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that STDG has to always keep in mind and really look closely at either
of these if we start owning things. Not sure this makes sense to
anyone else, but it is early in the morning and my brain processes by
talking though things… (You can ask Ed…he sometimes gets tired of my
processing) Back to Tuesday… Virginia and I went to an exhibit of weavings put on by Colores de Guatemala. Colores de Guatemala is a consortium of several groups. The European Union has supported Colores de Guatemala and with input from STDG have added some of our groups. They now help out some of our groups in Comitancillo and Flor de Campo, plus quite a few others they started with. The European Union has supported these groups in many ways… helping them with design, new markets, publicity and in many other ways. They have hired Virginia to work with many of these groups on new designs and she has done a fantastic job. We are really lucky to have Virginia as a part time person working with STDG because she can make a much bigger salary on her consulting work. We spent several hours at the exhibition. The work the groups had done was exquisite and I got a lot of ideas for display in our own store in the states. Some of the groups that were part of this exhibition have been with us for several years and to see their quality improve by so much is just wonderful. You can really see where putting some resources into design work really help these groups. Not only do they end up with beautiful products that will sell, but the women’s self esteem and general knowledge about business really improves. We bought quite a few lovely things to take back to the states and will place a big order for next spring. After being here we went to another artisan market to look around and get some ideas. We didn’t get back to the centre until the middle of the afternoon. This is Vikki now. Our meeting with Julio in the morning was productive. Julio is the accountant for ATUKA. ATUKA is an NGO that is the umbrella over three organizations—Mayan Hands, Ox’alahuj B’atz, and Sharing the Dream. Julio works with Diana to keep track of the money spent here and sends me a report at the end of the month. In addition he helps Diana and Virginia with shipping. This year Julio has helped Diana learn how to do all the documents needed for export. Julio is learning English and I am learning Spanish so it is fun for each of us to practice when we meet. Once we get beyond the easy words, we rely on Diana who knows both languages to get the correct message across. This year I have worked more closely with Diana and I am impressed with her financial and computer abilities. In addition to these abilities, she is very good at working with people. She is indigenous so she understands the culture and can bring that knowledge to our decision-making. We are very lucky to have her! In the afternoon I watched the documentary Precarious Peace which talks about Guatemalan history, especially the war and the peace process. It was especially meaningful because one member of the family whose story was told had been here at the center with us earlier in the week. The women we work with are so amazing. They live lives of hope after all they have witnessed. The documentary talks about religion and how it can motivate people to violence but also be a force for reconciliation. As I watched the film, I thought we should send it to Washington decision-makers because there were many parallels to the war in Iraq. At the end of the movie, Diana came up to say we were again connected to the internet. It has been nice to be away from the political and economical news in the US for a few days but it is great to again be in contact with the world. Wednesday, October 15 After breakfast we piled into Virginia’s car and traveled to another part of the city to the shop of Chikach. Lydia then went with us to Chinautla to meet two families that make clay products. Several members of the first family we visited worked on clay products. We watched as one of the women worked on a crucifix and another worked on a statue of Mary. They also showed us a statue of St. Francis that they had made. These women have orders from churches to make these products. They get the clay from land around them. They showed us how they work the clay and talked about the process of making the products. The second family we visited was Lydia’s family. They make clay baskets, nativity sets, jars for heating aromatic oils, and owls. When Diane said we might be interested in some sort of product with a cross, the woman quickly came up with a demonstration piece. We are looking forward to making orders with these families for next year. We went back to the shop of Chikach and had lunch. The Chikach group makes natural products—aromatic oils, soaps, soy drinks, roasted amaranth, and more. We purchased some of these products to have in the store. They have a little eating area and a kitchen but are not getting the business they had hoped. The meal was excellent and we are planning to bring our visiting groups here to help bring them some more business. In the afternoon we were supposed to meet with representatives from Las Brisas but they were unable to come to the city. They live about 6 hours away and make some baskets that different than the ones we already have in the store. The Las Brisas group will also benefit from STDG hiring a doctor in that area. We were really looking forward to meeting them to discuss the medical needs of the community too. There were going to be 5 women and 1 man coming. The man couldn’t get off from work and the women wouldn’t travel alone. We were going to meet them out in their village and were also going to interview several doctors but I (Diane) felt that are right now was unsafe and didn’t want to go there. After visiting with Angie from the orphanage I think it would have been okay, but better safe than sorry. We will have to rely on Angie and a few members of the community to do the interviewing. This is much better anyhow, because what do we really know about hiring a doctor. Angie will give us a pretty complete view of the candidates. In the evening we worked with Diana on the scholarship program. This sounds like an easy process but took us several hours. Diana is really good at visiting each scholarship student, seeing them in their own home and looking at all angles. Thursday, October 16 This morning we traveled to Antigua where we met with Franklin and other representatives of As Green As It Gets. We were interested in a couple of projects of this group. They export coffee to the US—from they you can get green coffee and then have it roasted yourself or you can get coffee that they have sent to the US and had roasted and processed there or you can get coffee that was roasted and processed in Guatemala. We learned a lot about the coffee market this morning. We also met two coffee farmers. We understand that the new way to market coffee is with the farmer’s name and location on the coffee bag. There is a group of coffee farmers near Santiago and we are exploring the possibility of exporting their green coffee beans to the US and then roasting them locally. Women in this group make burlap bags. The group is planting trees and making products from wood. They also have an artisan who makes jewelry and other items from jade and silver. We didn’t meet the artisan but we saw his workshop. He has made all his machinery and goes to the country to find his own jade. We saw some beautiful jewelry he had made. From there we had lunch and then went to visit Diane’s friend Romelia. Romelia has helped to build a school and provides scholarships to students. She has a beautiful garden and has rooms to rent in her home. Diana drove us back to the city and we spent the evening working with Diana on her job description for next year. She will be our coordinator here and will be in charge of all the projects. Friday, October 17 This is our last day. We started the day working with Virginia looking at some new products for some of the groups. Domingo and his family came to bring us the jewelry order and we spent some time visiting with them. Then Clemente arrived. Clemente is a weaver who used to work with Mayan Hands. Now he has his own weaving shop near Xela. Next year he will be working with Virginia and Isabel to help the groups with new fabrics, new designs, and developing the skills of the women as they become able to work independently. Isabel is a scholarship student who lives at the Guatemala City center. She was a weaver with one of the Mayan Hands groups. Clemente first knew her as a child of one of the weavers he worked with and then she worked with him as a weaver while she was in school in her village. Now the two of them will be working together as they train other groups. Clemente said “This is what development is all about, this is a dream.. Isabel and I will be working with each other.” Diego, Juana and their son arrived while we were meeting with Clemente. They are leaders of the Ruth and Nohemi group. They brought us new products to look at and we talked about the scholarship program with them. We also talked about possible new projects. Nearly every group we have met with has mentioned the economic situation here. It has been a difficult year for nearly all the groups. Clemente and Diego and Juana all said their orders are down and they are wondering where they are going to find the work for the people who work with them. I think the US is now feeling what Guatemalans have been dealing with all year. Making big orders with the groups is one way we can really help the groups deal with the economic situation. Terry and Rocky arrived while we were meeting with Diego and Juana. Terry joined the meeting and Rocky helped cook the noon meal. Clemente had stayed for the meeting with Diego and Juana so we had a large group for lunch. Now we are packing, finishing the journals, and completing other final tasks before leaving early in the morning. This has been a different trip for me because we have not done much traveling. But we have accomplished a great deal. We needed the work time to talk about the changes for next year. There are several personnel changes here for next year. Diana and Virginia’s roles are both changing with Virginia focusing on design with the groups and Diana taking over the administration of everything else here. The roles of the staff at the elder center are changing as we add more contact with the hospitalito and hopefully rent upstairs rooms to help pay the costs of the center. Clemente and Isabel are taking on new roles with our organization as they work with Virginia and the groups on design. The scholarship program is changing somewhat as we take on the two new people at the hospitalito. Getting a doctor who will work at Casa Guatemala and the villages near there will be a huge step. I think the changes are good ones and I’m looking forward to the progress I believe we will make with these changes. Hope you have enjoyed our journals. Vikki, with a few sentences by Diane |