USU students help guinea pig business
Written By: Steve Eaton
If all goes according to plan, thousands of cute little guinea pigs will be put to death, thanks to the work of a handful of Utah State University Jon M. Huntsman School of Business students.
The Jon M. Huntsman School of Business has been able to boast of some amazing things, thanks to the accomplish- body. Helping someone get a business off the ground that aims to raise and sell guinea pig meat might seem a bit strange to many people. But that’s probably because they aren’t a part of this new South American world some 42 students have been exploring for several weeks now.
When I look out my bus window, it’s Peru I see, but I’m really seeing my old world through new eyes.
When I moved to Logan last November I became self-conscious about my home. It isn’t nearly as nice as the other homes in the Cliffside area.
For hours now I’ve been able to look out my window and see miles and miles of wall-to-wall, humble, small square homes on dusty roads that don’t look like anything anyone would ever see in Logan. I’ve been able to make these kinds of images of poverty go away by changing channels in the United States. Here it’s not so easy.
Earlier this week I went in a home that had a dirt floor and more than a dozen fat guinea pigs running about freely. This was not your usual home because it had been offered up to a bunch of tourists who walked into its dark interior to snap pictures.
Even though it was home to a real family, the walls had been built by Incas hundreds of years ago, and on little stone shelves built into the walls were the real skulls of three people. They were the heads of ancestors who were placed there to symbolically watch over the home.
I’m told, however, that dirt floors are the norm for many Peruvians. The sturdy Inca walls are not. The seemingly endless poverty is a common denominator in most of every town or village we have seen.
For the last few days, students in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business South America study abroad program have been tasting life in Peru. They’ve even been given some time to do some traditional things such as visit Machu Pichu, an ancient Inca village high on a mountain top that can be visited by anyone willing to ride one of the "buses of death" that navigate the one-lane dirt roads that lead to the base of the ruins. Since the same roads also lead to the bottom, the buses keep their passengers focused on the meaning of life by playing chicken on each switch back as they hurtle toward each other.
The group is now packed into two very comfortable buses for a ninehour bus trip to a hostel in Huanchaco. As we drive, several student-led groups are talking about how they will tackle a number of service projects that the business students have been planning for weeks. Three separate groups will work together to conduct eye-glass clinics with a Utahbased, non-profit organization, The Hope Alliance. Three other groups will investigate the feasibility of several small business ideas that have been identified in the area. One of them is a group that thinks that, with the help of a microloan, they can make a go of raising guinea pigs, which are considered here to be a special dinner treat but never pets.
Another group will be meeting with various experienced non-profit organizations to determine if any of them can be entrusted with the more than $30,000 USU students raised to offer up as seed money for microloans.
The students will be thrown at real-life challenges, and they will not be able to draw their answers from textbooks or booklets that give them step-by-step instructions of what to do next. The Jon M. Huntsman School of Business is focusing on developing entrepreneurs, helping students obtain a global vision and teaching ethical leadership. These 42 have been given a close look at a world that will never again be that far away. They’ve seen first-hand people in three countries who know how to make a profit from nothing at all. Now they are getting a chance to test their leadership skills doing something that really matters.
I’m finding it challenging enough to just find a place that sells hamburgers that taste like hamburgers. The students and many of the faculty members here seek much greater thrills. For example, just this week, several went exploring Peru on rented motorcycles. They discovered a bungee-jumping facility that offered them the opportunity to free-fall more than 400-feet and scream in a foreign language. My idea of thrill-seeking is to walk into a restaurant alone, hoping it uses pictures on the menu. They risk instant death but the risk is over in seconds. I too risk death but mine will likely come slowly in the middle of the night on a toilet.
We came here, in part, to serve and to teach and do something to contribute to our global neighborhoods. We are instead being taught by the people of Peru who have consistently been kind, helpful and patient as we try to adjust to their culture.
When we get back, our old world will seem new. In my case, I’ll have a clue about just how lucky I am to have a real roof, soft carpet, and – to watch over our house – a bigscreen TV. We’ll all pay attention to Peru, Chile and Brazil, the three countries we have been visiting, when they show up in the network news and I suspect many of us will find more effective ways to help the less-fortunate.
Our families and friends will have to adjust to our larger new world view. For the most part, that shouldn’t be too hard. I can offer one piece of advice: We’ll be home by July. Hide your guinea pigs.