May 20, 2010 • 46 mins
Josh and Chuck talk more about their experiences in Guatemala and the amazing work that the non-profit group Cooperative for Education is doing there -- and how you can help! -- in part two of their Guatemala series.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from House Stuff Works dot Com. And now for the
exciting conclusion, it's s Y s K is Guatemalan Adventure.
(00:20):
Here we find team Stuff you Should Know about to
depart for their second school visit. So we take off
from there and we go to our second school for
our first Computer Center inauguration. And it's here, Chuck, that
we ran into one of my favorite people, Mr Howard Lab. Dude,
Howard Lab is one of the coolest, strangest dudes I've
(00:45):
ever met in my life. I'm just gonna go ahead
throw that out there, and he grows on you like
real quick. Remember when we first met him at the
hotel in Guatemala City. He came up and was shaking
our hand and wearing a Fannie pack and talking real fast,
and he was all smiles and he leaves in the
three of us cynics were like, that guy's weird. Then
we meet him again. Really, um, I think it was
(01:07):
before this one we got to hang out with him,
but by the time we interviewed him at this Computer
Center inauguration, we hearted Howard, Yes, we hearted him very
much and still do. Howard's a great guy, a stand
up guy, as I call him in one of the interviews,
that I don't think we're gonna use. So the computer
program Josh works a lot like the textbook program. UM.
But why should we talk about it when the truly
(01:29):
weird and awesome Howard Lob can describe it for us?
In large part, we typically work with larger schools and
a textbook program. Uh, if the school has fifty to
a hundred kids, you're good to go. It doesn't matter
a number of kids so much. But in the computer center, UM,
we typically look for schools that I have about two
d kids or more. That way you cover all the
(01:51):
costs and still keep that student contribution guns and you
have partners as well. Right, that's right. All of our
like Rotary Club, Mike Soft, UM, other foundations, et cetera
help us with that seed donation, and Microsoft as well
helps us with licenses. So that's an ongoing gift and
kind UM. And that that kind of starts that jump
(02:14):
starts the program, and then after that we look for
the communities to really make it self sustaining. We don't
expect donors to come back year after year to pay
the electric bill, to pay the to provide new computers. No,
the ideas it's kind of a prompt our promise to
the donors that their money is well spent um in
a in an effective way and that the community will
(02:35):
take that ball and run with it. So so that's
how it works in a nutshell. Um, much like the textbook,
revolving funds self sustainable. But the kids paid just a
little bit more money. Well, I think it's more frequent.
I think where they paid two dollars a year for
a textbook, they paid two bucks a month form a computer.
How is that what it is? Yeah? And um, but
(02:56):
you spread it over two hundred kids again in five years,
you have that self sufficient s grow fund um that
compared to replace all the computers. And the computers chuck
were they were nice computers. But there was something really
strange about them. Do you know what? It was? No Internet?
No Internet. They had a simulated internet. Here's what the
(03:20):
kids learn on these things they learn, these rural, poor
Guatemalan children are learning Microsoft Office programs courtesy of Microsoft,
one of their little partners, which is great. Yeah, I
think he mentions them in one of the clips. Okay,
they learn how to email, they learn in Carter, which
is might seem a little old fashioned to us, but
it's great for them, right and Windows movie Maker, and
(03:42):
they have a simulated Internet, so when they eventually get
out into the workforce and see the real Internet, they're
not like, what is this? What's going on? But it
will still be blown away. Yeah, I'm still blown away
on a daily basis. Right. But one of the things
that you were talking about that that blew you away was, Um,
these kids are just encountering computers for the first time,
(04:04):
and they were already making like power point slide shows
and stuff like that. Right. And um Howard was telling
us about, uh, some of the successes that have come
from these computer centers. Uh that cooperative for education a
k A. Co ed sponsors or sets up. Um and
uh he was talking about these kids that made a
T shirt company. Right, Yeah, let's hear that one. For example,
(04:27):
in a town not far from here, this um group
of girls broke into a group of four six students
and they did a project that we call Microsoft or
Project Off excuse me. And in this project they learned
to create a business usually it's as simulated business. In
this case, they made it a real business. And they
decided that they were going to create T shirts UM
(04:50):
to sell to UH, to sell to UH fellow classmates
and things like that. So they use Microsoft Sell to
create a budget, They used Microsoft PubL As Sure and
MovieMaker to create advertising material and like a fake a
mock tv ad UM, they worked with a local silk
(05:10):
screening company and created T shirts and started selling them.
And even though they graduated from middle school, they still
got this thing going. So so you've got kids going
from middle school and actually generating income for themselves, UM
and their families. How awesome is that? It is pretty sweet?
Really really cool? And Chuck it's uh he he tells
another story that we didn't use UM where kids in
(05:32):
in the surrounding or kids going to school who lived
in the surrounding area. It was all agriculture, all farming.
And so there's this ongoing debate over whether snow peas
or broccoli were more profitable, and UM, these kids did
data analysis of all the costs and outputs from broccoli
and from snow peas and found, in fact, snow peas
(05:53):
are actually more profitable and then they made a presentation
and gave it to the town and completely changed them
minds of all the farmers around there so they could
make more money. Pretty amazing. That is really amazing. Well,
it's so amazing that a guy like Howard quit his
good job in the United States to move to Guatemala.
(06:14):
Most of them, we should say, most of the co
ed UH coopetive education is based out of Cincinnati, and
most of them live there and they go to Guatemala
a few times a year, but they can work remotely
because of the Internet and all the great things there.
But a few of them actually live in country, and
Howard is one of those, and he gave up his
life in America. Of course he met a Guatemalan woman. Yeah,
(06:35):
I might add something to do with it. And here's
what he had to say about that. I think you've
seen today that the people here are very expressive, very
grateful for the help that we can bring to them. Uh,
the kids want to learn. The parents now know how
important education is, and that just that just feeds are
(06:58):
any emotion that we came to this country with um
and so it's it's kind of easy to help in
that sense. Um, and really in code. I think all
of us who work here have now find found a
way to to help development human development a little bit,
and we feel like it's like, maybe it's really having
an impact. It's we have a mechanism, a system that
(07:22):
provides a sustainability and that's key, you know, just to
donate something, drop it off and run. We've just seen
it over and over. It just doesn't work. So we
feel like we're kind of grateful that we have this
opportunity to help others. Um. That makes us happy. Hope
it makes them happy. Um, And we we'd like to
think it's having a real impact. And more, more and
(07:43):
more we measure our programs were between seeing good results. Awesome,
thank you sir. We meant you. Yeah, glad, I meant you. Guys,
We're glad we met Howard. Yeah, he's a cool guy,
very cool guy. So we go to the school and
they have a big shady tent set up, cool breeze blowing.
We're kind of out on the open range. Remember it
(08:05):
was like you could see for miles. Oh yeah, it
was great, very nice scene. They get this old guy
out there to play the harp. But it wasn't like
a regular harp. It was this like a harp guitar thing.
Do we have any of that harp music? Oh? Is that?
It is? That? It? I hear right now? That is it? Yeah?
That guy was good. He was very good and like
a hundred and thirty and he was very old. And
(08:27):
there was some ritual dancing. This is when the little
girls came over and picked us up and by the hand. Yeah,
and we danced with them. First of many humiliating moments
for a man. You're not a big public dancer. No,
I've got like that that like plastered grimace of like
embarrassment on my face. It's just horrible. Right. It was
very cute though, actually, and we had pictures of that
(08:47):
that we're gonna have on the website and fantastic. Uh.
We thought that we were going to see a live
chicken sacrifice right in front of our faces. It came
down to the last second. They're doing another traditional Um,
this one wasn't the corn dance? Is it just like
the symbolic sacrificing of the chicken. It was a it
was a Mayan dance, right, and they come out with
(09:10):
a live chicken and strangely enough, like earlier in that day.
They we've been told that Jeff told us as some
of the Mayan ruins they'll find like dead chickens. There's
still some blood sacrifices that that are carried on at
Mayan ruins. And so within four hours some kids walk
out with a live chicken in the middle of a
(09:30):
ceremonial dance, and we're like, are they really gonna do this?
And this girl like like dropped the chicken and lifted
it up and then just slid her hand right off
the end of its head, and the chicken was like yeah.
And there's literally like twenty Americans in this horseshoe configuration
within in the middle, all just thinking, oh my lord,
but again with the smiles, places like, hey, it's your
(09:52):
culture exactly. I don't want to knock it to each
his own right, and I haven't covered in chicken. But
luckily the chicken was spared and it was all symbolic
and we all breath the little side relief in the chicken,
and yeah, the chicken was glad too. They ate him
later that night, though, I'm sure. And then we went
to the computer lab and this is when the kids
actually paired us up and sat us down and they
(10:13):
showed us some of the things that they've been working on.
And that's when you really get to see the good
that co Ed's doing. When you sit down and you
see a Windows movie maker slide presentation that a kid
in Rurled, Guatemala made who had never seen a computer
six months ago. That's where it really hits home. And
that was it for that school. Yes, it was, it was.
(10:34):
It was a lot think computers, Howard, it sounds like
my high school experience. Uh So then we go to
the hotel Albert Gas Detech Pond, the weirdest hotel in Glanamala. Yeah,
it's a compound. It's not a hotel. It's a compound
surrounded by a high wall with razor wire. And the
(10:57):
best thing we could describe it was it looked like
the Michael Jackson of Guatemala might have owned the property
at one point. It was like a Neverland ranch. It
had these life size it was like a never Land
ranch that had been left out, exposed to the elements
for many, many years. It wasn't like nice and new looking.
They had like a life size chess game and these
(11:21):
yes statues all throughout the property. Each each area was
more unsettling than the last. It was a little weird,
but it was kind of cool for sure. And uh,
before dinner we went to h There was this girl
on the trip named Gabby. Yeah, Gabby was I would
call her the translator, but Gabby was like everything on
(11:41):
this trip. Yeah. She's definitely a jack of all trades
for co ED. Yeah. She she's the facilitator pretty much
anything we needed. Remember in Antique at the end, when
we were you're not supposed to give tours yourself because
they have like the city tour people are the only
people that are supposed to officially do that, and Gabby
like always headed them off at the past and like
explain to the cops what we were doing and they're
(12:03):
like all right, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, and that works
because she is a psychiologist, right, Yeah, that's her background.
She went to school, she's a psychologist. Like well, and
then she takes time off from her practice. Oh I
thought she quit her practice this, I know. She just
like takes time off and she's like, you guys go
nuts for a little while. I'm gonna go do some
co ED stuff. Right, So she's got a really good
(12:25):
gig she's educated. Uh, she is one of the more
fortunate people in Guatemala too, had not come from a
very poor family. Did we say she's Guatemala, Yeah, oh yeah,
she's Guatemalan. Did I not mention that? I don't know?
She's very Guatemalan and just an awesome, awesome person. And
we asked her why that she would, you know, leave
her practice, private practice to go work with coed like
(12:47):
she does, and she said this, how can I not
do it? How can I not believe in this. It's
my people, it's my country, it's my kids, and I
just love them. And I've have the chance, incredible chance
to meet some of them personally and just keep track
of them. And I see how they've been like no
in their houses, you don't speak any Castellano, any Spanish.
(13:09):
And then they're now they're learn English, they know computers.
They bought a piece of land and instead of farming,
they are constructing, and they're working in a They just
have my heart. And Josh's interview went on. She got
pretty emotional about what these kids and Guatemala mean to her,
and let's just hear what she had to say about that.
(13:30):
You can you can grasp or you can take count
with their fingers. This the kids that they're they have
so much strengthened them, and they're fighting and they're going
against everything. So you got the tissues out, buddy. I
know it's pretty moving. Yeah, it's really sweet. Um. I'm
(13:51):
one of those guys who's just like, yeah, yeah, you've
got a hard life whatever. But you know, when you
see somebody like Gabby who you almost you almost feel
for other people through somebody like that, you know, it
was real nice, that's another way to put it. So, Uh,
that was the end of our night. Had another awesome
(14:13):
dinner steak that night, remember yeah at that place at
the roadhouse. Yeah, it was like a roadhouse, and uh,
we go to our separate cabins and go to sleep.
Jerry had a really creepy went off in the woods.
Jerry was scared. First of all, Jerry made me walk
or to her cabin, and I'm thinking, I hope Jerry
doesn't try to put the moves on me and and um,
(14:38):
by the time we get to her cabin, it's been
like an hour and a half walk and now I
have to walk back in the dark by myself. But
it was scary. I was like, all right, see you later.
Good look and he helps the scream. It wasn't even
that far, but it's funny. Uh. Then we go the
next day, we go to an orphanage school and uh
we were late because Dan one of the guys on
(14:59):
the two her who was like, I'm so surprised Dan
just didn't end up walking in front of a horse
something like that. Like Dan just things just went wrong
for Dan. But he always had a great smile on
his Facebook. He couldn't find his alarm clock or something,
so he just kept sleeping. That was the first admitting
the tour was where's Dan? Incidences that happened? Dan was awesome. Uh.
(15:21):
So we we go to this orphanage school and what's
said about this one, Josh, is that it was an orphanage. Well,
a lot of these kids aren't true orphans, though a
lot of them are dropped off. They have parents and families,
but their parents know that they can't provide the life
for them that they deserve. So the parents dropped their
kids off and leave them there and maybe visit once
(15:45):
a month or however often they can. And we got
one really good story from this school that um remember
the girl that went up on stage when they had
the little presentation. They do this deal where they sort
of have fun with how to take care of the
textbooks and and they'll ask different questions. Well they'll they'll
tell them how to do it. Then they bring three
kids on stage and asked them to repeat what they
(16:06):
had just heard about caring for the textbooks, and that
they picked two boys and a girl. And the two boys,
you know, they were kind of cutting up and laughing
and they had nothing to say. But the one girl
like knocked everyone out. Yeah she did. We all have
presses on the very cute young girl and she completely
just like took charge of the room and recited exactly
(16:27):
how to take care of the textbooks. And you could
tell that she was on the ball right. So um,
after the whole, uh, the whole presentation, we were out
back interviewing Holly, who had gone and found out this
girl's story. Because they co had also identified scholarship students
kids were really going to benefit from, like direct help
(16:47):
from donors um and this girl had scholarship student written
all over. So Holly went and found out what her
deal was and she came back and told us. So
after the presentation. I called her over to talk to
her a little bit, and I asked her what she
wants to do, what's her dream in life, and she
said that she wants to be a bilingual doctor, which
(17:09):
is wonderful. And I talked to her about her parents
and what they do, and it turns out that her
dad works in agriculture and he travels around to go
and work in the field. So he's kind of the
lowest level of agricultural worker here in guatemal He probably
earns three dollars a day, maybe at the most, maybe
(17:33):
two dollars a day. And her mom has left to
go be a servant for a family in the city
and just comes home on Sundays. So this girl, who
is fourteen years old, for the last year, has been
going to school full time and doing everything in the
(17:54):
house for herself and her ten year old brother and
her six year old brother. So she gets up at
five in the morning and makes the tortillas, she gets
them ready for school. She's basically a little mom and
has been for the last year because her parents have
gone away to work. And um, you know, I was
amazed by this. I couldn't believe that she was doing this,
(18:17):
and I asked her why her parents had left to
do that, and it's because, uh, neither of them can read,
neither of them has any education. They went to school
until third grade, but they really didn't pick anything up.
And those are the only options they have to get
a job that's good enough that it will allow her
(18:37):
and her younger brothers to continue their education and to
go further in school. So then I asked her, well,
why do your parents care. They're they're getting along, they're
they're making it somewhat, So why do they care if
you have a good education? And uh, she said what
most people say is that they wanted opportunities for us
(18:58):
that were much better, better than the opportunities that they had.
They have no choices in this country. So she kind
of captured all of our hearts. I think. I think
I said at the time in the interview that if
I was a thirteen year old Guatemalan boy, I would
ask her to the next dance and then probably to
marry her shortly thereafter on the ball and just ride
on her coat tails after that. Yeah, she wants to
(19:20):
be a bilingual doctor. Yeah, how cool is that? So
we took off after that, we went to our last
school stop, and this Josh to me, was the best one,
mainly because Jerry gave a speech. Yeah, ladies and gentlemen,
for the first time in the history of stuff, you
should know you're going to hear Jerry's voice. We tried
(19:41):
it once before in the Hiccups podcast. We originally had
her say boo. It just didn't work out, so it
got cut. So here is Jerry the producers voice. It's
definitely my honor and privilege to be here with you today.
(20:03):
Most of us have come a very long way to
be here, UM, to let you know that we care
very much about your future. Amente laud uh. These these
(20:27):
textbooks here today, UM, are just like any other tool
you could ever use. As long as you work hard
and you use it correctly, many great things will come
from it. UM. I would like to say directly to
all of the young women here, you can do great
(20:49):
things in your life and it can start here. And
I'm I hope to see all of these succeed. And
I think that we all feel the same way. Very
proud to be here. Your your country is beautiful, You're
beautiful people. Thank you so much for having me. It's
a man. How awesome was that? It was great. I
(21:10):
remember filming this. I had the camera at the time,
and I got all choked up, I know. I remember
being like, why does Chuck get the camera? Right, I'm
gonna go have a cigarette. So this was called the
Santiago Cooperative School. And the other cool thing about this,
besides Jerry speech, was the principle that ran this joint. Yeah.
So this guy was around in in Santa Santiago was
(21:33):
a hotbed of of activity during the Civil War, and
this guy was a prominent figure in the town and
had to shut the school down. Uh. And he was
kind of lefty, he liked to you know, he saw
things the ten years of Springway, um, and he had
to keep his mouth shut. But as he was, he
was also quietly building this school so when the civil
(21:55):
war ended he could reopen and hit the ground running.
And Chuck, like you said, he is a revolutionary and
that he um thought girls should be educated, right. Yeah,
it's not the most popular notion that that women should
have the same rights as men or girls and boys
in Guatemala. So he's done a very unpopular thing for
many years and and fought to get girls the same
(22:17):
rights and the same education as boys. Right, So the
the demographics in his school, at least gender wise, are
about now right. Well, yeah, and I think a few
years previous you could count the number of girls in
a school on one hand, and the day that we
were there, they were numbered about And you could tell
this guy um is very much revered by his students
and the people in the communities. They could stand up
(22:40):
guy great order actually and again moving experience. Yeah, he
could run for the He should run for the president
of Guatemala. Yeah, I'd vote for him. I would vote
for him in a second. He would I would write
in as a writing candidate, as a green go write
in that. But like you said, a very effective speaker,
very moving and like we went to a classroom him
(23:00):
uh later on and he was giving us some more
stories and again sap that I am cheered up, Chuck, Yes,
can we get some like party resort? Saw some music
in right, here is it time? It's time okay and
(23:28):
Joshua's this music is playing because we wind up our
trip the week in Antigua. Antigua is one of the
more popular tourist destinations, and that's where you're gonna find
that's where we saw more Americans than anywhere all week
because it's lovely, it is gorgeous. It's the old capital,
or it was the capital until seventeen seventy six. Yeah,
(23:52):
so it's preserved in time basically as the largest city
from seventeen seventy six. There's some amazing stuff around there there.
It was wrecked by earthquakes over the decades, and some
of these churches that were built in the sixteenth I said,
sixteenth century, um, and we're just huge collapse partially so
we were actually we toured an abandoned well. It was
(24:14):
actually still in use, but the back part of it
was in ruins, and these huge columns that were like
the size of a school bus were just on their side,
right in front of you because nobody could do anything
with them, and they just fell during an earthquake. But
it was it was like these were five year old
columns that were just sitting there. It was really amazing, gorgeous.
(24:36):
Remember the arch over the main thoroughfare. Uh. And the
reason they had that built was because it was a
nunnery on either side, and the nuns didn't believe in
letting anyone see them or see their faces. So they
constructed this walkway above the streets so that the nuns
could go from one side to the other. And the
town square with the fountain. Very awesome. So we check
(24:59):
into our hotel coincidentally also the best hotel of the week. Yeah,
the Hotel vih Colonial. This place was awesome, like manicured gardens. Uh,
it was. It was really awesome. Some cat helped me
carry my bag to my room. You had a bell hut. Yeah,
I didn't know man, Oh yeah, I think it was.
(25:20):
He didn't do anything else but take my bag to
the room. Did you chip him? Yes? And actually I
felt bad because I only had like a couple of
cats always on and um, which is not much money. No,
And I actually found him later on, I think later
that night or the next day, and I found him
and tipped him better, and he was looking at it
was all happy, and one of the guys who spoke
(25:41):
English he was tending bar, was like, he thinks he
just won the lottery because he gave him Like yeah,
So we have a little happy hour that evening by
the pool and the gardens, and that's when we were
introduced to ron Zakapa yep, who was not our friend.
I like him. It is rum. It is aged rum. Yeah,
(26:04):
ron is rom in Spanish. And I didn't uh, I
didn't know I was a rum guy until I had
the Ronza Kappa. Chuck, I don't think that's a very
fair characterization. This is not liking ron Za coppa does
not make you a rum guy. This stuff is as
one of the one of our listeners who commented on
the blog during our trip when we mentioned that we
were in Guatemala said, try ron Za Kappa. It is
(26:26):
the nectar of the gods. It was so. I think
we're a little loath to play up alcohol like this,
especially because we have younger listeners. But when your kids
get to be twenty one, makes your first drink ron
Za Kappa, you won't be disappointed. And Josh, we should
point out Jerry just stopped us to mention that we
had the twenty three year aged Roza. Jesus is a
(26:48):
Kappa fan as well. So we have another delicious dinner.
Remember the second floor, it's like an open air balcony
overlooking the gardens. Delicious. I dined with the Ann I know.
By this point we were actually mingling with other people
on the trip and and the other tourists, Like we
definitely skewed the median age one a little bit one way,
(27:10):
right that. Um, but I mean there were there were
lots of retired school teachers, um, lots of older women, uh,
women of a certain age I should say, who turned
out to just be awesome like this, This isn't normally
the crowd we run with. And but all of them
were just super cool, super fun to talk to. And
(27:30):
it wasn't just like polite like you're talking to your friends,
you know, grandmother mom kind of conversations like I had
really real conversations with these people. And right, it's so weird,
like my skin didn't prickle. But um, but but by
this night, by this dinner, we were all kind of
separated and like mingling with the rest of the tour,
(27:52):
like on a really fundamental level. I thought that was cool. Yeah,
we all ate dinner with our own little groups, and
I charmed everybody at my table. Sure you did. You
were like the cool cousin at the wedding. Thank you. Sure.
Uh So the next day we uh we took off
for town and they the co ed gang, took us
(28:13):
on the walking tour that we mentioned earlier when we
got in trouble from the local cops, but Gabby worked
it out, and that's when we went around to the
chapels and the churches and they had a lot of
knowledge and it was you know, it's like a really
good tour. I've never been on such a good tour
in my life. Yes, And the last bus back from
the square was leaving, which left Dan running after it,
waving and waving with a big smile on his face.
(28:37):
And that was the first time we saw a horse diaper. Yeah,
I've never seen that, and it was full and it
was pretty much what you think it was. It was
a diaper on a horse that kind of hung low. Sure,
it was weird. So uh. We go on this tour
for the first half of the day and saw all
this great stuff, and then the second half of the
(28:57):
day we meet back in the town square and our
group was the three of us and then this guy
named Steve who was old buddies with the Burning your
Brothers and a co ed supporter all these years, obviously
because he's a good friend of the family and believes
in what they're doing. And he's a doctor in Cincinnati,
right and bilingual, so he went with us, and then
we were paired with two kids from the co ed program,
(29:20):
a boy and a girl, and they were charged to
take us around town while we shopped and helped us
like haggle and Jerry took a little shine to the
girl there and that was our little buddy. Yes, they
turned out to be fast friends. It was very cute. Yeah,
which is sort of like the KFC of Guatemala. I'm
sorry to just steal your thunder because I mentioned the meal. Yeah, yeah,
(29:45):
I didn't eat this meal though. Actually remember I wasn't hungry,
that's right, oddly, and so they took his shopping and uh.
One of the coolest things on this little excursion was
we got together and we're like, hey, let you know,
we should buy these kids something because you know how
it is when you go to when these kind trees,
like these handmade goods are like dirt cheap. And that's
not why we decided to buy him something, right, but
we can buy one of these kids something. Yeah, we thought,
(30:07):
you know, let's let him pick out whatever they want.
And we had Steve translate because he was the man
in Spanish, and we asked, uh, we told him to
tell the kids pick out anything you want, and we'll
buy anything you want. And I thought that they would
pick out some toy or some like fun thing. The
little boy picked out a crucifix cross to where I
noticed and that what did the girl get? Jears bracelets
(30:29):
for her family. I don't know if that came through,
but that was Jerry. But they've already heard her now
the cats out of the bag. So that just kind
of touched us all, you know, that they were thinking
of their family or his religion instead of you know,
do they have iPhones around here anywhere? Neither one of
them asked that. So we left, We parted company with
(30:52):
our kids and um, I already set that up. Dan
was running after the bus. Right. Actually, we did a
little more shopping on our own. Remember, oh yeah, we did,
the three of us. That was fun, Yeah, it was fun.
And we ended up back at the hotel um for
the last night's dinner, right and the last night's happy
hour with more runs a copy, And we didn't explain
(31:14):
the runs a cop of thing you're are meant to
burn the devil out? Remember, Oh yeah, that's pretty cool.
Let's tell him what that is. So when you finished
the bottle, you, you rub it. You everyone stands in
a circle who's trank it and you rub it all
over your buddy and you get it like roll in
your in your hands and you get it all warm.
You do this for a good five minutes and then
you hold the lighter up to the end and this
(31:34):
like blue flame comes out. It looks like a caramelizing torch. Yeah,
it kind of shoots out, and they call They do
that because the Guatemalans believe that if you ingest liquor,
then that's the devil living inside of you. So all
you gotta do to write the ship is just burn
the devil out at the end of the bottle and
you're all set bing bang boom. So we did that
and that was a lot of fun. We'res in a
(31:55):
great mood of this week. We're all buddies, and it
was we're all having a blast. So we have the
final night they have um a slide show of the week,
which is always nice. It's like camp. There was a
picture of me fighting a bull with firecrackers on its back. Yeah,
we both did that. I was wearing an apron and uh.
(32:18):
They did a little slide show which is really nice
and then this was Jerry's birthday, so they brought out
a cake and they came to me earlier in the
night said, hey, do you think if we got a
cake it would embarrass Jerry? Yes it would, and yes
you should. So they did so, brought the cake out
and in Guatemalan tradition, they forced her to put her
face in it. Yeah, I'm not sure that was guatemal
(32:39):
In like a co ed thing. So Jerry had to
take a bite of the cake without using her hands, essentially,
and she did it, Yes she did. She was a
good sport. Jerry is letting loose at this point. Yes,
I saw a whole new side of her. So after
after dinner, in the slide show, we had the opportunity
everyone there if they wanted to say a few words
about their week, uh, to do so, and I, uh
put you back in your seat and took the opportunity
(33:02):
to speak for the team. Yeah, and I was very
very glad you did, because Chuck, you killed it. You
had everyone in the room little teary eyed except you.
I think I probably was really sure you had the
heart strings pulled. I was pulling like a kite, like
a box kite. It was very sweet. It was very
(33:22):
It was a very good speech, and you you did
a good job capturing the this since that we had
a kind of our eyes being opened down there and
our hearts being open to I appreciate that I spoke
from the heart a minute. Good job man. And another
one of the people that spoke was Michelle McMaster, Yeah,
(33:42):
who we were on the trip with, and um, I
don't remember if we were just tired, we didn't want
to record anymore. Jerry worked like pretty much the whole
time we were down there, we worked a lot. I
felt really bad for Jerry. This point, we were like
put the camera away for the night. So we we
knew Michelle lived in Atlanta, and we're like, well, have
you come in and how about we interview in Atlanta
(34:05):
because we want to get the perspective of a donor.
And she was kind enough to let us off the
hook and say yes, So we we did get her perspective,
and she did come in and sat down and we
asked her some questions about why she was donating to
co ED because when we were down there, she was
basically on like this distribution tour, a memorial tour for her. UM,
(34:26):
her her mother in law, and this is her third
trip to guatemal and she was like an old pro
at donating. She's not she she doesn't come from this opulent,
wealthy family necessarily. She's just a normal at lantin who
really figured that this is a good way to to
do something with her money. It's just such a poor
(34:47):
country and I am so fortunate. I my family is fortunate,
and I just feel at this point in my life,
I can do something about it, and I can get back,
and you know, I hope that a lot of people
have the opportunity to do that, because it just it's
way better feeling for me than it is for them
(35:09):
to receive the books. I mean, they thank us, but
I mean I really feel like I should thank them.
And Chuck, Um, Michelle was not the only veteran donor
that was on the tour with us. You remember Casey
and Cathy, Do remember they're very awesome. Yes, they have
a little little place in my heart. Yeah. And um,
they've they've gotten into sponsoring this is I don't I
don't remember how many tours they've been on by the
(35:31):
time they went on this one, but um, they've really
taken a shine to code and they They and Michelle
are very exemplary of the kind of people who go
on these tours, especially repeat tours. There are people who
are like, you know, I can just take a little
bit of this money and it just grows and grows
and grows. And I think that's one of the reasons
(35:51):
that Coed has such like this loyal following, uh, this
really dedicated group of people that they attract and keep
because the money stays there, it doesn't get used up.
It's sustainable. It's a sustainable model and it's a pretty
amazing one too. Yeah. I like, I want to find
one person that's gone on one of these tours that
(36:12):
comes back and it's like, wow, that was nice, good
luck with everything. I don't think it happens like we're
we're signed up for life with these guys. Yeah. So
after dinner, it's Jerry's birthday, so we decide that we
need to go out and celebrate a little bit in
town because there's like clubs in Antigua evidently yes, scott clubs, yes,
(36:32):
and don't don't you have a little I have a
disclaimer here that I'd like to insert. I did not
go out that night. I stayed in. I was very
tired and happy to stay in, but I was also
happy to see you guys go and have a good time,
most of the co ed folks. And boy, how doy
did you guys go out? Yeah? Yeah, from what I understand.
First of all, at breakfast the next morning, I could
(36:54):
barely sit at the same table as you guys so bad.
Do you want to recount a little bit of this, Well, Josh,
I'm really not allowed to say what went on that night.
We've all been support to secrecy. But let's just say
there was a nightclub involved. There was a band, live
band playing Guatemalan sky music. I danced for hours and
(37:16):
I am not a dancer, and the next I'm not
a dancer. And the next day I woke up with
bruises on my hands because I fell out of the
back of a pickup truck at some point onto a
cobblestone street. It's not it's not good, Chuck. No, it
was truly one of the best best nights I've ever had.
(37:38):
We kept going the next morning, and you're just like, shut.
It was great. It brought me back to my college
days as if I was an exchange student in Guatemala,
that the experience I never got to live back and
you said the band was like right there right, Oh yeah.
I mean I've never been to a club that's more
crowded in my life and it was just like dancing
(37:58):
and sweating and having a great time. It's just that's great.
And I've just gotten word from Jerry that it was
the best birthday of her life and she's like forty
so best speech from you, but wow, best speech from you,
best birthday from Jerry. My cold black heart opened up
a little bit, you know, like Mr Burns, Oh you're
(38:22):
not Mr Burns, Oh thank you. Checking I saw the
warmest side of you that I've ever seen, really, and
I haven't seen it since, but we'll just call it
Guatemala and Josh, okay, you just keep that to yourself.
I loved it. Uh Any final final thoughts on the
whole trip, Yes, chuck um. Remember we originally went down
there to do a podcast on whether education can alleviate poverty,
(38:45):
and in very short order we were like, no, this
this actually deserves its own podcast. This is a pretty
amazing organization. It deserves too. Exactly. It has all that
your marks of a great organization that deserves a podcast.
It it's an underdog. It's kind of small. It's been
chugging along for fourteen years. Yeah, started out super small
(39:07):
and it's just just grown and been more successful and
amazing yep. UM And there's a lot of really dedicated,
genuinely good people who are really giving themselves and not
exploiting these this group this is I asked Jeff what
percentage of UM donations go to the actual people? And
(39:30):
I think the industry standard is like fifty and they're
hitting like eight five something like that. That's huge. It's
an enormous that's an enormous contribution, you know. Yeah, you
know why I figured out is they're all really really smart.
Everyone down there that we talked to from co ED
was like really sharp and had honed this program down
(39:52):
to like an efficient, a really efficient charitable machine. I
guess is the best way I can say it. So Shook,
I have a feeling that you have some final impressions
you'd like to share, and I'm not the only one,
I think who wants to hear them. Well, I could
just say did oh Josh would do it? You gotta
(40:14):
slather it on pud Well like we said, I mean,
the people of coed are just doing amazing work. They're unbelievable.
The people of Guatemala were just some of the warmest,
most welcoming people we ever met, Um, that I've ever met.
I know, like you said, they you know, laid down
like evergreen bells at our feet when we walked through
and the kids came out. You know, remember the last school.
(40:34):
They came out and each one of them like hugged
us and like ushered us in like one by one,
and uh, you know, the principle speaking at the one place.
And then people like Caroline who are give up their
jobs to go down there and live and teach these kids.
It was just the whole thing completely blew me away.
Change my perspective on on what we have here, what
(40:56):
I have, I'll never look at a pencil the same
way again. I'll tell you that excellent And um, I
would go back again. And Jerry is going back again. Yes,
she's going to get in the summer. They have taken
a shine to her and vice versa. Yeah, she's doing
some video work for them, which is pretty cool. Yeah,
she's going on the July Snapshot tour. Right. Yeah, So
(41:17):
anybody who wants to go hang with Jerry and Guatemala
can that's your chance. Yeah, uh and Chuck. If people
want to see pictures of our Guatemalan tour, the one
we've already been on, we have them on the site.
You created an image gallery, right, Yeah, seventy photos of
us and Guatemala. Get a pencil out or a pen
(41:37):
people write this down. We're also going to post this
on Facebook if it's too long for you, but for
you non facebookers, it is www dot adventure dot how
Stuff Works dot com, slash stuff dash you dash should
dash no dash, Guatemala dash pictures dot htm. So essentially
(42:02):
it's Adventure, how Stuff Work, stuff you should know, Guatemala
pictures right with hyphens in between. Yeah, and like I said,
we'll put it on Facebook and tweet it out and
uh so those of you in the know, well we'll
have an easier time with that. And if you want
to know more information about the Cooperative for Education co ED,
the work they do, that's you man, you know all
about them. I'm talking to the people now. Um, you
(42:25):
can log onto their internet website at www dot co ED.
You see dot org that c o E D You
see dot org and Jerry tells us that you can
just type in Cooperative for Education and this U r
L bar and it'll redirect. Yeah, they got info on
their website about UM the tour that you can take.
(42:46):
It's not very expensive actually just to go down there
for a week. They really take care of you. They
have like you know, security with you. It's really safe. UM.
I guarantee you will have a life changing experience. And
they haven't got a video about the tour are on
there that you can watch, and I defy you to
watch it and not get a little tear eyed. Uh.
And it's all there on the website all the information
(43:07):
and you should check it out for sure. To check
that out. And again, if you want to donate the
co ed UH, you can text a five dollar donation
by texting the word stuff s t U F F
yeah to to zero two to two. You'll donate five dollars.
You'll receive a text back asking you to confirm the donation.
(43:29):
Simply reply with the word yes to complete the donation right,
and we have to say a one time five dollar
donation will be charged your wireless bill or deducted from
your prepaid balance. Messaging and data rates may apply. If
you change your mind before confirming the donation, you can
amply stop to two zero to two two, or if
(43:49):
you need help, reply the word help. Donations are collected
by the Mobile Giving Foundation. For more info, you can
call eight six six eight one oh one two zero
three or go to h m g F dot org
slash t what a website. Huh wow, nice job man. Thanks. Uh.
And some wireless carriers limit the number of donations you
(44:12):
can make, so you check with your wireless carrier if
you want to make more than one. Yeah, and uh.
On a personal note, I just want to say we've
had awesome response from our Kiva sponsorships. So we kind
of talked the stuff you should know Army up to
co Ed and we said, uh, five dollar text, that's
the way to go. Like, these people will definitely hear
the story and they'll definitely want to throw five bucks
(44:33):
your way. And uh, so I just want to literally,
we don't ask people for much often, but I'm gonna
ask you to do that text five dollars and um,
the clock is sticking a little bit because these text
donation campaigns they're not like they don't run in perpetuity.
So I think it's through what is it jars into July.
So pick out your phone right now, just do a
(44:53):
little quick text. Like we said, five bucks, we'll buy
textbooks for one student for an entire year year and
then it goes into the Revolving Fund and it's self
sustainable and essentially you bought textbooks for life. And if
you want to donate more, you can go to their website.
They have information on how you can, like you can
actually sponsor a computer center, get your name on it
(45:14):
and go down there and visit it and cherish it
and hug it. And now you can go to their
website and they have all kinds of information on how
you can get more involved or go on a tour.
And it's really really great. And listen to us, Chuck,
I mean, like, really, we sound like we are hosting
a telephon. I I never thought that I would I
(45:35):
would be doing something like this, And I think to
the very fact that we are doing it hopefully lend
some sort of credence to to how we actually feel
about co ED. Absolutely, we wouldn't be doing this for
any uh fly by Night nonprofit. These guys are great,
So again, If you want to learn more about co ed,
go to www. Dot co ed. You see dot org.
(45:57):
Uh and we're gonna post pictures on our blogs. Uh No,
I'm gonna set up an image gallery and we will
put that on Facebook and then the blog. How you
can get there and we'll have you know, probably close
to like a hundred pictures of our trip. Excellent. Well,
that's it, right, Viva Guatemala. For more on this and
(46:42):
thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on
the house stuff works dot com home page. Brought to
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready,
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Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from House Stuff Works dot Com. And now for the
exciting conclusion, it's s Y s K is Guatemalan Adventure.
(00:20):
Here we find team Stuff you Should Know about to
depart for their second school visit. So we take off
from there and we go to our second school for
our first Computer Center inauguration. And it's here, Chuck, that
we ran into one of my favorite people, Mr Howard Lab. Dude,
Howard Lab is one of the coolest, strangest dudes I've
(00:45):
ever met in my life. I'm just gonna go ahead
throw that out there, and he grows on you like
real quick. Remember when we first met him at the
hotel in Guatemala City. He came up and was shaking
our hand and wearing a Fannie pack and talking real fast,
and he was all smiles and he leaves in the
three of us cynics were like, that guy's weird. Then
we meet him again. Really, um, I think it was
(01:07):
before this one we got to hang out with him,
but by the time we interviewed him at this Computer
Center inauguration, we hearted Howard, Yes, we hearted him very
much and still do. Howard's a great guy, a stand
up guy, as I call him in one of the interviews,
that I don't think we're gonna use. So the computer
program Josh works a lot like the textbook program. UM.
But why should we talk about it when the truly
(01:29):
weird and awesome Howard Lob can describe it for us?
In large part, we typically work with larger schools and
a textbook program. Uh, if the school has fifty to
a hundred kids, you're good to go. It doesn't matter
a number of kids so much. But in the computer center, UM,
we typically look for schools that I have about two
d kids or more. That way you cover all the
(01:51):
costs and still keep that student contribution guns and you
have partners as well. Right, that's right. All of our
like Rotary Club, Mike Soft, UM, other foundations, et cetera
help us with that seed donation, and Microsoft as well
helps us with licenses. So that's an ongoing gift and
kind UM. And that that kind of starts that jump
(02:14):
starts the program, and then after that we look for
the communities to really make it self sustaining. We don't
expect donors to come back year after year to pay
the electric bill, to pay the to provide new computers. No,
the ideas it's kind of a prompt our promise to
the donors that their money is well spent um in
a in an effective way and that the community will
(02:35):
take that ball and run with it. So so that's
how it works in a nutshell. Um, much like the textbook,
revolving funds self sustainable. But the kids paid just a
little bit more money. Well, I think it's more frequent.
I think where they paid two dollars a year for
a textbook, they paid two bucks a month form a computer.
How is that what it is? Yeah? And um, but
(02:56):
you spread it over two hundred kids again in five years,
you have that self sufficient s grow fund um that
compared to replace all the computers. And the computers chuck
were they were nice computers. But there was something really
strange about them. Do you know what? It was? No Internet?
No Internet. They had a simulated internet. Here's what the
(03:20):
kids learn on these things they learn, these rural, poor
Guatemalan children are learning Microsoft Office programs courtesy of Microsoft,
one of their little partners, which is great. Yeah, I
think he mentions them in one of the clips. Okay,
they learn how to email, they learn in Carter, which
is might seem a little old fashioned to us, but
it's great for them, right and Windows movie Maker, and
(03:42):
they have a simulated Internet, so when they eventually get
out into the workforce and see the real Internet, they're
not like, what is this? What's going on? But it
will still be blown away. Yeah, I'm still blown away
on a daily basis. Right. But one of the things
that you were talking about that that blew you away was, Um,
these kids are just encountering computers for the first time,
(04:04):
and they were already making like power point slide shows
and stuff like that. Right. And um Howard was telling
us about, uh, some of the successes that have come
from these computer centers. Uh that cooperative for education a
k A. Co ed sponsors or sets up. Um and
uh he was talking about these kids that made a
T shirt company. Right, Yeah, let's hear that one. For example,
(04:27):
in a town not far from here, this um group
of girls broke into a group of four six students
and they did a project that we call Microsoft or
Project Off excuse me. And in this project they learned
to create a business usually it's as simulated business. In
this case, they made it a real business. And they
decided that they were going to create T shirts UM
(04:50):
to sell to UH, to sell to UH fellow classmates
and things like that. So they use Microsoft Sell to
create a budget, They used Microsoft PubL As Sure and
MovieMaker to create advertising material and like a fake a
mock tv ad UM, they worked with a local silk
(05:10):
screening company and created T shirts and started selling them.
And even though they graduated from middle school, they still
got this thing going. So so you've got kids going
from middle school and actually generating income for themselves, UM
and their families. How awesome is that? It is pretty sweet?
Really really cool? And Chuck it's uh he he tells
another story that we didn't use UM where kids in
(05:32):
in the surrounding or kids going to school who lived
in the surrounding area. It was all agriculture, all farming.
And so there's this ongoing debate over whether snow peas
or broccoli were more profitable, and UM, these kids did
data analysis of all the costs and outputs from broccoli
and from snow peas and found, in fact, snow peas
(05:53):
are actually more profitable and then they made a presentation
and gave it to the town and completely changed them
minds of all the farmers around there so they could
make more money. Pretty amazing. That is really amazing. Well,
it's so amazing that a guy like Howard quit his
good job in the United States to move to Guatemala.
(06:14):
Most of them, we should say, most of the co
ed UH coopetive education is based out of Cincinnati, and
most of them live there and they go to Guatemala
a few times a year, but they can work remotely
because of the Internet and all the great things there.
But a few of them actually live in country, and
Howard is one of those, and he gave up his
life in America. Of course he met a Guatemalan woman. Yeah,
(06:35):
I might add something to do with it. And here's
what he had to say about that. I think you've
seen today that the people here are very expressive, very
grateful for the help that we can bring to them. Uh,
the kids want to learn. The parents now know how
important education is, and that just that just feeds are
(06:58):
any emotion that we came to this country with um
and so it's it's kind of easy to help in
that sense. Um, and really in code. I think all
of us who work here have now find found a
way to to help development human development a little bit,
and we feel like it's like, maybe it's really having
an impact. It's we have a mechanism, a system that
(07:22):
provides a sustainability and that's key, you know, just to
donate something, drop it off and run. We've just seen
it over and over. It just doesn't work. So we
feel like we're kind of grateful that we have this
opportunity to help others. Um. That makes us happy. Hope
it makes them happy. Um, And we we'd like to
think it's having a real impact. And more, more and
(07:43):
more we measure our programs were between seeing good results. Awesome,
thank you sir. We meant you. Yeah, glad, I meant you. Guys,
We're glad we met Howard. Yeah, he's a cool guy,
very cool guy. So we go to the school and
they have a big shady tent set up, cool breeze blowing.
We're kind of out on the open range. Remember it
(08:05):
was like you could see for miles. Oh yeah, it
was great, very nice scene. They get this old guy
out there to play the harp. But it wasn't like
a regular harp. It was this like a harp guitar thing.
Do we have any of that harp music? Oh? Is that?
It is? That? It? I hear right now? That is it? Yeah?
That guy was good. He was very good and like
a hundred and thirty and he was very old. And
(08:27):
there was some ritual dancing. This is when the little
girls came over and picked us up and by the hand. Yeah,
and we danced with them. First of many humiliating moments
for a man. You're not a big public dancer. No,
I've got like that that like plastered grimace of like
embarrassment on my face. It's just horrible. Right. It was
very cute though, actually, and we had pictures of that
(08:47):
that we're gonna have on the website and fantastic. Uh.
We thought that we were going to see a live
chicken sacrifice right in front of our faces. It came
down to the last second. They're doing another traditional Um,
this one wasn't the corn dance? Is it just like
the symbolic sacrificing of the chicken. It was a it
was a Mayan dance, right, and they come out with
(09:10):
a live chicken and strangely enough, like earlier in that day.
They we've been told that Jeff told us as some
of the Mayan ruins they'll find like dead chickens. There's
still some blood sacrifices that that are carried on at
Mayan ruins. And so within four hours some kids walk
out with a live chicken in the middle of a
(09:30):
ceremonial dance, and we're like, are they really gonna do this?
And this girl like like dropped the chicken and lifted
it up and then just slid her hand right off
the end of its head, and the chicken was like yeah.
And there's literally like twenty Americans in this horseshoe configuration
within in the middle, all just thinking, oh my lord,
but again with the smiles, places like, hey, it's your
(09:52):
culture exactly. I don't want to knock it to each
his own right, and I haven't covered in chicken. But
luckily the chicken was spared and it was all symbolic
and we all breath the little side relief in the chicken,
and yeah, the chicken was glad too. They ate him
later that night, though, I'm sure. And then we went
to the computer lab and this is when the kids
actually paired us up and sat us down and they
(10:13):
showed us some of the things that they've been working on.
And that's when you really get to see the good
that co Ed's doing. When you sit down and you
see a Windows movie maker slide presentation that a kid
in Rurled, Guatemala made who had never seen a computer
six months ago. That's where it really hits home. And
that was it for that school. Yes, it was, it was.
(10:34):
It was a lot think computers, Howard, it sounds like
my high school experience. Uh So then we go to
the hotel Albert Gas Detech Pond, the weirdest hotel in Glanamala. Yeah,
it's a compound. It's not a hotel. It's a compound
surrounded by a high wall with razor wire. And the
(10:57):
best thing we could describe it was it looked like
the Michael Jackson of Guatemala might have owned the property
at one point. It was like a Neverland ranch. It
had these life size it was like a never Land
ranch that had been left out, exposed to the elements
for many, many years. It wasn't like nice and new looking.
They had like a life size chess game and these
(11:21):
yes statues all throughout the property. Each each area was
more unsettling than the last. It was a little weird,
but it was kind of cool for sure. And uh,
before dinner we went to h There was this girl
on the trip named Gabby. Yeah, Gabby was I would
call her the translator, but Gabby was like everything on
(11:41):
this trip. Yeah. She's definitely a jack of all trades
for co ED. Yeah. She she's the facilitator pretty much
anything we needed. Remember in Antique at the end, when
we were you're not supposed to give tours yourself because
they have like the city tour people are the only
people that are supposed to officially do that, and Gabby
like always headed them off at the past and like
explain to the cops what we were doing and they're
(12:03):
like all right, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, and that works
because she is a psychiologist, right, Yeah, that's her background.
She went to school, she's a psychologist. Like well, and
then she takes time off from her practice. Oh I
thought she quit her practice this, I know. She just
like takes time off and she's like, you guys go
nuts for a little while. I'm gonna go do some
co ED stuff. Right, So she's got a really good
(12:25):
gig she's educated. Uh, she is one of the more
fortunate people in Guatemala too, had not come from a
very poor family. Did we say she's Guatemala, Yeah, oh yeah,
she's Guatemalan. Did I not mention that? I don't know?
She's very Guatemalan and just an awesome, awesome person. And
we asked her why that she would, you know, leave
her practice, private practice to go work with coed like
(12:47):
she does, and she said this, how can I not
do it? How can I not believe in this. It's
my people, it's my country, it's my kids, and I
just love them. And I've have the chance, incredible chance
to meet some of them personally and just keep track
of them. And I see how they've been like no
in their houses, you don't speak any Castellano, any Spanish.
(13:09):
And then they're now they're learn English, they know computers.
They bought a piece of land and instead of farming,
they are constructing, and they're working in a They just
have my heart. And Josh's interview went on. She got
pretty emotional about what these kids and Guatemala mean to her,
and let's just hear what she had to say about that.
(13:30):
You can you can grasp or you can take count
with their fingers. This the kids that they're they have
so much strengthened them, and they're fighting and they're going
against everything. So you got the tissues out, buddy. I
know it's pretty moving. Yeah, it's really sweet. Um. I'm
(13:51):
one of those guys who's just like, yeah, yeah, you've
got a hard life whatever. But you know, when you
see somebody like Gabby who you almost you almost feel
for other people through somebody like that, you know, it
was real nice, that's another way to put it. So, Uh,
that was the end of our night. Had another awesome
(14:13):
dinner steak that night, remember yeah at that place at
the roadhouse. Yeah, it was like a roadhouse, and uh,
we go to our separate cabins and go to sleep.
Jerry had a really creepy went off in the woods.
Jerry was scared. First of all, Jerry made me walk
or to her cabin, and I'm thinking, I hope Jerry
doesn't try to put the moves on me and and um,
(14:38):
by the time we get to her cabin, it's been
like an hour and a half walk and now I
have to walk back in the dark by myself. But
it was scary. I was like, all right, see you later.
Good look and he helps the scream. It wasn't even
that far, but it's funny. Uh. Then we go the
next day, we go to an orphanage school and uh
we were late because Dan one of the guys on
(14:59):
the two her who was like, I'm so surprised Dan
just didn't end up walking in front of a horse
something like that. Like Dan just things just went wrong
for Dan. But he always had a great smile on
his Facebook. He couldn't find his alarm clock or something,
so he just kept sleeping. That was the first admitting
the tour was where's Dan? Incidences that happened? Dan was awesome. Uh.
(15:21):
So we we go to this orphanage school and what's
said about this one, Josh, is that it was an orphanage. Well,
a lot of these kids aren't true orphans, though a
lot of them are dropped off. They have parents and families,
but their parents know that they can't provide the life
for them that they deserve. So the parents dropped their
kids off and leave them there and maybe visit once
(15:45):
a month or however often they can. And we got
one really good story from this school that um remember
the girl that went up on stage when they had
the little presentation. They do this deal where they sort
of have fun with how to take care of the
textbooks and and they'll ask different questions. Well they'll they'll
tell them how to do it. Then they bring three
kids on stage and asked them to repeat what they
(16:06):
had just heard about caring for the textbooks, and that
they picked two boys and a girl. And the two boys,
you know, they were kind of cutting up and laughing
and they had nothing to say. But the one girl
like knocked everyone out. Yeah she did. We all have
presses on the very cute young girl and she completely
just like took charge of the room and recited exactly
(16:27):
how to take care of the textbooks. And you could
tell that she was on the ball right. So um,
after the whole, uh, the whole presentation, we were out
back interviewing Holly, who had gone and found out this
girl's story. Because they co had also identified scholarship students
kids were really going to benefit from, like direct help
(16:47):
from donors um and this girl had scholarship student written
all over. So Holly went and found out what her
deal was and she came back and told us. So
after the presentation. I called her over to talk to
her a little bit, and I asked her what she
wants to do, what's her dream in life, and she
said that she wants to be a bilingual doctor, which
(17:09):
is wonderful. And I talked to her about her parents
and what they do, and it turns out that her
dad works in agriculture and he travels around to go
and work in the field. So he's kind of the
lowest level of agricultural worker here in guatemal He probably
earns three dollars a day, maybe at the most, maybe
(17:33):
two dollars a day. And her mom has left to
go be a servant for a family in the city
and just comes home on Sundays. So this girl, who
is fourteen years old, for the last year, has been
going to school full time and doing everything in the
(17:54):
house for herself and her ten year old brother and
her six year old brother. So she gets up at
five in the morning and makes the tortillas, she gets
them ready for school. She's basically a little mom and
has been for the last year because her parents have
gone away to work. And um, you know, I was
amazed by this. I couldn't believe that she was doing this,
(18:17):
and I asked her why her parents had left to
do that, and it's because, uh, neither of them can read,
neither of them has any education. They went to school
until third grade, but they really didn't pick anything up.
And those are the only options they have to get
a job that's good enough that it will allow her
(18:37):
and her younger brothers to continue their education and to
go further in school. So then I asked her, well,
why do your parents care. They're they're getting along, they're
they're making it somewhat, So why do they care if
you have a good education? And uh, she said what
most people say is that they wanted opportunities for us
(18:58):
that were much better, better than the opportunities that they had.
They have no choices in this country. So she kind
of captured all of our hearts. I think. I think
I said at the time in the interview that if
I was a thirteen year old Guatemalan boy, I would
ask her to the next dance and then probably to
marry her shortly thereafter on the ball and just ride
on her coat tails after that. Yeah, she wants to
(19:20):
be a bilingual doctor. Yeah, how cool is that? So
we took off after that, we went to our last
school stop, and this Josh to me, was the best one,
mainly because Jerry gave a speech. Yeah, ladies and gentlemen,
for the first time in the history of stuff, you
should know you're going to hear Jerry's voice. We tried
(19:41):
it once before in the Hiccups podcast. We originally had
her say boo. It just didn't work out, so it
got cut. So here is Jerry the producers voice. It's
definitely my honor and privilege to be here with you today.
(20:03):
Most of us have come a very long way to
be here, UM, to let you know that we care
very much about your future. Amente laud uh. These these
(20:27):
textbooks here today, UM, are just like any other tool
you could ever use. As long as you work hard
and you use it correctly, many great things will come
from it. UM. I would like to say directly to
all of the young women here, you can do great
(20:49):
things in your life and it can start here. And
I'm I hope to see all of these succeed. And
I think that we all feel the same way. Very
proud to be here. Your your country is beautiful, You're
beautiful people. Thank you so much for having me. It's
a man. How awesome was that? It was great. I
(21:10):
remember filming this. I had the camera at the time,
and I got all choked up, I know. I remember
being like, why does Chuck get the camera? Right, I'm
gonna go have a cigarette. So this was called the
Santiago Cooperative School. And the other cool thing about this,
besides Jerry speech, was the principle that ran this joint. Yeah.
So this guy was around in in Santa Santiago was
(21:33):
a hotbed of of activity during the Civil War, and
this guy was a prominent figure in the town and
had to shut the school down. Uh. And he was
kind of lefty, he liked to you know, he saw
things the ten years of Springway, um, and he had
to keep his mouth shut. But as he was, he
was also quietly building this school so when the civil
(21:55):
war ended he could reopen and hit the ground running.
And Chuck, like you said, he is a revolutionary and
that he um thought girls should be educated, right. Yeah,
it's not the most popular notion that that women should
have the same rights as men or girls and boys
in Guatemala. So he's done a very unpopular thing for
many years and and fought to get girls the same
(22:17):
rights and the same education as boys. Right, So the
the demographics in his school, at least gender wise, are
about now right. Well, yeah, and I think a few
years previous you could count the number of girls in
a school on one hand, and the day that we
were there, they were numbered about And you could tell
this guy um is very much revered by his students
and the people in the communities. They could stand up
(22:40):
guy great order actually and again moving experience. Yeah, he
could run for the He should run for the president
of Guatemala. Yeah, I'd vote for him. I would vote
for him in a second. He would I would write
in as a writing candidate, as a green go write
in that. But like you said, a very effective speaker,
very moving and like we went to a classroom him
(23:00):
uh later on and he was giving us some more
stories and again sap that I am cheered up, Chuck, Yes,
can we get some like party resort? Saw some music
in right, here is it time? It's time okay and
(23:28):
Joshua's this music is playing because we wind up our
trip the week in Antigua. Antigua is one of the
more popular tourist destinations, and that's where you're gonna find
that's where we saw more Americans than anywhere all week
because it's lovely, it is gorgeous. It's the old capital,
or it was the capital until seventeen seventy six. Yeah,
(23:52):
so it's preserved in time basically as the largest city
from seventeen seventy six. There's some amazing stuff around there there.
It was wrecked by earthquakes over the decades, and some
of these churches that were built in the sixteenth I said,
sixteenth century, um, and we're just huge collapse partially so
we were actually we toured an abandoned well. It was
(24:14):
actually still in use, but the back part of it
was in ruins, and these huge columns that were like
the size of a school bus were just on their side,
right in front of you because nobody could do anything
with them, and they just fell during an earthquake. But
it was it was like these were five year old
columns that were just sitting there. It was really amazing, gorgeous.
(24:36):
Remember the arch over the main thoroughfare. Uh. And the
reason they had that built was because it was a
nunnery on either side, and the nuns didn't believe in
letting anyone see them or see their faces. So they
constructed this walkway above the streets so that the nuns
could go from one side to the other. And the
town square with the fountain. Very awesome. So we check
(24:59):
into our hotel coincidentally also the best hotel of the week. Yeah,
the Hotel vih Colonial. This place was awesome, like manicured gardens. Uh,
it was. It was really awesome. Some cat helped me
carry my bag to my room. You had a bell hut. Yeah,
I didn't know man, Oh yeah, I think it was.
(25:20):
He didn't do anything else but take my bag to
the room. Did you chip him? Yes? And actually I
felt bad because I only had like a couple of
cats always on and um, which is not much money. No,
And I actually found him later on, I think later
that night or the next day, and I found him
and tipped him better, and he was looking at it
was all happy, and one of the guys who spoke
(25:41):
English he was tending bar, was like, he thinks he
just won the lottery because he gave him Like yeah,
So we have a little happy hour that evening by
the pool and the gardens, and that's when we were
introduced to ron Zakapa yep, who was not our friend.
I like him. It is rum. It is aged rum. Yeah,
(26:04):
ron is rom in Spanish. And I didn't uh, I
didn't know I was a rum guy until I had
the Ronza Kappa. Chuck, I don't think that's a very
fair characterization. This is not liking ron Za coppa does
not make you a rum guy. This stuff is as
one of the one of our listeners who commented on
the blog during our trip when we mentioned that we
were in Guatemala said, try ron Za Kappa. It is
(26:26):
the nectar of the gods. It was so. I think
we're a little loath to play up alcohol like this,
especially because we have younger listeners. But when your kids
get to be twenty one, makes your first drink ron
Za Kappa, you won't be disappointed. And Josh, we should
point out Jerry just stopped us to mention that we
had the twenty three year aged Roza. Jesus is a
(26:48):
Kappa fan as well. So we have another delicious dinner.
Remember the second floor, it's like an open air balcony
overlooking the gardens. Delicious. I dined with the Ann I know.
By this point we were actually mingling with other people
on the trip and and the other tourists, Like we
definitely skewed the median age one a little bit one way,
(27:10):
right that. Um, but I mean there were there were
lots of retired school teachers, um, lots of older women, uh,
women of a certain age I should say, who turned
out to just be awesome like this, This isn't normally
the crowd we run with. And but all of them
were just super cool, super fun to talk to. And
(27:30):
it wasn't just like polite like you're talking to your friends,
you know, grandmother mom kind of conversations like I had
really real conversations with these people. And right, it's so weird,
like my skin didn't prickle. But um, but but by
this night, by this dinner, we were all kind of
separated and like mingling with the rest of the tour,
(27:52):
like on a really fundamental level. I thought that was cool. Yeah,
we all ate dinner with our own little groups, and
I charmed everybody at my table. Sure you did. You
were like the cool cousin at the wedding. Thank you. Sure.
Uh So the next day we uh we took off
for town and they the co ed gang, took us
(28:13):
on the walking tour that we mentioned earlier when we
got in trouble from the local cops, but Gabby worked
it out, and that's when we went around to the
chapels and the churches and they had a lot of
knowledge and it was you know, it's like a really
good tour. I've never been on such a good tour
in my life. Yes, And the last bus back from
the square was leaving, which left Dan running after it,
waving and waving with a big smile on his face.
(28:37):
And that was the first time we saw a horse diaper. Yeah,
I've never seen that, and it was full and it
was pretty much what you think it was. It was
a diaper on a horse that kind of hung low. Sure,
it was weird. So uh. We go on this tour
for the first half of the day and saw all
this great stuff, and then the second half of the
(28:57):
day we meet back in the town square and our
group was the three of us and then this guy
named Steve who was old buddies with the Burning your
Brothers and a co ed supporter all these years, obviously
because he's a good friend of the family and believes
in what they're doing. And he's a doctor in Cincinnati,
right and bilingual, so he went with us, and then
we were paired with two kids from the co ed program,
(29:20):
a boy and a girl, and they were charged to
take us around town while we shopped and helped us
like haggle and Jerry took a little shine to the
girl there and that was our little buddy. Yes, they
turned out to be fast friends. It was very cute. Yeah,
which is sort of like the KFC of Guatemala. I'm
sorry to just steal your thunder because I mentioned the meal. Yeah, yeah,
(29:45):
I didn't eat this meal though. Actually remember I wasn't hungry,
that's right, oddly, and so they took his shopping and uh.
One of the coolest things on this little excursion was
we got together and we're like, hey, let you know,
we should buy these kids something because you know how
it is when you go to when these kind trees,
like these handmade goods are like dirt cheap. And that's
not why we decided to buy him something, right, but
we can buy one of these kids something. Yeah, we thought,
(30:07):
you know, let's let him pick out whatever they want.
And we had Steve translate because he was the man
in Spanish, and we asked, uh, we told him to
tell the kids pick out anything you want, and we'll
buy anything you want. And I thought that they would
pick out some toy or some like fun thing. The
little boy picked out a crucifix cross to where I
noticed and that what did the girl get? Jears bracelets
(30:29):
for her family. I don't know if that came through,
but that was Jerry. But they've already heard her now
the cats out of the bag. So that just kind
of touched us all, you know, that they were thinking
of their family or his religion instead of you know,
do they have iPhones around here anywhere? Neither one of
them asked that. So we left, We parted company with
(30:52):
our kids and um, I already set that up. Dan
was running after the bus. Right. Actually, we did a
little more shopping on our own. Remember, oh yeah, we did,
the three of us. That was fun, Yeah, it was fun.
And we ended up back at the hotel um for
the last night's dinner, right and the last night's happy
hour with more runs a copy, And we didn't explain
(31:14):
the runs a cop of thing you're are meant to
burn the devil out? Remember, Oh yeah, that's pretty cool.
Let's tell him what that is. So when you finished
the bottle, you, you rub it. You everyone stands in
a circle who's trank it and you rub it all
over your buddy and you get it like roll in
your in your hands and you get it all warm.
You do this for a good five minutes and then
you hold the lighter up to the end and this
(31:34):
like blue flame comes out. It looks like a caramelizing torch. Yeah,
it kind of shoots out, and they call They do
that because the Guatemalans believe that if you ingest liquor,
then that's the devil living inside of you. So all
you gotta do to write the ship is just burn
the devil out at the end of the bottle and
you're all set bing bang boom. So we did that
and that was a lot of fun. We'res in a
(31:55):
great mood of this week. We're all buddies, and it
was we're all having a blast. So we have the
final night they have um a slide show of the week,
which is always nice. It's like camp. There was a
picture of me fighting a bull with firecrackers on its back. Yeah,
we both did that. I was wearing an apron and uh.
(32:18):
They did a little slide show which is really nice
and then this was Jerry's birthday, so they brought out
a cake and they came to me earlier in the
night said, hey, do you think if we got a
cake it would embarrass Jerry? Yes it would, and yes
you should. So they did so, brought the cake out
and in Guatemalan tradition, they forced her to put her
face in it. Yeah, I'm not sure that was guatemal
(32:39):
In like a co ed thing. So Jerry had to
take a bite of the cake without using her hands, essentially,
and she did it, Yes she did. She was a
good sport. Jerry is letting loose at this point. Yes,
I saw a whole new side of her. So after
after dinner, in the slide show, we had the opportunity
everyone there if they wanted to say a few words
about their week, uh, to do so, and I, uh
put you back in your seat and took the opportunity
(33:02):
to speak for the team. Yeah, and I was very
very glad you did, because Chuck, you killed it. You
had everyone in the room little teary eyed except you.
I think I probably was really sure you had the
heart strings pulled. I was pulling like a kite, like
a box kite. It was very sweet. It was very
(33:22):
It was a very good speech, and you you did
a good job capturing the this since that we had
a kind of our eyes being opened down there and
our hearts being open to I appreciate that I spoke
from the heart a minute. Good job man. And another
one of the people that spoke was Michelle McMaster, Yeah,
(33:42):
who we were on the trip with, and um, I
don't remember if we were just tired, we didn't want
to record anymore. Jerry worked like pretty much the whole
time we were down there, we worked a lot. I
felt really bad for Jerry. This point, we were like
put the camera away for the night. So we we
knew Michelle lived in Atlanta, and we're like, well, have
you come in and how about we interview in Atlanta
(34:05):
because we want to get the perspective of a donor.
And she was kind enough to let us off the
hook and say yes, So we we did get her perspective,
and she did come in and sat down and we
asked her some questions about why she was donating to
co ED because when we were down there, she was
basically on like this distribution tour, a memorial tour for her. UM,
(34:26):
her her mother in law, and this is her third
trip to guatemal and she was like an old pro
at donating. She's not she she doesn't come from this opulent,
wealthy family necessarily. She's just a normal at lantin who
really figured that this is a good way to to
do something with her money. It's just such a poor
(34:47):
country and I am so fortunate. I my family is fortunate,
and I just feel at this point in my life,
I can do something about it, and I can get back,
and you know, I hope that a lot of people
have the opportunity to do that, because it just it's
way better feeling for me than it is for them
(35:09):
to receive the books. I mean, they thank us, but
I mean I really feel like I should thank them.
And Chuck, Um, Michelle was not the only veteran donor
that was on the tour with us. You remember Casey
and Cathy, Do remember they're very awesome. Yes, they have
a little little place in my heart. Yeah. And um,
they've they've gotten into sponsoring this is I don't I
don't remember how many tours they've been on by the
(35:31):
time they went on this one, but um, they've really
taken a shine to code and they They and Michelle
are very exemplary of the kind of people who go
on these tours, especially repeat tours. There are people who
are like, you know, I can just take a little
bit of this money and it just grows and grows
and grows. And I think that's one of the reasons
(35:51):
that Coed has such like this loyal following, uh, this
really dedicated group of people that they attract and keep
because the money stays there, it doesn't get used up.
It's sustainable. It's a sustainable model and it's a pretty
amazing one too. Yeah. I like, I want to find
one person that's gone on one of these tours that
(36:12):
comes back and it's like, wow, that was nice, good
luck with everything. I don't think it happens like we're
we're signed up for life with these guys. Yeah. So
after dinner, it's Jerry's birthday, so we decide that we
need to go out and celebrate a little bit in
town because there's like clubs in Antigua evidently yes, scott clubs, yes,
(36:32):
and don't don't you have a little I have a
disclaimer here that I'd like to insert. I did not
go out that night. I stayed in. I was very
tired and happy to stay in, but I was also
happy to see you guys go and have a good time,
most of the co ed folks. And boy, how doy
did you guys go out? Yeah? Yeah, from what I understand.
First of all, at breakfast the next morning, I could
(36:54):
barely sit at the same table as you guys so bad.
Do you want to recount a little bit of this, Well, Josh,
I'm really not allowed to say what went on that night.
We've all been support to secrecy. But let's just say
there was a nightclub involved. There was a band, live
band playing Guatemalan sky music. I danced for hours and
(37:16):
I am not a dancer, and the next I'm not
a dancer. And the next day I woke up with
bruises on my hands because I fell out of the
back of a pickup truck at some point onto a
cobblestone street. It's not it's not good, Chuck. No, it
was truly one of the best best nights I've ever had.
(37:38):
We kept going the next morning, and you're just like, shut.
It was great. It brought me back to my college
days as if I was an exchange student in Guatemala,
that the experience I never got to live back and
you said the band was like right there right, Oh yeah.
I mean I've never been to a club that's more
crowded in my life and it was just like dancing
(37:58):
and sweating and having a great time. It's just that's great.
And I've just gotten word from Jerry that it was
the best birthday of her life and she's like forty
so best speech from you, but wow, best speech from you,
best birthday from Jerry. My cold black heart opened up
a little bit, you know, like Mr Burns, Oh you're
(38:22):
not Mr Burns, Oh thank you. Checking I saw the
warmest side of you that I've ever seen, really, and
I haven't seen it since, but we'll just call it
Guatemala and Josh, okay, you just keep that to yourself.
I loved it. Uh Any final final thoughts on the
whole trip, Yes, chuck um. Remember we originally went down
there to do a podcast on whether education can alleviate poverty,
(38:45):
and in very short order we were like, no, this
this actually deserves its own podcast. This is a pretty
amazing organization. It deserves too. Exactly. It has all that
your marks of a great organization that deserves a podcast.
It it's an underdog. It's kind of small. It's been
chugging along for fourteen years. Yeah, started out super small
(39:07):
and it's just just grown and been more successful and
amazing yep. UM And there's a lot of really dedicated,
genuinely good people who are really giving themselves and not
exploiting these this group this is I asked Jeff what
percentage of UM donations go to the actual people? And
(39:30):
I think the industry standard is like fifty and they're
hitting like eight five something like that. That's huge. It's
an enormous that's an enormous contribution, you know. Yeah, you
know why I figured out is they're all really really smart.
Everyone down there that we talked to from co ED
was like really sharp and had honed this program down
(39:52):
to like an efficient, a really efficient charitable machine. I
guess is the best way I can say it. So Shook,
I have a feeling that you have some final impressions
you'd like to share, and I'm not the only one,
I think who wants to hear them. Well, I could
just say did oh Josh would do it? You gotta
(40:14):
slather it on pud Well like we said, I mean,
the people of coed are just doing amazing work. They're unbelievable.
The people of Guatemala were just some of the warmest,
most welcoming people we ever met, Um, that I've ever met.
I know, like you said, they you know, laid down
like evergreen bells at our feet when we walked through
and the kids came out. You know, remember the last school.
(40:34):
They came out and each one of them like hugged
us and like ushered us in like one by one,
and uh, you know, the principle speaking at the one place.
And then people like Caroline who are give up their
jobs to go down there and live and teach these kids.
It was just the whole thing completely blew me away.
Change my perspective on on what we have here, what
(40:56):
I have, I'll never look at a pencil the same
way again. I'll tell you that excellent And um, I
would go back again. And Jerry is going back again. Yes,
she's going to get in the summer. They have taken
a shine to her and vice versa. Yeah, she's doing
some video work for them, which is pretty cool. Yeah,
she's going on the July Snapshot tour. Right. Yeah, So
(41:17):
anybody who wants to go hang with Jerry and Guatemala
can that's your chance. Yeah, uh and Chuck. If people
want to see pictures of our Guatemalan tour, the one
we've already been on, we have them on the site.
You created an image gallery, right, Yeah, seventy photos of
us and Guatemala. Get a pencil out or a pen
(41:37):
people write this down. We're also going to post this
on Facebook if it's too long for you, but for
you non facebookers, it is www dot adventure dot how
Stuff Works dot com, slash stuff dash you dash should
dash no dash, Guatemala dash pictures dot htm. So essentially
(42:02):
it's Adventure, how Stuff Work, stuff you should know, Guatemala
pictures right with hyphens in between. Yeah, and like I said,
we'll put it on Facebook and tweet it out and
uh so those of you in the know, well we'll
have an easier time with that. And if you want
to know more information about the Cooperative for Education co ED,
the work they do, that's you man, you know all
about them. I'm talking to the people now. Um, you
(42:25):
can log onto their internet website at www dot co ED.
You see dot org that c o E D You
see dot org and Jerry tells us that you can
just type in Cooperative for Education and this U r
L bar and it'll redirect. Yeah, they got info on
their website about UM the tour that you can take.
(42:46):
It's not very expensive actually just to go down there
for a week. They really take care of you. They
have like you know, security with you. It's really safe. UM.
I guarantee you will have a life changing experience. And
they haven't got a video about the tour are on
there that you can watch, and I defy you to
watch it and not get a little tear eyed. Uh.
And it's all there on the website all the information
(43:07):
and you should check it out for sure. To check
that out. And again, if you want to donate the
co ed UH, you can text a five dollar donation
by texting the word stuff s t U F F
yeah to to zero two to two. You'll donate five dollars.
You'll receive a text back asking you to confirm the donation.
(43:29):
Simply reply with the word yes to complete the donation right,
and we have to say a one time five dollar
donation will be charged your wireless bill or deducted from
your prepaid balance. Messaging and data rates may apply. If
you change your mind before confirming the donation, you can
amply stop to two zero to two two, or if
(43:49):
you need help, reply the word help. Donations are collected
by the Mobile Giving Foundation. For more info, you can
call eight six six eight one oh one two zero
three or go to h m g F dot org
slash t what a website. Huh wow, nice job man. Thanks. Uh.
And some wireless carriers limit the number of donations you
(44:12):
can make, so you check with your wireless carrier if
you want to make more than one. Yeah, and uh.
On a personal note, I just want to say we've
had awesome response from our Kiva sponsorships. So we kind
of talked the stuff you should know Army up to
co Ed and we said, uh, five dollar text, that's
the way to go. Like, these people will definitely hear
the story and they'll definitely want to throw five bucks
(44:33):
your way. And uh, so I just want to literally,
we don't ask people for much often, but I'm gonna
ask you to do that text five dollars and um,
the clock is sticking a little bit because these text
donation campaigns they're not like they don't run in perpetuity.
So I think it's through what is it jars into July.
So pick out your phone right now, just do a
(44:53):
little quick text. Like we said, five bucks, we'll buy
textbooks for one student for an entire year year and
then it goes into the Revolving Fund and it's self
sustainable and essentially you bought textbooks for life. And if
you want to donate more, you can go to their website.
They have information on how you can, like you can
actually sponsor a computer center, get your name on it
(45:14):
and go down there and visit it and cherish it
and hug it. And now you can go to their
website and they have all kinds of information on how
you can get more involved or go on a tour.
And it's really really great. And listen to us, Chuck,
I mean, like, really, we sound like we are hosting
a telephon. I I never thought that I would I
(45:35):
would be doing something like this, And I think to
the very fact that we are doing it hopefully lend
some sort of credence to to how we actually feel
about co ED. Absolutely, we wouldn't be doing this for
any uh fly by Night nonprofit. These guys are great,
So again, If you want to learn more about co ed,
go to www. Dot co ed. You see dot org.
(45:57):
Uh and we're gonna post pictures on our blogs. Uh No,
I'm gonna set up an image gallery and we will
put that on Facebook and then the blog. How you
can get there and we'll have you know, probably close
to like a hundred pictures of our trip. Excellent. Well,
that's it, right, Viva Guatemala. For more on this and
(46:42):
thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on
the house stuff works dot com home page. Brought to
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready,
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Josh Clark
Chuck Bryant
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