by Andy Lambert, Peace Coffee Outreach and Donations Coordinator

Saludos compañeros. This is the first piece in a series of trip reports from Peace Coffee’s May visit to Guatemala. We couldn’t have made this trip without the amazing support of our friends and families who made extremely generous financial donations to Habitat for Humanity. Keep your eye on the next few newsletters for in-depth reports from Beth, Ryan and Scott following this introduction to our trip.

Hurricane Stan was the third major natural disaster in less than a year that directly impacted Peace Coffee and our producer partners. Following Hurricane Katrina and the Tsunami of December 26, 2004, we felt that it was time to put our support into action. What we decided to do was an easy decision; we signed on with the Habitat for Humanity office in Xela, Guatemala, and headed south to work on two houses near the city of San Marcos.

According to Habitat, over 1.6 million homes are needed in Guatemala. Many of those in need of decent housing currently live in adobe huts, or in a crowded rented room. This need for quality, affordable housing dramatically increased after Hurricane Stan swept through the country triggering massive mudslides and flooding.

This trip was intentionally not "the usual" Peace Coffee farmer visit because the current situation in Guatemala is definitely not "the usual." In early October 2005, Hurricane Stan devastated portions of Guatemala causing mudslides that killed an estimated 2,000 people and up to 3,000 are still missing. In news coverage following the mudslides, rescue workers commented that the official death toll might never be known due to the extensive decomposition of bodies in the mud.

We were assigned to two work sites near the city of San Marcos. After four days of hard work laying concrete blocks, tying rebar, and hauling materials around the worksites, we had an emotional goodbye ceremony with the masons and the families who will soon move into their new homes. It was something that we will never forget, working along side people who have experienced so much tragedy, yet faced every day with beautiful smiles on their faces and made us feel so welcome. From San Marcos, we headed to the Santa Anita de la Union community in Colomba, Guatemala, to visit our producer partners there.

Santa Anita de la Union is an autonomous community that was established in 1998 by a group of ex-combatants and their families. The community is currently home to 32 displaced families and over 180 individuals, most of whom spent many years in refugee camps in Chiapas, Mexico or fighting Guatemalan Army forces in the mountains of western Guatemala. The coffee farmers of Santa Anita lost nearly 70% of their coffee crop as a result of the heavy rains leading up to and during Hurricane Stan. Since the establishment of their community 8 years ago, they have tried various projects to supplement their income from coffee production. The latest attempt is the creation of an Environmental Tourism program. We wanted to support this project on our trip so we stayed in their newly furnished dormitories (a former hacienda), we took hikes along the jungle trails to breathtaking vistas, and ate meals with host families instead of in a separate dining hall. We heard stories of the community’s current challenges, and successes, and saw pictures documenting their history that said more than any monologue ever could. Santa Anita de la Union is truly an incredible community of intelligent, committed, conscious people whose need for assistance in the wake of Hurricane Stan is substantial. We are currently talking about more ways to help them, and will inform you when your opportunity to help materializes.

The last stop of our whirlwind tour was a quick visit to a worker owned weaving cooperative in Xela called "TRAMA." According to the coop’s website, "TRAMA is a collective of 350 backstrap loom weavers, 98% women, from five ethnic groups: Mam, Ixil, Cackchiquel, Tzutuhil, and Quiche." They take their craft very seriously and put their heart and soul into every piece of material that they produce. Before we left, we did a little shopping; evidently we gave them their biggest day of sales to date.

In closing, I have to say that this trip will stand out in my memory as one of my favorite life experiences, ever. There is something special about traveling abroad that touches you in a way like nothing else. But, when one has opportunities to travel abroad and be of genuine help to people in need (in ways other than financial), you not only feel your world philosophy expanding, you truly feel like a positive force in the world.

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