The week!

This week I've been sick with a cold, but life goes on! I went to Xecaracoj on Tuesday and kept having to blow my nose, so I decided not to go to Llanos on Wednesday and not go to the office on Thursday either, since I don't usually go there anyways on Thursdays. But I got a call from Tita asking where I was and slightly scolding me because I haven't been very present. There's drama going on at the office because of Eunice's repeated absences due to the two workshop trainings she went to in a row and the discontentment of some of the community's with the OMM because of unaccomplished or unfinished things and Eunice's absence and unfulfilled promises about countless things. Everyone has been a little stressed and no one really knows the full story, or at least have been reluctant to let me in on all that's been happening. The atmosphere is not so great as a result, and people are stressed. I'm definitely done there, it was really nice to spend time with Lesli and Elba but I've been pretty disappointed with the work the OMM does, the efficacy, and the disastrous organization and coordination. Xecaracoj has threatened to disassociate themselves from the OMM and find another women's organization to help their community, such as Nuevos Horizontes. The latter organization is a family shelter from domestic violence and women's rights and support system non profit that hosts a large number of foreign volunteers. Folks from the OMM have bashed it a couple times, dismissing it as pretending to help but not actually doing anything and stealing other organizations' funds and activities. When I heard them say stuff like that I was actually pretty shocked because if they claim they are helping women for the pure sake of helping and with the true desire and value to better women's situation, they should be in solidarity with other organizations that strive toward the same goal. The competitive undertones of their comments seemed inappropriate to me and reflected jealousy, especially because Nuevos seems to run well, get a whole lot of funding and donations, and actually have an impact and help families and women victims of abuse. Throughout my time at the OMM I've realized that organization, punctuality, coordination, deadlines, commitment, and communication were lacking within the staff and with the communities, and they really need to work on all that. However it is only 5 years old and a very progressive initiative for Guatemala and Xela to have a women's office funded by the government - and entirely Guatemalan-run, which is both a blessing and a disadvantage; the latter because of the hora chapin (guatemalan time) and slowness customs, and the limited experience in organizational skills; the former because only in a grassroots way can Guatemala actually change and sustainability be fostered.

This week I've been mainly focused on my Entremundos work, which included translating 2 articles from spanish to english and 5 from english to spanish, distributing Entremundos issues to different places and neighborhoods in Xela, interviewing people for an article, and reducing my big article. Distribution has been really fun, I just walk around Xela with alot of Entremundos magazines and go into cafes, hostels, restaurants, bookstores, gringo hang-outs, and ask to leave some copies. People like to engage in conversation which is really cool; I met the French owners of the french restaurant from Montpellier, and they talked to me about "le mal du pays" and expat life in Xela, how they can't find mustard or cheese. I also made an amazing rencontre which I'm really excited about. I was supposed to leave some Entremundos magazines in this cultural center, so I went in and saw they gave painting classes and art on the walls. I asked the two ladies who had done the art and one of them, Guadalupe, said it was her. We got to talking, and she told me she went to art school here in Xela but is one of the only four women in this city that paint professionally and exhibit their art, it's largely a male dominated field in Guatemala. She's traveled abroad in South America to go to workshops and other art-related activities, and teaches here in Xela and in an aldea, to young children, adolescents, and adults. She was really excited to meet a fellow female painter, as was I, and invited me to come with her to the aldea so I'm going Sunday, and she invited me to her studio to make art next week! I'm really excited about this, I've been looking for somewhere to make art and people that make art here, and in the past week have met two. The other one is this street-art artist that paints and spray paints beautiful murals on the walls of Xela streets, he might teach me how to spray paint the week after this one!
Friday night was Kate's benefit party for TRAMA textiles, a women's weaving coop, that I helped her advertise all over town, it was extremely fun. And today I'm going to Pachaj to see my host family from my past trip and Armando.
Life is happy :)