The Meeting

When we arrived back the main plaza of Zapotitlan a number of women (including the lady we had lunch with) were waiting outside the town centre. After about half an hour of running around to find who had the key to the meeting room, we were hustled into a small dirty room that looked a little like a neglected storage area. However, within minutes chairs of all shapes and sizes were brought in,from nearby houses, a table was set up with Coffee and the meeting started.

I have to admit there were bits that I didn’t understand; however I think I was able to comprehend the main parts. It was interesting to watch the body language of the different women, and to see how Marco and Paula dealt with the different personalities while they tried to encourage and move the women on to the task of taking on the responsibility of the group for themselves.

In the following month, there will be two more meetings of this group and I hope to be able to attend these as well. There are so many interesting factors involved, including the views of CAMPO, those of Marco and Paula, the different women in the groups, the issues for the women in relation to running a small business, their responsibilities to family, community and the church etc.

I hope I can use this as a case study to look at development and empowerment for women in rural areas of Mexico.