Romelia lives in Antigua and has a very nice house and garden.  I stay with her when I am close to Antiqua. By the time we got to Romelia's I was really worn out and not feeling well from my cold.  Ruth and I both laid down and slept for an hour.  Then we got up and spent some time visiting.  Romelia runs a non-profit and send about 90 students to high school.  She also does projects around Guatemala.  She is in the process of writing a book and shared the draft copy with us.  It deals with the embroidered pictures that the women make describing the war.  The book is really a good idea and I will be anxious to see it.  Had a nice evening.

Dec. 30, 2004

Ruth and I had time in the morning to browse around and ran into a young man who is a realtor so he took us around to look at rental properties. Didn't have any desire to rent but it was fun to see all these beautiful houses in Antiqua.  He said he was just learning and needed the experience.  I very seldom take time off in Guatemala so this was a treat.  We had a nice lunch at the Bagel Barn and headed back to the city.  Yes, Antigua has things like bagels, lots of coffee shops and really nice store.  I wasn't feeling like I wanted the bus experience back, and I still wasn't feeling real good so I rented a taxi to take us back.

Dec. 31, 2004

Slept in late... Caught up on some journaling, cleaned the office, went through the school supplies we had brought down and separated it for the schools we work with.  I called Ed to see how things were going at home. Ruth was busy at home making New Years Eve dinner.  I was invited to have dinner with her family.  Went over there about 9:30.  Her brother Jugo, his wife Leo and their 3 children were there, along with Ruth's mom and dad.  We had a great dinner.  Ruth had been working on this pork all day long.  As with lots of holidays in Guatemala the fire works were starting.  I really didn't want to hear more firecrackers so left about 11 and headed for bed.  At 12 you could hear it though.  It again sounded like a war zone.

Jan. 1, 2005

Happy New Year.. 2004 was a good year for Sharing the Dream.  Lots of good things have happened with our friends in Guatemala.  It will be fun to see what 2005 holds.  I spent the day reading, walking, journaling and just relaxing.  Seth, Jeff and Heather got back about 5:30.  They said it was quite tricky getting back because some buses didn't run on New Years.

Jan. 2, 2005

Today was our trip to Comotancillo.  This is quite a trip and one I don't take very often.  We were going up to work with a group and also to have the inaugural opening of their new sewing center. Ruth, Jeff, Heather, Seth and I were going.  We were going by bus.  It should be about a 6-hour drive and we want to get there before dark.  We got to the bus station about 8 AM for the 8:30 bus.  The bus was already full and they said we could stand.  No thanks. They said there would be one at 9 AM. Well we waited and then found out that the 9AM bus was broken down and maybe it would get going by noon.  (We found out the next day that the bus didn't run at all on Sunday.. It did run on Monday but hadn't really been fixed and had an accident.) We needed to have an alternative plan.  Since this was still considered a holiday and it was Sunday.  We really couldn't rely on any other buses so we called Leo and asked if she could take us as far as San Marcos, from there we took a chicken bus.  We arrived in Comotacillo right after dark.  Reuben who works with the group called AMMID that we work with, met us at the bus and walked us to a small hotel.   

Comotacillo is a very dreary place in the mountains.  The people there do not get much help and seeing a white person is quite unusual. On our walk to the hotel we saw many drunks passed out on the sidewalks.  There is so much poverty and so much hunger there that people drink anything to block out the hunger and pain.  In our next few days there we would see 3 to 5 people passed out on every block.  They would drink anything that would get them out of their pain, including rubbing alcohol or anything they could find.  We were told that about one person a week died from some type of alcohol poisoning.  We decided several years ago to work with the people here because of the dire poverty.  It is a very unattractive place for people to come to and help out.  AMMID has 9 different sewing groups that we work with.  They do crocheting, weaving, embroidering and are learning to sew.  We checked into our small hotel and decided we were way to tall for most of the doorways. (Over the next few days all of us hit our head at least once, except for Ruth)  We went to find something to eat.  We found a small comedor not too far away.  It was part of someone's house and the women made eggs, beans, and some tortillas.  It is pretty tough to eat here so I had brought some snacks. We then went back to our hotel; there were actually televisions in each room, a novelty here.  The bathroom that everyone shared though was down the stairs and had quite a bit to be desired.

Comotacillo comedor

Jan. 3, 2005 Monday

This was the celebration for the sewing center.  One of the 9 groups needed a place to put sewing machines and to sew.  The women's homes were just too small and couldn't handle a machine.  Because this is such a poor community they need to find a livelihood.  The families used to go to the coffee fincas to work but the coffee prices fell and even when they got more money for picking coffee, by the time they packed up their families (took their kids out of school) and stayed at the fincas, they didn't earn enough money to bring back after the harvest. A church near us in Vermillion, Dalesburg Lutheran had given enough money for the women to build a sewing center.  They also had 9 women trained in sewing, these 9 women have trained the rest of the women in the 9 groups and now 70 women know how to sew.  This is really quite an accomplishment.   The church had given enough money for the supplies for the sewing center and the women built it themselves.  They hauled sand, and other products up the mountain and made the bricks themselves.  This was difficult and took quite awhile but the women were very proud of their accomplishment.

Reuben picked us up in his pick up to go to the celebration.  It was quite near town and didn't take us very long.  They had the celebration inside the sewing center.  It was small and crowded but we all fit.  They had decorated it with pine needles on the floor and balloons and crepe paper. Even though the room was small they had to borrow a microphone.  That really means it is a special day.  It was a nice celebration..  We had all the usual speeches, lots of dancing,  gift exchanges, and food. During the middle of it they said they had a big surprise.  The surprise was that all of us guests were going to dance.  It was a surprise..So..Ruth, Heather, Seth, Jeff and I entertained with Guatemalan dancing.  We weren't quite as good as they were, but they enjoyed it.. This all lasted for several hours.  After wards we sat outside with them and then started back to town.  We decided to walk to town and it was very pleasant.

Sewing center

View from sewing center

Dancers

Dancers

Group waving to Dalesburg Lutheran

People at the celebration

Cutting the ribbon for the dedication

Sitting outside for the dedication of the building

Women enjoying the party

Seth passing out gifts of a towel, wash cloth and
fragrant soap to the women

When we got back to town we went and saw the little tienda that they had opened to sell some of the things they had made and also to sell thread. We met with Isabel and Ruben, both of them work with the groups.  Ruben works more with agriculture but Isabel works with the crafts groups.  We went over the finances from the building project and I went over some of the sewing that the group had started to do.  They still need a lot of quality work but they are making advances.  We also talked about the next project they want to do.  They want to build a weaving center for another group.  The women are weavers and have their looms outside just under a roof with no sides.  We visited about this and they are putting together a proposal.  The building will hold about 9 looms.  The cost will probably be around $4000.00.

We went back to our hotel and we were planning out the next day.  We were going to go to Xela and meet Clemente and go to a glass cooperative.  We received a call from Ruth's brother and he said there might be a road strike the next day, which means the roads would be closed.  We needed to change our plans because we had to get back to the city in order to fly out on the 6th.  We made plans with Ruben to take us to Xela so we could catch a bus back to the city. That night when we went to eat we couldn't find a comedor opened so we came back and ate our snacks.