This guest post is brought to you by Fatima Castro, a recent graduate of Winthrop University and one of seven students who traveled with Kelly Campbell of the Village Experience and me to Guatemala. It was awesome to see Fatima translate for our group. She was totally in her element. I could see her living in the mountains of Guatemala connecting languages and cultures. I pretty much appointed myself as her career coach. Her parents should be worried.
What a great honor it is to share a little of my experience in Guatemala with Kelsey, Kelly, Jennifer and my classmates! The trip made for the best graduation gift ever.
This guest post is brought to you by Ali Jensen, a junior at Winthrop University studying biology and one of seven students who traveled with Kelly Campbell of the Village Experience and me to Guatemala. It was awesome to see Ali connect her passion for biology and medicine with the experiences we had on our trip.
Often times in the states, kids don’t always like the food their parents prepare for them. So usually the parents just make something else, or don’t make that particular food for their child anymore. Kids in Guatemala don’t have that option. They…
This guest post is brought to you by Anita Harris, a junior at Winthrop University studying mass communications with a minor in Spanish, and one of seven students who traveled with Kelly Campbell of the Village Experience and me to Guatemala. Anita loves people. She said that this trip didn’t just enlighten her about where her clothes come from, but it also immersed her in a Spanish speaking culture for the first time. Anita’s cancer as a child impaired her vision, but she doesn’t let it stop her. She walked up mountains and zip lined. It was an absolute honor to travel…
I traveled with 7 awesome co-eds from Winthrop University. I was the only dude on the trip. Here’s what I learned:
1) If I don’t wear my glasses, I almost look like I could be in college…if it weren’t for my hair line.
2) The Oakley’s that I’ve had for a decade are out of style, while the fluorescent Ray-Bans from my youth are back.
3) I’m old enough to be a college freshman’s father.
4) Girls spend less time trying to be cool and more time laughing and snorting. For instance, if you throw in a couple of dudes, we probably wouldn’t have had a 100% participation rate in singing along to cheesy 80s videos at a pizza place in Antigua.
This guest post is brought to you by Callan Gaines, a sophomore at Winthrop University and one of seven students who traveled with Kelly Campbell of the Village Experience and me to Guatemala. She’s an artist studying interior design and has a laugh that can be heard over the zip of a zip line.
Her post reminds me of something designer Bibi Russell told me in Bangladesh: “Beauty lies in poverty.”
When traveling abroad, it is awesome how much you can learn about yourself and this incredible world we have.
My first trip abroad was to the beautiful Latin American country of…
I’m on a trip with Winthrop University in Guatemala. I’m the only dude.
A few theories as to why this is the case:
1. This trip arranged and led by Kelly Campbell at the Village Experience was billed as a trip with Kelsey Timmerman, and the ladies love me.
2. I’m told that about 70% of the students enrolled in Winthrop are girls. So that means our group of 7 would only have to have two dudes to strike the right proportion.
3. Dudes suck.
Yeah, so number one is ridiculous, but I had to say it. Guatemala is the big seller here.
We’re left with a combination of 2 and 3.
I think what we’re witnessing here, and what I witness visiting countless universities, and volunteering in my community…
The other day I was digging through some old writing goals–circa 2005. One of the questions that I attempted to answer was, “What is the greatest good my writing can accomplish?
My answer went something like this:
“To introduce readers to people they wouldn’t normally meet, places they wouldn’t normally go, and issues they wouldn’t normally think about.”
I’m so honored to get to do this from the page and stage. Now, thanks to a partnership with The Village Experience, I’m on a trip in Guatemala with students from Winthrop University who read WHERE AM I WEARING? as their freshmen common reader experience. Over the course of the next week we’ll meet garment workers, coffee farmers, and visit fair trade cooperatives.
After I met Solo on a cocoa farm in Ivory Coast, and learned a bit of his story, I asked if we could talk somewhere where we wouldn’t have an entire village listening to us. We sat in his bare room, and he shared part of his story. At times he was speechless. We were constantly interrupted by his master. This is what he said…
There are about 160,000 Solos (Forced Adult Laborers) in the Ivory Coast cocoa industry. The cocoa farmers themselves have trouble making a living, let alone paying workers, so they hire guys like Solo. One farmer told me that if he earned about one-half of one penny more per chocolate bar he would be able to provide his family…
I met a slave when I visited a cocoa farm in Ivory Coast researching WHERE AM I EATING.
His name is Solo.
Shortly after we first met, a villager began recording Solo teaching me how to harvest cocoa. (As a writer, it’s rare that I capture such poignant moments on video.) I began to ask Solo about his life, where he was from, what he gets paid, when certain disturbing facts came to light:
1) He called his boss “master”
2) He had worked 4 months and hadn’t been paid
3) He told me that the donkeys are treated better than he is because at least they get fed when they don’t work
This guest post is brought to you by Fatima Castro, a recent graduate of Winthrop University and one of seven students who traveled with Kelly Campbell of the Village Experience and me to Guatemala. It was awesome to see Fatima translate for our group. She was totally in her element. I could see her living in the mountains of Guatemala connecting languages and cultures. I pretty much appointed myself as her career coach. Her parents should be worried. 
I’m on a trip with Winthrop University in Guatemala. I’m the only dude.