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The parable of the coffee shop shows that the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man who goes into a coffee shop and orders an espresso.As the man talks across the counter, the coffee guy makes his coffee ands sets the cup and saucer on the counter between them. But the man doesn't drink it; he keeps talking, so the coffee gets cold, useless. The coffee guy pours it out and pulls another, sets it up. The man still can't stop talking. The next one goes bad too. So the coffee guy throws that one out too, makes another. And this goes on see?You may think you are the coffee guy in the parable, but your not -- you're the espresso. (It's like that in parables.) You're not for you. You're some one else's beverage. And God, the coffee guy, he's going to keep remaking you again and again, as many times as it takes until you are drinkable. God's pulling the shots, and he's got standards.If God changes you, you'd better change.
"I learned this work watching other women who dedicated themselves to this activity in the community of Patzicia and since it the work appealed to me, I decided I wanted to learn. In the beginning it was hard because no one was teaching me and so the only way to learn was to put the needle in the beads and begin with a line that took me almost a week. I was the first in my familiy to learn this work and afterward I taught my sisters, now we all do this work.
"Now we are teaching all of these women. I told them to take advantage o the opportunity to learn because you can make money in this business. We deliver our products to three places in the town of Chimaltenango, and in the festival season they sell very well. The type of embroidery varies depending on the community, each place has its own colors. For example, in some places the colors of red are used a lot and they don't use white, but this changes according to town and traditional dress.
"The 'fajas' we make can be sold at an average price of Q125 ($17); and to the public in the store sthey sell at about Q150 ($20). The materials to do this work are expensive and we buy them in the town of Patcizia which is about a half-hour away.
"I am single , but when I have my children, I'm going to teach them everything because my mother liked to work a lot and she made many things. She didn't know how to do this work, but we learned other things with her such as weaving and embroidery and other types of clothes."
