Sharing the Dream

Tuesday Oct. 23, 2007

Our first task today was to go to an artisan market near the airport here in Guatemala City. The government had built this market to feature crafts of indigenous groups. Colores Guatemala had a spot in this mall but it was taken from them and given to a business that already has 7 stores in this little mall. Now Colores Guatemala has a temporary tent in the mall so each day they must set up their products in the morning and take everything down at night. They have a large stock of goods made especially for this market so we purchased some of their products. Marketing their products is a difficult task for many of the groups we work with. They depend on Sharing the Dream and other groups to find markets for their goods. The exporting process is a complicated one as we have learned in the last couple of years. A group must obtain the appropriate licenses for certain products and learn how to do the paperwork required for shipping. Everything has to be packed so that no damage occurs. People in the US are used to “just in time” shipping. Here the order must be given to the women and they need two or more months to make the products. Then we need a month to get the products to our center, get them packed in boxes and do the necessary paperwork. Needless to say, special orders are out of the question.

When we got home from the mall, Maria Antonia and Maria Juana from the Flor de Campo group were there to meet with us. They finished a very large order in July for a group in the US. They received a 50% deposit before they began the order so they could purchase thread, etc for making the products but they have not yet been paid the remaining 50%. This has made things very difficult for the women of the group so the association has taken out a loan in order to pay the women. The women brought some products with them and we purchased some of them. We also talked with them about design and colors.

We spent the afternoon meeting with Virginia and Diana who work for Sharing the Dream here in Guatemala. We did the planning for orders and a shipment next year. Diana is studying business at a college and is taking responsibility for getting the shipment done. Virginia is a designer and works with the groups on developing new products, quality, color so we also talked about which groups she concentrate her design work on for 2008.

In the evening we watched the documentary “When the Mountains Tremble”. It explains the political situation in Guatemala from the 1950s when the US helped remove a president who wanted equality for his people and did not want to give special favors to the United Fruit company from the US to the 1980s when there was civil war and many of the indigenous people were murdered by the army. What a hard life the indigenous people here have had!

go to Oct 24