Day 8

Today our class piled into a van and went to a village just outside of town. When we arrived we split into two groups. Each group went to a different home to construct an oven for the owners of the house. We began constructing the oven by mixing dirt and cement to place in between the cinder blocks for the oven's base. It took a lot of patience to make sure that the blocks were level and in place.  Some of the students used a machete to cut the cinder blocks to the correct size. Since it is the rainy season, it began to pour while we were working, which made us unable to finish building the oven. Everything was done by hand, and it was an eye opening experience to see and participate in all the steps to create the stove.

The trip back to the mission was one we will never forget. We all crammed in the back of a covered pickup truck. The combination of the pouring rain, the hot air temperature and the inability to see where we were going made us all very anxious of when we would hit the next speed bump.

Once we got back to the mission, we all explored the different stores within the town. The stores had many different colorful bags and scarves that everyone enjoyed. One of the store owners who knew professor Northrup from previous years invited us back to show us her home. Her family was very inviting and grateful that we went to her store. Her father took out his marimba and played a couple of songs for us. Being invited into her home was a great experience of the real Guatemalan culture.

-Rhiana and Haley