Rosangela Bando with a Guatemalan girl that barely speaks any Spanish. She was selling on the road on my way to San Pedro Necta, a coffee farmer’s community. Child labor is prevalent in many agricultural activities, including coffee.

Rosangela Bando is a second year student in the Agricultural and Resource Economics program. She has been in Guatemala City, Guatemala studying the coffee value chain.

Rosangela experienced a few challenges conducting her research, especially in obtaining information. Institutions “hardly have any public information” and “people may not share information” despite the fact that the information “is not confidential.”

Perhaps because she found “public transportation to be so inefficient,” Rosangela recommends that students should “get a car and a cell phone as soon as you can.” Despite these setbacks, Rosangela is impressed by how truly nice the people of Guatemala are, “they are great!”

For future travelers, Rosangela recommends visits to the Pacaya Volcano and Antigua.

To talk to Rosangela more about her travels and research you may reach her at Rosangela_Bando(at) berkeley (dot) edu.