Some of the many livestock we ran by
Some fo the cool views we saw while running- this is a corn field and a church, pretty indicative of Guatemala
Running with Anna!
After the run my whole group went on an hour and a half hike to the town of La Pista. The hike was so beautiful with so many opportunities to take beautiful pictures below.
Hiking!
Gabby and me
Team Esperanza
Some of the many livestock we passed by.
A cool picture of an indigenous woman carrying corn on her head. This is very common in Guatemala and I am always surprised at how much weight they can bear on their heads.
A beautiful picture of a lake on the hike.
When we got to La Pista we met an old indegenous man wearing the indigenous traje who told us about the history of La Pista. He spoke his inigenous language, a man would translate it into spanihs, and Anna would translate it into English. The whole exchange was so cool to see oral history being passed down in three different languages.
He talked about how La Pista was one of the most hard hit villages from the war because it was the city where the army decided to station a camp. La pista means "international airport" and it was because there was a huge landing pad for the military. The war was the military against the guerillas, but the guerillas were not easy to target so instead of killing people they knew were guerillas the army would just drop bombs on innnocent civilians claiming they were a part of the guerilla movement. The people who now live in this town are from all over and moved here to try to escape the army and save their lives.
Miguel (left) translated the indigenous man (middle) to Spanish and Anna (right) would translate to English as he told us the history of La Pista
This is the army landing strip La Pista was named after.
An army camp where you can still see the army sign on the walls.
One of the bombs the army would drop on the city. It is now used as a bell to call for local meetings.
We then went to the school that SEC built in La pista. Originally the school was built in Nebaj but they moved it to La Pista because this was an area much more secluded with a much higher need for this school. We were introduced to all the staff and taught all about the school. They have about 120 students who ome mostly for ehlp with homework, to do a book exchange program, or to take computer classes. The school is free for all students and is a first come first serve basis.
We were given projects to help make the school more beautiful. Whitney, Gabby and I took on the task of painting Wall-E the robot on the wall of the computer lab. The other groups were assigned to make a map of the world and a map of La Pista.
The Centro Explorativo is the school we visited.
We then had lunch in the house of one of our leaders. His wife cooked us an extremely famous Guatemalan dish called Boxbole. It is corn tortilla strips wrapped in leaves. It basically tasted like nothing and was not very good but the Guatemalans love it!
The famous dish Boxbole- tortillas wrapped in leaves....quite interesting looking and tasting
About to eat it....
Painting our mural of Wall-e (we didnt get very far)
We then went back to finish our murals and many kids started arrived to take computer class and to go to the school. We all got easily distracted and after an hour of work we got to play with the kids. They were adorable and LOVED having their pictures taken. We played a game called Robot where they sang a song and at the end you have to freeze and the last person frozen wins. Muoser loved to carry all the kids and throw them up. They loved hanging off his arms and using him as a jungle gym.
The girls loved to braid and play with all of our hair!
Some of the boys playing marbles
Action shot!
The middle of the field had a Jewish Star!
Our team!
After the win we rode back on the back of a pick up truck!
We rode the back of a truck back to DEscanso and returned to our homestays. This time three cousins were here and the two brothers. We played volleyball, marbles, and tag. Another fun day with my brothers! I had vegetable soup for dinner and played on my computer with Miguelito until I showered and am about to go to sleep. Today was a great day with so much to report! Tomorrow is our campaign and is a very early wakeup of 5:30! Good night for now!
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