#dianablogs

[crunchrecipes]

outfit on my viillage

[uconn-guatemala-blog]

Here are just a few photos from our first campaign here in Solola! Specifically in a community called Concepcion. We ran into a couple hitches at the beginning, it being our first campaign with the SVone device, and also that we accidentally went to the wrong location. But it all worked out in the end and the rest of the campaign went smoothly. We got through a lot of eye exams, and garnered a lot of interest in the stove. The stove has not been as big of a focus here in the Solola region as it was in Nebaj/Quiche, so it was encouraging to see a lot of interest among the community members. A few people even left us take down their names and phone numbers to call them with more information about the stove. They all had a lot of great questions as well. Very exciting!

           The biggest success of the day (I’d say) was that we found a Punta De Venta (Point of Sale) for the stove! When we got to Concepcion, we didn’t yet have a PDV, so we either had to sell the stove we brought with us, or find a PDV to leave it in. Once eye exams started winding down, Mallory and Jose went off in search of a PDV, and ended up finding a really great one. While they were gone the rest of us finished up eye exams, and discussed more about the stove with the remaining attendees, continuing to answer questions. Then after the campaign ended and we cleaned up our materials, we went to bring the stove to the PDV. It was a relatively large clothing store and they seemed very excited to have the stove there. They put it in the very front, and even rearranged some stuff so that it could have that spot. At one point the owner said to me “Cuando van a traernos 6 mas??” (When are you going to bring us 6 more?” It was a little conversational joke, but it definitely showed his interest in the stove, and that he was happy to have it. And who knows, maybe someday soon we will bring him six more!

-Diana