Today was my first full day as Development Director for Transitions Foundation of Guatemala, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works to improve the lives of Guatemalans with disabilities. The flagship program is the wheelchair workshop, which has cooperative agreements with MIT and San Francisco State University. SFSU helped them design their first wheelchair, especially designed for the needs of most Guatemalans.
The MIT connection is helping to design a special wheelchair with pull bars that is adapted to a more rural environment. It's especially good for doing wheelies.
At other times today, I learned more about the program from Alex Gálvez, the Executive Director.
I also spent some time helping translate some Spanish thank you letters into English while Alex was involved in an Internet conference. I have to admit that, on my advice, we cheated. We used Google Translate to do the first conversion and cleaned it up from there.
At the end of our second day, I can truly say that we have been welcomed with open arms and hearts by everyone associated with Transitions. One reason may be our age. Only one staff member, Doña Vicky, the wonderful cook who creates our delicious lunches, may be older, but who knows?
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