The above is a photo of the Wichi community known as Ebenezer. They live a few miles from the village of Burela, where our training was held this past week. You can see one of their houses, the open pit fire which is used for all of their cooking, and the close proximity of their dogs and cats. On the above right are some drying fibers taken from the chagua plant (below). 
Doña Marta, the wife of the cacique (community leader), plucked and stripped one of the leaves to show us how they extract the fiber. Below she is showing what it looks like before and after braiding.
Donato, the cacique, shows us the way the fiber is colored. The orange color comes from bark that is boiled in the pot below. The black color comes from the seed pod of the guayacán tree.
I now have a lovely purse and decorative box made from this fiber, for which a ridiculously low price was asked. As you can see, there is a lot of labor involved. Perhaps with some micro-enterprise training the Wichi will be able to request a more appropriate price that reflects the time-consuming process!
