa class (with Nikes on) at my next gym visit…

It has taken me two full days to digest that even though I am abroad, I am “home” for the rest of the year. It's quite ironic because Guatemala was my last 'backpacking' adventure that my former St. Louis roommate and I took, at the end of 2000, before I moved to Austin, Texas. It reconfirms my surreal and time-warped mind frame wondering…how did nine years just go by?!?

However, there are noticeable changes from my ‘backpacking’ days and running my own business. I recall the days of chasing after a crowded chicken bus with sheep tied to the roof, sweating with a backpack over my shoulder, and realizing my traveling companions and I arrived in a foreign country without a guidebook or plan. Or playing ‘rock, paper, scissor’ to decide who had first dibs on the bunk beds, even though the winner wasn’t sure whether the top or the bottom mattress was the better pick. Thus, having an organized airport pick-up (which we include in all our Volunteer programs), and a receiving line of the whole staff welcoming me upon my return to my partnering language school (the one I used backpacking in 2000), with a private apartment with cable modem made me feel a bit older (just a wee), and more mature, well, ok, maybe more professional.

I forgot to pack my guidebook again, but I consider that to be the small stuff not to sweat over, especially since I’m in such good hands with our local coordinators; but as for a plan…that is why I am here! Cultural Embrace currently sends individuals and groups to learn Spanish, volunteer at social projects, embrace cultural activities, such as: cooking classes, salsa dance lessons, bike tours around banana and coffee plantations, and take excursions in Guatemala, as well as many other neighboring countries in Latin America. But now, one of my goals for 2010 will be to “sponsor” a few communities around the globe. I would like to invest more awareness and client participation, and essentially take their needs ‘under our wings’ to provide funding and assistance to improve their living conditions.

I’m starting this plan in Guatemala, and using charming Antigua as ‘home-base’. This is a lovely cobble-stoned town, quaint in size, safe and convenient for foreigners, close in proximity to the new and modern La Aurora international airport in Guatemala City, and only 20-30 minutes drive by car to the project sites. I am going to visit the different communities, and decide which village I feel partial to, and will devise a short and long term plan with their leaders, men, women, and children to improve their educational and social welfare.

Although I am a bit nostalgic being away from my family and friends during the holidays, I am however, excited and anxious to ring in the New Year with meaningful and specific goals for 2010. I am looking forward to developing new friendships and building a closer bond with my Guatemalan family and “home”. I will be sharing my experiences on this blog at least 3x a week, and invite you to provide feedback, opinions, questions, or suggestions to help prepare for my plan. Since meeting Juan Carlos, my Guatemalan coordinator, in 2000, he ends every conversation, email, and telephone call with an expression, that remains so true to this day…”Mi Casa es Tu Casa!”
 

Cultural Embrace's Julie Dean Coordinates all the teach, intern, and volunteer placements in Asia. This month we're featuring the opportunity to teach in Thailand, and Julie provides her expert insight of the Thailand program details below. 

Q: Why is this placement so cool? What are the benefits?
A: Thailand is the "country of smiles" where the people are friendly and teachers find themselves quickly immersed in a beautiful culture. The benefits include: making a difference and gaining practical experience as a teacher, an intensive orientation with fun excursions in Bangkok, pre-negotiated salary and accommodation and negotiable return airfare for 10 month placements beginning in May. 

Q: Who would be ideal for this placement?
A: English speaking, college graduate with a passion for new cultures, kids and adventures. Teach positions open for any educational background to teach English and specifically for Science and Math degrees. 

Q: When is the start date, and when is the best time to apply?
A: May Start Dates:
• Feb 8: final application deadline
• May 9 - 15 orientation (must arrive to Thailand no later than May 8th)

October Start Dates:
• July 13: final application deadline
• Oct 14 - 20 orientation (must arrive to Thailand no later than Oct 13th) 

Q: What feedback have you head from participants and what can those interested in the program expect?
A: Our participants love being a special asset to the community where they are teaching. They experience a wonderful introduction to the culture and to teaching English during the orientation and then dive into a life changing experience at their school placements. Participants thrive on being both the teacher and the student during their adventure abroad!