Although the road connects Chel to Soltzil there is no public transportation between the two villages. Both are located after a fork in the main road to Chajul. One branch travels up the mountain to Soltzil and the other over a small ridge towards Chel. This made it necessary for a delegation from Chel to walk there and meet with the women that represent this community. Five of us left one morning passing through the community of Jua and in front of the national dam project that brought the roads to this area.
This project is almost completed and has opened this area, for better or worse, to the world outside. Before the road was established it took all day to walk to Chajul. It is interesting to hear people in their 40’s or older tell about their first experience hiking to Chajul to visit or carrying hundred pound loads of coffee all that distance to be sold for six or seven dollars. That price had to cover the work to grow, harvest and dry it as well as transportation. I listen to elders tell me how easy it is now but let’s continue on our journey we still have a pretty big hill to climb.
After the dam we chose to travel up the right side of this ravine to make a more direct route. With all the little paths that take the farmers to their fields the hill are a criss cross of trails. We just keep choosing what was heading in our general direction.
It doesn’t take long for the dam project to fall far below
The creek in the ravine drops away sharply too.
Juana and Hacinta, two women from Chel went with us to share their experience working with the widows. I ask Hacinta why she wanted to come and she answered me in a way that made me feel that the answer should have been obvious. "Because they are just like me, without a husband and in need. We want to help them too." She also told me the next week that she could hardly walk the day after our hike!
Andres and Manuel were my male escorts and the trail wasn’t any easier for them.
After climbing a ridge we begin to descend into the village and a soon as we ducked under a fence we met Maria. Times like this affirm why I travel thousands of miles, why we hike through these mountains. To alleviate suffering! Maria has been suffering from a mental condition for two years, her husband has left her and she lives next to her elderly father. She was seating in the dirt chewing on some old cane stock as dry as hay stubble. She had no skirt no shoes no belt.
Her father Mateo is 75 years old and showed us her house
This is the view inside her home. The dark spot is her bed. She has no blanket, no grass mat, only a huipile (shirt) to keep her warm. This is one of those times my heart cries NO MORE! There is a danger in entering into the world of poverty. Without the separation of distance you have no more excusses and are left only with the responsibility to care. But that is actually a good thing. How many times do we really get to cloth the naked? We will visit Maria latter.
I don’t know whose children these were but the boy was showing me his kite while we visited with Mateo, Maria's father
The women’s committees of Soltzil meet us at Maria and then took us on a brief tour of some of the special needs in the village. This widow is caring for three orphans that are not related to her. This one has serious handicaps. Other children had club feet , another with a a cleft pallet that prevented him from talking.
Passing through the draw we visited with the women washing clothes.
With pigs running free in all the villages we are teaching the women in our program the importance of acting responsible by corralling their animals.
After a lunch, our first meal of the day, the committee of Soltzil gathered the women. We have offered to bring our pig program here to start helping this community.
Pictured here are around 70 women. In total this village had 67 widows and 30 single mothers. We had funding to buy pigs for the widows but have to wait to help the single moms.
Gaspar explained the importance of protecting the environment by penning their pigs.
With a show of hands and latter a thumb print on our registry book all women agreed to the rules of the program. For those of you not familiar with the program we give one wiener pig free to widows or single women but teach them that after raising their animal they must either breed it or save part of the profit to reinvest. Our goal is to develop ways for these women to earn an income.
After the meeting we headed back to Chel and planned to return the following Friday to buy the pigs in the neighboring village of Illom.
For our returned trip we rented a pick-up truck and driver for the day Seven representatives from Chel gathered at 4a.m. to begin our days work. It is exciting to see the committee of Chel volunteering their time to help in Soltzil. We dropped off part of the group in Soltzil to fill out all the paper work and five of us continued on to Illom. For half a day we slipped and slide up and down the dirt paths there looking for pigs. We were not having much look and by noon we started back with only 20 pigs. As we came into Soltzil we watched as women dropped their work and almost run to the gathering spot. There is so much excitement for these women to get an opportunity as simple as this.
We explained that we had to keep looking for pigs and distributed what we had to the first twenty women in the our registry
They also give me a new hat and shoulder bag. Note the look of satisfaction Maria has to be giving something back in thanks.
After a nice lunch we gathered four more helpers and 11 of us traveled to a neighboring plantation to look for more pigs. We had much more success there finding some really nice looking animals (that is good looking for pigs). I stayed close to truck this time so I could pay for the pigs and the group spread out into the village.
I admit it is a little exciting buying the pigs but it is also hard and dirty work. Yet here we had 11 Guatemalans helping without any pay. We were tired and thirsty but full of laughter and contentment. It seems clear part of what TRE can offer is the ability for people with a good heart to have the opportunity to serve others. At six it was time to head back to Soltzil. We still needed to gather the widows again and distribute our cargo.
We had enough pigs for all but 10 and which we bought two weeks later.
It was becoming a long day as we unloded the last of the pigs but there was one more important job to do. Return to visit Maria Pecheco
With a smaller group following we went to visit Maria
Entering into her home we brought a new blanket, skirt, belt and huipile. I did not know how she would respond since she had remained silent on our first visit. Her face took on a childlike smile as the women dressed her and in Ixil she thanked me saying “thank-you, you have cared for me like a Father.” I knew we had done well and there were a lot of happy ladies in the village that night.
Please keep these people in mind during the holiday season. We have made some nice gift certificates. You can donate a pig for $25, start a garden plot for $32, or a coffee nursery for $35. All these projects are for widows or single mothers. Another choice is to donate to our water projects in Nueve Puntos or Las Flores. We will send a nice gift certificate and a blank card with a photo of our work with these people. Each of these gifts changes the world just a little and is tax deductable.
