Elisabet Jerez Chamale is finishing up her batch of tortillas for lunchtime. In addition to her weaving business, Elisabet has begun a small tortilla business, renting a stove two blocks from her home. She is full of joy, and so excited to be able to show us how the tortillas are prepared and cooked. Excitedly, she takes a dozen cooked tortillas out of their covered basket and places them back on the stove so we can see exactly how she cooks and turns them to perfection.

With this loan, her second with Friendship Bridge, Elisabet purchased several pounds of thread in bulk, with which she is quite busy filling orders for huipiles (the traditional Mayan blouse), as well as producing extras to sell in the market. The huipiles are very time consuming, taking up to a couple months to produce, and every minute that she is not cooking tortillas, Elisabet is weaving. She invested the rest of her loan in ingredients for the tortillas. She sells five for one quetzal (about .15 USD), and can sell about 150 tortillas a day.

Elisabet laughs energetically and says how much she loves being a part of Friendship Bridge. She is already noticing a difference in her ability to generate income and has been able to save a small amount of money each week. She is optimistic about the future and her ability to provide continued education for her children, as well as improve their living conditions. She says she’s definitely planning on taking out another loan, and hopes that she can someday invest in a store of her own that can double as a tortillería as well as a locale from which to sell her weavings, and possibly as a home for her family.