The end of the trip at Lake Atitlan.

The weekend around Atitlan was beautiful. Travel team enjoyed showers, beautiful weather, and delicious food around the lake, along with some great souvenir shopping. However, on Saturday, the team met with the NGO (non-governmental organization) that initially started the water project in NSCI, Appropriate Technology Collaborative.

We met up with Monika Goforth, the ATC Guatemalan director. Monika told us about different projects that ATC currently works on, including finding new, cheaper methods of construction, bicycle powered corn shucking, and plastic shredding to help re-purpose the garbage found all around Guatemala. Monika took the team up a short hike to a school near San Marcos in which solar panels were put in to help power the only school for indigenous children in mostly unelectrified communities around the mountain. The team had a lot of fun, learned a lot, and looks forward to partnering more with ATC in the future through new types of projects along with further support for the water project in NSCI.

The team with Monika next to solar panels installed at a local school. 

On Sunday, the travel team sat down for dinner in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan and discussed their favorite and least favorite aspects of the trip, along with the different tasks moving forward. We are all excited for the project in NSCI to be a success and plan to keep working hard this semester toward that goal. The team said goodbye to Guatemala the following day, and we're now all back in New Jersey with thoughts of all that happened fresh in our minds.

~Neha