ANADESA Update

Visiting Santiago Atitlan and partnering with the work of ANADESA is something that many of you have done. Many hours have been spent interacting with the children's program, hearing about the history of the armed conflict, Hurricane Stan, and ANADESA's programs, planting trees, cleaning the community school (thinking, when oh when will they actually be able to use the school?!??!), listening to ANADESA's dream of buying their own land and building a community center. Yes, all of these have been things many of you have supported and participated in, with much energy and hope that all of ANADESA's goals can one day be met.

Well, guess what?? Some of these goals seem to be just a bit closer than they were before. It has finally been approved for the community of Panabaj to move back into the old school building, and out of the temporary one that they have been using since 2005. (Those hours you spent repairing the roof, painting the walls, and cleaning out mud actually were worth something!) And what's even more exciting is that ANADESA is now the proud new owner of their own land, right next to the Peace Park in Panabaj!

Thank you to Aaron McGarvey who is working with ANADESA through MCC's SALT program, for the following (and thank you to Roxanne Reimer for the photos):

The passing of the holiday months was a busy but rewarding time for ANADESA. In November, we were fortunate enough to host a candle-making workshop for the women of the village of Panabaj. Tobias Roberts and Yasmin Mendez, fellow MCC Guatemala workers in the town of Nebaj, demonstrated how to melt wax, add color and fragrance, and pour the liquid into molds to dry. Currently, we are working on perfecting the process with the idea of adding candles to the list of artisan, hand-made products that we already make and sell to many of the groups from North America that come to visit us.

The biggest piece of news, however, is our recent acquisition of land. In December, with the help of the Flaman Foundation, ANADESA was able to purchase a plot of land directly next to the Peace Park right here in Panabaj. This is a dream come true for us, as we have been running our entire organization out of a tiny little house office for over 5 years now. What right now is just a bunch of coffee trees will hopefully soon become the new Educational Center and Office of ANADESA. The idea right now is to have our own classrooms where we can support our own educational programs as well as a small meeting/convention center to host groups of visitors. The purchase was the culmination of years of work and planning on behalf of both Juan Ramirez and other leaders of ANADESA, the Flaman Foundation, Irma and Antony Sanchez-Solano (Directors of MCC programs in Guatemala and El Salvador), as well as countless other volunteers that have come and gone in past years. It is an understatement to say that we are excited, and we want to take this opportunity to thank those of you who have helped us get this far as well as ask for your continued support as we begin the planning and construction process.

In short, thanks to our wonderful supporters, ANADESA continues to grow. All of us here hope that you have had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season. As for us, we are constantly reminded of all that we have to be thankful for as we look towards the future with eager expectation.