A BERRY BE-A-U-TIFUL CHIMALTENANGO

Last week, we were invited to be part of the annual contribution the company Total Fresh does in Chimaltenango, Guatemala.

They usually attend to eight villages, bring along food and educational material to help improve these people’s conditions. These villages are characterized for being isolated from “civilization” and most of the people who live there lack opportunities. They live near plantations –corn, coffee and blackberries- which they personally take care of (awesome or what?). Needless to say, the place is beau-ti-ful. We were thrilled when they invited SHEVA to be part of this year’s activity, they ask us to talk about the menstrual cycle and hygiene. Of course we love love love those topics and are in the business of spreading the vagina power, and so we did.

We attended eight villages in two days. The first day we went to Agua Caliente, Quisaya, Panimacac and Chuatacaj and on the second day we went to Paneya, Chuiquisaya, Paruxeche, Saquitacaj and Pacul. We got to spend both days surrounded by approximately 150 beautiful gals, that not only were very sweet and lively, but also were eager to learn. When we got to the first village, we saw from afar a group of girls, dressed in their colorful traditional costumes, laughing with each other and telling jokes… when we approached them, they would giggle with every question we asked. We caught the humor and were happy instantly. And so, with every encounter, we couldn’t help but feel at home with these girls.

Our chats took place in the village schools, which were in poor conditions and sometimes we even had to place the material on the floor because they had no desks.  Most of the girls we addressed were around 11-21 years old, and some of them stopped attending school when they were 10-14 years. Their education was so low that we doubted their knowledge on some terms, basic terms like “ovaries”. We had a GIANT drawing of a Vagina in which we signaled the parts and explained the process of the menstrual cycle. Of course they experience the period themselves the every month, but we were trying to “wow” them about the process, we girls go through and repeated constantly how much we loved being WOMEN. We also tried to stress the importance about knowing our body and taking care of it. Finally, we explained how menstruation is ‘oh so natural’, and that No! There is no need to abandon regular activities because you’re bleeding (sorry, had to say it)… of course, there was no elephant in the room from the moment we walked in there with a GIANT VJJ.

We then handed them their SHEVA bags, with pads and a little explanation of how to put them on… along with hugs, we couldn’t help it. We encountered a rough reality, we encounter poverty, we encountered lack of education… but we also encounter inner strength, genuine smiles, a willingness to learn and women power: all in small villages that most people don’t know about. And that’s what we are about, finding women to empower and giving them the opportunity to empower too. We ended each chat saying: “SMILE, YOU’RE A WOMAN!” We secretly think they already knew.