These trips foster opportunities to build and celebrate essential relationships with Guatemalan Rotarians and community members. The Mayan villagers impacted by the projects greatly appreciate that we care enough to show up for them. And, we do our best to ensure the projects are needed and wanted by the community, not by outsiders, which is essential for the long-term sustainability of the work. We bear witness to the integrity of the work allowing us to assure the funders that the money was used as intended ---which also supports our future efforts to fund Global Grants in partnership with other Rotary Clubs.

It is critical that we have strong and trusting relationships with the Rotarians in Guatemala—relationships that are best built face to face. Implementing a sustainable project is not for the faint of heart. The upfront work is formidable. We count on Guatemalan Rotarians to monitor on-going progress, pay bills and work implement monitoring and evaluation practices.

Fellow travelers find the experience of working alongside students and community members to be a very rewarding part of the trip, however, it is probably the least valuable of the contributions that we make to the community. The Guatemalan Highlands have plenty of able-bodied men and women to work. They need the funding and the expertise that we can provide.

That said, the projects undertaken by the EWB teams are very valuable learning experiences for the students. The students raise money, design projects and work alongside the community at various stages of construction. For many, these are life changing experiences.