Wednesday, July 21
- Today we loaded up the van weighting it down a
little more after our shopping spree in Panajachel and we
winded our way up the mountain to Chichicastenango where we
stayed at the Ruth and Nohemi Center. The center is a sewing
cooperative. One of the youth named Samuel, talked to us
about the center. The project started out of a need by the
women in a small nearby village had lost many of their
husbands to violence which had occurred in the village. These
women went to see Pastor Diago of the village to ask him for
money. He told him that he did not have money to give them.
But they were able to give the women some money for a project
of raising and selling chickens. They did this for a while,
but it did not last very long. The project was intended for
the women to become self sufficient. A few other projects
were attempted then came the idea of the craft program. The
young people of the village stay at the center and learn how
to sew. The idea is that after the women in the village make
the fabric or cloth, then the young people sew the fabric
into products to be sold. The program was moved to
Chichicastenango so the youth would also have opportunities
to go to school in the evening and work during the day. A
methodist church from California helped build the current
center where the project is housed. Currently there are 10
youth working at the center, six of them stay at the center
while the other four go home in the evening. While we were
there we stayed in dormitories, the women in one building and
the men in another.