A few ladies from Mary's Pence invited me to join their Central American conference in La Palma this weekend. I accompanied women from Suchitoto who have created small businesses with their Mary's Pence loans. The format of the conference was familiar but the women, their stories and relationships were unique and inspiring.
 |
| Lilian (Mexican), Gilda (Mexican), and Eva (Salvadoran) organized a thoughtful, productive, and inspiring weekend. |
La Palma was a fitting location for the conference. It is a small town of vibrant creativity and hope. Fernando Llort is the most well-known artist in El Salvador. In the 1970's he moved to La Palma, Chalatenango.
Life was/is "simple" in this mountain village. When he arrived people
mainly worked in the fields. Llort opened a workshop called El Arbol de
Dios (God's Tree). Since that time, this little town has been creating art in
Llort's unique style and they are able to produce income for their
community.
 |
| The walls, electricity polls, doors, everything in this town are covered with Fernando Llort style paintings. |
 |
| Much like the retreat setting, we participated in community building activities. | | |
 |
| We role-played problems that arise in the small businesses and how to respond creatively. These small businesses range from selling milk from a cow to hand-made candles. |
 |
| Margarita (Right) is Suchitoto's Psychologist. She organized the community building exercises and helped us articulate take-aways. |
 |
| We worked in small groups to discuss best-practices, needs, and solutions. |
 |
| They shared life stories along with technicalities about their small businesses. |
|
|
I felt honored to be in the presence of these incredibly strong women this weekend. I'm thankful for the relationships we nurtured and the new relationships we formed.
No comments:
Post a Comment