#also tagged op of that post so they could see the fruit of their labor (the influence of making a tumblr post)

[starryluminary]

Hi! I'd like to send you a polite reminder to draw Owen dipping the moon in the ocean for I too would like to see him dip moon like cookie.

I was not the one who said id draw him, that was @curiositycryptid . However, I was in a drawing mood today so you can have a stupid little sketch. As a treat

[aliceinguatemala]

San Juan La Laguna

It’s late Thursday night and I’m just getting to Monday. The women of Casa Flor Ixcaco, with whom we talked and had dinner on Sunday night, stayed over at our hotel and Monday morning we all took a boat across the lake to their town, San Juan la Laguna. Sunday night Delfina, Miriam, Johana and Ana Maria told us how the history of their cooperative, how it was founded and how it works. They have 22 (or 25) women who sell their products at the co-op. They receive 80% of the selling price and the other 20% goes to the expenses of the co-op (rent, electricity, etc.). The weavers receive payment up front, rather than having to wait until one or more of their pieces sells. This helps the women and their families afford food and other essentials. If they had to wait to be paid, they might wait a month or more and that of course makes life much more difficult.

I”m inspired by the efforts of the Casa Flor Ixcaco women. They’ve created a viable business for themselves to sustain them and their families allowing them to improve their lives. By trial and error they’ve arrived at a system that works. Delfina and Miriam have taught themselves English by listening to the customers who visit the co-op and learning from the guides who accompany customers. Johana has learned English from Delfina and Miriam and also by interacting with customers. By the way, most of their customers are Americans. Apparently we spend more than anyone else who visits them.

The women have also started an organic chocolate business, run by young people from San Juan La Laguna. The intent is to provide another option - besides weaving - as a means for young people to learn a skill and to earn a living. As some of you know - and as all of my fellow volunteers now know - I love dark chocolate. Not surprisingly, I bought a LOT of chocolate products. The chocolate for drinking comes in a round disk about an inch and a half thick. You make the hot chocolate by mixing the chocolate and hot water. It’s delightful. Delfina’s husband raises bees and makes honey, which they also sell at the chocolate co-op.Naturally I had to buy some of that as well. Between my purchases there and at the weaving co-op, I probably single-handedly raised the GDP of the village.

We did more than shop on Monday, lest you think otherwise. Once we arrived at San Juan La Laguna and trekked up the steep hill directly in front of the dock, we made our way to the chocolate co-op. A charming young fellow told us - in good English - all about the process by which they make the chocolate. They buy the cacao beans from growers on the coast. Then they break open the beans, remove the seeds and roast them. After roasting, they crush the beans into a fine powder using a stone roller and a mealing stone. For their dark chocolate they use 70% cacao, 20% organic sugar cane and 10% lemon juice. The chocolate has a slightly grainy texture, which I really like. It’s delicious!

After our visit, we piled into a van and rode up into the hills. Then we piled out of the van and left the road to walk through corn fields, which gave way to coffee plants shaded by avocado trees. The ground was littered with overripe avocados. Such a shame to see so many avocados going to waste. The avocado trees are planted to give shade to the coffee plants, which grow best under some shade. I’m not sure what other sorts of vegetation we passed by and through, but we made our way through fairly dense flora, now and then catching a glimpse above the tall corn and other plants of the green hills and volcanos rising up against the blue sky. After trekking through some dense foliage, we arrived in an area populated by the trees from which we harvested bark. The women use machetes to first skin the bark off the trees and then gather up the bark pieces from the ground. They don’t own the land where the trees grow; they rent it - which is where part of the 20% or each sale goes.

Once we collected enough bark, we made our way back to the van and rode back down to the weaving co-op. There Juana explained the cotton’s journey from raw material to finished product. The co-op buys the cotton, which still contains its seeds. They have to remove the seeds without pulling the cotton into tiny pieces. We all tried our hand at this and it’s a painstaking process. It’s quite hard to remove the cotton seeds without pulling apart the cotton. Once that’s done, the cotton is spun onto a spindle. Juana made drawing the cotton out into a thin thread and spinning it around a spindle look easy, but it’s not. A few of us tried, unsuccessfully, to replicate Juana’s efforts. Next the cotton thread is gathered into skeins and dyed using natural dyes made from plants. There is an amazing variety of beautiful colors the women make from things like basil and mint and tree bark and all sorts of plants.

An enormous amount of work goes into producing the cotton thread used for the women’s weaving. Once the thread is made, they use a back strap loom to weave their textiles. The back strap loom is so called because the loom is attached to a strap that goes around the weaver’s back. The other end of the loom is fastened to a post or some other inanimate object. In the past, weavers kneeled on the ground for hours to support the loom and keep tension on the threads. Now the weavers sit on a low stool, alleviating much of the stress on the body. Even so, it’s still a laborious effort.

Each piece sold at the co-op has a tag with the weaver’s name and the amount of time it took the make the piece. As I mentioned earlier, I’m astounded at how relatively inexpensive the textiles are given the amount of time and labor necessary to create them. The women produce all sorts of things incorporating their textiles. There are scarves, blankets, pillow covers, notebooks covered with textiles, shawls, placemats, table runners, hair clips and barrettes, pieces of whole fabric, purses, little zippered pouches, larger zippered pouches, wallets and a few more things I can’t recall. My group spent a good deal of time browsing, choosing and buying. Just as we were getting ready to leave, there was a heavy rainstorm.

We stayed a while longer in the co-op hoping to wait out the rain. When it let up some, we ventured out. The streets weren’t easy to navigate, as the water ran in small rivers down the streets and there were places where it was impossible to cross without submerging your feet in a mini river or tiny pond. Ultimately we made it to our next stop, an art gallery cooperative consisting of nine men and one woman, Gloria, the sole female member, welcomed us in and explained a bit about how the co-op works. Most of the paintings done in oil. One common style of painting here shows a view from above of everyday Guatemalan scenes, like people harvesting fruit or coffee or a healer working on a patient, The colors are bright and the painting technique involves leaving the paint raised up a little bit. I’m sure an art aficionado could explain the technique better than I, but I’m what you’ve got right now. I can tell you that I asked Gloria if this style of painting originated with one artist which then became popular, ]] and that is indeed the case. You see these paintings everywhere - in the markets, on the streets, in galleries. Once again, I did my part to support the local artisans and bought a painting.

I then met up with my fellow volunteers at a coffee shop near the dock, where I enjoyed a tasty mocha and Jackie B. bought me a piece of dark chocolate, which was quite yummy.  Speaking of Jackie B., she wanted me to make sure to mention that she was kind enough to lend me a pair of capris for the duration of our stay. I arrived in Guatemala prepared for colder temperatures than I’ve experienced. I have  only long pants and long-sleeved shirts. I’d understood that the days were springlike and the nights were cool enough to need a fleece. Sadly that’s not been the case. The days have been quite warm - warm enough that I’ve been pretty hot walking around in my unsuitable clothes - and the nights are definitely cooler, but still not cool enough for a fleece. Some of my fellows would disagree, but to each her own. I think part of my problem is that while it may be a bit cooler, it’s still awfully humid, for me at least. So what’s all this have to do with the capris? Well, given my long pants were making me super uncomfortable, Jackie was kind enough to lend me a pair of her capris, so that I could be a little more comfortable. And that is the story of the capris.

I’ll be you’re all wondering, “When is Alice actually going to build anything?” Building begins “tomorrow,” Tuesday, but it’s actually Friday night and we’ve built all 12 of our stoves; I’ll begin to tell you about it tomorrow, though I’ll likely be posting this tomorrow, as the internet connection here is non-existent this evening. My computer says I have wifi, but I don’t. Technology!