Welcome to Mark Gibson's travel website. A recent college graduate (see About Me), I am setting off on the trip of a lifetime: a year to travel, encounter different cultures, and learn as much as I can about affecting positive social change. I have long been interested by the problems facing much of the non-western world and I hope to learn how I can use my education and skills to make a difference. Along the way, I will seek volunteer and internship opportunities with development organizations as well as share my experiences by writing about them. This website will chronicle my journey for friends, family, and anyone else who is interested. Feel free to send me an email or sign up for my newsletter.

Over the holiday I got to hang out with my family, including my sister Julie above.

1/12/07: Starting the New Year Location: Lancaster, Pennsylvania Hello and Happy New Year! I had a perfect holiday out in Indianapolis, IN with my family, good eats, and good books. (i.e. I'm a few pounds heavier and now recommend Alain de Botton's Status Anxiety to everyone) Now that I'm back, I'm posting the report I finished up mid-December. It is a 90-page report on the Development Council System for the Nahual Foundation in Antigua, Guatemala. They'll be distributing it electronically to interested parties, as will I, starting right here. It'd be a good source for anyone studying public policy or development in Guatemala. You can find it linked to this blog or in my writing archive. For the layman, I still recommend the journalistic piece I wrote on the Development Council System. Its shorter and more digestible overall. You can find that here. If you notice that all of this good stuff is in English, I'll fill you in on the Spanish side of things. When I get time I'll start searching for funds to translate the main report. I'm not really sure if I'll find anyone ready to fit the bill. More important though, I'm currently writing a policy brief on the Development Council System, complete with recommendations for its improvement. I'll distribute this brief to Guatemalan congressmen and media sources. This is my first policy brief, but it's looking good. I also have quite a few connections to help me distribute the brief from the time I was researching. Its hard to make an impact on a country's development strategies, but a policy brief has potential and at the least serves as a great learning experience for me. I'm certainly content to have just that. As for my schedule, yes, I am planning on escaping Lancaster very soon. No offense, but I just haven't found many (er, any) people to have fun with around here. In a couple weeks I'll find out if I got a Fulbright grant. If I get it, awesome, I'll probably take it and head back to Guatemala. If I don't, also ok, I'll head to Philly to work, have a bit more normal life again, and hopefully go to grad school in the Fall. More news to come. Cheers, Mark

Ice cream in the winter? Yeah, when you're a cartoon you can do that. (And when you don't have any decent pictures, its nice to know you can always recreate yourself with the help of South Park Studio. So addictive...)

12/8/06: Ice Cream in Winter, and Updates Location: Lancaster, Pennsylvania Hello All, It has been quite some time since I've written on here, so I feel an update is needed. I am still living with my folks in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, enjoying the good life with tasty food, HDTV, and all the books I've collected but never gotten around to reading. But my time in the Amish Country does not prove perfect material for a modern idyll; I've also been busy with scholarship applications, GRE studying, writing/editing projects, and applying to grad school. With regards to the scholarships, I regret to report that I did not make it very far with the Rhodes or Marshall Scholarships. As for the Fulbright and Penn's Thouron (similar to the Marshall), the jury is still out. The GRE, however, has been much kinder. I took the exam this past Wednesday after a month's preparation. I wasn't very happy to stare at a glaring computer screen for 3 hours, or to compose essays in so little time, but the result was worth it. My strong scores (given immediately) are a big push for my grad school apps, not to mention my confidence. Another happy event is the publication of a small article I submitted to Anthropology News, the official newspaper of the American Anthropology Association. The aricle is on the intersect between conservation, human development, and tourism in Utila, Honduras. You can can find the issue's contents here and the article itself here. As of today I've also finished up another massive writing project: an article covering the main points of my findings from my research on Guatemala's Development Council System. It's a little long at 5,500 words, but should be an interesting read for anyone wanting to know more about human development or Guatemala. You can find that article here. Looking to the few weeks remaining this year, I expect to finish up a long-delayed report on the Development Council System for the Nahual Foundation, start a policy brief for Guatemalan policy makers on the same subject, and apply to grad school. The programs I'm applying to are all having to do with the study of human development (surprise, surprise ;). After that? I may very well fit the modern idyll as I'll be looking for seeds worthy of sowing for a whole new set of adventures. Happy holidays, Mark

I admit I miss a few things after all this rainy and chilly weather in Pennsylvania.

9/14/06: I Admit... Location: Lancaster, Pennsyvlania Before I write on what's new in my life, I'd like to give an update on the Nahual Foundation. The past month has brought many good things for Ignacio, Carlos, and the others working at the Foundation. Carlos moved to San Antonio Aguas Calientes to set up and oversee an area where Ignacio might train community leaders from the municipality and surrounding areas. Apparently the space looks great and this expansion of Ignacio's trainings on citizen participation is going wonderfully. Ignacio and the Nahual Foundation also played a role in the 7th Annual Meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Indigenous Fund in Antigua Guatemala. Rigoberta Menchu, the Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Evo Morales, the Bolivian President, attended and received special honorary diplomas from the Nahual Foundation Indigenous Commission. To learn more about the Nahual Foundation's role in this event, and what these diplomas looked like, take a look at the PDF attached above. Lastly, with the Development Council System now receiving considerable attention in Guatemala, Ignacio has been busy giving lectures on it and his experiences. Just today he taught a large group of incoming Peace Corp workers. ----- As for Me -------- As for me, I feel I must admit that I miss more than a few things from this past year, but cannot say I'd rather still be out traveling. Today, for instance, I slept in till noon. While not something I think should be done regularly, to rest and lay in the warmth of bed till whatever unknown hour suits you is a simple treat. I think I'd almost forgotten that. I have not felt as secure or as tranquil as I am now in this house in the woods in a long time. Another benefit of being home is I can now think on my career, and see if I might launch it soon in DC and advance it next year with grad school or research. I'm a person of far too many interests to find satisfaction in one activity or field, so I must describe my desired career path in general and unconventional terms. I'll say: I seek, through policy advocacy, research, and teaching, to improve environmental conservation and empower oppressed social sectors for the betterment of human experience in the Americas. This is built upon my belief that social problems cannot be resolved independently of environmental problems, and vice-versa. It also presupposes that it is right to "liberate" oppressed social groups (indigenous, poor, women, etc) and that only doing so can promote positive change in government, society, economy...in total: human experience. I take the line of Lawrence E. Harrison, a veteran foreign aid worker and now author of numerous books on the power of culture to retard or support economic growth, the rule of law, and justice, just to name a few. It is: politics can change a culture and save it from itself, but such change occurs in not years, but decades. Harrison has also found evidence that large investments in education, and especially in improving female literacy, usually precede cultural transformations...not surprising since such would give power to those segments of society with the greatest interest to affect cultural transformations - oppressed minorities, women, the poor, etc. In the next two weeks I'll be putting the final touches on my applications for the Rhodes, Marshall, and Fulbright Scholarships. Both the Rhodes and Marshall I would use to take an MPhil (what a Master's is called in the UK) in Development Studies. The Rhodes would put me at Oxford, and the Marshall I would allow me to select a university for such study - I'd choose the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. I imagine I am a good candidate, but these are very difficult competitions with some very strong applicants. I therefore am not allowing myself to entertain any grand illusions. The Fulbright, however, I think I have a particularly good shot at, and would allow me to conduct 10 months of research in Guatemala. My proposed research, an extension of what I did this past year, would be a fantastic chance to learn about the interplay between law and development and what social bases exist in Guatemala for further democratization. My applications will be due, roughly, by the end of this month. Once I am finished with them, I'll begin writing the final two sections on my report on the Development Council System in Guatemala for the Nahual Foundation. I expect to need a couple weeks to sort through all my material. Afterwards, I'll begin studying for the GRE's to apply to grad school in the US. I just might be ready to job search by December. But however it all goes, I'm sure to be having plenty of fun around Lancaster, PA. A good friend of mine from college is around so we've been able to keep each other company and explore a few corners of this pleasant town.

The Latest Writings:

(writings archive)

January 12, 2007: Possibilities for Progress: Citizen Participation and Guatemala's Development Council System

From May through August 2006, I researched Guatemala's Development Council System as a Visiting Fellow at the Nahual Foundation, an Antigua-based Think Tank by and for the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. As a result, I have produced this report on the Development Council System, its history, context, structure, and functioning. I found the system is not functioning well and so also provided recommendations for its improvement. I believe this report would be of interest to anyone wanting to know more about public policy, social investment, or development in Guatemala. Follow the link above to see the report.

November 26, 2006: Challenges to Guatemala's Development Council System: Poor Implementation, Corruption, and Cultural Obstacles to Development

In 2002, a public investment system was reformed to tackle Guatemala’s vast poverty and other social ills. Unique in Latin America, it incorporates communities in planning and execution processes. More than 11,000 communities now participate, but the system struggles with poor implementation, corruption, and various cultural obstacles to development. To learn about Guatemala's Development Council System, follow the link above.

October 26, 2006: The Day of the Dead in Santiago Sacatepeuez: Flying Kites for the Blessed Spirits

This article is by Ignacio Ochoa, the Director of Nahual Foundation. It gives a great look at the Day of the Dead as it is spectacularly celebrated in Santiago Sacatepequez. Each year the Nahual Foundation provides kite building workshops. Follow the link above to hear more.

August 11, 2006: Presentation for the International Day of Indigenous Peoples

On August 9, 2006, I gave a presentation on "Democratic Transition and Guatemala's Development Council System" at a celebration of the International Day of Indigenous Peoples in Antigua Guatemala. Here is that presentation, imperfectly, but sufficiently translated to English. To learn more about the celebration as a whole - organized by the Nahual Foundation - check out the flyer. For the Spanish version, click here.

August 3, 2006: A Shark's Starry Chance

The Whale Shark is today listed as "vulnerable to extinction" on the World Conservation Union's Red List, but many marine biologists believe the shark's position is much more precarious and ought to be better protected. The problem, however, is there just isn't the necessary data. ECOCEAN, an NGO promoting marine conservation awareness and research aims to do just that with a revolutionary photo-identification program. Follow the link above for more information on whale sharks, the experience of the eco-tourist, and how research is being revolutionized. Also, check out another version published in the Bay Islands' Voice in October 2006.

June 13, 2006: New Profile: Aurel Heidelberg

I've just added a profile of Aurel Heidelberg to my collection of profiles of people in development. Aurel is is the director of the Iguana Research and Breeding Station, an NGO located in Utila, Honduras that works to protect the Utilian Spiny-Tailed Iguana and other plant and animal species endemic to the island. If you'd like to know more about his work and how he arrived to work in Utila, follow the link above.