El fin de semana y Xecaracoj

We went to Antigua this weekend and had a wonderful time. Antigua is clean, the streets are cobbled, there is little air pollution, it is hot, there are flowers and colors and ruins and it's beautiful. It is also muy caro, gringofied, and just not Guatemala. 90% of the businesses in Antigua are owned by foreigners, there are more gringos than guatemalans in the streets, you can eat bagels, crepes, korean food, and have a wheatgrass smoothie. We definitely took advantage of the endless food options, namely at the Bagel Barn. We only saw 2 guatemalans in the Bagel Barn - the people working there. Antigua is definitely a weird place for how gringo it is and it parties hard on the weekends as many Guatemala City kids come in. It was nice to get back to Xela and appreciate its authenticity, even though the air pollution is ridiculously high.

Today I went to Xecaracoj with Lesli and Elba, and learned about some Oficina drama. Monday afternoon,  the 24 communities were supposed to come together to elect the leader of the Municipal Committee for Women. In the past, candidates would bring as many people as possible to the election to have the most votes and get elected. However, this year it was decided that only 5 women from each community would be allowed to vote. Unfortunately the ladies were not told this, so many came and ended up having to pay Q5 but not be allowed to vote. What is more, food ran out so some ladies didn't vote AND didn't get free food. The lady that won for many years was Dona Elvira from Llanos de la Cruz, but this year she came only second to some other lady. This complicated things and she got angry. Eunice, who is the head of the organization and care for the groups, wasn't there because she's in a one-week training somewhere, and alot of ladies including Dona Viki (Xecaracoj's leader) who complained to us today that Eunice keeps promising that she'll come visit and that she'll do the paperwork to officialize the junta directiva, but still hasn't done it. Since I got here, Eunice hasn't been to Xecaracoj with us on Tuesdays, even though she keeps saying she will come. Tita got really mad yesterday too because only 8 out of the 24 communities showed up probably because most thought they weren't going to be given food, it was chaos because most ladies didn't get to vote, some people didn't get food while others did, Eunice - in charge of this all - wasn't there, and they left the room in complete disorder so the cultural center told them they couldn't hold a meeting there ever again. This has created a little drama in the office, the interns are scared this will all fall back on them and that the communities will get mad at them for it, and some communities and interns are upset at Eunice because they feel like she's not doing her job well or too busy all the time. A little more than a third of the Xecaracoj group didn't show up today because they were mad.

During my time here so far, I definitely have noticed that the OMM is pretty disorganized and has many plans but doesn't really complete them. I'm not convinced that their work is very effective either, as many women don't show up or only do so when they are told they'll be given something for free. I don't know if the women have truly adopted the cause of developing women's rights, women's leadership, women's place in society, and improving their psychological and health conditions - or if women have just joined the group for the free workshops, food, and courses the OMM provides, which is great and helpful in the short term but doesn't actually change anything at the root of the problem. Today I took attendance in Xecaracoj, so I passed around a paper for the women to fill out their name, ID and phone numbers, and signatures. Out of 36 women present, 12 were illiterate and 3 had just learned to write. I just feel like before teaching them how to crochet or sew baskets (today's workshop), the OMM should have a literacy program...