Ligia Lundine does research with the Q’eqchi’ in her native Guatemala.

While working for several years with humanitarian organizations in the poorest regions of Central America and the Caribbean, I noticed that the problems my colleagues and I encountered were more complex and more difficult to tackle than we had expected.

During my field trips to remote villages in Honduras and Haiti, I was puzzled by the different ways in which poor people cope with adversity. It was then that I realized that I needed a better understanding of rural poverty. For this reason, I placed my career on hold and came to Ohio State to continue my studies in the Human Geography master’s program to strengthen my analytical and critical skills.

Last summer, thanks to the Tinker Field Research Grant from the Center of Latin American Studies (CLAS), I was able to spend seven weeks doing fieldwork in two indigenous villages in the humid tropical rainforest of my native Guatemala. During this time, I had the privilege to work with the Q’eqchi’, the second largest ethnic group in the country, to understand how the access to and the quality of water influence women’s livelihood strategies.

Engaging in fieldwork was a fantastic experience. I conducted household surveys, interviews, water test analyses and participant observations, which is a method of data collection that involves watching and studying a particular group to better understand them.

By walking several miles everyday in the forest and sharing with its inhabitants, I gained a better appreciation and respect for the way in which Indigenous peoples utilize and think about their natural resources, about their daily struggles to make a living and about the great ability they possess to overcome challenges.