I had "heard" all about this HIVE Hub Hotel that @buttcoins was doing, in fact I had even heard of @buttcoins and I remembered some post from maybe 2018 where, the details escape me but, I learned he lived on a lake and something something took a boat to get groceries.
To be honest I took it all in with much interest but low resolution because, well, I'm busy and it didn't seem to apply to me, at least in such an urgent manner.
But one day I got a message from @starkerz - something like - it would really be cool if you guys would make an effort to come. Impossible, was my immediate reaction, but then I started looking into it....
And now here I am.
So you want to be a "volunteer"
This whole "volunteer" business is something I will definitely be discussing, we had briefly tried it in Colombia many years ago before rejecting the model outright. But to experience "from the other side", being a volunteer, at a business that had successfully integrated the model, was definitely a motivation to come for a visit.
Of course first they plied us with Pizza.
"Ati", formerly known as Del Lago, is an interesting and synergetic mix of businesses, including a pizzeria, event space, bar and restaurante, cafeteria, hamburger joint and Hotel.
That's a lot going on, but I am "just" volunteering in the hotel so, at least at the beginning, most of those other details are just interesting distractions.
How it all came to be, we will have to let @buttcoins tell his stories over multiple days and multiple events - but I am interviewing him about it all. Yes I am here to support Hive, but as a sociologist I see a lot of things to learn about beyond just crypto and "sales". About transformation, development and culture.
Let me share with you an example. Latin American-wide (and wider) symbol, Che Guevara, as I have never seen him before.
Guatemala itself has a lot to dig into, as a sociologist. And we are just getting started. Shortly after my first training shift as receptionist, we had our first "Bitcoin and Beers" meet-up, which at the current moment I can only count as a smashing success.
We onboarded several fellows, we "spent" the #spendHBD, and we drank the beers. And every new guy was a superstar.
Perhaps because the Hive integration, and cross-promotion, I haven't thought much about the nature of my volunteer status throughout the afternoon, since I stopped "working" my first shift at reception.
We are thinking about follow up, we are thinking about iteration, we are thinking about hamburgers and we are thinking about the Pride Day Party just getting started at the restaurant on the lake that lives in @buttcoin's synergistic hotel ecosystem.
But mostly, we are excited to be here, to be alive. To be volunteers.