Temux Mayan Artisian Co-op

Please check out the website of this Guatemalan women's co-op selling traditional handbags. Each handbag is hand woven and your money will go directly to support these women and their families. Check out the website to learn more. Each handbag has a picture with the women who made it and a little bit about their family. A fellow PCV is working with these women as part of the co-op. Check it out! It's really a great cause! If you want one I am pretty sure that I can get it to bring it home with me when I come back for Christmas to save on shipping cost. Shoot me an e-mail if you are interested in me bringing one home for you.

www.temuxmayanartisans.com

Making Friends

So this week has been filled with blossoming friendships. First of all I have been getting closer to my host family which is exciting as I found that I really have a passion for connecting with people. As most of you know I live with two sisters one is 17 and the other 23 and the 23 year old has a 5 year old daughter. We have some cultural differences which were a bit of a challenge at first but are now becoming easier. The friendship that is more in the works is with my host brother, or rather one of the four brothers of the sisters I live with. He is 22 and works for his dad, making t-shirts and screen printing them. Once I moved down to the room on the first level they moved the business upstairs where I live. So he is around a whole lot more. At first he didn't talk to me very much and I wasn't sure how to take that. Did he like me? Was he intimidated by me? Or maybe he was just a little shy? I found out the other day that it was a little of him being shy and a little of being intimidated by me but now since we have broken through that things are going nicely. He apparently wasn't sure what to say to me and wasn't sure if I would want to talk to him. I was a bit unsure of the whole situation myself being in the machismo culture of Guatemala. I was told that platonic friendships don't really exist here. I found that to not be completely true. I really miss having guy friends and I am hoping this will help fill the gap.
I am also getting closer with the health center staff I work with. I got some candy in the mail this past week and there was so much of it. I felt like a kid on Halloween. I knew that if I kept it I would just eat it all myself so I opted to share it with my host family and a few other random people and also with the health center staff. My coworkers really enjoyed the candy and I think it helped them open up to me a little more. I have taken up running with some girls I work with. They stay at the health center during the week because they live too far away to travel everyday. I need the motivation of other people because honestly if it's up to me I usually fail. I had been walking before that but I needed to step it up a little bit.
So yeah, I guess I can say life is good right now. I really enjoying building relationships with people and getting to know who they really are and what drives them as a person. It's in the works!

Much love,
Kels

More pictures posted :)

I posted a few more pictures on facebook today. Here is a public link if you don't have an account:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2462664&id=22423429&l=efd840bf76

Alcholism in Guatemala

So, I have been very pensive lately on the problem of alcoholism in Guatemala. I have found that the consumption of alcohol is very different here than I have ever experienced in the States, social drinking does not really seem to exist here. I have noticed that when a lot of people drink (usually males) they drink to the extreme, becoming so inebriated that they can’t walk straight, hold a sensible conversation or even keep their eyes open. I have seen men randomly sleeping out in public, on sidewalks, on the side of the road, or in the ditch, because the have consumed so much alcohol they can’t make it home (or maybe don’t want to go home). I have also had my fair share of conversations with drunk men (for some reason talking with a white girl seems like a good idea), some of them funny and some of them annoying.

I have been getting to know the groups of people I work with and have discovered that three of my five groups have alcoholics in them. My most recent discovery has really challenged my thoughts about the culture. I gave a charla and noticed that one of the men in my group (who’s home we happened to have the charla at) was not there. Afterwards, he met me outside to inform me that he did not come to the charla because he was drinking (this was at around 4 in the afternoon). He did not have shoes on, his hair was messed up and his eyes were bloodshot. He was one of the first people that I met from this community, a respected leader and a man involved in his community. I was just so surprised to find out a respected leader drinking so heavily midday. I don’t want to be too quick to judge, but it’s just so hard when the culture of the US is so different from this (and plus being a nurse it’s hard to turn a blind eye to this issue/sickness). I have heard stories in the US from friends about having an alcoholic parent, it tears families apart. So I guess I have a couple questions in order to get a better understanding of this issue. Does it not have the same effect on families here as it does in the States? It seems like people here just turn a blind eye to it but maybe they just don’t know how to deal with it or feel like they can’t? Do the men that drink feel so stressed out with their lives that they need alcohol as an outlet? Do those that drink remain open about it because they don’t want you to find out someway else but straight from the source? Do those that have the problem feel ashamed? Do the people here consider it to be a problem?

Please keep in mind that by no means do I want to point fingers or assume myself and my culture to be better than the one here, I am just seeking to understand. I really hope that with my time here I can answer some of these questions and can get a better grasp of the view of alcohol and alcoholism in the Guatemalan culture. I also hope that as my understanding increases that I can offer my support and knowledge to those that may seek it. I write this out of love and not judgment, because I care about the people here and I understand the effects that alcohol can have on individuals and families both physically and emotionally. Please pray that I may be able to get a better understanding of this issue and what role (if any) that I may have here in working against it and that every thing I do here may be driven by love.

Any questions or thoughts please feel free to comment.