Urs met our volunteer coordinator, Erika, a few years back on a random trip to the middle of nowhere Guatemala. The two became fast friends and Urs and Juan Carlos have since opened their doors to so many of the volunteers at NPH. Their home is adorable – complete with a floor plan open to the elements, hammocks in the hallways, an amazing rooftop, and an ADORABLE dog, Mona. In addition, they only take in friends or friends of friends…and they take a picture of every person who stays in a room and hang it up – so you can see all the people who have come before you! Won’t lie…it was a little creepy…but also really homey to see so many of my own friends adorning their walls. We gabbed for most of the night eating the DELICIOUS homemade dinner Juan Carlos had whipped up (veggies au gratin with soup and bread and rice…seriously. Amazing.) and talking about movies and politics and literally anything we could think of. It was really awesome to hang out and honestly feel like we were just talking with friends…not to mention feeling so safe and welcome in their home – it was an awesome experience to stay with them :).
We went to the lake with a lot of BIG plans for the weekend. Top items on our list? 1. Back strap weaving. 2. Spending a day lying at the pool. 3. Riding caballos (horses) to the nearest volcano and 4. Getting massages in San Marcos…aka THE place for relaxation at the lake.
Saturday morning we asked Urs if he knew a place in the next town over where we could take a back strap weaving class. Back strap weaving is a part of what Guatemala is known for. Women here create nearly all of their clothing (and definitely all their traditional clothing) by hand. The women weave their clothing by attaching their yarn to a tree to anchor themselves and then leaning back in a strap, which wraps around their bodies…hence “back strap weaving.” Urs replied, “My neighbor gives classes – do you REALLY want to go to the next town over?” Well OF COURSE NOT! Instead, he walked us straight over to his neighbor’s house, Manuela, and she agreed to take on Erika and myself as her newest students :). We got right to work taking strings of yarn and forming them into balls (to make our jobs easier for later)…
After that, we began the process of winding it around a few poles that she had on her kitchen table to create the basic shape.
Then we began the REAL process of weaving. Manuela took our yarn, wrapped it around a tree, put about 5 wooden sticks in the middle of it, showed us the process a few times and told us to get to work for ourselves! There were so many steps….it was definitely a little nerve-racking!
We sat in Manuela’s kitchen/backyard (basically an outdoor area behind a part of the house) and talked to her about her life and her family and well…everything. She told us that she has NINE kids and that she is very proud of the education that they receive. We met a few of them as they wandered in and out of the home…but spent the most time with Letizia – her youngest and DEFINITELY most outspoken! Leti really connected with Nicole (who had come to visit us for a while as we weaved) and told us all about her life and even sang us a few songs :).
We spent the entire morning into the afternoon working. Manuela told us that the weaving could take as long as 4 hours…yet there we were on hour 4…and not even halfway done. WHAT? Around 2 pm it started to rain and we had to call it a day. We left Manuela’s house with promises to return the next morning and wandered off to find some delicious food. We had dinner with Urs and Juan Carlos again before passing out for the night.
The next morning we awoke to a DELICIOUS homemade breakfast of eggs and beans and platanos and fresh fruit – what more could you ask for? Erika and I then headed back to Manuela’s for the rest of our class. Three hours and a LOT of money later – we were both staring at our finished projects – our beautiful Fajas (traditional Guatemalan belts worn with traditional traje (dress).) It took us 7 hours to complete (she only told us 4 because she thought we'd want HER to finish it if we got too tired...yea right!) – but overall it was definitely worth it for such an amazing experience with such a wonderful woman :).
I wish that Erika and I could say we knocked everything off our “list of things to do at the lake”…but unfortunately that was the only one we got to…after all…we spent 7 hours making belts! In addition, a fast moving rainy season at the lake impeded a lot of our plans…but we still came out winners AND Erika and I are planning another trip to the lake for next weekend – so horses, pool (hopefully), and massages – here we come!
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