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Pull tabs benefit Guatemala residents

I am writing this to you from the Pokomchi village of Nisnic in San Crisobal, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala

Editor, The Times:

I am writing this to you from the Pokomchi village of Nisnic in San Crisobal, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

I am writing this to let you know how happy and proud I am of the folks of Clearwater. Folks, your generously donated pull tabs have arrived here and, as I write, are being turned into elegant crocheted shoulder bags by women in the mountain villages. I plan to bring some of these bags back with me when we return to Clearwater at the end of October.

We have all heard the saying, “One person’s garbage is another person’s treasure.”

This statement usually comes to mind as we’re rooting through cast-off stuff at a garage sale, rummage sale, or the local thrift store. It signifies a time-honored cultural tradition of ours to keep our stuff in circulation amongst us. Oh, the excitement of the “hunt” and of finding that “prized” treasure!

Now, your pull tabs have veered off and out of our comfortable circulation cycle. They have landed in a strange land endowed with breath-taking natural beauty but, unfortunately, a land whose people are struggling to put food on the table each day. The bags that the ladies make from your donated pull tabs will help to put food in hungry stomachs.

Thank you very much most sincerely.

Linda Brierly

 

Nisnic, Guatemala