Winter 2016/17 Newsletter

In case you weren't on our mailing list (email or snail mail), below you'll find writings from our winter newsletter. If you'd like to be added to a mailing list, please email [email protected]. 

To donate to Sharing the Dream, you can follow this link, or find the button at the bottom of this page.

Chuk Muk Project Advances, Donations Needed

Those of us at Sharing the Dream in Guatemala have been talking about building an elder center for years. The land we looked at was always so expensive that we gave up the idea until the village of Chuk Muk gave us some land. Then the dream started again. In January, I (Diane) was in Guatemala with my son Seth and my husband Ed. They were both excited about the land and drew up different plans for the construction. This now has more meaning than ever since my husband passed away in July. He was a wonderful man who supported my dream for 20 years. He was excited about the elder center and he and my son came up with the idea of the village concept instead of one large building.  It is hard for me to move forward with my life and these plans, but as Ed told me, “Diane, we both have new chapters in our life, we have to move on.” It is with Ed’s blessing that I will help undertake this project. It will be a new chapter for our elders in Guatemala, too.

We’ve had lots of exciting developments over the past year on this project that will include an elder center, artisan workshop, tutor center, and hostel. We are just starting to look at the plans with a contractor so we can begin construction. Above is a draft drawing of the village concept. The orange building is the elder center with the guard’s house on top. The blue building is the artisan/bead workshop with a small fair trade store, offices, and storerooms on the bottom floor, and a large space on the second floor for our beaders. We are hoping to hire at least 20 women from the community as beaders. The green building is our tutor center on the first floor and the hostel on the second floor. We want to do this in three phases with the first phase being the elder center.

Our philosophy is to be as sustainable as possible. We are hoping to do more of that with the bead group and the hostel. We are also working with the Chuk Muk community to apprentice people in every aspect of the building project.
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Please consider helping us financially with this project. We have been working hard to secure funding for our new elder center village in Chuk Muk, Guatemala. We have been given a matching donation of up to $100,000 by a very generous donor and have raised about $20,000 toward this goal. We greatly appreciate any contributions toward this project.

Remembering Ed Nesselhuf 
​by Jerry Wilson, former board member

Sharing the Dream lost a great friend this summer. Ed Nesselhuf, husband of our founder and director, Diane, entered the Spirit World on July 27. The huge crowd of friends who attended Ed’s memorial service is testament to the tremendous impact this man had on many lives, and on the life of many communities.

Ed’s last visit to the Guatemalan communities served by Sharing the Dream was in January, along with Diane and their son Seth and his family. Besides supporting Diane’s commitment to Sharing the Dream, Ed personally contributed to the work in many ways. Just to mention one, how many scores of heavy suitcases and boxes of shipments of Guatemalan products did he lug around? Too many to count.

Who could forget Ed’s memorial service? But the many tributes offered by family and friends are the tip of the iceberg—or should we say heartberg. The hundreds of individual memories of a great man and friend that might have been publicly shared would have taken a very long day. But those gathered to mourn and celebrate departed with Ed’s own dramatic voice ringing in their ears, the recording of his poem about mounting his spirit horse and ascending through the constellations into the heavens—and then, and it still reverberates in our souls, Ed’s farewell, a coyote’s howl.

Thousands of dollars poured in as tribute to Ed for the organization he built, Prison Congregations of America, a reminder to us all of the opportunities that we individually and collectively have to give of our time, our financial help and ourselves to lift up our fellow women, children and men, whether they be our next-door neighbors, those behind bars, or those struggling to build better lives for themselves and their families in Guatemala.

Unique:
​Distinctive, Matchless, Rare
by Diane Nesselhuf, founder and director

People who visit the Sharing the Dream store on Main Street often ask where our crafts come from. A few silver jewelry items come from a group in Mexico, but most of the crafts are made in Guatemala, where they are designed by our artisan development project. That project is coordinated by a young Guatemalan woman named Isabel, who works with many indigenous crafts groups, inspiring them to continually create new designs.

Isabel’s workshops focus not only on design, but also on quality, added value, colors, costs, marketing strategies and more. This means that most of the products in our store are unique and original, not available anywhere else. I was in Guatemala in January and helped design new products for our April order. Seventeen huge boxes came, so we have many items nobody in the United States has ever seen before.

In early June of last year I took a group of North American women to Guatemala. We traveled to numerous mountain villages to work with craft cooperatives on refining new designs. The Guatemalan artisans love hosting visitors who can share ideas with them. This, of course, is part of the Sharing the Dream philosophy, building relationships. The “next generation” of new designs arrived at our store in September.
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Would you like to be part of a group that travels to Guatemala to visit and work with the artisans who create our unique crafts? If you are interested, please let me know. If you have ideas for new designs but can’t join us for a trip, please bring your ideas to our store or send them to [email protected].

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Cal's Musings
​by Cal Petersen, volunteer

First, I recognize the value of hand-crafted products. I like to work with wood, and I am especially amazed at Pedro’s and Diego’s creations. They are so finely crafted and beautifully finished, and I am astonished at the low prices for the fine pieces they have made. Even with my power tools I couldn’t begin to make the serving spoons and ladles, let alone the marvelously-carved animals with secret compartments, and then sell them at competitive prices.
 
I have appreciated the colorful woven fabrics from Guatemala for years. But only recently did I discover that the unique pattern in each woven item identifies the community of the weaver who created the colorful purses, blouses and scarves.
 
The variety of products in the store also appeals to me, not just wood carvings and woven fabrics, but exquisite blown glass, hand-made jewelry, woven baskets and much more. There seems to be something for all ages, practical gifts for weddings, birthdays, graduations, and items to recognize a special friendship.
 
Since I am retired, I can spend my time as I choose. I have a good feeling when I am volunteering at Sharing the Dream, knowing that in a small way I am helping Guatemalan parents provide an honorable living for their families. Being a Fair Trade store means that the craftspeople are not forced into sweatshop working conditions. They are involved with every stage of the process, from designing products to setting the price for what they make.
 
So volunteering three hours each week helps me feel better about myself. In a small way I am helping Guatemalan brothers and sisters have a better life.

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