problems
were not all going to be solved that day. The concept of forming a
working relationship and of building a group over time was almost
entirely foreign to them. Understandably so when you need to find food
for your family tomorrow, the prospect of several years is truly an
eternity. Despite the humble surrounding, we were given rice milk and
bread (which Diana told us had been saved for days in anticipation of
our visit). There was some hope for the women when we talked about
setting up a meeting with Virginia and Don Diego to give a workshop on
how to form an organization. We were there almost three hours and I
think all of us left with a newfound respect for the intricacies
involved in the work that Diane has to do before Sharing the Dream
before we can even consider buying products from a producer group.
After our meeting, we piled in the van and headed for Chichicastenago,
the famous open-air market. We were all pretty tired but we were
treated to a nice meal and comfy beds at the Ruth and Nohemi project.
We were hosted by Don Diego and his wife, Juana, who we barely saw
because she was so busy. We had the opportunity to meet some
scholarship students. Really, I should say scholarship family, as STDG
is currently sponsoring three of the eight children and will most
likely sponsor the others as well. The children were all very good
students and they sat and told us how much the support from STDG meant
to them to be able to go to school. They all wanted to be teachers
(following in their oldest brother’s footsteps). However, some things
don’t change no matter where you are, they all said that they have a
lot of homework (although they really do compared to students in the
US) and that they had trouble with math but didn’t want their older
brother to help them. We were all pretty tired (funny how sitting will
do that to you) so we went to bed right after dinner. However, at
reflection time that night, it
was pretty apparent that the meeting with the group of women had a profound impact on everyone.
June 19
Well,
the stomach bug struck again, this time it got Rita and Gerald so they
took it pretty easy in Chichi. As far as the rest of the group,
we woke up early and ventured out to explore Chichicastenango on market
day. We started with a tour of the town. Our tour guide, Tomas took us
to the Catholic Church where we were able to observe the Catholic
tradition alive and well alongside the Mayan tradition, both
cooperating to share the same sacred space. It seems that the
conquistadores chose a Mayan holy site as the site for the Catholic
Church (not at all uncommon). The result of this is a pretty unique
situation; we saw Mayan shaman and Catholic priests sharing the same
holy place ad existing together in harmony. We were told that this
peaceful arrangement was not always the case, but after fighting over
the site for years, both sides learned to just get along. The steps
leading up to the church were full of shaman waving their branches in
the air and burning incense, praying. Inside, a priest was saying mass
at the altar in
Quiche and there was a line down the center of the
church with various Mayan altars, all populated by different shaman,
praying and lighting candles. After the church, we hiked up to the top
of a rather large hill where we saw a Mayan altar used for marriage
ceremonies as well as a place where shaman come to pray on holy days,
depending on the Mayan calendar. Turkeys were walking around, future
sacrifices for a marriage ceremony) and bees were buzzing over the
ashes of burnt flowers and candle wax. We all had a good laugh when our
guide pointed out that Stacey had been standing on the Altar of
Fertility for a good half an hour! While he told us about the various
reasons why a person would come to pray atop this hill (problems with
love, money, fertility, etc.). Yet another fascinating thing that we
saw was a ceremonial hut of sorts where some Mayan women come to give
birth to their children. It basically consisted of a stone structure
with a wooden board for sitting on while delivering the baby. Talk
about a natural birth!
We returned to Ruth and Noehmi’s for lunch,
and then we all piled back into the van for a trip to another remote
village to meet with a group of women that works with Mayan Hands. This
group was considerably more organized than the last one and there was a
very enthusiastic young woman, named Teresa, who facilitated the
discussion. She spoke Spanish, and the majority of the rest of the
women spoke Kachiquel, and we, of course, spoke English. To add
to
these translation difficulties (not really difficulties because Diana
speaks all four languages!) was the fact that it was raining, no
Pouring, and we were in a house with a tin roof. At times we all just
sat there and laughed because the sound of the rain on the tin roof was
deafening and there was no way for anyone to hear each other.
Eventually, the rain subsided and we were able to hear from the women
how forming a cooperative had dramatically increased the quality of
their lives and has allowed them a means of sustainable income for
supporting their families. We learned that
many of the women in the
cooperative are widows, their husband’s victims of Guatemala’s bloody
civil war, and how the cooperative has allowed them to provide for
themselves after this tragedy. Although they are doing well, they said
that prices are going up every day and they need to expand their
business in order to pay for necessities like coffee and sugar. These
women were good crochet-ers and they made beautiful pine needle
baskets. We were
given a demonstration of how they make the baskets
and the whole process in quite interesting. We were sitting on a dirt
floor, covered with pine needles, watching a woman fashion dried pine
needles into beautiful, handmade baskets. The whole process from raw
material to finished product was right there in front of us. It was
still raining when we left and we had to pile in the back of a pick up.
We were glad when we finally arrived at our next destination in
Panajachel where we could change our wet clothes and relax after a very
full day.
June 20
We all had a pretty good nights sleep at
the Mayan Hands center in Panajachel (another town on Lake Atitlan and
considerably more touristy). We spoke briefly with directors Ramona and
Deborah about the founding of their program Oxlajuj B’atz’ (Thirteen
Threads). Oxlajuj B’atz’ is a collaborative project between two fair
trade organizations, Mayan hands and Mayan Traditions. It has brought
workshops to more than 300 poor Mayan women weavers and artisans in
fourteen Guatemalan highland communities since 2003. We had a tour of
the natural herb garden behind the Mayan Hands property. It was truly
amazing! They were growing all sorts of medicinal herbs which they made
into teas and tinctures that are sold at the on site as well as around
the lake. Natural remedies for common ailments (such as infant
diarrhea) are essential to the Mayan community. For one thing, it is a
part of their culture and for another; it provides families without
access to “Western” medical care an alternative for treating common
ailments in the home, before
they become serious. The staff at this
garden was extremely knowledgeable and they sat with us and served us
some fresh lemon tea, straight from the garden. After the tour,
we went over to the Mayan Traditions office where
we had a
presentation on this particular group. Marta, the director, was very
good about stimulating discussion amongst the group and we all talked
about the different principles of fair trade. We had lunch there and
were happily surprised when Shanna’s boyfriend, Duke, was waiting
outside the gate for her when our meeting was over (he came all the way
from San Cristobel, Mexico to visit Shanna and added a lot to our group
dynamic). We all headed down to the dock, where we loaded all of our
gear into a lancha (small boat) and headed across the lake to Santiago
Atitlan. We arrived at the Elder Center where we would be staying the
next three nights. We were greeted warmly by Chonita, director of the
Elder Center, as well as Rocky, a volunteer from the US, and Filipa, an
Indigenous woman who works at the center. It was pouring and we were a
bit behind schedule to meet with some scholarship students in a nearby
village. Diana called a pickup to come and get us and take us to our
first destination, Panabaj, a small town on
the outskirts of
Santiago that was the hardest hit by the mudslides during hurricane
Stan in 2005. We visited with Chonita and Josue, two scholarship
students who were very sweet and just a little bit shy. The pride in
their father’s eyes as he spoke about his children was evident. He also
shared with our group about the terror that the family feels every time
that it rains very hard. Their house was rebuilt after the hurricane
and mudslides, but it was rebuilt more or less in the same place,
making the location susceptible to more damage from future natural
disasters. They are on the
list to be relocated to a government
financed housing development, but they are still waiting. I talked with
Chonita about English lessons and she was very enthusiastic. Then we
went to Diego’s house. Diana told us ahead of time that this was a very
humble home and that we should come with questions, as the family was a
bit shy to talk. We were greeted so very warmly by the entire family,
Diego’s father was beaming. The family lives in a US Aid shelter
(plastic) leftover from the mudslide relief effort. In fact, there is
an entire community of temporary shelters that have more or less been
converted into full time homes. Diego’s father told us that he was very
glad to have us in his home, although they did not have much. He
thanked us for coming all the way from the US and he said that it
showed to
him how we wanted to have a relationship and to develop a
friendship with them and that it did not matter that they did not have
much to offer. Diego explained that he wants to be a doctor one day and
he would like to work and to give back within his own community. His
father was so proud of his son and both were excited at the prospect of
English lessons. It looks like I will have to get something going for
all of the scholarship students! Finally, we visited Glendy’s home.
Their father, an abusive alcoholic, recently left the family, and
Glendy’s mother relies on Sharing the Dream to get her daughter through
school. Glendy was a sweetheart, although a bit shy (although who
wouldn’t be with 9 strangers in your living room) and she told us
that she wants to be a teacher.
June 21
Today was a bit more
low-key. We woke up and had pancakes and fruit for breakfast. Then we
headed down to the dock for an early morning boat ride around the lake.
It was a clear day and the sun was sparkling off of the water and the
Vulcan San Pedro (one of the three volcanoes that surrounds the lake)
was topped with a halo of clouds. Our first stop was los agues termales
(a nearby hotsprings near San Marcos, a neighboring village). Some of
us had brought our bathing suits, and Katerina shared her newly
purchased bottle of organic shampoo, so we all splashed around and
washed our hair while we were at it. The water was surprisingly HOT in
some places! And you could not sit still for too long without needing
to swim out further into the lake for some cooler water. After
that, we went over to San Juan, a small village that has manages to
preserve its Tzutijil culture more than most. We met with a group of
women who make their own thread and then dye it using organic
materials. We went to talk about the situation of the group after the
mudslide and then they gave us a demonstration of the entire spinning
and dying and weaving process. This particular group had been growing
their own cotton and had purchased a small plot of land in 2004 to
sustain their cotton production. Unfortunately, this plot was
completely destroyed by the 2005 mudslide leaving the ground
unworkable. Now the women must buy the cotton and it usually has
certain chemicals than need to be washed off before they can work with
it. We saw the dying process. They make such vibrant colors from beets
and carrots and other vegetables. Then we had a demonstration of how
the back strap look weaving is done. Later that afternoon, we visited a
coffee plantation just outside of Santiago Atitlan. We met with a group
of about five men and they explained
that there was a neighborhood
cooperative of about eighty families that worked with the coffee
plantation as well as selling rabbits, pigs, and chickens to the local
restaurants. He explained how all of their land for growing coffee had
been devastated by hurricane Stan and how it took them several years to
get up and running again. They are back in business but are running up
against the government owned, Anacafe, a large corporation that is
making it very difficult for them to export their coffee to the US and
other foreign markets. The entire process of obtaining an export
license is time consuming and also very costly. The farmers explained
that they are discriminated against because they are Indigenous and, in
their words, “the banks are closed to them.” Diane put forth the idea
of a low interest loan and they said that they would look into the
idea. It was evident that they were all accustomed to adversity and
that they have been dealing with “no” their whole lives. We later
learned that the president of the group, an elderly gentleman in
seemingly poor health, had been a guerilla fighter, and had lived in
the mountains for eleven years during the civil war. Later that night,
after dinner and reflections, we were treated to some guitar music and
a singalong with Rocky and Ricardo. It was a very nice way to wind down
our night.
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