Chanel Adikuono 7/16/17 Chanel Adikuono 7/16/17

8 Days in Guatemala & Indigenous Women's Rights

Hello, friends! I have risen from the grave. I am in a major blog backlog. I promise I will eventually write about my trips from Iceland, Canada & Colombia. For today, I decided to take baby steps, and write about my service trip to Guatemala in March.

My decision to embark on this trip to Guatemala was an unconventional one, because it required me to go outside of my comfort zone, and fundraise $4,300 through Generosity! As they say, "If You Never Try You'll Never Know".

I applied to the Tech2Empower (T2E) program through a women's empowerment non-profit, WAKE International. I had heard about WAKE when I was job searching a year ago looking around for international development organizations in the Bay Area. The International Development field is often more prominent in the DMV (DC Metro Virginia) area. I moved back from DC a year prior to be closer to my family who are rooted in SoCal. When I found out about WAKE it was love at first sight. I knew I wanted to be involved in, "amplifying the work of women leading change globally".

The Tech2Empower applications came out in November, and although this program is targeted towards women in the tech / in the start-up field, I took my chances- applied, and was accepted into the Program to join thirteen other Advisors. Many of the women who participated also have the benefits of tech giants such as Google, YouTube or GE to sponsor their program costs through their match program.

So why did I apply you ask? Prior to transitioning to the international development field, in my past life I was a marketer and communications strategists for tech/start-up companies. During my Graduate program I maintained that involvement as a Communications Chair as part of my Graduate student organization. I felt I have the skills to provide from both fields to help Indigenous Women's Rights Non-Profit Organizations across Latin America gain these similar skills. Although I did not have the tech giant sponsorship support, I fundraised the old-fashion way. I originally felt crowd funding was "begging" for money. I set my ego aside, and went for it. In fact, I learned that crowd funding was a smart and empowering way to raise funds; and taught me there's free money out there if you look for it!

I am blessed to be surrounded by supportive family and friends. Especially fellow womyn warriors (& a few woke men) who believed in the cause of fighting for the rights of indigenous women in Guatemala. The first couple of months I received more support than I would hoped for, I fundraised $1,200 from family, and friends. After some negotiating, the Founders of WAKE also agreed to reduce my cost program cost to $3,400 by rooming with another Advisor. I jumped at the opportunity. More significantly, my dear friend Heesun the Co-Founder of the Me Want Travel blog -check it out on more travel tips! Who also works for a large organization had a match program that she donated to me! Her company matched $1,000 of my crowd funding. I found a way to fund for the rest of $1,200 by being frugal with my expenses aka eating Indo Mie (Google it if you haven't heard of it) for the next three months.

Now the journey begins!

*Disclosure, this trip was majority pre-planned by WAKE, and many tours and details were preset.

General Tips:

Concerned about Zika? I bought lemongrass repellant bracelets on Amazon to shoo away the mosquitos. Except I would not worry about this too much since I did not get too many mosquitos bothering me that I had hoped -- mosquitos love me. Maybe because these repellant bracelets were effective?
Learn basic Spanish, because there's nothing than showing respect to the country you are traveling to by learning a little bit about their language
Guatemalan stores prefer cash - Quetzal or Dollars. It is important your bills are CRISP. I mean CRISP newly printed, from the bank status. The reason being, the Guatemalan banks will not take crumpled, torn, stained, or written Dollars or Quetzal. I missed this memo, and struggled / often found myself using my no-international fee Chase Sapphire Reserve card.
March in Guatemala is mild weather- gradually rising daily high temperatures, if you plan to travel in the summer be sure to pack loose/ cool clothes.
Guatemala is textile heaven, when purchasing textiles do not get them in Antigua or major tourist cities. As they are often marked up, and profits do not go directly to indigenous women. Rather go to indigenous regions like San Pedro or Solola, Lake Atitlan, and purchase them at the coops as they will come from the source, and the profits directly benefit indigenous women.
Do not drink/brush your teeth with tap water. I have never experienced being sick from brushing my teeth with tap water anywhere I have traveled, and this is just for those who are overly pre-cautious. The hotel we stayed at had pre-prepared filtered jug of water in the rooms. It was my personal choice, and felt wasteful to brush with filtered water. Unless you swallow your water when brushing your teeth, I don't think this was necessary.

Day 1

Orientation over breakfast
Visit women artisan cooperative in San Juan del Obispo
Lunch and discussion with women's rights leaders
Cooking class and dinner at La Fonda de la Calle Real

Highlight: I was inspired by the bravery, and creativity of the women owned artisan coops. To start-up their own small businesses in a male-dominated field, and to invest their own money to make their dreams come true takes a lot of guts. The average women in Guatemala only earns $7-8/day.

Owner of Chocolate D'Taza, and our Tour Guide from Elizabeth Bell!

Day 2

Walking tour of Antigua with Elizabeth Bell Tours and free lunch
Workshop preparation meeting
Group dinner at Los Tres Tiempos

Highlight: Before leading the T2E workshops it was essential for us to understand the history of Guatemala, and the reason why the country faces so much inequality mainly faced by indigenous women who make up 60% of the countries population. According to Amnesty International, 631 women were sexually abused and killed in 2011 alone, and 5,700 in the past 10 years due to Guatemala’s long battle with the country’s internal armed conflict. Despite numerous laws being passed aimed at the protection of women especially indigenous women who are often the most vulnerable population because of their unequal position in society, barriers in accessing justice- discrimination, and mistrust in the judicial system (United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 2016) very few cases are investigated and almost none result in a conviction.

Day 3

T2E Workshop for Women's Rights Leaders (Day 1)
Trainings at ImpactHub Antigua
Group dinner with workshop participants at La Fonda de la Calle Real

Highlight: I think many of us who grew up in the age of technology take tech skills such as knowing how to use Google Docs, utilizing social media, and web designing on Square space or Tumblr take it for granted. Heck, we take having free wi-fi for granted. For over of these 12 organizations they are still in the "crawling" stage of their technology literacy. The leaders of these women right's leaders organization were grateful we presented the tech tools, and resources in a non-intimidating approach.

Day 4

T2E workshop for Women's Rights Leaders (Day 2)
Trainings + Women in Tech Forum + Happy Hour @ImpactHub

Highlight: workshop participants learned about Canva, social media strategy, and elevator pitch & branding. Advisors relocated to the ImpactHub, an innovation lab and business incubator to listen to our fellow Advisors from Google, YouTube, and MobileIron for a Tech Panel. They provided advice of how they became successful in their tech roles, resources to get better in tech, and what are tips to navigate a male dominated field. For many of the attendees they were starstruck to meet womyn tech leaders from big name tech giants.

Day 5

Depart early morning to Lake Atitlan via tour van
Dia de la Mujer Celebration at Star Fish Impact School
Home visits and lunch with Starfish students in village of Solola
Dinner at Casa del Mundo

Our van, and taking a roadside pee break

Adelita, Starfish Graduate runs grade school out of her Mother's home. This is her classroom where she teaches in the summer. She is the first out of seven children to attend University in Guatemala City.

Day 6

Women's leadership/ career session with Starfish graduates
Dinner in Panajachel
Cas del Mundo dinner

Day 7

All-day hike to San Pedro Volcano Climb with Mayan Life Travel
Lunch at San Pedro after Volcano climb
Dinner at Casa Del Mundo

Day 8

Leave Lake Atitalna
Visit San Juan Cooperatives, Nawal reading, shopping and lunch
Travel back to Antigua for Departure

Chanel Adikuono 6/8/16 Chanel Adikuono 6/8/16

Thirteen Days in Japan- Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima

My Japan trip was intended as a graduation present to myself in 2015 for defeating Graduate school, and getting my Masters in International Relations (IR) at one of the top IR school's in the world, School of International Service in Washington, DC. More significantly, this trip was my "coming home" trip to my homeland of Jakarta, Indonesia. I immigrated to the US when I was nine years old. Due to my green card status, I did not have the opportunity, and privilege to visit back home. By the time I was able to obtain my citizenship, and I was old enough to travel, college came around and took up most of my time to do leisurely things. Then my first full-time job kicked-in, and you know how the pattern of "adulting" takes place.

The initial travel plan was to go to Indonesia. Recognizing the over than eighteen hours of flight I decided to maximize the cross country trip. At this time, my good high school friend Xyryl had been in missionary with her church in Hiroshima. She kindly offered for me to stay with her and her church housing in Hiroshima! Naturally, I decided to make a stop over to Japan before heading over to Indonesia.

As I was planning for Japan, serendipitously a good coworker of mine, Alex was accepted into the Malaysia-Indonesia abroad Graduate program. She wanted to travel before her program, and I lured her to join in the Japan adventure! We ended up overlapping a few days, and did a few days of travel throughout various parts of Japan together. In summary, Japan was a trip of a thousand steps. I am pretty sure I took fifty thousand. Who knows? I don't own a fitbit. Therefore, I will breakdown this blog into each city I visited.

A few ground rules in Japan Overall:

People walk and stand on the opposite side of the road as the US would. So stand on your left, and walk on the right!
Japanese people also take their lines seriously, I have never seen the most organized subway entrance during rush hour. They actually form single lines on the train platforms, theres none of that US barbaric clumping on the sides of the door situation
Japanese citizens are very polite, bow, and say "thank you" frequently. In general, they have a code of good citizenry. When you are lost, although their English is not as good using non-verbal language goes a long way. They will walk you to your train station no matter how many times you insist that they get back to their schedules. Do not be alarmed, they want to help you, and unlike many other countries do not be wary; their intentions are good
Food carry out does not exist, do not bother asking to take your leftovers to go
Japanese people also do not believe in modifying their dishes. It is an insult to request for certain parts of the food to be taken out. They do not understand that you are vegan, vegetarian, and/or could possibly die from peanut allergies (not sure how they manage this)
Eating while walking is frowned upon. Street foods are hard to come by, and if you do find one they often encourage you to stand and eat around their stalls before you conclude your journey
Expect to keep all your trash in your bag, because you will hardly see the sight of trash cans. As this is part of the culture of discouraging polluting
Bring a coin purse, because they only have paper currency for big bills, and everything else are coins

Tips

Purchase your JR Rail Pass in advanced. I bought a 7-day JR Rail Pass, which allows unlimited access to the JR Express, JR Bullet Trains, and JR Local, which will get you to all of the key destinations across Japan
In addition to the JR, there are also local Japan trains in each major city. Each station has their own automatic machine, and generally you buy this at the time of travel
The Ghibli Museum, is the famous Japanese Animation studio, and features the creators of Totoro, Spirited Away, and all other famous Miyazaki animation film, and the like. I encourage you to book your ticket months in advanced, and this requires you to go to the Japanese embassy to obtain. Read on their website thoroughly
Most amusement parks i.e. Disneyland after 5pm have discounted tickets of 50%. You probably didn't go to Japan to go to Disneyland or Harry Potter World, but if you did save money
Japanese hostels are the way to go. Japan is known for efficient and compact room, and boarding. You can choose between your Western style hotels or the Ryokan style housing or the ultra modern capsule rooms. The options are endless.
1. Tokyo- I choose the Anne Hostel, four-shared room in the Tatami Mat style (sleeping on the floor, but don't let it fool you they are quite comfortable)
2. Kyoto- I choose a budget hotel, Daiwa Roynet through Japanican.com for a decent price, and I JR trained over to Osaka for a day-trip, and JR trained back. Kyoto to Osaka is only an hour-ish away
3. Hiroshima- Courtesy of Xyryl, but I would have stayed in a hostel or AirBnB otherwise. You can also go to Miyajima from Hiroshima (3 hours trip)
As for sight-seeing, I did the bulk of mine solo. I like to explore around on my own, and not feel rushed. I had to compromise in Kyoto as I was limited on time. The one tour I do recommend is the Kyoto Morning Tour, and you can purchase other tours/ events, and even lodging through Japanican.com.

Finally the journey!

Tokyo (4 Days)

Ueno Park with Alex

Cute carousels themed after Japanese children shows.

The park had many temples and shrines located throughout the park.

Shinjuku Gyoen National Park

Meiji Shrine

Shibuya Crossing

The calm before all the pedestrians on the periphery start to cross simultaneously from all directions.

Senso-Ji

This was one of the more impossible places to take pictures without tourists photobombing. The energy was fun here, because there were so many activities going on- hundreds of souvenir stalls, and street food stalls.

Tsujiki Fish Market

Japan set the highest of standards and bar of eating sushi for me for the rest of my life. Here is the raw tuna with seared fatty tuna.

Ryogoku- "Sumo Wrestle Town"

I made a new friend during my hostel stay! Meet Chloe pictured below. Alex had already gone to her next destination in Japan, and I needed an extension in my hostel. I opted for the 12 shared female dorm. Chloe was my bunk mate, and she's from New England. She's super rad, and was totally down to go see a Sumo, and eat raw fish with me. Even if she didn't like sushi or she thought she didn't. Until she tried Tsujiki fresh sushi!! Unfortunately, the Sumo matches were all out of season when we were there, and we happen to run into these Sumo wrestlers taking a break in the alley. Like creepers we asked for their pictures hoping they wouldn't beat us up.