San Juan Cotzal Favorites

Favorite thing: Ixil women waiting to see AGROS Medical Team that comes to the area every year from the Seattle area. The women do not speak Spanish so usually a husband has to interpret for the women and the doctors which often creates embarrassment for the women who are very shy.

Favorite thing: You will see women and children working with long strands of material right in the streets. They take the fibers from the maguey plant and fashion them into a rope-like material when they dye first and then weave into such things as hammocks. I was given a beautiful hammock by one of the families who now live in Belen just up the mountain from SJC.

Favorite thing: Remember that Ixil is the language of the local people. Most men speak Spanish as a second language as do most of the children. Very few women speak Spanish so don't feel ignored if they don't respond to you if you are so fortunate to Habla Espanol.

Favorite thing: The children are so beautiful. It is amazing how clean they always are considering that most live in homes with dirt floors and clothes are washed by hand in a pila or sometimes in a stream.

Favorite thing: These Ixil women are enjoying a nice juicy piece of gossip or perhaps they are admiring some young man....perhaps even one of the crazy "Gringos!"

Favorite thing: Many of the Ixil women are excellent weavers. Their textile products, all made by hand, are extremely beautiful.

Favorite thing: The Ixil women are being most patient. Many of them have walked for miles to see the AGROS Medical Team.