One of San Miguel Escobar’s valuable, yet under-appreciated resources is its homemakers.  Mothers, wives, and elder daughters in our community usually have a strong skill set in cooking and homemaking, but those skills have limited perceived commercial value outside the home.  Through homestay businesses, we have brought clients to their home, giving the homemaker a chance to feed their family with the same skills they use to take care of their families every day.  The homestay model is rather simple.  A homeowner rents out a room and a bed to visitors and prepares their meals at home while the visitors get to know Guatemala.  The price is a small fraction of the cost of hotels and restaurant meals, as well as a much more authentic Guatemalan experience.

The major obstacle facing our homemakers was one of low-level infrastructure.  They didn’t have the beds and amenities that were expected by their clients.  Hence, a new round of small business loans paved the way for the purchase of beds, pillows, hot water heaters, water filters, and the little things that allowed the homestays to reach the level of service their clients expected.  As an added bonus, the families continue to have purified water, flush toilets, and comfortable beds even when they don’t have visitors.

The biggest success in the program is the loan component.  Most of the funding came from within the Guatemalan community.  As Green As It Gets lenders provided small business loans for the first 8 beds.  The program now totals 26 beds, the balance being funded by loans from our coffee farmers.  The homestay program will double over the next month, with the bulk of the financing again coming from the local farmers.

We’re always working ourselves out of jobs.  This time, we did it faster than most.  In less than one year, we went from 0 to 26 beds, and have turned over all management, scheduling, financing, and even lending responsibilities to the community.