Nebaj...

My team and I just finished our first project trip in Guatemala. The project was in a small town called Nebaj in the highlands of north Guatemala in the Ixil region. It took about 8 hours to drive to Nebaj from the capital city. When we finally arrived in the town it was completely overcast and raining, which was a same because Nebaj lays in a beautiful, green, lush valley. The town itself was small but charming. The people mostly dressed in the traditional attire and many spoke the regional language of Ixil.

For the design project we partnered with an organization called the Agros foundation. Agros had already purchased a large plot of land (maybe 20 acres) and planned to construct several buildings that would eventually include offices, classrooms, hostels, an auditorium, a meeting center, several workshops, and greenhouses. Our job was to assess the master plan for the project that they already drafted, design water and electrical master plans for the site, and fully design the first workshop building which would be the carpentry workshop.

Our team was made up of Tom and John from the EMI staff, me and the other four interns, and about six design professionals from the States. Each volunteer from the States represented a certain specialty and was responsible for that aspect of the trip. I got paired up with a guy named Ben from Denver whose specialty was water. It was great to work along side him and learn a great deal about designing a water distribution system and sanitary sewer system for the site. Although he was by far the youngest of the volunteers, he proved to be quite knowledgeable and really fun to work with!


We ended up making some very large changes in the master plan as far as locations of buildings and overall layout. The Agros staff was hesitant at first but ended up really embracing the changes. The project trip was very successful and we made our final presentation to the Agros ministry on Friday morning. The staff was very happy with the progress that our team had made throughout the week and very thankful for out help. They feel like they can really get aggressive about fund raising now that they have a very detailed plan of action for the site.

I really enjoyed our time in Nebaj. It definitely brought back fond memories from my time in Bolivia. The people and the indigenous culture are very similar to Bolivia. We even found a pretty large population of shoe shiners in the main plaza!


We spent Friday afternoon walking through the town and doing some shopping at the local market. We also received a presentation from the women that work for Agros in the area of textiles. They go to various Agros villages and teach the local women how to weave and create beautiful items to sell to tourists and locals. Several of us bought some of their products and some of the coffee that is grown at Agros villages.