Indigenous women and Mary's Pence on the journey with us in solidarity

December 8

Today we visited the indigenous town of Cuentepec.  The women there made us a fantastic dinner of sopes (soap-uhs).  The women remove corn kernels from the cob and grind them by hand to make masa.  The masa is then flattened and cooked beans placed in the middle.  The masa is folded, sealed and cooked on a griddle, served with very hot, freshly made salsa, onions, cheese and sour cream.  The sopes were served along with sliced jicama, and freshly squeezed (by hand) orange juice.  After dinner we learned how the women, with the organizational help of Maria Luisa Mejia Lagunas and a grant from Mary´s Pence (www.maryspence.org), they were able to form a cooperative that has a revolving loan fund, with projects to build a bakery, teach composting for small agriculture, and sewing classes.  They are now able to grow food for their families (opposite of the government urging all farmers to grow monoculture for export), sew clothes for sale to visitors (like us!), and have even started to have savings accounts with interest.  The cooperative decides what interest they will charge for the loans and whether a particular person (not a coop member) will get a loan. 

It is remarkable to experience the welcome and hospitality of those for whom the world has been pretty inhospitable.

Candy Krepel

Associate Sinsinawa Domincans