Guatemala travels

We left Antigua yesterday heading to Santiago Atitlan on Lake Atitlan. We had our own van so could make some stops along the way. We stopped at a small Mayan Ruin - Iximché. It was recommended by Deb Chandler of Mayan Hands and it was lovelyandvery peaceful. As you can see from the photos there were very few tourists.

This photo is Mary and Peggy at the Iximche Mayan Ruins.

Below Mimi, Lakayana and Fitzie at the ruins.

Below: our group heading out from Hotel San Pedro in Antigua.

Left to right: Fitzie, Lakayana, Mimi Marion, Warren, Mary, Peggy and Jody

The van ride through the mountains with the added stops of the ruins and lunch ended up being a 5 hour trip. Just an hour out of Antigua you enter the part of Guatemala that is mostly Maya. We passed through various villages where you can tell where you are by the designs on the womens huipils- shirts. Each woman is a walking work of art!

We had a great dinner sat by the lake and went to bed so we could wake up early to go canoeing for Lakayana's birthday at dawn under the full moon.

Honduras Rio Negro Photos

On the road to Rio Negro

Micro Hydro Turbine in Rio Blanco

Important card game at Avilio and Betilia's

looking downhill from above Doña Sirila's house

Avilio's new coffee drying greenhouse

Doña Natalia's new cookstove uses much less wood and has no woodsmoke in the house.

Expert harvester

We make a good harvesting team.

Dariela

It takes a long time to harvest this much coffee.

Hector investigating Avilio's live barriers to soil erosion.

Avilio with his coffee

The whole crew from Rio Negro

Sombreros and Machetes; the life of a coffee farmer

Members of the 2012 Farmer to Farmer Guatemala trip and As Green As It Gets.

"These gentleman are experts on growing coffee, they can tell you just about everything about it from the red seed on the tree to the feel when it germinates..... he knows the coffee is ready because of the color and how it feels against his back molar" explained Franklin, an American facilitator and our guide at As Green As It Gets Fair Trade cooperative. Me and Fitzie, students at the University of Wisconsin Stout, have been in Guatemala for 12 days by the time the farmer group arrived. We had seen many impressive sights including active volcanos, elaborate New Years celebrations and ancient Mayan ruins rising out of the jungle. But there was something unique and inspiring about the coffee farmers we meet at As Green As It Gets Fair Trade Cooperative. Franklin gave a riveting story about the farmers we met who are the face of the agrarian struggle in Guatemala. I had heard of fair trade before and had seen coffee products in the stores, but being here amongst the farmers in their work place was amazing. Coffee is the staple product for these farmers but they have numerous spin off projects run by other family members and neighbors including products such as shoulder bags, face creams, fruits and rabbit breeding. Part of my journey in Guatemala includes conducting research for my senior capstone project on free trade coffee and I could not have picked a more inspiring topic. written by Lakayana Drury

Our first official day with the entire Farmer to Farmer group consisted of seeing the sites in Antigua and meeting and seeing the people and projects of the non profit, As Green As It Gets. Antigua has become a very familiar place to me, so I acted as the "unofficial" tour guide for the group. We toured the awe inspiring ruins of the Catedral San Jose. This cathedral was built from 1669 and completed in 1680, after the previous cathedral was destroyed in an earthquake in 1583. This new cathedral was supposed to be earthquake resistant, but mother nature always seems to have a way to prove man wrong, and sure enough in 1773 the cathedral was destroyed again. Today, visitors are able to explore the magnificent ruins of this immense site. We also explored the more tranquil Monasterio de San Francisco. Part of the Monastery is still used today, but part of it remains in ruins. I can't wait to explore the modern day Mayan culture as we explore Lake Atitlan. I'm reading, I, Rigoberta Menchu, and in Guatemala today, the Mayans are treated as second class citizens. written by Fitzie Heimdahl

Honduras, If it is not one thing, it is another

We, the intrepid travelers, set out walking down the unpaved mountain road in the coffee growing area of Rio Negro. We carry water bottles, ponchos, and a 150-foot tape measure. Our goal today is to study the area near Dona Sirila's house to see where and how to install a mini-hydroelectric project near her house. Dona Sirila is a single mother from the coffee co-op, who has many children and grandchildren living with her. We visited last year, and we were taken with her story and situation. We turn off of the road onto a deep muddy red trail that splits through coffee farms. The trail follows a ridge and soon we have a spectacular view of the San Jeronimo valley. Ahead of us is Adalid and Hector, who fabricate mini turbines. With the help of donations from Farmer to Farmer members, Adalid has promised to help Dona Sirila install a turbine and have electricity for her house. Adalid has already improved her coffee de-pulper this past year, with donated money from a Farmer to Farmer member. Adalid stops and picks up a stick. He looks back and says "perros bravos" (mean dogs). With that warning, we all stop to pick up a stick. But it turns out that the house ahead is empty. Everyone is out harvesting coffee. As we continue on the path, we start to descend down into the valley. Adalid tells about how when he was a child in Rio Negro, there were not any roads and everyone walked back and forth to Comayagua and brought the coffee out on the backs of burros. This was one of the tracks. Soon the path is dropping steeply and everyone is slipping on the red mud. "Cuidado!" "Hay lodo!" When we get close to Dona Sirila's, her dogs come out to greet us. Adalid keeps them at bay by grunting and periodically pretending to pick up a rock. However as soon as we get to the house, the dogs come and lie down calmly as if they were not just barking viciously at us. Sirila welcomes us by saying that she was expecting us yesterday and that today her kids are out picking coffee at a neighbor's, and are unable to help with the hydroelectric study right now. She sends a child off running to fetch them.

In fact our plans for Dona Sirila's turbine have changed several times since we arrived in Honduras. The initial plan was to actually install the turbine while we are here. We were going to spend the first couple days in Comayagua buying pvc pipes and then send them up the mountain for us to put together. It was an ambitious plan. Before we arrived, Adalid had gone to Sirila's house to measure the distance to the water source. After we had the distance and were all ready to buy the tubes, word came from Sirila that her neighbors would not let her use the water from the spring. They were worried she would use up the whole spring. So she asked at another neighbor and had the same response. Things are complicated. Now we have to do a new study to figure out how many tubes to buy to get the water from the river. So instead of being the great gringo workers installing PVC, we are (once again) the great white watchers, hanging out in her yard taking photos of chickens.

After we get tired of waiting for her sons to arrive, we decide to measure the distance from her house to the flat area near the river. Because we can't use the water close by, we have decided to install the turbine down the hill from her house on a flat spot next to the river. Then they will need to run wires up to the house, and run PVC far enough up the river in order to gain enough water pressure to run the turbine. We need a 60 to 70 meter drop to make the turbine run efficiently. Finally, something important to do! I am used to working, so all this watching people work makes me a little uncomfortable. So I got to hold the end of the tape measure while Adalid set off into the coffee plants down the hill. After three leapfrogs with the tape measure, we are at the river, where Dona Sirila's kids plant beans in April. Her grandchild Fernando is our leader, and he carries a rough-carved wooden toy rifle to protect us. There are beautiful flowers here and there and the crashing sound of white water rushing over rocks. The river is a mountain stream and with a couple well-placed rocks, a person can easily move back and forth across the water. Once we find the distance from the river to the house, there is nothing to do except start exploring up the river. The trail (such as it is) goes along the near bank until the river takes a turn to the right around a steep rocky embankment. We do more hanging out next to a rocky cascade as Hector and Fernando explore ahead. This is pleasant, and we take to looking for interesting rocks while we wait for Dona Sirila's kids to show up to be part of the study. Soon they arrive, but we also notice that the morning has gotten away from us and it is now after one o'clock. As trip leader, I decide to go with the gringos back to Rio Negro for lunch. But Hector and Adalid have come all this way to do the study, and so they stay with the boys and explore further up the river. The rest of us climb back up to Dona Sirila's and have some delicious coffee with her, while Analisa explains the game "Go Fish" to Fernando and the girls. It is an instant hit. Soon we are back on the trail, getting to Rio Negro (huffing and puffing from the climb) in time for a late lunch.

Hector and Adalid arrive much later with an ambitious plan to run a 3 inch PVC pipe over the river using support wire. I'll buy the tubes next week, but sadly, we will be back in the states before the project gets installed.

The used turbine that Sirila's kids have jerry-rigged to a plastic hose. It runs two Christmas lights. Which is more electricity than they had before.

Jeff, trying out the improved coffee de-pulper. With a gear system it cranks much easier than it used to.

Measuring from the house to the river.

Sirila's kids

Quebrada El Gavilan. 

Honduras: Safe and Sound

I am writing from the Hotel Morales lobby in Comayagua, Honduras. Yesterday the Honduras Farmer to Farmer trip began when Jeff and Analisa arrived at the San Pedro Sula airport. There was a little setback because Delta left their luggage in Atlanta, but promises were made on the part of the airline and reluctantly accepted on Analisa's part, so we left the airport with our friends Hector and Hernan. I got to ride in the back of the pick-up with Jeff and we had a beautiful view of the Honduran countryside. Jeff and I talked about what I knew of the history of international aid in Honduras and he told me the same story from a Geography PhD candidate's point of view. It was nice to physically point out different things to highlight our discussion from our reclining open air vantage point. Around San Pedro we saw sugar cane fields, coffee warehouses, and huge free trade zones where Taiwanese and Korean clothing assembly plants sprawled behind high fences. There were armed checkpoints, and an unmarked police pick-up sped by bristling with weaponry. The traffic was constant, with every type of bus, pick-up and motorcycle jockeying along on a road that seemed to have two, three or four informal lanes, depending on the needs of the moment. As we climbed out of the Sula valley, we came into the watershed of the El Cajon dam and we were able to talk of the great cascade of unintended consequences that can come from a huge World Bank project. As the rain started to come down (we were sheltered by the movement of the pick-up truck), the conversation wandered to the vast efforts of aid groups to try to protect the El Cajon watershed, and the game that Honduran governmental and non-governmental agencies play to capture money intended for sustainable development. Later we came in sight of Lake Yojoa, and I was able to tell Jeff of the folly of introducing large-mouth bass to a pristine tropical lake full of endemic species. Later still we passed rows of places selling fried tilapia, the only commercial fish to come out of Yojoa now. As we climbed into the central high plains of Siguatepeque we talked of the vast forests of pine and the incredible corruption of the tragedy which was and is the Honduran forest products industry. We saw coffee farms along the road and it gave us a chance to discuss the failed USAID supported programs of the 80's which were intended to promote hybrid coffee varieties and huge production by cutting down all the shade trees and adding in chemical fertilizers and herbicides. As usual the unintended consequences were completely predictable. As we dropped into the Comayagua valley we saw the meager remnants of the tropical dry forest ecosystem and the brand new four lane highway which is intended unify ports on the Salvadoran coast with Puerto Cortes on the Honduran Atlantic Coast - the completed highway will compete with the Panama Canal, by using trucks to haul shipping containers.

By the time we got to Comayagua we were dry again and welcomed by the familiar hotel and friendly staff.

Guatemala and Honduras Trips begin!

Our trips to Honduras is going and our Guatemala trip starts Jan 7th. Follow our adventures here!

Rug Hooking Update from F2F members Mary Anne and Jody

Dear Friends:

I hold a debt of gratitude to each and every one of you.

14 months ago you responded to an email I wrote from Guatemala. In the email, I sent photos of hooked rugs produced in a workshop Jody Slocum & I had just completed. The workshop was sponsored by Oxlajuj B'atz' (www.thirteenthreads.org). I wrote: 

"these are first rugs, their craftsmanship isn't top notch but the rugs emanate energy and vitality. If my students sold these rugs, perhaps it would encourage them to continue hooking. Would you be interested in buying a rug? Proceeds will go to our students and buy more materials, too".

You immediately responded. You bought rugs- or, tried to buy a rug. In a couple of cases, the rug was already 'taken'.  Nonetheless, I am deeply grateful for your supportive response. I want to bring you 'up to speed' about what rug hooking has meant to the lives of our students.

Since that class in October, Oxlajuj B'atz' (OB) opened a Fair Trade store in a town frequented by tourists, Panajachel, on beautiful Lake Atitlan. Our students bring their rugs to the store and the tienda, we learned, is unable to keep their rugs in stock. 

This month, from Mar 5 - 22,  Jody & I taught a 4th class over three weeks. The point of this class was to work on bigger rugs- to move from small mats (18 x 24") to larger rugs (30 x 60"). Building on lessons covered in previous classes, our students increased the scale of traditional textile elements then applied the motifs to larger rugs. We also focused on craftsmanship standards. Many of these large rugs will be included in an international hooked rug exhibition I've curated for the Anderson Center outside Red Wing, MN. (SAVE THE DATE: exhibit opens Sept 23, 2011).

In conjunction with the Anderson Center show, OB received a grant from the Delta Family Foundation. The grant supplied funds to make our class possible AND it includes funds for two of our students to attend the opening in September. On the afternoon of the opening, if you happen to arrive early in Red Wing, stop by the lunchroom: we're hosting a region-wide hook-in and you'll see many rug hookers from the area hooking alongside my Guatemalan students. In case you can't make it to the Anderson Ct opening, the women will speak about their lives (and sell some new rugs from ALL our students) on September 22nd at the Textile Center, 7 p.m., St Paul, MN. (All of this is dependent upon the women getting visas, obviously, so: keep your fingers crossed!). 

To my wonderful friends and initial supporters, the list is not that long. You were amazing, your support was essential and you reside in a special place in my heart. Who are you? Linda Burke & Friend, rug hookers / former student, St Louis, MO; Burneatta Bridge, WI Appellate Court Judge, retired, Madison; Tom Choi, professor U of MN, retired, Seattle, WA; Wendy Coggins, Interior Designer, Mpls; Connee Mayeron & Fuller Cowles, artists, Shafer, MN; Terry Cuddy, farmer, Maiden Rock, WI; Vicki Hoepner, home inspector, St Paul, MN; Sally Kling, volunteer, MN; Wes Kuske, IMS Carpet showroom, retired; Meg Leonard, activist, Evergreen, CO; Rick Nelson, journalist, St Paul, MN; Sandra Roe, volunteer, MN; Doug Spencer & Kathleen Parrish, activists/Water For People Project, Evergreen, CO.

Finally. On the last day of every rug hooking class we conduct a private, one-on-one critique with each student. Knowing that our students are now selling their rugs, we asked: what are you doing with the money from rug sales? Simply put, none of us were prepared for their emotional responses. We had no idea the impact rug hooking has made to their lives. Read on.

Keep in touch. 

With gratitude,

truly,

Mary Anne & Jody

Carmen (see photo, below): I am so grateful for OB (www.thirteenthreads.org) and for the opportunity they gave me to be in this class. I am so grateful for everything I've learned here, for the way Mariana y Jody open their hearts and give to us everything. They hold nothing back. I can see that, my campeneras, we can all feel that.  Before these classes I believed I was nothing. I was a low person. I believed that because I do not read, I can't write, I don't speak much Spanish... Ive never been to school. If you are that way people see you as a low person. In the first rug class I did not dare to hope because I wasn't sure I could do it (the new rug hooking technique). But now I am selling my rugs and I have a different opinion of myself. I see the world different now and I am happy because I never thought that would be possible. I am not a low person.

Maria: I Am selling my rugs, it's incredible. I have so much gratitude. (breaking in to tears). Praise to god, my son studied in Cuba to be a doctor. I do not now how this opportunity came to him because he has no father, and I never went past third grade. Now he is back in Guatemala and he is an intern but he does not make any money in this position, I give him all my rug money so he can eat. I feel so lucky to sell my rugs and it makes me happy to help my son and that is why I am crying.

Maria (a different Maria): I never went to school, I do not have a husband, I only have one son. I used to go to the mountains every day to get wood to sell. It was very hard work, walking up and down the mountain I worked like a man and I still feel the work in my body. It is shameful to rely on your children but I had no choice.  I am grateful for the opportunity to be in this class and for everything Mariana y Jody has taught me. Now that I can sell rugs (breaking in to tears)  I do not have to go the mountain anymore. I am a lucky woman and I have a lot of gratitude for this opportunity.

Yolanda (below) has sold all seven of the mats she has made since the first class over two and a half yrs ago. She is involved in all kinds of textile production work: from fair trade scarves, table runners, napkins, and, her own huipils. When asked: "Which technique do you make the most money?" she responds:  rug hooking. How does she spend her rug money? She bought six faucets for six families in her small village near chichi. There's a new potable water project in her village but you need a (complex) faucet to tap in to the pipe- Yolanda bought faucets. Note: you will meet Yolanda this fall at the Anderson Center- she was 1 of 2 women selected to come to the US to attend the opening. 

Jessica,age 17. Muchisimo gracias por todo...- breaking down in tears - I remember the time OB offered the third rug hooking class and I was not selected to participate. I stayed home and felt sad, thinking about what was going on in the class. I spent the day weaving (on her backstrap loom) and feeling sad. But you called me on my phone and told me to come to class the next day and I want you to know how happy I felt then. I do not have the words to say how happy I was. After that class I started selling my rugs and sometimes I cannot believe it. I am very grateful -all of us feel this way- for a new way to make money,,, when the women in my group (who have taken the class) get together, before we start a hooking session we say a prayer to OB for this opportunity and how lucky we feel to learn this technique,,,we talk about you and Jody and we invite you to come be with us that day. You people were once strangers but we cannot believe it... You live so far away in Los estatdos unidisos and why do you come here to work with us-  it's very dangerous to travel- and yet you still continue to come and we do not understand but we feel lucky and we give thanks to god every time because there is no other way to explain it.