Liz and I were finally able to get out together and go and visit another volunteer who lives pretty far away from us. After 6 hours in two buses and sitting in a mountain pass for a good hour while needing restrooms very badly, we finally arrived and met Sidney. We walked through the busy streets of his town and finally made it to his house. We relaxed there for a while and enjoyed his rooftop garden. It wasn't long though until he had us running around doing all sorts of fun things. Our first night he took us to a friend's house where we had some of the best pizza I have ever had and watched a movie.
The next morning we got up and after peanut butter and banana sandwiches, started hiking over the mountains into the neighboring community that he works in to see the cheese factory that was started generations ago by italian immigrants. The hike was gorgeous and as we came down the other side we were greeted by children who wanted us to take their picture. It turned out that they were children of one of the teachers that Sidney works with and they have had a lot of Peace Corps volunteers come through their home.
As we made our way through town we saw that a lot of people were lined up in the town center and they were gathered around a cement truck. As we watched we realized that they were each taking an 80lb. bag up the road to a site where someone was building their home. It was very nice to see everyone helping out and seeing that strong sense of community. We also saw very run down houses as well as some very shy cows.
The cheese factory was the most amazing house/homestead we have yet seen in Guatemala. It was huge with healthy livestock and rolling green fields. The cows all wore bells around their necks and everything reminded us of being in Switzerland. The cafe was open there but they only were offering cheese sandwiches in tortillas that were awesome. We paired that with some fresh squeezed limeade and we were in heaven as we tried to rest up for our hike back over the mountain...but we ended up taking a bus back instead.
As you can see the farm was gorgeous and they even have cottages you can rent if you want to spend the weekend there.
After our long hike we made chicken curry for dinner and jammed out on the guitar. We also hung out on the roof of his house. He is still lacking in furniture so we lounged in the tires that he was in the process of turning into planter boxes.
Our last night together we ate at a restaurant that was founded by a Peace Corps volunteer a few years back. It has since been a very profitable venture for the community and the profits go to help mayan children from the area. All in all it was a pretty amazing week and it made us very ready to be done with training and off to our new site. Just a few more weeks!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment