From Mayan Families, an NGO in Panajachel, Guatemala

Christmas Spirit

This is a family that we visited this week.
As you can see their home is very humble and they are in desperate need of stove to be able to cook over and have many other needs.
But what struck us most was the Christmas spirit they showed with this very sweet little Christmas tree in their home. There were no presents to put under the tree and not much food in the house but they had this little tree to be able to celebrate Christmas.
For those of us who were lucky enough to have all the comforts of a home, a refrigerator full of food, a tree laden with decorations and lots of presents underneath.......we should spare a moment to think about this family ( and so many like them ) and what it takes to still have the spirit of Christmas with so very little, at this time of year.

www.mayanfamilies.org



The kitchen. Its outside in the usual one room home.
The Christmas tree.

Repairs have to be put off when there is hardly any money for food.

This family was fortunate enough to receive a Tamale Basket for the Christmas festivities.

Lighting the stove.

Mother's Day Baskets, Panajachel Guatemala

Every year Mayan Families Organization sponsors Mothers Day Baskets for local mothers.

Guatemala has the highest rate of malnutrition in Latin America and ranks sixth in the world for chronic malnutrition. More than 1 million children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition. An estimated 69.5 percent are indigenous children. An estimated 53 percent of children who die under the age of five die as a result of complications linked to malnutrition.

In Guatemala a Mothers work is never done. When they are pregnant they very rarely can afford to see a doctor, when they give birth, it is often at home with an untrained midwife, they usually have more pregnancies than their bodies can cope with.Daily, they often carry either water on their heads or heavy loads of firewood on their backs, walking for long distances, often with a swaddled baby on their bodies and another small child or two by their side. Once home, they chop wood, cook over an open fire, make tortillas by hand while attending to their families needs. At the end of a long day, going to bed often means sleeping on a woven straw mat on a dirt floor. On Mothers Day Mayan Families Org. donors help to make mothers lives a little easier by giving as many as possible a basket of food for a wonderful family dinner and many additional meals. This year they assembled 300 baskets.

The basket assembly:

Some happy recipients:

This year the mothers were given a barbequed chicken instead of a raw one so they would have to spend less time cooking.

You can see more photos here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mayanfamilies/MAYANFAMILIESMothersDayFoodBasketsMay82009?feat=directlink#

Sponsor a Student:

It's too late to send a Mother's Day Basket but its not too late to sponsor a student in a local school. There are currently two students awaiting sponsorship: a 5 year old boy and a 14 year old girl

http://www.mayanfamilies.org/SponsoraStuden

The organization also sponsors families, sewing classes and organized other baskets at Christmas and Easter.

www.mayanfamilies.org

Panajachel and Santiago Atitlan Guatemala

Back in Panajachel on Fridays there is a local huipil market in front of the Fire Department on the road to Solola. There are usually at least half a dozen women there with their huipils and weavings spread out on the concrete.
Usually I find the huipils to be either too expensive, or too faded after being out in the sun for too many sales. But every once in awhile I find something interesting. This trip I bought a black background huipil in a design I had never seen before.

And, of course, after all my hard work it was time for a banana split.

As I was sitting in the ice cream shop at the top of Santander, the main street I noticed three locals going by weighted down with bundles of wood they obviously were taking to sell somewhere. Now...they had to have walked down from the surrounding hills somewhere with those heavy loads.

The next day I took the boat to Santiago Atitlan, the town where they make my favorite bird huipils.

The town is becoming more and more crowded with shops selling to tourists.

A new church.

The women are busy working on their embroidery in front of their shop.

The town also has some great wood carvers and painters.

Our friend Robert whom we have known for several years.

This poodle was accompanying two young boys on the trip back to Panajachel.

This made me very nervous. The two young boys (who apparently didn't have an adult with them) were hanging out the bow of the boat. One slip and they would be under the boat toward the propeller.

Mayan Famalies Project:

For some time I have been looking for a local Guatemalan group which focuses on quilting or sewing to do some volunteer work with. Over the years we have routinely taken suitcases full of school supplies for the local schools, usually in Santiago Atitlan but I really would have preferred something textile oriented. I found a quilting group in Antigua but since I don't go there very often anymore that wasn't going to work. Three days before I left on this trip I discovered a wonderful group in Panajachel, where I usually spend a week every year. I contacted them and found they could use fabric in their projects. I took a suitcase full for them and plan to fill two for them next year when I have more time to organize.

They have a number of projects going...including buying stoves (to cut down the use of wood and subsequently stripping the forests), semana santa baskets to provide food, and arranging sponsorship for students in several local schools.

The web page is www.mayanfamilies.org

The one which I was most interested in was the Panajachel Sewing Project- 94 adult female students have completed the Mayan Families 3 month Sewing Skills Course. Many of these students have developed home based businesses with their new skills. I found while talking with one of the directors on my trip that each student receives their sewing machine when they complete the course so they need machines as well.