If you have ever put together a jigsaw puzzle, you’ll know that you start with the borders and, working from the picture you were given, put the pieces together. I’m new to jigsaw puzzles, and I’m fascinated by the detail, how deeply you can examine even one small section of a complex picture, and how you can organize pieces by shape, color, or region. The image on the box doesn’t quite do justice to the big picture.
This was my third trip to Guatemala with our NCP Guatemala Partnership, and the picture, for me, is not only a puzzle taking shape but an image spilling beyond the edges and rising into multi-dimensional animation.
Nearing the end of our visit to Guatemala, we visited the small town of Santiago Atitlán, across Lake Atitlán from our hotel stay the prior night. This town is scenic and interesting, but also suffers a tragic history, so we experienced many contrasts.
One of the New Castle Presbytery projects, in combination with CEDEPCA (our Guatemalan partner), is providing more fuel-efficient stoves for people. These cost $250 each, with $200 contributed by churches/individuals and $50 paid for by the recipient. It’s a lot of money for these people, but having ‘skin in the game’ is quite important.
About 10 years ago, I traveled to Guatemala with others from Concord Church to help build a stove in a Mayan house. Their cooking/heating was done with an open fire on the dirt floor of their house, with nowhere for the smoke to go. The stove we built, made from cinderblocks, sand, and other items, is much more fuel efficient than the open fire and has chimney to ventilate smoke outside.
Since then, the stoves have become more and more efficient. Below, you can see a large stove built into the house which was an upgrade from the cinderblock stoves, and a new stove that uses 1/3 the wood of the other stove and can be moved. It takes a week for the artisans to make one of these stoves. If well cleaned and taken care of, these new stoves can last 20-22 years, saving money and time that can be used for income-earning projects.
The younger woman in the photo below, owns the shop that makes 100% cacao chocolate. I’ve seen 70% or 80% cacao chocolate, but never 100%. Her sister’s mother-in-law (the older woman in the photo) makes the chocolate. They dry the beans for a week and then roast them twice. By hand, they crack open the beans and pull out the nubs which are taken to a grinder. The older woman used to leave at 6:00 in the morning to take the beans to the grinder in a nearby town and wouldn’t return until about 6:00 at night as so many people also needed that service. Then a grinder opened in her town, so it now just takes her about 3 hours to get this done. They’ll make the chocolate paste from this, adding sugar.
The young woman’s sister owns the bakery we visited and both of her sons work there. It was incredible how quickly they created the 12 different kinds of bakery items sold in the store. They are incredibly hard workers! The bakery is at maximum production, but the sister does not want have current plans for expansion. That said, one of her sons who works in the bakery wants to create his own business and build a larger facility. He is willing to take the risk.
Today, we went into the hills of the Guatemalan highlands to see how women are changing their lives and those of their families through the projects supported by the New Castle Presbytery. We traversed windy roads through lovely hills (small mountains) covered with forests.
In the town of Esperanzita (little hope), the paving of a dirt road forced us to detour. We did not mind as it was good to see this progress. We also thanked God for the skills of our bus driver, Jorge, as he navigated the ups and downs of incredibly steep dirt roads, oncoming trucks, and extensive ruts and potholes.
We visited two groups today. First was Las Estrellas (The Stars) who were involved with the stove project and revolving funds projects. You will hear about the former in the next blog.
These groups love ceremony. When we meet a new group, they give us hugs and a very warm welcome. Each member introduces herself (good for their self-esteem) and we share our names. Each meeting starts with a prayer. Then they proudly – deservedly so – tell us about their programs. Hospitality is important and they were happy to offer us jamaica tea and sweet rolls. Today, we also gave 6 of them pictures of their prayer partners and took photos of another 6 to share with their partners at Concord Church.
Revolving funds projects receive seed money from the New Castle Presbytery. For example, one year ago, a group used 3,200 quetzales (about $426) from the funds to buy a young bull, build a shelter for it, and take courses in animal care. In another few months, she may be able to sell the bull for $7-8,000 quetzales ($933 – $1066) – not a lot of money for 18 months work, but it will be a big help for the family. Groups receiving revolving funds have 5 years to repay the interest-free loan. Repayments are used to fund the projects of other women.
The president of the newly formed Grupo Valeria, which we visited today, used the revolving funds to start a potato project. The seed money of 3,000 quetzals bought tools, seeds, fumigation, and paid the rent on a 20x20m plot of land which she has to walk quite a way to get to. On this plot, she can grow two crops a year.
Part of her first potato harvest was sold in the market, part was kept for seed potatoes, and the potatoes not suitable for market were kept for home use. Any potatoes not good for these purposes are fed to the pigs. We learned that she’ll put the seed potatoes in a box with the sprouts facing up, go to the field, and plant the whole potato in the ground. It was a good harvest, and she plans to plant two 20x20m plots next year. This project has also provided money to buy school uniforms and supplies for her three daughters, without which the children cannot go to school.
Fourteen of the ladies in Grupo Valeria lined up to be prayer partners with people from the US churches.
This group showed us such wonderful hospitality, preparing a thick soup with lots of large shell pasta (something they had to buy from the store which is expensive for them) and a large piece of chicken which came from their meager flock. They gave this to us willingly and proudly, happy that they could do something for people who were helping to make their lives better.
We are humbled by the faith, generosity, spirit, humor, warmth, and drive of these women. They live each day in praise and prayer.
