Trip to Guatemalan villagesJuly 2008Life in the third worlda new reality for urbanized students.2008 Students trip reportsAna Lucia Montenegro-Trip ReportLandivarThe experience of the trip to Pasajquim was very enriching. I learn to be more humble and sensitive about world poverty and my own people’s needs. I also learned to learn from other people, from their way of living, their culture.As I said before, this was an excellent experience for me, but there is always ways to improve it. One way to improve this experience could be to be more prepared about the research we were doing. I would’ve liked to know with more anticipation in what project was I going to work in order to investigate and learn more about it before the trip. Another thing that could have been better was if CALTECH students had better Spanish. I think they missed a big part ofthe experience by not being able to communicate directly to with their people around. And thelast thing I would’ve done was a meeting with the community to explain all of the projects we were doing. By doing this changes I thing it would’ve been a better experience. But even with the few negative things in the trip, this was an experience that let me learn many things. One of the things I learned was that Pasajquim people live in extreme poverty so we have to have that in mind during the design process. The majority of the families have a lot of kids but for some reason they hide them, especially girls. And another thing I noticed was that just the Tuch family has a TPS latrine; in order for us to design a separating seat for the latrine, we first have to make sure people can get a latrine.Trip ReportAnnie Liu- CaltechTeam: WheelchairOne important lesson I learned in terms of designing products for the developing country is the pre-design phase market research. The major problem with the prototype from IMI is that the pushing rails are too far apart for most Guatemalans who are by far smaller than the average Americans. If they had these measurements beforehand, they could have better designed the prototype. We also had problem figuring out the market demand. The prototypesare designed to be hospital wheelchair, but during our visit at Transitions, we were told that sport type of wheelchair gives the users more control and stability. It is important to keep our focus on one type of wheelchair, and it’s important to figure out the demands of the market. Unfortunately, this data is lacking. The second lesson I learned is to always be sensitive to the culture and be careful of how it might change the design or marketing strategy. A problem that was brought up by the corn sheller group at a group meeting is that the Mayans view maiz (corn) as something sacred andthe use of any tool for shelling may be demeaning. Though it was later shown that this issue is that a great concern, but we should still bear in mind that similar culture difference may affectother projects in the future.The third lesson for me is that I now have a better appreciation for ancient wisdom. For example, the traditional way for Mayan women to balance goods on their head may look completely outdated, but after spending a week at Pasajquim, living closely to the community, I found out that it is actually a very efficient way for carrying things, so is the head-strip method for men. 1It wasn’t my first time visiting a developing country, but this trip gave me a deeper understanding of engineering in general. Engineering is not just to come up with cost-effectiveproducts that work and sell, it also means to design for sustainability and ease of maintenance. One suggestion that might make the trip more enjoyable is therefore to let students have an early involvement in the design and project creation process. And if possible,move the selection process to an earlier date, so students will have the chance to better understand the background of the projects. Another idea is to give the trip members more time to get to know each other before or duringthe first few days of the trip. When we took off from Caltech, I still didn’t know most of the tripmembers and it wasn’t until almost the end of the trip that I memorize everybody’s name. I think for everyone to work together as a team, it is very important to really get to know each other. Some unstructured social hour can really enhance our understanding of each other. It was also when I got to Guatemala, living with the community that I realized how little I know about this beautiful country despite all the pre-trip presentations and readings. I feel I would have learned more if I knew what questions to ask beforehand. Other means that might help us better learn about a country may include watching a movie or documentary about Guatemala. Communication is another thing that I find difficult during the trip. The pre-trip Spanish classes helped a lot and my Spanish level greatly improved during this trip. But if I had known more Spanish, I will certainly enjoy the trip more. If I had learned about this trip earlier, I would have taken a class in Spanish and spent more time on conversational Spanish.I think it’s also crucial to fully understand the design idea behind each project since all projects are targeted at a specific group of people and culture. To design the accessories for latrine, one needs to know the problem of human waste disposal in the Mayan villages. To promote the corn sheller, one needs to respect the Mayan culture and remember that maximizing performance isn’t necessarily a good thing. Only after we have thoroughly understood who we are designing for, can we really tailor our products to their needs. In addition to learning the process of developing for developing countries – research, design, engineering, marketing – this trip also taught me a much more important lesson, that is, to incorporate cultural elements in one’s design and by doing so to preserve valuable human heritage. I am thankful and honored to be part of this group and to work with my fellow students and experts. Regardless whether our products succeed or not in the future, I felt I have gained tremendously from this trip. TRIP REPORT-ARTURO UJPAN MENDOZA.Quetzaltenango Landivar CampusI learned if the person or myself I can solve my problem, we did not have to look for someone else, I always asked people who were designing each project to give me more information. Also When I asked someone to solve a problem