A visit to the mountains

Today we traveled with Brooks’ host mom, Cony, to visit a village in the mountains near Huehue. This trip began with an hour bus ride up a steep and curvy road into the mountains, where we ended up at a one-room schoolhouse in which 60 kids learn from one teacher. It is beautiful in the mountains, and the air was so fresh compared to the air in Huehue. It reminded me a bit of Oregon. :) As soon as the kids playing football in the yard could see Cony, they began sprinting toward her, giving hugs and saying “hola ensenyo!” Most of the girls were dressed in traditional skirts and ponchos, and we realized yet again how far we were from the States. At the school we helped the kids make flowers out of egg cartons, and they were so sweet and polite and would smile shyly when we told them their flowers were beautiful. After visiting with the kids, we had lunch at a comedor with Cony and Amy, a Peace Corps volunteer from Massachusetts. Amy had been living in this village for a year and a half now, and we were all so impressed by her when she told us the things she missed most from the States were warm showers, having a bathroom in her house, and not waking up with ice in her room… I am very grateful for our living conditions in Huehue, as different as they are from what we are accustomed to in the U.S. After lunch we took a “micro” to a woman’s house, a micro being one of the many nine-passage vans that drive up and down the road, waiting to be flagged down to give someone a ride for 2 quetzales (about 25 cents). At the woman’s house, Cony hosts cooking lessons for the mothers in the area to teach them about good nutrition for their families. We spent most of our time at the house being the American spectacles in the corner, playing with the kids and taking pictures with them. Essentially, being mobbed by kids, which is the norm here in Guatemala for us gringos. I am waiting for the day when we stop being fascinating to kids – I don’t think it will ever come. One little boy even asked me to draw a cross on his ankle – just like the tattoo I have – and another asked me to draw it on a paper so he could recreate it. Good influence because it’s a cross, or bad influence because it’s a tattoo? I may never know. :) From there we took another micro back to Huehue, a terrible and nauseating experience. Too many people, in too small of a vehicle driving too fast through too many curves. Luckily, we made it back safely to Sheny and Otto’s, where we enjoyed yet another laughter-filled meal.