The other example is when we were with the Mayan Hands weavers and one of them was describing the atrocities she saw of people being buried in the mudslide. How will they ever get over this??? That is a big concern. These villages had many atrocities happen to them during the Civil War. Most of them remember the horrible things….. The disaster only brings back scenes from that time of mass graves, losing family members and uncertain futures. Immobilized is another word that describes not only the families who have lost family members but also almost everyone who has lost their homes. Not only have the people lost their homes and all their possessions but their livelihood as well. Some of the crops have been ruined, if there are crops left. How do they work them when their machetes, hoes, and tools are gone. How do the women weave when their looms are buried?? Where do they start? In the area of Panabaj the government has declared it a mass cemetery. Now they have no land.. The government has promised them land, but for now what do they do…. . They live with friends and relatives or in churches. How long can they do this? The family that was keeping the sisters also had a mother and 7 children staying with them. There were 8 children but one of them had died in the mudslide. The father had lost his leg and was in a hospital 2 hours away. The home where everyone was staying had 3 rooms and it already was a family of six. What is the future for these two families?

What do we do???? I guess we chunk it off and do what we can. If we don’t do this it would be overwhelming. If lots of people do their small parts it will get done.
---- We work with 45 women who bead, of that 16 lost their homes. Eight of the families lived in Panabaj. They will not be able to go back there. We are hoping to be able to find some land to rent and put up temporary homes for them until the government finds them land. There are a total of 36 people. Of these 8 families, 3 of the women are on their own. In the 5 families that have fathers, the men work in the fields, making about $2. per day. That is if they still have their jobs. Two of these 8 families have children that are our scholarship children.
---- Eight of the families lived in Pachichaj. The government is building a wall on the hill by the mudslide. These families can go back to their land but all or part of their homes are buried. There are 39 total people in these households. We are starting on these homes this week. The land has to be stablilized first with rocks. After this is done we will start work. Domingo who works with the beaders is helping us by coordinating the efforts. We want to start all the homes at once so that we can get better prices on the materials. We also want to start now before the materials go up. We have a friend from here who is a construction person and has been to Guatemala several times to help out on projects. He has volunteered to help oversee the project and will go down in Nov. We have estimated that we can build a basic structure for $1000.00 each. When Domingo and I were visiting about this he stated that the people right now are feeling so hopeless and if they can start seeing progress that will really help. The families can help and do a lot of work themselves.
----We have an elder project with 54 elders. Three of them have lost their homes. We are not sure where these homes are located or if they can rebuild, but we are working on this.
----We have been working on a school in Tzanchaj. Five of the families here have lost their homes. The parent’s committee has been working on a plan to help them rebuild. Hopefully we can help finance this.
----We also will be helping the sister’s build. This can start once we know the land that they have is in their name.

In this area we also work with Mayan Hands weavers. Brenda, Deborah, and Clemente from Mayan Hands have met with the women and are putting a plan together for them. We hope to help out however we can with them.

We don’t have much information about our friends in Pana that work with Maya Tradition. I am sure they are putting together a plan to help those women, and hopefully we can help with this if needed.

Hurricane Stan not only affected this area but also many other areas in Guatemala. We work with a group in Comitancillo, San Marcus. The roads have been impassable and the phone lines are down so it has been difficult to find much information. I am hoping for more information on this. We work with 9 weaving groups here and we know that 152 families have been affected. Twelve of these families could be families we work with; we are waiting for more information on this.

How can you help??? Friends of Sharing the Dream is a 501(c) 3. If you want to give to any of these projects please send a check to the Sharing the Dream store 125 E. Main Vermillion, SD. 57069. If you want it ear marked for Mayan Hands weavers, please state that and we will give it to them. If not it will be used on some of the other rebuilding projects. 100% of your donation will go to the project you chose… Sharing the Dream in Guatemala is run by volunteers so we do not have administrative costs.

Another way you can help is by buying Fair Trade gifts this holiday season. We have crafts from Mayan Hands, Upavim, the beaders, and many other groups. Sharing the Dream sends out crafts to people around the US to host sales. If you would like to do this at a school, church or home, please contact us and we will give you this information. If you live near Vermillion South Dakota, please stop by our store and buy your holiday gifts.

We will be doing alternative gift cards this holiday season to help the above rebuilding. If you would like to have some of these cards to sell or give to family or friends let us know. (Of course we just returned so they aren’t made yet…. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks.)

I will be doing updates on the recovery effort. If you want to be included in these e-mails, please e-mail back and let me know. If I don’t hear from you I will not include your name.

If you have read this far, I thank you for your patience. Many of you have sent monetary gifts immediately after the disaster. It is because of these gifts that we were able to move quickly to help the people.

Please remember our friends in your thoughts and prayers.

Until later.
Diane Nesselhuf