If I had more money -- I would buy "soap to wash clothes"

 March 15, 2021

Today I washed clothes, and as I liberally used soap to clean the collars of the shirts, and other dirty items, before putting them into the washing machine, I thought of the woman in the village who answered the question, "what would be the first thing you would buy if you had more money?"

She answered, "more corn, to eat, and soap to wash clothes."

It seems such a little thing, to liberally sprinkle some granulated soap, which is very inexpensive, on the more dirty parts of my clothes -- to get them sparkly clean.  I thought of the mother who does not have the soap to clean her clothes, or enough corn to be sure her family will not be hungry.

Here is the picture of the family by a small building outside their house.  Notice the nice dresses on the women -- that is the clothing of the Kekchi women.  It might be the only clothes they own, but they always look lovely -- wherever they might be.

And here is a picture inside their home:

Notice the orderliness of the home, with some decorative windows.   Then notice the fire pit, in the middle of the room, without a chimney to carry the smoke outside.   The floor is a dirt floor.  This family is also growing cardamon, and we hope to help them with a project that will buy a cardamon dryer for their village, and possibly help them find a market to sell their cardamon direct to the buyers -- rather than go through several middlemen, which leaves them with little profit.

They are part of a group of 200 families that are trying to buy some land from a landowner that used to have cattle on the land.  It takes everything they can earn to make the payments on the land, but they are looking to the future -- for their grandchildren.  They have hope!

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Please go to welcomehand.org to participate in our Family to Family Corn Project.  $25 will buy a 100 lb. bag of fertilizer for a family -- to help them increase their production.  They are part of a program that will also help them become sustainable families.