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