Stuff You Should Know - SYSK's Guatemalan Adventure, Part Two

Episode Date: May 20, 2010

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. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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That's gate1travel.com. Once again, use promo code HEART20 through January 30th to receive 20% off your 2023 trip. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. And now for the exciting conclusion of SYSK's Guatemalan Adventure. 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 Lobb. Dude, Howard Lobb is one of the coolest, strangest dudes I've ever met in my life. Yeah. I'm just going to go ahead and throw that out there. And he grows on you. Like, quick too.

Yeah, real quick. He's so fungus. Do you remember when we first met him at the hotel in Guatemala City? He came up and was shaking our hand and wearing a fanny pack and talking real fast and he was all smiles. Oh, yeah. He leaves and the three of us cynics were like, that guy's weird. Yeah, that's what that did.

Then we meet him again, really, I think it was before this when 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 going to use. So the computer program, Josh works a lot like the textbook program.

But why should we talk about it when the truly weird and awesome Howard Lobb can describe it for us? In large part, we typically work with larger schools and a textbook program, if the school has 50 to 100 kids, you're good to go. It doesn't matter, a number of kids so much. But in the computer center, we typically look for schools that have about 200 kids or more. That way, you cover all the costs and still keep that student contribution down low. And you have partners as well, right?

That's right. All of our like Rotary Club, Microsoft, other foundations, etc. help us with that seed donation. Microsoft as well helps us with licenses, so that's an ongoing gift and kind. And that kind of starts, that jump 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, to provide new computers. No, the idea is that it's kind of our promise to the donors that their money is well spent

in an effective way and that the community will take that ball and run with it. So that's how it works in a nutshell, much like the textbook Revolving Fund, self-sustainable, but the kids paid just a little bit more money. Well, I think it's more frequent. I think where they paid $2 a year for a textbook, they paid $2 a month for a computer. Oh, is that what it is? Yeah. But you spread that over 200 kids, again, in five years, you have that self-sufficient

escrow fund that can pay to replace all the computers. And the computers, Chuck, they were nice computers, but there was something really strange about them. Did you know what it was? No internet. No internet. Yeah. They had a simulated internet.

Here's what the 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 CARTA, which might seem a little old fashioned to us, but it's great for them. Right.

And Windows Movie Maker, and 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? Right. But they'll 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 blew you away was these kids are just encountering computers for the first time, and they were already making PowerPoint slideshows and stuff like that. Right. Yeah. And Howard was telling us about some of the successes that have come from these computer centers that Cooperative for Education, a.k.a. Co-Ed, sponsors, or sets up.

And he was talking about these kids that made a t-shirt company. Right. Yeah. Let's hear that one. So in a town not far from here, this group of girls broke into a group of four or six students, and they did a project that we call Microsoft, or project office, excuse me. And in this project, they learned to create a business, usually it's a simulated business. In this case, they made it a real business, and they decided that they were going to create

t-shirts to sell to fellow classmates and things like that. So they used Microsoft Excel to create a budget. They used Microsoft Publisher and Movie Maker to create advertising material and like a fake amok TV ad. They worked with a local silk screening company and created t-shirts and started selling them. And even though they graduated from middle school, they still got this thing going. That's amazing. So you've got kids going from middle school and actually generating income for themselves

and their families. How awesome is that? It is. Pretty sweet. And Chuck, he tells another story that we didn't use where 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 these kids did data analysis of all the costs and outputs from broccoli and from snow

peas and found, in fact, snow peas are actually more profitable, and then they made a presentation and gave it to the town and completely changed the minds of all the farmers around there. Yeah. So they could make more money. Yeah. Pretty amazing. That is really amazing. It's spectacular.

Well, it's so amazing that a guy like Howard quit his good job in the United States to move to Guatemala. We should say most of the co-ed cooperative 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. Right. And he gave up his life in America.

Of course, he met a Guatemalan woman, married her. Yeah. Yeah. That might add something to it. Not too shabby. 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 bring to them.

The kids want to learn, the parents now know how important education is. And that just feeds our, any emotion that we came to this country with. And so it's kind of easy to help in that sense. And really in co-ed, I think all of us who work here have now found a way to help development, human development a little bit. And we feel like maybe it's really having an impact. We have a mechanism, a system that provides a sustainability, and that's key. 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. That makes us happy. It makes them happy. And we like to think it's having a real impact. And more and more, we measure our programs, we're seeing good results. Awesome.

Thank you, sir. We're glad I met you guys. We were 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.

Yeah. Remember it was like our first... Oh, 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 he had built.

Do we have any of that harp music? Yeah. 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 130. And he was very old. And 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. It was the first of many humiliating moments for me. 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. The pictures of that that we're going to have on the website. Fantastic. We thought that we were going to see a live chicken sacrificed right in front of our faces. It came down to the last second. Yeah.

They're doing another traditional. This one wasn't the corn dance. Just like the symbolic sacrificing of the chicken. Right. It was a it was a Mayan dance, right? And they come out with a live chicken. And strangely enough, like earlier in that day, they we've been told that Jeff told us that at some of the Mayan ruins, they'll find like dead chickens.

There's still some blood sacrifices 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 ceremonial dance and we're like, are they really going to do this? And this girl like, like drop the chicken and lifted it up and then just slither hand right off the end of its head and the chicken was like, yeah. And there's literally like 20 Americans in this horseshoe configuration with them in the middle. All just thinking, oh, my Lord.

Yeah. But again, with the smiles. Hey, it's your culture. Exactly. I don't want to knock it to each his own and I haven't covered in chicken blood. But luckily the chicken was spared and it was all symbolic and we all breathed a little sigh of relief. And the chicken.

And yeah, the chicken was glad to. 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 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 rural Guatemala made who had never seen a computer six months ago. Yeah.

That's where it really hits home. And that was it for that school. Yes it was. That was a lot. Yeah. What do you think? Chicken sacrifice. Sure.

Force dancing. Computers, Howard. It sounds like my high school experience. So then we go to the Hotel Alborges de Tecpan. The weirdest hotel in Guatemala. Yeah. It's a compound. It's not a hotel.

It's a compound surrounded by a high wall with razor wire and the best thing we could describe it was it looked like the Michael Jackson of Guatemala might have owned the property at one point. Yeah. It was like a Neverland Ranch. It had these life-size chess games. No, it was like a Neverland Ranch that had been left out exposed to the elements for many, many years.

That's true. It wasn't like nice and new looking. But they had like a life-size chess game and these swings. Lots of Alice in Wonderland themed stuff. Yeah. Statues all throughout the property. Each area was more unsettling than the last. It was a little weird.

But it was kind of cool for sure. And before dinner we went to, there was this girl on the trip named Gabby. Yeah. Gabby was, I would call her the translator, but Gabby was like everything on this trip. Yeah. She's definitely a jack of all trades for co-ed. Yeah. She's the facilitator pretty much.

Anything we needed. Remember in Antigua at the end when we were, you're not supposed to give tours yourself because they have like the city tour people or the only people that are supposed to officially do that? Right. And Gabby like always headed them off at the pass and like explained to the cops what we were doing. Right.

They're like, all right. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. And that works because she is a psychologist, right? Yeah. That's her background. Yeah.

She's a psychologist. Like still. Well. And then she takes time off from her practice. Oh, I thought she quit her practice. We'll do this. No. She just like takes time off and she's like, you guys go nuts for a little while.

I'm going to go do some co-ed stuff. Right. So she's got a really good gig. She's educated. She is one of the more fortunate people in Guatemala to had not come from a very poor family. Yeah. Did we say she's Guatemalan?

Yeah. Oh yeah. She's Guatemalan. Yeah. Did I not mention that? I don't know. She's very Guatemalan. She asked her why that she would leave her private practice to go work with co-ed like

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 had the chance, incredible chance, to meet some of them personally and just keep track of them. And I see how they've been, like, in their houses, you don't speak any castellano and Spanish. And then now they're learning English, they know computers, they bought a piece of land and instead of farming, they are constructing and they're working in and they just have my heart. And Josh, as the interview went on, she got pretty emotional about what these kids in

Guatemala mean to her. And let's just hear what she had to say about that. You can grasp or you can take count with your fingers, just the kids that they have so much strength in them and they are fighting and they are going against everything. So you got the tissues out, buddy? I know. It's pretty moving. Yeah, it's really sweet.

I'm one of those guys who's just like, yeah, yeah, you got a hard life, whatever. But you know, when you see somebody like Gabby, you almost feel for other people through somebody like that, you know? Right, for sure. Yeah. It was real nice. It was a great way to put it. So that was the end of our night.

Had another awesome dinner, steak that night, remember? Yeah. At that place? Yeah, at the roadhouse. Yeah, it was like a roadhouse. And we go to our separate cabins and go to sleep. Jerry had a really creepy one off in the woods. Jerry was scared.

First of all, Jerry made me walk her to her cabin and I'm thinking, I hope Jerry doesn't try to put the moves on me. And 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 luck. If you need any help, just scream.

It wasn't even that far, but that's funny. Then we go the next day, we go to an orphanage school. And we were late because Dan, one of the guys on the tour, who was like, I'm so surprised Dan just didn't end up walking in front of a horse. Something like that. And Dan just, things just went wrong for Dan, but he always had a great smile on his face. He couldn't find his alarm clock or something. So he just kept sleeping.

That was the first of many little whole tour was where Dan incidences that happened. Dan was awesome. So we go to this orphanage school and what's sad 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 drop their kids off and leave them there and maybe visit once a month or however often they can. And we got one really good story from this school that, 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 they'll ask different questions. Well, they'll tell them how to do it, then they bring three kids on stage and ask them to repeat what they 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 had crushes on her. Very cute young girl. And she completely just like took charge of the room and recited exactly how to take

care of the textbooks. And you could tell she was on the ball. Right. So after the whole presentation, we were out back interviewing Holly, who had gone and found out this girl's story. Because they co-ed also identify scholarship students, kids who were really going to benefit from like direct help from donors. And this girl had scholarship student written all over her.

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 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 Guatemala. He probably earns $3 a day, maybe at the most, maybe $2 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 14 years old for the last year has been going to school full time and doing everything in the house for herself and her 10-year-old brother and her 6-year-old brother. So she gets up at 5 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 I was amazed by this. I couldn't believe that she was doing this and I asked her why her parents had left to do that and it's because 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 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 getting along, they're making it somewhat. So why do they care if you have a good education? And she said what most people say is that they wanted opportunities for us that were much 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 13-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 coattails after that. Sure. She wants to 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 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 producer's voice. It's definitely my honor and privilege to be here with you today.

Most of us have come a very long way to be here to let you know that we care very much about your future. Realmente es un honor y es un privilegio poder estar aquí con ustedes y compartir este día con ustedes porque quiero que ustedes sepan que para nosotros su futuro y su educación es bien importante. These textbooks here today 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. I would like to say directly to all of the young women here.

You can do great things in your life and it can start here and I hope to see all of you succeed and I think that we all feel the same way. Very proud to be here. Your country is beautiful. Your beautiful people. Thank you so much for having me. It was great. I remember filming this.

I had the camera at the time and I got all choked up. I know. I remember being like, why is Chuck at the camera? Right. I'm going to have a cigarette. So this was called the Santiago Cooperative School and the other cool thing about this besides Jerry's speech was the principal that ran this joint. Yeah.

It was around in Santiago was a hotbed of activity during the Civil War and this guy was a prominent figure in the town and had to shut the school down and he was kind of lefty. He saw things the 10 years of springway and he had to keep his mouth shut but as he was, he was also quietly building this school so when the Civil War ended, he could reopen and hit the ground running. And Chuck, like you said, he was a revolutionary in that he thought girls should be educated, right?

Yeah. It's not the most popular notion 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 fought to get girls the same rights and the same education as boys. Right. So the demographics in his school at least gender-wise are about 50-50 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 50%. And you could tell this guy is very much revered by his students and the people in the communities. Big time. He's a stand-up guy. Oh, yeah. 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 gringo write-in. That's fraud, Chuck. But like you said, a very effective speaker, very moving, like we went to a classroom 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 salsa music in right here? Is it time? It's time. Okay. And Josh, this music is playing because we wind up our trip the week in Antigua.

Yes. Antigua is one of the more popular tourist destinations and that's where you're going to find, that's where we saw more Americans than anywhere a week. Right. Because it's lovely. And it is gorgeous. It's the old capital or it was the capital until 1776. Yeah.

So it's preserved in time basically as the largest city from 1776. There's some amazing stuff around there. It was racked by earthquakes over the decades. Yeah. And some of these churches that were built in the 16th, I said 16th century, that were just huge, collapsed partially. So we were actually, we toured an abandoned, well it was actually still in use. Yeah.

But the back part of it was in ruins. So awesome. And these huge columns that were like the size of a school bus were just boom 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, these were 500 year old columns that were just sitting there. Unbelievable. It was really amazing.

The whole town was gorgeous. Remember the arch over the main thoroughfare? Yeah. 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 street so that the nuns could go from one side to the other. And the town square with the fountain.

Very awesome. So we check into our hotel, coincidentally also the best hotel of the week. The Hotel Via Colonial. This place is awesome. Like manicured gardens, it was really awesome. Some cat helped me carry my bag to my room. Oh really? You had a bellhop?

Yeah. I didn't have a bellhop. Didn't you? No man. Oh yeah. I think it was, he didn't do anything else but take my bag to the room. Did you tip him? Yes.

And actually I felt bad because I only had like a couple of ketzalis on me. 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 and he was all happy. And one of the guys who spoke English who was tending bar was like, he thinks he just

won the lottery. Because he gave him like a dollar a month. Wow. Yeah. So we have a little happy hour that evening by the pool in the gardens. And that's when we were introduced to Ron Zacapa, who was not our friend. I like him. It is rum.

It is aged rum. Yeah. Ron is rum in Spanish. And I didn't know I was a rum guy until I had the Ron Zacapa. Chuck, I don't think that's a very fair characterization. This is not, liking Ron Zacapa does not make you a rum guy. This stuff is, as one of our listeners who commented on the blog during our trip when we mentioned that we were in Guatemala, said, try Ron Zacapa.

It is the nectar of the gods. It was. Delicious. So good. I think we're a little loath to play up alcohol like this, especially because we have younger listeners. But when you kids get to be 21, make your first drink Ron Zacapa. You won't be disappointed.

And Josh, we should point out Jerry just stopped us to mention that we had the 23 year aged Ron Zacapa. Right. This is a cop a fan as well. So we have another delicious dinner. Remember the second floor? It's like an open air balcony overlooking the gardens. Yes.

I remember. Delicious. I dined with Ann. I know by this point, we were actually mingling with other people on the trip and the other tourists that like we definitely skewed the median age one, a little bit one way, right? You could say that. But I mean, there were lots of retired school teachers, lots of older women, women of a certain age, I should say, who turned out to just be awesome.

This isn't normally the crowd we run with. But all of them were just super cool, super fun to talk to. Heck yeah. And 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. I know. Look at you.

Right. It's so weird. I was kind of shocked actually. And I didn't like my skin didn't prickle. But by this night, by this dinner, we were all kind of separated and like mingling with the rest of the tour, like on a really fundamental level. I thought that was cool. Yeah, we all ate dinner with our own little groups and it was very nice.

I charmed everybody at my table. I'm sure you did. Yeah. You were like the cool cousin at the wedding. Thank you. Sure. So the next day we took off for town and the co-ed gang took us on the walking tour that we mentioned earlier when we got in trouble from the local cops, but Gaby 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 and waving and waving with the big smile on his face. Oh, Dan. Sweet Dan.

And that was the first time we saw a horse diaper. Yeah. I'd never seen that. No. 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 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 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 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, a boy and a girl. And they were charged to take us around town while we shopped and help us like Haggle. And Jerry took a little shine to the girl there. That was her little buddy. Yes. They turned out to be fast friends.

Yeah. It was very cute. And we ate a poil compare. Yeah. Which is sort of like the KFC of Guatemala. I'm sorry. Did I just steal your thunder? No.

Okay. Because I mentioned a meal. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't eat this meal though, actually. I remember I was hungry. Oh, yeah. That's right.

Oddly. And so they took a shopping and one of the coolest things on this little excursion was we got together and we were like, hey, look, you know, we should buy these kids something because you know how it is when you go to one of these countries like these handmade goods or like dirt cheap. Yeah. And that's not why we decided to buy them something. Right.

We can buy one of these kids something. Yeah. We thought, you know, let's let them pick out whatever they want. And we had Steve translate because he was the man in Spanish. And we asked, we told them to tell the kids, pick out anything you want and we'll buy it. 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 wear. I noticed. What, what did the girl get Jerry's bracelets for her family? I don't know if that came through, but that was Jerry, but they've already heard her now. Yeah, that's true. The cat's 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 our kids and 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 for the last night's dinner, right? And the last night's a happy hour. Yeah. With more rounds of copper. And we didn't explain the rounds of copper thing.

You're meant to burn the devil out. Remember? Oh yeah. That's true. So when you finish the bottle, you rub it, everyone stands in a circle who's drank it. You rub it all over your body and you get it like rolled 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

blue flame comes out and it looks like a caramelizing torch. Yeah, it kind of shoots out and they do that because the Guatemalans believe that if you ingest liquor, then that's the devil living inside of you. So all you got to do to ride the ship is just burn the devil out at the end of the bottle and you're all set. Yeah. Bing bang boom. So we did that and that was a lot of fun.

Everybody's in a great mood at the end of this week. We're all buddies and we're all having a blast. So we have the final night. They have a slideshow 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. And you too.

Little symbolic. And you were wearing a rotary apron while you did it. I was wearing an apron. You're right. This is what that's called. And they did the little slideshow, which is really nice. And then this was Jerry's birthday. So they brought out a cake.

They came to me earlier in the night and said, hey, do you think if we got a cake it would embarrass Jerry? I went, 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 Guatemalan tradition.

Is that like a co-ed thing? So Jerry had to take a bite of the cake without using her hands, essentially. And she did it. She was a good sport. Jerry's letting loose at this point. Oh, yeah. I saw a whole new side of her. So after dinner in the slideshow, we had the opportunity to everyone there, if they want

to say a few words about their week, to do so. And I put you back in your seat and took the opportunity 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. Except, I think I probably was.

Really? Sure. Okay. You had the heartstrings pulled. I was pulling them. Like a kite, like a box kite. I was working it. It was very sweet.

It was a very good speech. And you did a good job capturing the sense that we had, kind of our eyes being opened down there. Thanks, man. Our hearts being opened, too. I appreciate that. Yeah. I spoke from the heart.

A minute. Good job, man. And another one of the people that spoke was Michelle McMaster. Yeah. Who we were on the trip with, and I don't remember if we were just tired, if 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 at this point. We were like, put the camera away for the night. So we knew Michelle lived in Atlanta, and we're like, we'll have you come in, and how about we interview you in Atlanta? Yeah, 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 did get her perspective, and she did come in and sat down, and we asked her some questions about why she was donating to Coed.

Because when we were down there, she was basically on this distribution tour, a memorial tour, for her mother-in-law. And this was her third trip to Guatemala, and she was like an old pro at donating. She doesn't come from this opulent, wealthy family necessarily. She's just a normal Atlanta who really figured that this is a good way to do something with her money. Right. It's just such a poor country, and I am so fortunate.

My family is fortunate, and I just feel at this point in my life, I can do something about it, and I can give back, and I hope that a lot of people have the opportunity to do that because it's way better feeling for me than it is for them to receive the books. They thank us, but I really feel like I should thank them. And Chuck, Michelle was not the only veteran donor that was on the tour with us. You remember chasing Kathy? Do I remember? They were very awesome.

Yes. They have a little place in my heart. Yeah, and they've gotten into sponsoring. I don't remember how many tours they've been on by the time they went on this one. But they've really taken a shine to Coed, and 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 that Coed has such this loyal following, this really dedicated group of people that they attract and keep because the money stays there. Right. It doesn't get used up. It's sustainable. It's a sustainable model. It's a pretty amazing one, too. Yeah.

I want to find one person that's gone on one of these tours that comes back and is like, well, that was nice. Good luck with everything. Yeah. I don't think it happens. Like 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. Skah clubs. Yes. And don't you have a little something like that? 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. Sure. Most of the Coed folks. And boy, howdy. Did you guys go out? Yeah.

Yeah. I could eat all that breakfast the next morning. I could barely sit at the same table as you guys. You stunk so bad. Do you want to recount a little bit of this night? Well, Josh, I'm really not allowed to say what went on that night. We've all been sworn to secrecy, but let's just say there was a nightclub involved. There was a band, live band playing Guatemalan Skah music.

It's so cool. I danced for hours and I am not a dancer. And the next day. I've seen you dancing. No, you're not a dancer. No, 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. No. It was truly one of the best, best nights out of ever had. Jerry kept going. Woo.

The next morning. Woo. And you're just like, shh. My head. It was great. It brought me back to my college days as if I was an exchange student in Guatemala. Cool. The experience I never got to live back in.

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. Yeah. And it was just like dancing and sweating and having a great time. It was just living life, man. That's great. And I just got a word from Jerry that it was the best birthday of her life.

Yeah. And she's like 40. So best speech from you, 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 not Mr. Burns. Oh, thank you, Chuck. 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 Guatemalan 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 and in very short order, we were like, no, this, this actually deserves

its own podcast. This is a pretty amazing organization. It deserves to. Exactly. Uh-huh. It has all of your marks of a great organization that deserves a podcast. Right. It's an underdog.

It's kind of small. Sure. It's been chugging along for 14 years. Yeah. It started out super small and it's 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 donations go to the actual people.

Right. And I think the industry standard is like 50% right. And they're hitting like 80, 85, something like that. Right. That's huge. Yeah. 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 to like an efficient, a really efficient, uh, charitable machine, I guess is the best way I can say it. So Chuck, 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 ditto, Josh.

No, you couldn't. That wouldn't quite do it. You got to slather it on, bud. Well, like we said, I mean, the people of co-ed are just doing amazing work. They're unbelievable. The people of Guatemala were just some of the warmest, uh, most welcoming people we ever met, um, that I've ever met. I know like you said, they, you know, laid down like evergreen bowels at our feet when

we walked through and the kids came out, you know, remember the last school 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 principal speaking at the one place and then people like Carolyn who are, uh, give up their jobs to go down there and live and teach these kids. It was just the whole thing completely blew me away. Changed my perspective on, on what we have here, what I have. I'll never look at a pencil the same way again. I'll tell you that.

Excellent. Chuck. Yeah, she's going back again and Jerry is going back again. Yes, she is. She's going again this 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 anybody who wants to go hang with Jerry in 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. We have five photos of us in Guatemala. Get a pencil out or a pen, 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.adventure.howstuffworks.com slash stuff-you-should-know-quadamala-pictures.htm. So essentially, it's adventure, how stuff works, 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 so those of you in the know, 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. You can log on to their internet website at www.coeduc.org, that's C-O-E-D-U-C.org. And Jerry tells us that you can just type in cooperative for education in this URL bar. Yeah. And it'll redirect. Yeah. They got info on their website about the tour that you can take. 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. Yeah. They guarantee you will have a life-changing experience. And they have got a video about the tour on there that you can watch and defy you to watch it and not get a little teary-eyed. And it's all there on the website, all the information, and now you should check it out

for sure. Yeah. So check that out. And again, if you want to donate to co-ed, you can text a $5 donation by texting the word stuff, S-T-U-F-F. Yes. Yeah. To 20222.

You'll donate $5. You'll receive a text back asking you to confirm the donation. Simply reply with the word yes to complete the donation, right? And we have to say a one-time $5 donation will be charged to 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 reply stop to 20222. Or if you need help, reply the word help.

Donations are collected by the Mobile Giving Foundation. For more info, you can call 866-810-1203 or go to hmgf.org slash t. What a website, huh? Wow. Nice job, man. Thanks. And some wireless carriers limit the number of donations you can make. So check with your wireless carrier if you want to make more than one.

Yeah. On a personal note, I just want to say we've had awesome response from our Kiva sponsorships. Yeah. So we kind of talked the stuff you should know army up to co-ed and we said, oh, $5 text, that's the way to go. Like, these people will definitely hear this story and they'll definitely want to throw five bucks your way. And so I just want to, literally, we don't ask people for much often.

But I'm going to ask you to do that. Text $5 and the clock is ticking 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, Jerry's into July. So pick out your phone right now. Just do a little quick text. Like we said, five bucks will buy textbooks for one student for an entire year. And then it goes into the Revolving Fund and it's self-sustainable and essentially you've

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 and go down there and visit it and cherish it and hug it. And 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 telephone. I never thought that I 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 how we actually feel about Coed. Absolutely. We wouldn't be doing this for any fly by night non-profit. These guys are great. So again, if you want to learn more about Coed, go to www.coeduc.org and we're going to post pictures on our blogs, right Chuck? No, I'm going to 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 100 pictures of our trip. Excellent. Well, that's it. Right? Viva Guatemala. Adios. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks.com.

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