Day 9

Today started with breakfast at the Mission: eggs, bread rolls with peanut butter and jelly, oatmeal, and bananas.  Shortly after eating, we boarded a cargo van that took us to the work site.  Needless to say, it was a tight squeeze (i.e., we got really close on the ride).   Once at the worksite, we played with the children before receiving instructions for our duties.  Today we had to dig up sand and transport it across a suspension bridge and up a steep hill into a backyard.  The soil could be used for various different applications, such as mixing cement.  We accomplished this using 20 gallon buckets and a small wheel barrow.  It took effort from everybody, but we managed to move a lot of soil.  We worked for about three hours, and everybody was grateful to take a lunch break back at the Mission.  Lunch was very good today: pasta with alfredo sauce and beef cutlets.

After lunch we listened to a quick presentation about Guatemala given by Heather, one of our long term volunteers.  After the presentation we headed to the Women’s Center.  Our first lesson was to make tortillas, which is much harder than it seems.  The women are responsible for all the cooking, which includes having dry firewood and feeding her family before they leave in the morning.

We also learned to wash clothes by hand in a pila.

We then struggled to carry a small basket on our heads, which is an extremely common method Guatemalan women use to carry heavy objects, such as corn masa (corn flour used for tortillas) or laundry.  Finally, we learned how the men gather and carry firewood.  It is common for some men to carry up to 200 pounds of firewood on their back for two to three hours.

We returned to the Mission for dinner, which consisted of green beans and beef, with squash soup, and bread rolls.  After dinner we return to the hotel where Dr. Northrup organized a small concert given by a mariachi band.  The music was good and we had a great time.  We are looking forward to the boat ride across the Lake and to zip line tomorrow!

-Wil, David, & Becca