Tomorrow I leave this land of eternal spring where I have spent close to the last two weeks experiencing the Guatemalan side of Mayan Hands, traveling to villages, enjoying the company of my companions and being well cared for by our hosts...
but most of all getting to see the women in their homes where they produce the weaving we purchase in the United States at church and home sales, from the website, in Fair Trade stores thoughout the country.
It has been an exceptional experience. Our guide Deb was right, our itinerary changed but almost always in new and interesting ways. We spent days traveling together documenting and getting to know small pieces of a country that have sustained a weaving tradition for thousands of years.
We have met women who struggle to support their families and build peace in their families and nation. I have been amazed at the resplendent colors and the seemingly unending challenges of simply surviving day to day.
Goodbyes are always somewhat melancholy but maybe I have grown used to them with all the traveling I have done. I have a friend who never says goodbye at all... She just always assures me we will see each other again.
That is how I feel as I leave.
Hasta la proxima!
Please check back for photos and for other posts about the experience and sales and news in December. More to come! Great to have you traveling with me.
Monday, November 30, 2009
The Legendary Market of Chichicastenango
On Saturday we arrived in Chichi (as natives call it here and it means place of the stinging nettles) a beautiful city in the highlands at a higher altitude than we had previously visited. My traveling companions were rested and refreshed after their adventure out in Morales overnight. Our host in Chichi, Juana, was making sure at every step that people were rested, well fed, comfortable. Thank you, Juana.
On Saurday Juana brought us to a sacred Mayan altar high on a hillside outside the city. We had purchased candles for our intentions and to honor the energy of the day (the sign of water ... one of thirteen days in the Mayan calendar). A local shaman was using the site for his own prayer. We lit candles and placed them on the altar.
We were all grateful to Juana for sharing her belief system and teaching us about this ancient tradition. She also welcomed us into her gallery located in her family home where she told us about the groups of women who make paper and then paint tradition symbols onto the paper to earn an income. Juana has just started as a field worker with Mayan Hands though she has many year of experience with groups.
Everyone was setting up for the Sunday market and it seemed the town did not sleep!
Waking up early on Sunday and walking the whole market, the local and the tourist, was lots of fun. Colors, textures, vendors hawking their goods, abundant flowers for sale to offer in the churches, local fruits like granadilla...
Please come back. I will post a photo that will transport you there.
Travel home tomorrow and visiting some sites today nearby and getting ready for the transition home.
On Saurday Juana brought us to a sacred Mayan altar high on a hillside outside the city. We had purchased candles for our intentions and to honor the energy of the day (the sign of water ... one of thirteen days in the Mayan calendar). A local shaman was using the site for his own prayer. We lit candles and placed them on the altar.
We were all grateful to Juana for sharing her belief system and teaching us about this ancient tradition. She also welcomed us into her gallery located in her family home where she told us about the groups of women who make paper and then paint tradition symbols onto the paper to earn an income. Juana has just started as a field worker with Mayan Hands though she has many year of experience with groups.
Everyone was setting up for the Sunday market and it seemed the town did not sleep!
Waking up early on Sunday and walking the whole market, the local and the tourist, was lots of fun. Colors, textures, vendors hawking their goods, abundant flowers for sale to offer in the churches, local fruits like granadilla...
Please come back. I will post a photo that will transport you there.
Travel home tomorrow and visiting some sites today nearby and getting ready for the transition home.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Overnight in Morales after Vasconcelos
That´s how the rest of my group spent yesterday. I am curious to see them this morning after their unplanned night out in a village since the road was closed to Panajachel. I returned at midday with Mayan Hands accountant, Julio Cardona who was kind enough to give me a ride back to the hotel since I was feeling under the weather.
Fine now but really curious about the night out in the village.
Our visit yesterday in the morning to Vasconcelos was quite interesting. The women their make many of the fine table runners, jaspe and honeycomb weave, that Mayan Hands has available for sale.
The group of about 10 women gave us a demonstration of how they wash and prepare the cotton thread. They use a warping board to create the warp and also use atole to strengthen the thread used for the warp.
They use small sticks and pieces of wood as heddles and pieces of the loom. I am fascinated by this process. While I have been a quilter for many years, I have never learned to weave. This may be the start of something.
It takes about 2 days to prepare the yearn and then to set up the loom for work. Yesterday the women told me that it takes about four additional days to weave a jaspe tablerunner. The women work and care for children at the same time. In Vasconcelos we were surrounded by chickens and serenaded by the turkeys in a pen nearby. Children played around us. Men were working in the field cultivating corn and beans.
When you buy Mayan Hands products, you are supporting a traditional lifestyle, supporting income for women, supporting the education and alimentation of children. The women have had a difficult year. Sales are down. Their incomes are down.
Their spirits are not. While there are no new orders for December, they have hopes for the new year. So do we.
Fine now but really curious about the night out in the village.
Our visit yesterday in the morning to Vasconcelos was quite interesting. The women their make many of the fine table runners, jaspe and honeycomb weave, that Mayan Hands has available for sale.
The group of about 10 women gave us a demonstration of how they wash and prepare the cotton thread. They use a warping board to create the warp and also use atole to strengthen the thread used for the warp.
They use small sticks and pieces of wood as heddles and pieces of the loom. I am fascinated by this process. While I have been a quilter for many years, I have never learned to weave. This may be the start of something.
It takes about 2 days to prepare the yearn and then to set up the loom for work. Yesterday the women told me that it takes about four additional days to weave a jaspe tablerunner. The women work and care for children at the same time. In Vasconcelos we were surrounded by chickens and serenaded by the turkeys in a pen nearby. Children played around us. Men were working in the field cultivating corn and beans.
When you buy Mayan Hands products, you are supporting a traditional lifestyle, supporting income for women, supporting the education and alimentation of children. The women have had a difficult year. Sales are down. Their incomes are down.
Their spirits are not. While there are no new orders for December, they have hopes for the new year. So do we.
Panabaj, Santiago Atitlan, 11-25
Let me back track a bit. On the day before Thanksgiving, we visited a group in Panabaj that weaves on a backstrap loom (oh yes pictures would help here, but imagine the weaver strapping the loom around her waist, attaching it to a post and kneeling on a palm mat to do her work).
They make the Children of the World products, woven with beautiful colors with impeccable technique.
We met at the home of the leader of the group Maria Victoria. Panabaj is located minutes away from the town of Santiago Atitlan, one of the villages along the magnificent Lago Atitlan. As we crossed from Panajachel in a launch, we could see all the volcanoes around the lake, the fisherman out in boats and the terrible algal bloom of coliform bacteria that has been caused by sewage flowing directly into the lake since Hurrican Stan in 2005.
The women not only make these products they clothe themselves in a woven traje that includes a shirt, huipil and a skirt, corte. Each village has a traditional style of weaving, a color scheme, and symbols that have significance in the Mayan cosmology. In these villages birds are particularly important... We could see them, from herons to kingfishers, all along the shoreline.
Their huipiles are covered with birds. Embroidered, woven... The birds have flown right onto the cloth. Just as I suspected. There is a surfeit of beauty here amongst all the difficulty.
Thanks for reading. Today we go to Chichicastenango to visit Juana (the Mayan Hands fieldworker) who has also been involved in her own project making paper and teaching women to paint using acrylics. This should be really interesting.
They make the Children of the World products, woven with beautiful colors with impeccable technique.
We met at the home of the leader of the group Maria Victoria. Panabaj is located minutes away from the town of Santiago Atitlan, one of the villages along the magnificent Lago Atitlan. As we crossed from Panajachel in a launch, we could see all the volcanoes around the lake, the fisherman out in boats and the terrible algal bloom of coliform bacteria that has been caused by sewage flowing directly into the lake since Hurrican Stan in 2005.
The women not only make these products they clothe themselves in a woven traje that includes a shirt, huipil and a skirt, corte. Each village has a traditional style of weaving, a color scheme, and symbols that have significance in the Mayan cosmology. In these villages birds are particularly important... We could see them, from herons to kingfishers, all along the shoreline.
Their huipiles are covered with birds. Embroidered, woven... The birds have flown right onto the cloth. Just as I suspected. There is a surfeit of beauty here amongst all the difficulty.
Thanks for reading. Today we go to Chichicastenango to visit Juana (the Mayan Hands fieldworker) who has also been involved in her own project making paper and teaching women to paint using acrylics. This should be really interesting.
Oxlajuj B´atz´ or Thirteen Threads
Our group spent Thanksgiving at the offices of Oxlajuj B´atz´, an education project of the umbrella organization that includes Mayan Hands. It is a sister project that focuses on education and empowerment and sends community faciliatators into the field to work with many of the same weavers groups I have written about.
In the morning we listened to a presentation by Ramona, the director and an American living here in Pana and her three community faciliators, Hilda, Lucia and Maria, all Mayan women.
The turkey was roasting and it was inspring to listen to the three personal stories of Hilda, Lucia and Maria. They have struggled to combine work and family, to empower themselves and then to offer that to the women they work with in the villages. They show incredible patience and stamina. Their smiles would light up any room they walk into.
They joined us for a Thanksgiving feast! We had 22 around the table representing three Mayan languages, English and Spanish. Everyone offered thanks as we went around the table before tasting the turkey, potatoes, gravy and much much more. There was even pumpkin pie for dessert. Thank you Deborah Chandler for the organization and effort that went into the meal!
We were grateful for many things, most of all the opportunity to share our cultures with each other, learn about work being done and strive to build the bridges between people and countries that may help us to create peace and justice in the future.
Meltiox! Thank you!
In the morning we listened to a presentation by Ramona, the director and an American living here in Pana and her three community faciliators, Hilda, Lucia and Maria, all Mayan women.
The turkey was roasting and it was inspring to listen to the three personal stories of Hilda, Lucia and Maria. They have struggled to combine work and family, to empower themselves and then to offer that to the women they work with in the villages. They show incredible patience and stamina. Their smiles would light up any room they walk into.
They joined us for a Thanksgiving feast! We had 22 around the table representing three Mayan languages, English and Spanish. Everyone offered thanks as we went around the table before tasting the turkey, potatoes, gravy and much much more. There was even pumpkin pie for dessert. Thank you Deborah Chandler for the organization and effort that went into the meal!
We were grateful for many things, most of all the opportunity to share our cultures with each other, learn about work being done and strive to build the bridges between people and countries that may help us to create peace and justice in the future.
Meltiox! Thank you!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
La Sopa Esta Lista
That´s what our driver Santos said as the women of Xeabaj, Santa Apolonia, Chimaltenango brought their potful of dyed pine needles out of the common house where they prepare materials for the pine baskets sold by Mayan Hands.
We laughed and so did the women.
Visiting them on Tuesday, 11-24, was very special because we were accompanied by both Mayan Hands fieldworkers, Teresa Gomez (who I have written about) and Juana Xiloj. We had a taste of what the fieldwork is like. We heard much more of the particular Mayan language in that region which Juana translated with ease.
The women dye pine needles they collect and then weave with raffia into baskets of different shapes and sizes. Another way of using their consummate skills at creating beautiful things.
Sorry about the lack of images. I will post photos with each entry when I arrive home. Technology is not permitting me to transfer photos from the camera to public computers... so the next time I will have to give you photos with the word.
In that particular visit to Xeabaj, we entered into the altiplano, the highlands. The green fields lay below the house where we watched the women demonstrate techniques, the men worked cultivating lettuce for sale in the market and clouds covered the hillsides wherever we looked. The landscape of agriculture and mountains together amazes me. Picture corn beans and squash cultivated on very steep slopes!
You will love the pictures and thank you for reading.
We laughed and so did the women.
Visiting them on Tuesday, 11-24, was very special because we were accompanied by both Mayan Hands fieldworkers, Teresa Gomez (who I have written about) and Juana Xiloj. We had a taste of what the fieldwork is like. We heard much more of the particular Mayan language in that region which Juana translated with ease.
The women dye pine needles they collect and then weave with raffia into baskets of different shapes and sizes. Another way of using their consummate skills at creating beautiful things.
Sorry about the lack of images. I will post photos with each entry when I arrive home. Technology is not permitting me to transfer photos from the camera to public computers... so the next time I will have to give you photos with the word.
In that particular visit to Xeabaj, we entered into the altiplano, the highlands. The green fields lay below the house where we watched the women demonstrate techniques, the men worked cultivating lettuce for sale in the market and clouds covered the hillsides wherever we looked. The landscape of agriculture and mountains together amazes me. Picture corn beans and squash cultivated on very steep slopes!
You will love the pictures and thank you for reading.
Giving Thanks
So far, when we have met with groups of weavers, as they introduce themselves they also express their thanks for the work they have through Mayan Hands and for our visit to them. Their words have been beautiful in their different Mayan languages... and by reading the expressive faces and then understanding the words in translation, we have all heard that they are so grateful for the opportunity to sell their products at a price much higher than what they would receive in the market here. Until this year, they have had steady work.
The groups in San Rafael, Chuaperol, Xeabaj and Panabaj have been gracious hosts welcoming us into their homes, showing us their techniques, even teaching us some simple weaving methods.
So we have been thanked everywhere we go. This Thanksgiving is special being out of the country and surrounded by traveling companions who I must admit are very easy to travel with. Kate comes from California and has worked her whole career in public health. She is a weaver and really knew what she was doing when she sat in front of a loom. Her Spanish is excellent and I am taking many cues from her!
Anne and Mark come from the Capital District of NY and we are finding many intersections and commonalities between us. Anne brings great snacks, think dried cranberries. Mark, a photography teacher at Emma Willard School in Troy, NY is taking great photos that he promises to share. He is also offering the Mayan Hands women family portraits which they really enjoy posing for!
So grateful. Especially to you who are reading this. Enjoy this day. Hello and love to friends and family far away. A turkey is roasting for us and we will learn about a weaving education program this morning that works together with Mayan Hands to support the weavers, Oxlajuj B´atz´which means Thirteen Threads. The sun is shining and the air is cool.
I am especially thankful for the strong women I am meeting here who remind me of all the strong women in my life! Thank you and you know who you are... Meltiox!
The groups in San Rafael, Chuaperol, Xeabaj and Panabaj have been gracious hosts welcoming us into their homes, showing us their techniques, even teaching us some simple weaving methods.
So we have been thanked everywhere we go. This Thanksgiving is special being out of the country and surrounded by traveling companions who I must admit are very easy to travel with. Kate comes from California and has worked her whole career in public health. She is a weaver and really knew what she was doing when she sat in front of a loom. Her Spanish is excellent and I am taking many cues from her!
Anne and Mark come from the Capital District of NY and we are finding many intersections and commonalities between us. Anne brings great snacks, think dried cranberries. Mark, a photography teacher at Emma Willard School in Troy, NY is taking great photos that he promises to share. He is also offering the Mayan Hands women family portraits which they really enjoy posing for!
So grateful. Especially to you who are reading this. Enjoy this day. Hello and love to friends and family far away. A turkey is roasting for us and we will learn about a weaving education program this morning that works together with Mayan Hands to support the weavers, Oxlajuj B´atz´which means Thirteen Threads. The sun is shining and the air is cool.
I am especially thankful for the strong women I am meeting here who remind me of all the strong women in my life! Thank you and you know who you are... Meltiox!
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