Q&A About Volunteering in San Juan Comalapa

Question: Is it expensive to fly to Guatemala?
Answer: My friend Jordan found a two week round trip ticket to Guatemala in June for 250$ Can cost as much as 500$

Question: How far is San Juan Comalapa from Guatemala city? Is it commutable?
Answer: Guatemala City is one hour from Comalapa by car. Bus is two hours.

Question: What is the end objective for LWH?
Answer: I was a Peace Corps Volunteer here in 2003. I was approached with the idea of helping Chuwi Tinamit build this ecological park for the community. Working with Chuwi Tinamit during my PC time i saw first hand that they are one of the very very few organizations serious about their work. That inspired me and I told them I would do what i could to help out. After working in the PC and coming back to the states, I realized that I was not done with development work in C.A. So I formed a board of directors, and applied with the IRS. The IRS approved.

Our plan for Proyecto Chimiya has always been to do the construction of the facilities and create the program development. Ultimately, we would like to teach the locals how to manage the facility and be able to walk away from it. That will take time and we are willing to invest it. LWH is the only part of this collaboration that is Gringo.

Question: Who currently lives in the house?
Answer: I live in the house right now with two volunteers.

Question: When was LWH founded and by whom?
Answer: LWH was founded in June 2004, and it was founded by me, Matthew Paneitz.

Question: Where/how does LWH receive its funding?
Answer: LWh´s money came from firewood that was cut and sold by volunteers during 2004. I also saved all of my pennies in 2004 and have been paying out of pocket.

LWH has 6 part-time stateside volunteers, and three in country full-time volunteers. Funding is a bit tough for a new organization. Nobody wants to give you anything because you have no history. Now we have history, albeit a very recent one. There are no locals working specifically for LWH. Locals usually want to be paid and we are volunteer group. We are working with an 8 person committee at Chuwi Tinamit and a three person committee from Aires. The work and responsibilities are divided evenly. Everybody that works for the two NGO´s are locals. They would ask EWB themselves, but nobody speaks english.

Question: Is there an opportunity to develop a long term relationship with LWH?
Answer: This is a great chance to develop a long term relationship with LWH. LWH is basically the eyes and ears in C.A. for org´s like EWB to find out who needs help and how possible it is. LWH could keep EWB´s working just in the villages near our town for a long time.

Question: Where are you from and what is your background?
Answer: I was born in Missouri, moved to Texas at age 4 and stayed there until i moved to Virginia in 1999. My professional life has been as a Paramedic and a PC Volunteer. I am single, I have no kids and I will be 30 in September.

Question: Is your organization affiliated with a religion?
Answer: We are NOT affiliated with any religion.

Question: Do you have electricity on site?
Answer: We lived without electricity until April 2005. At this time we do have dependable electricity.

Question: How do you currently run the 5 hp pump?
Answer: The pump is run with diesel.