Tuk-Tuks, Coches, and Chicken Buses-- oh my!

Visiting the Just Apparel women this week has been an extremely rewarding and fun experience! Dolores and I traveled to neighborhoods on the outskirts of Santiago to visit each of the women one-by-one in their homes. We were able to check in with each woman individually to make sure that she understood the Just Apparel project, and also see if she had any questions or concerns. I also had the chance to speak with each woman and learn a bit more about her family and her background, as well as check out some of the other embroidery and beadwork that she was working on at home. It was a good way to help build a personal relationship with each woman, and gave me an opportunity to appreciate her unique artistic skills! 

Petronila and her daughter, and an example of her work

Concepcion can multi-task as a momma

Sharing a laugh with Micaela


Some of Carmen's beaded bracelet designs

As I was traveling around Santiago and the surrounding communities this week, I decided that you all might like to know how I’ve been getting around in Santiago. The heart of Santiago is pretty bustling during the day, and pedestrians have to watch out for the three wheeled tuk-tuk taxis that zip through the narrow cobblestone streets. Tuk-tuks cost about $0.50 per ride and take you anywhere around Santiago. The communities nearby Santiago are usually accessed by pickup trucks with built-in handrails in the truck bed. To board, you climb into the back of the truck— standing room only! When you are ready to get off the truck, the proper way to notify the driver is slamming your hand on the truck cab or the side of the truck as hard as you can, until the driver hears you. These are cheaper (about $0.15-$0.25 per ride) and take you much farther than a tuk-tuk.

The coches, with passengers in the truck bed

“Chicken buses” (as the gringos call them) are available for longer trips. So far, most of the chicken buses I’ve seen that start in Santiago are headed towards Guatemala City. Chicken buses are often old American school buses. The school buses are auctioned off and driven down to Guatemala after they have been deemed that they are too old or have too many miles for American use. Chicken buses are usually brightly painted, but behind their playful exterior there lies a bloody secret. Being a bus driver in Guatemala City is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, with over 900 bus driver fatalities in the past decade due to a sharp rise in gang violence. I have had really positive experiences riding chicken buses through my travels in Nicaragua. For obvious reasons I have chosen to avoid them here in Guatemala, even though Santiago is a quaint indigenous town and is nearly a four hour drive away from the capital city, where most of the violence has been occuring. However, the stories about the bus dangers are a constant reminder that even though Guatemala’s brutal civil war has been over for more than 15 years, civilians in Guatemala still have to be wary of the potential of violence on their way to work or their way home to their families.

All warnings about Guatemala City aside, Santiago is a spectacularly beautiful town with some of the most amicable people I have ever met. I hope you enjoy this video I made that highlights a day in my life traveling around Santiago!

 

Me llamo "Tany"

Small-scale microenterprise projects have emerged as one of the most promising development models in recent decades. Research has shown that microenterprises have contributed to livelihood enhancement in thousands of poor communities around the world. However, success stories take time. I’m only going to be in Santiago for two months, so I was really excited to get going on our project as soon as I arrived!

Dolores translating from Spanish to Tz’utijil in Monday's meeting

We spent the first five days that I was here in Santiago trying to figure out logistics about fabric and finances. Anyone who has studied development or worked on a project knows that every project comes with its fair share of unexpected hurdles and challenges! Buying fabric seems like an easy task at first, but actually there are a lot of questions to be answered. Should the women weave the base fabric by hand, or should we purchase local fabric to work with? What styles and colors of fabric are available for purchase in Santiago, and where can we find fabric that is high quality, affordable, and in the colors that we desire? How much fabric does each women need for each product? What is a fair living wage for the labor needed to complete each piece? These questions were some of the things that we thought of after we had already decided which products were making, which colors and designs we wanted, and how we were allocating funding to make the products.

An added challenge is that the majority of the women speak the indigenous Tz’utijil language and only limited Spanish, so I can’t speak with them without a translator. I wouldn’t be able to do anything without Dolores, the Natik’s General Manager in Guatemala, who is fluent in both Spanish and Tz’utijil! Since my name is challenging for many of the women to say, I have started introducing myself as "Tany" to most of the people that I meet in Santiago.

After finally working through all the kinks, we set out to purchase fabric from a local shop for the base materials for our products. We decided to give each woman the option of embroidering either a set of four placemats or a bag with an embroidered flap. Each woman has the option to decide on her fabric color and product based on personal preference as well as the yarn that she already has at home, which she will be using for the embroidery. We decided on a deadline for the projects at two weeks.

Candelaria cutting the fabric

Picking out fabric colors with Anna

This morning the women came over to the meeting place at Dona Chonita’s (my neighbor here in Santiago), and we explained the products and design styles that we had decided for the first round of projects. At the end of the meeting, we distributed the fabric! 19 women came for the meeting. I can’t wait to see what the women come up with for the finished products in a couple of weeks!

My first fabric purchase