Virginia, Rosa and I headed off in the car to do some down town work.  We first met with a women’s group called “Artesanas” which is part of Sector de Mejeres, that deals with lots of different issues.  Violence against women, protection and legal aid for women and human right issues.   They have people there who can give talks from the Latino women’s perspective and also from the Indigenous women’s perspective.  It was quite interesting and we put them on our resource list.  We next went to a store run by a group called “Chikach”.  I have been to their place in the country but have not been to their store.  All of us really enjoyed the store as they had lots of different essential oils, massage oils, perfumes etc.  These are all natural.  I had bought a few things before for our store in Vermillion but really didn’t know much about it.  I bought quite a few more things and now I think I have the information so that I can let people know what the items are used for.  We also made a great connection with a young Indigenous woman who works with a cooperative that does clay pieces.  Some of the things we saw were really amazing.  Virginia got the information and will do a study to see how this cooperative is run and if we want to work with them.   This little store also has a quaint little restaurant where they receive groups. Since my group coming in next week will be eating in zone 1 for a lunch we decided to switch our lunch to here.  They said they would make whatever we wanted.  They offered us a complimentary piece of blackberry/apple torte,
which by the way was wonderful.  We had this with a cold class of hibiscus tea.

We next toured some shops and stores in zone 4.  Virginia said it has really changed in the last few years and wanted us to see it.  It had open restaurants, bars and discos.  It was quite a change from a few years ago. Our next stop was the hardware store.  Mark had taken apart the toilet with instructions of what to buy and how to put it all back together so we took our list and off we went.   We also bought some things we needed for the centre.   We arrived back at the centre late in the afternoon.   We decided to order pizza as none of us felt like cooking.  I have probably had pizza twice in all the years I have been coming so that was quite different. After dinner we watched a video of the school dedication in Chacaya that Diana and Laura had taken.  The dedication lasted for 3 hours.  There was a lot of talk and it was in Spanish and Tzuthil so needless to say I  didn’t watch the whole thing.

Sunday June 15th.

In the morning Virginia and I worked on paperwork.  She has really done a great job of analyzing all the groups we work with. She had a 3 ring binder ( the people at my school will enjoy that as I am the 3 ring binder queen) ready for me with the fair trade information she had collected from each group and a work plan of what the next steps were.   We have quite a few groups so this took us most of the morning.  We then moved on and worked on some other things.   While we were doing this Diana worked on bookwork and Rosa and Isabel had cleaning lessons.   Rosa had bought spray bottles and bleach and some other cleaning supplies so they were starting at the top of the centre and moving down.  We have 3 floors and 4 bathrooms so it was quite the work.  We have had different people staying here so  sheets had to be washed, closets cleaned etc.  Isabel comes from a village where she had just one room and until the past year or so it had dirt floors… so she
really didn’t understand the heavy duty cleaning.  Rosa really did and is fluent in Spanish so they were quite the crew.  The centre here is really a good deal.  We rent it from a very nice woman who lets us do whatever we want to it.   It is a great office and storage place for crafts being shipped and donations coming down.   It is self sustaining,  as this is where we bring groups and also where other groups come and rent the rooms. We are always working toward sustainability in every thing we do.

In the afternoon Isabel and   Eulia    from Comotancillo came to visit.  It took them 12 hours to get here.  We will be working with them this afternoon and also tomorrow morning and they will leave about noon.  Virginia and I worked with them on design, new products and some of the projects that we are doing in their community. We are doing a potato seed bank.  It is very difficult for people to store potato seeds in their homes because of the space and humidity. This way they can use the best potato seeds for the following year.  We are also working with them on two different water projects and a bakery.  I will write more about this tomorrow when we work on this more.

In the evening my friend Deborah from Mayan Hands came and we had a very nice visit.  It was good to just sit and relax with a good friend.  Deborah has been a good friend to me and to STDG through the years.

Just before going to bed Shannon called. Shannon is one of the participants in our group this week. She was coming in a day early and staying someplace else until tomorrow night, but her luggage was lost and she was wondering if she could stay here.  We sent our ever faithful taxi driver Hugo after her and she made it back.  I was tired and went to bed but Rosa took care of all the details.  It is wonderful to have her here and she will be great to have volunteering for a year.

Hope you enjoy these wonderful photos.

Diane

Go to June 16