The roads we traveled on

We passed several of the villages where people who had lost their homes were in the temporary shelters. You could see where many of the land slides had happened. There were 26 communities who lost their water supply. There are still 3 who don't have them. The government has quit helping now because it is old news. Ruben was going to gather some information about the water problem and see if that would be a feasible project for us.

Two of the families whose homes were destroyed. 
The valley is where the homes were.

After seeing the Hurricane damage we went to Los Bujes. This is the one of the sewing groups we work with in the area. They had a sewing center built with the help of Dalesburg Lutheran, a church north of Vermillion. It was fun to watch the women sew. They have had sewing lessons and now have machines and a place to work. They are in the process of making the traditional trajes for the middle school in town. There are 12 women in the group and some work in the morning and some in the afternoon. The leader of the group's name is Olga. She is very determined and does a good job. They work 4 days a week. They do not work on Wed, (since that is market day) Sat. and Sunday. They have 4 women who work on the industrial machines and 8 women who work on the small machines. Since they have started earning more money there are 2 women who have bought their own machines.

The women of Los Bujes

The women shared with us how the sewing center has changed their lives. One women talked about how her husband didn't want her in the group. He got sick and she had to provide the income for the family so she worked with the group. When he got better he said it was a good thing that she participated and she is doing that.

The women said they can cover their basic family costs because of the sewing center. One women said she can pay for food, clothes and school supplies. This was quite different before they had their center and their machines. They were really thankful for the center. They said it is clean, bright and they can come when they want. They do need 2 more small machines and some chairs as they have taken one from their house and now don’t have them at their house or have to carry them back and forth and they walk miles through the mountains. They said they have learned about economic development and how to manage money.

Giving a ride to the women of Los Bujes
Some of them travel an hour or more to the center to work.
Usually they walk.

After meeting with the women we went back to the AMMID office and worked on projects. Again AMMID is a locally started and run group that mainly helps with agricultural projects. Because of the Sharing the Dream backing they can also help with the 9 sewing groups that have been formed. We talked about projects dealing with Hurricane Stan. They said the most needed projects have to do with food. That is why the chicken project is so important.

They have several farming projects they want to start in the devastated communities. They are working with the people in the area on farming techniques. One of the projects is installing water tanks. They have done this in some communities and it has been very successful. They have a dry season here and if the families use drip irrigation for their plants they can make it through. The water tanks are Q1800 per tank which is $240.00. The water lasts for 4 days but if they use drip irrigation it lasts for 4 months. Ammid is now working with 500 families. 322 have the tanks and 178 families need them. Only 100 have the drip irrigation and that leaves 400 families who need them. They said how many we could help out with would be great and make a real difference to that family right now.

Another project that sounded interesting was the pig project. Each community would have 1 promoter who would have 2 pigs, a male and a female. Using good pig breeding techniques, they would breed more pigs for the AMMID families. This is an improved breed of pigs that puts fat on quicker. Each pig is Q400 ($54.00). This new breed can fatten up in 5 months whereas the traditional pig takes 8 months. There are 20 communities who need pigs. Of these 20, 9 were devastated by Stan. They have to build a nice pig pen for the breeding pigs. That cost is Q1200 ($160.00) This would cost Q2000 per community. Does anyone want to buy a pig?

We visited about a stove project where the health promoters would learn how to make the stoves and then teach the people in the village. Most people right now cook on the floor which is very unsafe and unsanitary. We have done the stove projects in other communities and it has been highly successful.

Another project that the women were quite excited about and that I really liked because it employed some of our weavers was the bakery. There have been 18 women who took part in some bakery training. They know what to do now, but don't have a bakery. There are only 2 bakeries in Comotancillo and it is a fairly big town so I think they could do quite well. The bakery would be owned by AMMID and the women would be paid a wage of Q25 ($3.33) for 5 hours of work. This is much better than anywhere else and is more than field workers make. They need rent of a building for a year, mixers, ovens, tables, and the materials. They have put a proposal together for this. Estimated cost at this point is $4,480.00. I think this would be a wonderful project for Sharing the Dream to get involved in.

The last project we discussed was a building for one of the nine groups. This would be a big building because it has to hold the looms. Right now the looms are outside with just a roof over them and are getting ruined. They own the land so it would be just the building they need. The cost of this big center would be $8000.00.

We ended the day discussing more sewing lessons for the women. We also want to find more patterns for them in embroidering and crocheting. Anyone have some good patterns with this?

Some of the embroidery done on the new machines at the new center

We finished up about 6PM and one of the workers drove us down to San Marcos to our hotel. On the way we could see some new recent small mudslides. The rainy season can last through Oct. so we don't know what the future holds in these communities, but there is no where to go.. It is all mountainous.

More later. I have been having problems with my computer and internet. Brian has been trying to help me via phone. We got it going yesterday but today it isn't working.. so don't know when you will get this.

Diane

go to June 28