Here we are in April, 2013, now with 21 members. It has been a while since we updated our group photo and we have had growth and changes in our group. (One of our members was ill and is not in the photo). Caryn has been gathering statistics about us, so we want to share them here too.
Of our 21 members, 16 are mothers and among us we have a total of 45 children. Most of us have one or two, but we have as many as 7 children in our families. Very sadly but typical of Cajola, 13 of us are single mothers. We are single mothers for various reasons...some of us are widows (one of our husbands was killed by the drug gangs when he was trying to cross the border), some of us have been discarded by our husbands or lovers. One of our member's husband has been in the U.S. for more than 15 years. Here in Guatemala we call that a "white widow". Our other "survey" was about education. Nine of our members never had the opportunity to go to school at all. One finished first grade, 3 finished 2nd grade, 5 finished 3rd grade, 1 finished 6th grade and one is studying in college. We are very proud of her. But the rest of us have been studying with Anadelmi, our literacy teacher at work, to be able to learn to read and write and do our math so we can keep track of our business!
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Here we are in April, 2013, now with 21 members. It has been a while since we updated our group photo and we have had growth and changes in our group. (One of our members was ill and is not in the photo). Caryn has been gathering statistics about us, so we want to share them here too.
Of our 21 members, 16 are mothers and among us we have a total of 45 children. Most of us have one or two, but we have as many as 7 children in our families. Very sadly but typical of Cajola, 13 of us are single mothers. We are single mothers for various reasons...some of us are widows (one of our husbands was killed by the drug gangs when he was trying to cross the border), some of us have been discarded by our husbands or lovers. One of our member's husband has been in the U.S. for more than 15 years. Here in Guatemala we call that a "white widow". Our other "survey" was about education. Nine of our members never had the opportunity to go to school at all. One finished first grade, 3 finished 2nd grade, 5 finished 3rd grade, 1 finished 6th grade and one is studying in college. We are very proud of her. But the rest of us have been studying with Anadelmi, our literacy teacher at work, to be able to learn to read and write and do our math so we can keep track of our business!
Thursday, April 11, 2013
MayaMam Weavers New Stripes
We have just designed two new stripe patterns to take advantage of this year's trending colors -- jade, mustard, and coral in one and jade (again) with violet in the other.
Let us know what you think!
Let us know what you think!
Thursday, April 4, 2013
MayaMam Weavers & Ramapo College
We have the help of many hands in New Jersey this month. Professor Doerr's World Cultures class has been volunteering hours working for us. Students have been ironing, sewing on belt buckles, taking inventory, and updating our Etsy store. And guess what, just after Justin B. uploaded our wallets, we sold one! In the photo you can see Trish sewing on buckles and Justin working at the computer. Chjonte to ALL the students working so hard for us.
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