Ruth and I worked on office work all morning and planned out the afternoon. We were going to go see 3 new groups this afternoon.  One that makes candles, one that does wood, and one that does clay.  Irma called and said that Miguel was going to stop by and get some clothes.  About 12 Miguel came and with him was Rolando, and Miguel’s cousin Myria and her husband and child.  Miguel and Rolando had come to the city on Sunday night and had gone to Miguel’s aunts.  Apparently they had a big party for him with lots of relatives on Sunday night. The aunt lives in a dangerous part of the city so Rolando told me he didn’t let Miguel out of his sight.  He said Miguel played some basketball and soccer with some of his cousins but Rolando was right there sitting and watching.  He knows if something happens to Miguel he has both Irma and I to deal with….  They stayed for several hours.  We needed to plan out the rest of Miguel’s time.  As it stands right now he went back to his aunts for awhile yesterday.  He is meeting a man that he called “Dad”.  I don’t think it was any relation but somehow he was close to this person.  I will get more of the story from Miguel at home.  Rolando and Miguel went back to Esquintla last night.  On Wed. Miguel and Carlos his brother and maybe Willy his brother are heading out to the orphanage at the river.  We had to make all these arrangements.  Carlos does not know his way around the city so Myria said she will meet them at the bus stop and take them to the other bus that goes to the river.  They are very good about making sure that Miguel is safe and that someone is always with him.  Miguel of course thinks he is fine and can do all this on his own.  ( Of course he wondered around all these buses by himself when he was 6)  Miguel’s Spanish is doing good and he is going back and forth between languages quite easily now.  Ruth and I didn’t realize they were all coming and that it would take so long to make these arrangements so we had to change plans for the afternoon.  In Guatemala you have to be flexible, flexible and more flexible.  Ruth ran to do some errands so the family and I went to McDonalds which is about 5 blocks away.  Not my favorite place to eat but there isn’t much for restaurants around here and I didn’t have food for lunch in the office.  They brought me back to the office we said are good-byes and off they went.  I really enjoy Myria and her family.  I had met them a year ago last April when I was here.  Myria’s husband works at the coca-cola plant and Myria goes to school.  I believe it is University.  She wants to teach older children.  She also works afternoons in a school for younger children and like most Guatemalans in her spare time sells things.  In her case it is perfume.  Rolando was exited because he had spent some time Monday looking for a job.  He is a truck driver.  Willy had told him that they needed drivers where he works.  His truck route would be around Central America.

After they left I spent some time at the office alone because Ruth was doing errands. Banking etc. (which can take forever).  Anyhow I called Angie the director of the orphanage Casa Guatemala.  She is in town at the Zone 10 house because 4 months ago she was hit by a car and really hurt her foot.  She has had several operations on it.  She can not go to the orphanage at the river because she might get infection in it and also because she needs to have physical therapy every other day.  She said she can’t get around very well and must use a walker.  We spent a lot of time visiting.  Catching up on old friends, children who have been adopted etc.  She was so pleased to hear that things were going well with Miguel.  She said that generally when the children come back and look for the families it is very disappointing.  She told me some stories that had happened recently to some children who came back.  They had a horrible experience.  She said she had not heard of an experience as good as the one Miguel had…  I also made arrangements with her about Miguel and his brothers going out to the river.  Miguel’s brothers will only stay a couple of days and then Miguel will help out at the Backpackers ( the hostel run by the orphanage) or at the orphanage.  This is his second time back and he is always treated like a hero there too.

When Ruth came back we drove to the candle group.  This is in a very poor part of town where most of the people started out as squatters.  The name of the place is Tierra Nueva Uno.  To get there we drove through very narrow streets and sometimes had to back up so that an oncoming car could come through.  There were lots of children and you could see that they were coming home from school as most of them had their school colors on.  The group is 9 women who have decided to come together to learn some skills. Right now when they do the candles they pay for the women’s time and than use the profits to bring in some things for the community.  Some examples were speakers on women’s rights, cooking classes etc.  They liked candle making the best so that is what they are concentrating on.  Since they have just started they wanted our input on color, design etc.  The candles they had were blue, red and green.  I liked the texture of the candles but the colors were not all that good for the US.  It is very hard when groups get started because they make things they like and what they can sell here.  We visited about the market system and that there are 2 markets.  One is the domestic market and one is the international market.  There is a big difference in what they can sell here and what we can sell there.  Always the best is to try and sell locally, but if they want to market internationally they have to make some changes in the product.  We worked on colors and shapes and I told them I would find the colors that work well for us.  I will also look for some candle molds etc.  If anyone has ideas for this let me know.  One of the ideas we did come up with is doing a coffee candle.  There are so many coffee shops in the U.S. and a lot of them have to sell coffee related products.  So….( Karen Kraus and Angie Caldwell be sure and give me input on this.)  They are going to try and make a white candle with brown dried beans in the candle and the coffee aroma.  What does everyone think??  I was thinking that we could put this in a gift basket at our store with a bag of coffee.  I will put a photo at the end of the group and some of the candles.  This group was much easier to work with than a lot of the groups we do.  The women were educated and also they spoke Spanish.

We went back to the office, ate with Ruth's family and then worked in the office.  We wanted to go over some things before the group came.

More later.

Diane

Quote for the day—“We have to be the change that we want to see in the world.” Gandhi