The first trip was to Utzil Muñeca workshop (muñeca is a Spanish word for doll). The dolls are all made of recycled material to represent the traditional dress of people from different regions of Guatemala. The picture below is of the entire workshop. There were shelves with finished dolls for sale to the left, but this is their whole work space.
The picture below is the first stage. The base of the body is an old glass bottle, around which they mold the body and clothes from recycled cotton. The woman here was using cotton and some kind of paste from the metal pan to form strips out of which they would make headresses or other accessories.
The woman below is painting the skin color onto the head, hands, and feet.
Here are some dolls in the middle of the process, drying. They still need accessories like headresses or bags, and some of the women will get a baby strapped to their back.
The man here paints the details on the dolls' clothes. Some of the patterns are really intricate, and it was neat to watch him paint so carefully and delicately.
They had sample pictures of dress from many of the regions that he used as a reference when painting the dolls. There are some 120 unique patterns and styles represented in Guatemala, but they have picked out the most famous and most beautiful (though how they make such a subjective determination, I don't know) to make into dolls.
Here are three dolls from Quetzaltenango, the area I'm living in, wearing their day-to-day dress. Utzil also makes dolls wearing ceremonial or ritual dress. I see women wearing clothes like this everday all over the city.
Our second trip was to Trama Textiles (go to http://www.xelapages.com/asotrama for pictures and more information if you're interested). They are a group of about 400 indigenous women, and a few men, who weave textiles on a traditional backstrap loom. They were all affected by the 36-year civil war in Guatemala, either having lost a family member or been displaced from their homes. When we were there, they showed us the entire process, from processing the thread, to weaving on the loom. They also offer weaving classes, which I'm thinking about taking while I am here. If you go on the website and see something you particularly like, I can try to find it and bring it home with me. I think they're a great organization to support.
This is a picture of Secia (SAY-see-ah), the four-year-old at my house. My hosparents are her mom's parents. Right now, there are four generations in my house. My hostparents' son, daughter, and daughter's family have always been in the house, but this week, my hostdad's parents moved in with us. They must be in their 80's or 90's, and she at least, is expected to die in the relatively near future. People have been in and out of the house to see them, and because they're unable to leave the house, people from their church came to the house on Saturday and were singing and praying together in the courtyard. It is really beautiful to see communal living in the family and to see the church community be so supportive.
Every week I've been at the school, a group of students and teachers have gone to an enclosed soccer (sorry, futbol) field to play for about an hour and a half. It's about the size of an indoor soccer field, and it's fun to play up against the fence. We have a wide range of abilities, but it's always a good time.
This sign is posted outside the entrance to the field. It reads: "Pee happy, pee content, but please don't pee inside." I think it's pretty great.Things are otherwise pretty much the same with me. My family bought a new water heater for the shower last week, and it felt so good to take a hot shower for the first time in weeks. The shower is heated in a way I have never seen before, but is apparently fairly common around Latin America, and perhaps in other parts of the world as well. People here don't have hot water heaters like we're used to in the States. The only hot water is found in the shower, heated electrically just before it comes out of the faucet. It is a little unsettling to have a fuse box in the shower leading to the showerhead, and the old heater used to spark when it turned on. The new one is much better, and I'm not afraid of getting electrocuted when I use it, which is always a good feeling.
My last week of classes was a little frustrating for me. I've heard the third week of class is difficult because you've learned enough Spanish to begin feeling comfortable, but haven't learned enough to be fully able to express yourself. I definitely felt that. I also learned three new verb tenses, one of which does not exist in English, and a lot of new vocabulary, all of which was great, but I was feeling pretty overwhelmed by the end. I'm hoping to better integrate that information this week.
Yesterday I went to mass at the big Catholic church in the central park. It was great and really interesting because the Catholic mass is similar enough to what I'm used to in an Episcopal service that I could follow along for the most part, but because it was in Spanish, I also felt lost at times. I could understand a lot of the homily, which was pretty exciting and very encouraging. I think I'll go back, and I may see about getting a prayer book in Spanish so I can at least follow along with the Creed and some of the prayers.
I hope you all are well. I think of you often.
No comments:
Post a Comment