The town of San Antonio Aguas Calientes, about a ten minute car ride or 20--25 minute bus drive from Antigua, is known for having the finest weavers in the country. Their specialty is weaving on both sides of the material at the same times, especially birds and flowers. When were were there, we were in a store of a national known weaver and saw her collection of traditional clothes from many regions of the country. I asked if she had cataloged the information for her family and she said that it was all in her mind. I asked if she would be interested in my coming back in a year to help her do so. She agreed, so I did so! Betsy Teutsch, the author of an amazing book 100 Under $100 who was also on the trip, offered to come along, and we have had an fantastic time together. We completed our task, helped the family catalog over half of their collection and put it together in a 96 page word document, 3/4th filed with photos, for the family to have, came up with a three page introduction in English to their collection to share with visitors, and gave the impetus to her son to continue documenting and learning about the collection.
I arrived on a red eye, January 27, and was picked up by Alvaro Orantes, one of the founders of the Reform synagogue Adat Israel. We dropped off my luggage and went out to lunch with his daughter, Rebecca, age 21, who hopes to become a Rabbi, and helped me get a local cell phone. Red eyes are no fun but I got upgraded to first class and sat next to a new friend, Lisa Jaffe from Seattle who was going to a writer's conference!
I was hosted in the guest room upstairs the small synagogue. I was hosted by the caretakers, Brenda and Shlomo with their son teenage Aldani, their 5 year old daughter Sarah Eliana, and Brenda is pregnant with their son. Around the dinner table we had a wonderful 20+ minute kabbalat Shabbat service and a wonderful meal.
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| Sign of the synagogue |
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| Inside Adat Israel |
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| A small library--I brought 2 Hebrew-Spanish dictionaries |
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| My friend Sarah and her Mom--Sarah and I became good friends |
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| Their siddur, from Costa Rica, in Hebrew, transliteration and Spanish |
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| Shabbat Afternoon walk--Jeannette, the Prsident, is on the left |
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| Saturday night traditional dinner, tamale, with the family |
I was honored to chant haftarah that Shabbat and read one of the aliyot. Rebecca lead services together with Elisha/Eliseo who had leaved for a number of years in the States and learned a lot of Jewish history.
Their rabbi from Toronto, Elyse Goldstein will be coming in February to bring them a Torah that has been donated by a synagogue that had closed. They had one that they thought had been donated but it turned out to be only on a short loan, so were working out of a very small facsimile.
I had a wonderful visit with the family and had time to rest up and get ready for my adventure!
Last year when I was at this synagogue, I wrote another blog about them.
The next morning I got a pre-arranged taxi and was off to Antigua!
We stayed in a small pension in a gated area about 4 blocks south of the main square of Antigua, and across the street from a fancy hotel called Panza Verde--literally meaning Green Tummy--what Atiguans are called because they eat so many (delicious) avocados. Below is the gate we entered to get to our room, one of about 9 our hostess Olga rents from the main company which owns the area.
I checked into a simple, huge, very clean room with two beds. This was my side of the room--bad lighting for decent photo. There was also a nice dresser and a small bathroom. We had fresh purified water delivered daily. Guatemalans are using a special filter system called EcoFiltro, and it is amazing, started by a potter group. Above the shower head were electric wires which heated the water as it came on....tricky but doable. For $20 a day, we had the room, which was cleaned daily except Sunday, and 3 meals a day Monday--Saturday in a group setting where we met some very interesting people.
We woke up to birds chirping outside. The walk to the common area where 20 people could sit around a big table was on a dirt path that was watered down each morning to prevent dust from swirling around. I enjoyed the flowers along the path, including a coffee plant!.
But the most interesting one by far was the woman across the way from us, Deet. Joan Lewis is from Chicago but has lived in Israel and has lived in Antigua, Guatemala for 24 years. When I went to my room, I noted the door on the other side had a Shalom sign by it. After I went inside, I heard a "hello" from inside, so I went over and knocked. Inside was a picture of a Chagall window.
Within 5 minutes, Deet--short for Yehudit--found out that I was born in Chicago, lived in Israel and like her had a daughter born there--and also spoke the same three languages she did. Deet is 8 years older than me, a liberal with a bent for tikkun olam, and was a fantastic neighbor. She came to Guatemala 24 years ago to learn Spanish, and fell in love with the country, so moved here. It is much easier for an ex-pact to live on social security here than in the US, and that is the case with her. She is also able to find good medical and dental care and many Americans come here for good, cheap dental care.
Betsy arrived two nights after I did. Here is a picture of us with Deet on the right.
Deet has been super-adventurous and is super-lefty. She lived in Israel and her daughter lives in Sderot while a son lives in Madison, Wisconson with Deet's two grandchildren and is very active in the Reconstructionist synagogue there. She has lived in Eselen and is colorful and caring. Her latest profession is that of a very popular, local massage therapist. She was taking a bit of a time off as she had cracked ribs from tripping into a car and wanted to get well immediately!
Betsy arrived two nights after I did. Here is a picture of us with Deet on the right.
She introduced us to many places and several great NGOs. The places included an beautiful organic nursery called Vivero Escalonia on what used to be a big cattle ranch. The place also has a lovely cafe where we sat several times, used the internet (ours at Olga's was iffy at times) and had delicious fruit drinks. Another beautiful place was an organic farm about a half a mile away called Caoba, which has local vendors and food for sale on Saturday. She also introduced us to an ex-pat women's dinner on Sunday nights where up to 25 attend, and we also found out from here that over 250 participated in the Womxn's march in Antigua in support of those rallying in the US!
Her favorite local NGO is one called WINGS--Alas in Spanish--which was started by a former Foreign Service officer Sue Patterson to reach out to rural woman to help with reproductive choices and cancer screening and it has grown into a huge program helping thousands of women. Please click on the word WINGS above to read more about it. Deet had a collection of small Guatemalan products--scarves and purses--and for any donation of $6 or more, gave one to the donor. Betsy and I both donated and through Deet, met Sue and went to the main office in Antigua. We both will send in donations at home through the US website. Women that speak the Mayan languages to out in vans to small communities to explain about birth control, tubal ligations and vasectomies (both of which cost under $50) as well as Jadelle implants, a form of LARC. Men also are employed to talk to the men in families as most women would not participate in such a program without their husband's knowledge and approval. She also introduced me to Vicky, a woman from the US who four years ago started her own NGO to help children in a rural town here, and I visited and saw the huge impact her group is making.
There is much more I could say about Deet. Betsy and I will truly miss her and hope we will see her again -- she is one of a kind.
1 comment:
Finally got to read the blog and enjoyed it!
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