An example of two women who have contributed to, and been supported by, La Tienda.

Elisanna is a woman who lays in the stench of her filth for days before she decides to do something about it.  And I wonder if her she coming into the art co-op everyday demanding beads, is no reflection of her work ethic but rather her desire to grasp onto hope.  Piles and piles of urine soaked laundry, in a dirty shack of a house just get dirty again,  and despair is crippling no matter what the source of it.

But stringing some pretty glass beads together is manageable, and Elisanna always makes sure she has enough work to keep her busy, whether I have money to pay her or not.

Ingris on the other hand, is not merely grasping for hope, but dragging it with her wherever she goes.  (and I’m learning from her)  Sitting in front of her Tin Shacky-thing we sit and crochet necklaces and chit chat about her life, and she tells me how she just kicked her husband out for beating her about a week ago, (oh it makes me so amazed by her strength) and how she had to send her kids off to school with no food (she asked for 3 dollars, which I didn’t even HAVE at that exact moment).  It makes me pray.  Because I don’t really know what else to do.    She amazes me with her bright smiles and the funny intonations of her voice.   She talks so fast, an almost incomprehensible Spanish Merenge rolling off her tongue, and if she didn’t stop every 4 words and say “you see?”  I would have no hope of ever catching up with her.

I think that perhaps the sky is actually falling, and amongst these falling chunks of sky there are people, content to just live, who don’t spend too many hours shaking their fists at God and asking why.  

Ooooh I like Ingris, the way she is these days.  I want to be like her.  So I am selfishly coming up with new projects I need to teach her, so I can sit in her house and learn from her nature, and be around her love.