It started to rain, more people got on, including the lady with the 2 baskets of food that she was selling. So now Virginia and I are sharing the space with her, 2 baskets, and the driver's helper. Again it wasn't bad until every time he went into 4th gear.. Now you would think this was all that could happen, but oh no... A kid 2 rows back on my side apparently was ill and did projectile vomit.. It hit several people on either side, missed me except for what was running down the aisle. Anyhow, everyone pitched in and handed tissue and helped. My contribution was Virginia's newspaper under her seat which was used to stop the flow coming down the aisle, by this time though the driver had found a cushion for her.

Then we were stopped by the police so they could check papers of people on board. I don't know who they were looking for but they didn't ask for my papers. This happened in a very cold part of the country. In fact it was freezing with the doors open. Virginia said this area is called Alaska.

This total experience lasted about 4 hours. We got to Xela and several people got off so the driver's helper wanted me to sit in the front seat. I think the driver was relieved. Then 2 pretty girls got on and one sat behind the shifting gear and one sat in front. They seemed to fit much better than me. I rode comfortably for about an hour. Thirty minutes from San Marcos where Ruben was to pick us up we had another problem. Going down a hill, the bus stopped. I mean dead. The driver's helper jumped out and went to the engine, along with several men from the bus. They tried and tried to start it but it wouldn't start. Of course there was no signal for the cell phone right here so we couldn't contact Ruben. A chicken bus came by and Virginia said "Let's go". Virginia and I and another dozen people. We ran for the bus. We got in the back door which was about 3 feet off the ground. I was the last one up and over as the bus starts out.

Now we are in a very crowded chicken bus for 30 minutes. Of course I have 2 backpacks and Virginia has a backpack and a large bag.. We did make it to San Marcos. Virginia kept remarking that it was just another day traveling in Guatemala. Anyone reading this who has thought of going on one of my trips, don't panic... with groups we also have our own van and very seldom take public transport. I save these adventures for when I am alone. I told Virginia it was pretty good entertainment for the $5.00 bus ticket.

When we got to San Marcos we grabbed a bite to eat and found Ruben. He had come to get us to take us the rest of the way to Comotancillo. We rode with him and Isabel in the pick up for about an hour. Isabel works with the craft groups and Ruben is the head of AMMID, the group that we work with there. We arrived in Comotancillo a little after 4. We went to the office of AMMID and had a meeting. We met some of the field workers. AMMID is an interesting group because it was started by Ruben and Isabel who are Indigenous and from Comotanillo and all the field workers are Indigenous. That doesn't happen too often.

The first thing we discussed was the chicken project. This project will help the women in the craft group. There are 80 women who will be provided with chickens and training in how to keep them. The women must provide the chicken houses before they get them. This is all covered in the training. They must disinfect the area where the chickens will be etc. Each family would receive a “Poultry Module” comprised of nine hens, and one rooster of the “Zazo” breed.

Let me explain a bit about Comitancillo. Comitancillo is one of the poorest towns in Guatemala. As is to be expected, the effects of the “Stan” storm of October 2005, only made worse an already difficult situation of vulnerability for the people of Comitancillo. Women, who are the sector of society that is at the lowest level in terms of human development, were most especially affected. The greatest damage is found in the loss of fertile lands and the harvest of this year. (It is estimated that 80% of the harvests of corn, basic grains and fruit was lost). In this way, the already precarious food security levels plummeted and the risks of famine were high.

The women, who take responsibility for providing food for their children, need help, help which will permit them to confront their daily food shortages. Under these circumstances, we estimate that it is better to strengthen the family's income through production rather than receive donations of food.

Isabel talked about the need for corn, and the worry the women have about not being able to feed their families. The eggs will really help. I explained that the project is a result of the women’s work. They are in a cooperative and this is one of the benefits of this. It is to be stressed to the men and to the children that this is a direct result of the women’s work. The women present really became animated when this point was made and said this is a very good thing. Ruben said thank you and this would really lessen the need for as much as food and they will learn some new skills.

Through donations from many of you we have the money needed to fulfill this project. There will be photos taken of each stage of this project. The total amount for the project is $6,647.76.

We then spent some time discussing the craft project. Sharing the Dream is basically their only buyer so we talked about other markets and how to contact them. We discussed the price of products and fair wages for the women. We found out that some of the products that we had designed with them were not giving the women a very good wage. We asked them what was a fair wage for the women. The women in the group worked it out and they felt that Q3 per hour was a good wage. That is about .40 a hour. The women can only work for about 5 hours per day and they thought that Q15 ($2.00) was good. So..we went back to the drawing board on many of the products. We decided that if the women can't get Q3 we would do one of several things: not do the product, reduce the size of the product or use some parts of the product and combine it with a faster weave. We worked quite late and then Virginia and I headed back to our little hotel in the rain. It was a long day..

Diane

go to June 27