We made peanut butter and guava jelly sandwiches on white bread before leaving today since we were going to have lunch away from our home base. We only worked a couple hours at Palo de Agua-- it seemed like we had just gotten out the material and it was time to take it back to the home-shed where it is stored. Every day we start by walking to the home to get the equipment we will need for the day, and it looks like a parade carrying all the stuff.
More latrine building. And tying rebar for the top of the new school. We had lots of helpers from the community there today.
We finished early so we could go with one of the elders of the village who has planted numerous fruit trees and other plants on his steep hillside. We climbed down to where his water wheel pump is -- he carries buckets of water up the hill to water each tree individually. Hard work, but he is very proud of his plot of land. The view from his field across the valley is fantastic. Several people sat on his porch visiting with his wife while we hiked up and down.
From there we all piled into the truck -- usually we have two vehicles for all of us, but we needed to leave one behind at the work site for Daniel, the ¨contractor¨on the project. We went to Los Cocos, another small village on the way back to Cuidad Dario. We ate our lunch in front of their house. After a leisurely visit, we were invited into the house so the mother could show us how she makes tortillas. She soaks the corn kernels and washes them several times, then puts them in a grinder. The ground corn then goes on a rock slab. She kneads the dough, then presses it with a rock roller until very fine. She seems to know just when it is ready, and puts a handful on a plastic circle -- the shape of a tortilla--and begins patting it out to a perfect circle. She then had many of us try it. Despite the lack of clean hands or clean water, we did try. She cooked the ones we had made and we ate them. We had brought some cheese to put on them when they were still hot. A treat, certainly, but we´re hoping none of us get sick!
More latrine building. And tying rebar for the top of the new school. We had lots of helpers from the community there today.
We finished early so we could go with one of the elders of the village who has planted numerous fruit trees and other plants on his steep hillside. We climbed down to where his water wheel pump is -- he carries buckets of water up the hill to water each tree individually. Hard work, but he is very proud of his plot of land. The view from his field across the valley is fantastic. Several people sat on his porch visiting with his wife while we hiked up and down.
From there we all piled into the truck -- usually we have two vehicles for all of us, but we needed to leave one behind at the work site for Daniel, the ¨contractor¨on the project. We went to Los Cocos, another small village on the way back to Cuidad Dario. We ate our lunch in front of their house. After a leisurely visit, we were invited into the house so the mother could show us how she makes tortillas. She soaks the corn kernels and washes them several times, then puts them in a grinder. The ground corn then goes on a rock slab. She kneads the dough, then presses it with a rock roller until very fine. She seems to know just when it is ready, and puts a handful on a plastic circle -- the shape of a tortilla--and begins patting it out to a perfect circle. She then had many of us try it. Despite the lack of clean hands or clean water, we did try. She cooked the ones we had made and we ate them. We had brought some cheese to put on them when they were still hot. A treat, certainly, but we´re hoping none of us get sick!
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