Accompanying the driver, his partner stands at the front of the bus, hanging out of the door mostly, promoting to people on the street where the bus is headed and collecting the fare from the passengers. They shout "Guate, Guate" to let everyone know that the bus is en route to the city. In the early mornings or afternoons after work, the busses are completely packed and people (adults) sit three to a seat. Traveling with backpacks packed for the weekend was cramped to say the least. By the time we got to Rabinal, we were happy to be out in the hot sun and off the bus. The roads to Rabinal were crazy - narrow and full of blind curves, although that didn't seem to matter to the bus driver who still passed dump trucks and such at a decent pace. Kids were playing marbles on the outskirts of the marketplace of the main plaza. I tried to think of the last time I saw a group of youngsters playing marbles and I was stumped.
Mariana’s group is located around 15 minutes outside of the small city of Rabinal in the state of Baja Verapaz. Agriculture is fairly prominent in their lifestyle; they grow and/or raise corn, peanuts, mangos, beans, pigs, cows, and so on. Although farming is important to their livelihoods and economy, it is extremely difficult to grow anything successfully during the dry season (November to May), so many people struggle with unemployment during these months.
Around 1985, an artisan workshop was held in Rabinal to support the widows affected by the massacres. They learned various weaving techniques and how to make material for an array of products; the women were told they would eventually be provided with a small factory, but what they were promised was never fulfilled. Because their work was simply learned in a workshop, they had little access to initial capital or a stable market. 7 women from the Chuaperol village (where Mariana lives) joined and started working together, producing products for the local market. Rabinal however is not the ultimate tourist attraction, so sales seem to be limited.
The artisans of Flor de Algodón also partner with a fair trade organization called Manos Mayas (Mayan Hands). Their relationship seems to be helpful, but appears as if it could be more financially supportive and stable – we’re looking into meeting with someone from the organization soon to know more about it. Manos Mayas asked for designs and samples from the women. They gave them fabric and a loom, which the group paid for little by little. A main concern of the women is that while the prices of fabrics are going up, the prices of their products sold through Manos Mayas in the US are staying the same.
In terms of their products and production, the principle material they use is cotton (their name Flor de Algodón means ‘cotton flower’), which they buy from Guatemala City.
They use two kinds of looms, the standard foot loom, and also the more traditional waist loom. Their products include table runners and cloths, napkins, shawls, and scarves. Although it depends on the design of the fabric, 20 inches of material for a tablecloth can be woven in an hour; thinner designs take 2 days to make. Depending on the design, one person can typically make 12 tablecloths a month. For a single color design, one woman can make up to 150 napkins per month, where as a man can make almost 200. Mariana gave us the impression that she’s a very hard worker, and is kind and responsible. Her dream is to be able to help provide employment to women, especially when there is no rain and work is hard to find. Financially, loans could help her expand her workshop, cover the rising costs of materials, aid with transportation to the city where they buy their fabric, and provide more looms, among other things.
On Friday, we took a bus to Salama, then a shuttle to Cobán where we were meeting with Amalia from Ixbalam Ke, another group Nest wanted us to look into. Amalia Gue’s group is located about a half hour outside of the third largest city in Guatemala, Cobán. Mayan traditions and culture are still very prominent, as Spanish is almost everybody’s second language here. With the help of a Peace Corps volunteer who saw and admired their work, a group of 25 women joined together, led by a committee headed by Amalia. She was offered the opportunity to learn various weaving techniques in the city along with another women, and then shared her findings and new knowledge with the other women. Now, between 2 communities there are 60 women producing products. Eventually, the volunteer married and left Guatemala, leaving the women with no market access or a way to move forward. At one point the group was also working with NOVICA, a group in association with National Geographic, but they provided very little profit to the women and all of their promises to help with designs and market access were empty.
The products the women make are women in each of their houses. They use 100% cotton that they buy in Cobán. Designs are produced from memory, and the majority of the products are white and made by weaving with waist looms, representing stories and traditions from their Mayan heritage. If dyes are used, they are natural and made by the women themselves from various plants, flowers, and trees found in Samac, their community.
They make scarves, shawls, table runners, wall hangings, and huipiles (traditional Mayan shirts for women). Women normally work from 7am to 6pm around 6 days a week; a women produces around 4 scarves monthly – a timely effort considering the fragility and traditionalism of each design and technique. A pound of cotton, once 30 or 35 quetzales per pound, is now around 40. When they do provide products to Antigua, they sell their scarves for 275Q, 210 of which goes back to the workshop/artisan. Both of these groups seem to be totally worthwhile in terms of partnering with. However, both of them have little to no access to the Internet, which obviously makes communicating, funding, and everything in between more difficult.
It seems as though the people with the most need for loans and support are also the hardest to contact, as we saw with both of these groups that seemed to be in the middle of no where. We are still awaiting some documents from Nest and to hold a conference with La Casa to get some of the work we need to do completed. In the mean time we are continuing to explore Antigua, hopefully find a coordinator based in Guatemala that could help with the multiple projects throughout the country, and also working on writing grants for fundraising. Hopefully we'll get an idea tomorrow of where we should go from here in terms of re-contacting these groups and letting them know if there is anything we can do for them. 
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