Sunday, February 24, 2013

Guatemala Day 8 - Quejel + Chichicastenago

Today was an awesome day! We boarded two vans at 8am and hit the road to go and visit the home of Yolanda, in Quejel (key-hell). I snapped a ton of photos along the route....still fascinated by the scenery, especially the agricultural areas and the Solola men in traditional dress.

The other ladies in Yolanda's group were gathered at her place, and after a short walk in, past houses, animals and fields and climbing along dirt path ways...we arrived to a carpet of pine needles and a scene set for celebration.
Various ladies gave short presentations, talking about the activities of their group and the impact that sales of their products have made on their lives. It was very moving, even with the need for translation from Spanish to English, and sometimes the Chichi language to Spanish to English and vice versa, using multiple translators. They sang and danced and involved us in a group dance. It was lots of fun and it's pretty safe to say that everyone was touched by our time there.
3 sisters and their mother...and Nester - Zoila's cutie pie.
In this final photo you can see one of the faucets that Yolanda purchased with her rug money. she invested in 6 faucets for people in her community. What a generous soul.
After we said goodbye to all of our friends, we boarded the vans again, en route to the big market day at. Chichicastenango. Now that was a read experience, and total visual overload. I took lots (and lots and lots!) of photos. So many that I will try to take the best of them and make a separate post. Needless to say, we all shopped until we dropped - and several ran out of money! (Including me....but I did lend 100Q ~ $12.50US to Elaine... ;-) ).