Antonio woke up at 4:30 a.m. and chopped wood for breakfast. The roosters beat him up... by two and a half hours. Breakfast was served at 6 and it was tortillas and rice and coffee. By the way, in U.V. the tortillas were made fresh at each meal. They soak the corn overnight and then run it through a grinder to make it a paste and then it is needed on a stone and then patted into a tortilla and cooked on the stove top. See pics of Maria doing this in her kitchen which was a detached building with a tin roof and wood sides. Also note the stove that the Church of the Brethren helped put in each of the homes here... each family paid part of the cost and helped with construction. The stove is so much healthier than the open fire, not to mention the decreased amount of fire wood needed to operate it!
Aaron came down and we went with him to meet Becky and we chatted a while in their kitchen then met the VP of the community to go on a tour of the community. The tour took all morning...
We visited EVERY classroom in the school and were formally introduced to each and WARMLY welcomed by all. It took 1.5 hours to visit the 6 classes.
We then saw the community center and toured the rest of the community. We met one guy who is a very forward thinking guy and is starting a Tilapia Pond....very exciting to see this guy stepping out and taking a risk to find something that will help his family economy. We crossed the bridge that the Church of the Brethren helped build and then repair after the high winds in January. We saw the water turbine that creates all the electric in the community (it's a small building) and then watched the kids play soccer for the afternoon as it was a half day of school. Even saw the coffee processing facility.
Lots of coffee, cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, macadamias, and oranges around. Three types of coffee grown here.
Lunch was a sweet milk and a soup of squash LEAVES and tortillas.
The afternoon was spent talking with Maria and watching her weave... she is such a great weaver. The shirt she was making is called a Huipil.
Prior to supper we hiked up to the top of the hill to look at the community. A beautiful breath taking view!
Supper was tortillas and beans.
After supper we went with Paulina and Flora to see/hear the marimbas. Then to Becky and Aaron's for a short while. You can hear some marimba music on Aaron's new website.... http://www.aaronhjohnston.com/ this was the group we heard.
In bed by 9, which I think was late for Antonio and Maria! Awakened @ 1 a.m. by a LOUD mournful cry... right outside our window. Turns out it was a man who had drank too much and when that happens his grief comes out strong. Grief related to the way he was treated during the war and the loss of family members as they were hunted down by the government...grief of having to leave the area of the country that was home and move to another area which was very different. His mournful cry was soul piercing!
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