Today we headed across Lake Atitlan to visit Panajachel. As we only have 6 days in Guatemala we have to be very organized. Pana, as it is known by the locals, is a Mecca for tourists. It is also the location of the home and farm of our friend Curtis. Curtis has lived in Guatemala for 30 years. He runs a successful bead design and wholesale business which pays fair trade pricing. Curtis’s right hand man Ervin, a Mayan he considers his son, is going to be helping us start our bead store cooperative in Chukumuk.
I am so excited about this project. To start, only 5 families will be involved. When you consider that there is over 500 homes in Chukumuk and everyone does beadwork and they all have to travel to the local town of Santiago Atitlan to buy beads, it should be a success. To participate in any of our cooperative the families need to have a student in our Basico. We have to promote education. However when the families have Not much food it is a huge sacrifice. When the families realize that Aldea Maya is their to help them help themselves we should have more students in our Basico and be able to reduce the huge drop out rate of 50% in the first year of Basico. Due to these statistics Aldea Maya will not find a personal sponsor for a student until he/she has completed their first year. We do, however, help every student in the Basico receive backpack, tooth brush, tooth paste, all supplies, all fees and a typing course. This amazing program is paid for through our Christmas card sales.
As mentioned earlier, Curtis is also our organic garden guy. He gives us all the plants and seeds for free. He is our source for Chaya plants. Refer to our Chaya page to find out more about this amazing plant. We are also getting sweet potatoes from him as well. Sprouting a sweet potato is going to be our new grade 5 project. This rapid producing, nutritious plant will help us to increase the nutritional intake of these highland Mayan. This area has the 5th worst chronic malnutrition in the world. This means generation after generation without enough to eat. I once visited a family that had only eaten boiled snails for a week, which the mother had collected from the river bed.
When the rains fail or the coffee crop becomes diseased this area then has the 5th worst acute malnutrition in the world.
We also get steer manure from Curtis. We then visited Herlinda’s farm to purchase large bags of composted leaves. The soil in the village of Chukumuk is basically large rocks and sand. We can not get the families to compost until they have had a garden for a year. This is because they have little food and as a result little to compost. To start a garden we need to supply organic material for the gardens to be a success. We have now hired Pedro,one of our Basico dad. He was helped in starting a garden several years ago. He had 5 boys and has told me that the garden has really helped him feed his family. When a family receives garden help they get chicken wire for fencing, bags of organic compost and manure, lime and numerous seeds and plants. The families have to supply the posts ( unless there is extenuating circumstances). Each family pays 4 key chains for the garden.
The side effects are mild and usually wholesale viagra from canada subside within a short time. Twin studies demonstrate the importance of genetics cialis price find over here in establishing causes. As an effective, popular buy viagra line and widely accepted drug, Kamagra ensures a harder and long lasting erection. Headache is suffered by most of the individual at some point in their life. buying levitra without prescription
Pedro is incredibly excited about having regular continued employment. To start he will be working Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. School stops in the next week. We are having him work on the school gardens as well as landscaping the school yard. It is a huge mud bowl during the rainy season. He is planting Chaya, citrus trees, papaya and banana plants and grass. These food bearing trees will help in the primary feeding program as well as the Basico home Economics.
Over the last few years Aldea Maya has had a bicycle program. These bikes help students who study in Santiago Atitlan get to school for free. We have also given 4 dads bikes. The village is 3 miles from the closest market and site of employment. A bicycle helps a family go to the market without spending Q4 for transportation. All bikes have a front and back rat trap. Q4 is $0.55 which does not sound like much to us but in the market Q4 will buy 4 oranges or 4 carrots or 8 limes or half a pound of beans. When you consider these families have no food this is a huge savings.
This trip my husband Jim, who is a bike rider, taught a bike maintenance and repair course.
The bikes are really important to the dads. To look for work they have to go to Santiago. It costs money. If they do not get hired they then have lost money. As a result, the men were afraid to go look for work. They can not walk the 3 miles as they do manual labour. Since the introduction of our bike program one man has been able to get full time employment. When you consider he has 8 kids and could not pay his water bill last year this is awesome news!!!!
