Day 9

This morning we started our day with a delicious breakfast consisting of oatmeal, beans, bananas, and bread. After breakfast was cleaned up, we made our way to the work site. Today, however, the groups switched the types of houses they have been working on. When we arrived at the work site, we were told to dig a trench a meter deep. Using pickaxes, shovels, and machetes, we dug trenches for over two hours. Towards the end of the work day, one of the workers dug up the trench even more. He made it look so easy and we learned that a single person will make only 40 Quetzals to dig up a 1 meter deep trench that is 30 feet long. When it was time to leave, we made sure to say goodbye to all the children and to thank the workers for their help.

After lunch, we set out for the women’s center with the Marywood group. When we arrived we rotated through a series of four activities. The first activity we were a part of was tortilla making. We have been looking forward to this all trip so we were very excited this was the first activity we were doing. During this, we learned how to grind up corn with stones, how to pat up the dough to make the tortilla shape, and how to cook the tortillas. To cook the tortillas, the women used a lime coating pan to ensure they didn’t stick to it. 

The next activity we were a part of was wood carrying. During this we saw how the men tie up many pieces of wood with string. When it came time to try to carry the wood, we were surprised with how light the wood actually was. The hardest part was honestly standing up with the weight of the wood on your head.

After the wood carrying, we learned how to wash our clothes in a pila, a water complex with multiple scrubbing stations for washing clothes. The roof of the pila was bent inwards so the rain water would enter the pila. After we rinsed, washed, and rung out the clothing, we put the clothes in a bucket and made our way down the stairs to attempt to balance all these clothes on our heads. 

Using an apron rolled up into a spiral, we balanced the bucket on our heads. This was much harder than expected and it was interesting to learn that a women can balance up to 75 pounds on their heads.

After completing all of the activities we made our way back to the hotel where we cleaned up before making our way to dinner. After dinner was completed, Northrup and Rust took us to a hotel restaurant complex to have dessert. Most of us got brownies and ice cream, but others got cheesecakes, and flan. After consuming the desserts, we made our way back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep for tomorrow. We are all looking forward to what is in store for tomorrow.

-Becky