Jardin y Comunidad

In the middle of my dengue breakout, we were scheduled to leave Honduras, travel 24 hours by bus to Santa Elena, Guatemala. 24 hours in a bus is not very fun in case you were wondering let alone with a fever. We arrived the morning of the 5th (one week ago) to stay in a community out in the campo (like the country) called San Pedro. Our project was to make a garden and plant lots of stuff. This would be the real fun. 

The week was hard, fun, sweaty, enlightening, and hungry. We got to live like Guatemalans - which was the fun, enlightening, hard part. We washed our clothes by hand in the pilla, we cooked over an open fire that sometimes did not want to light, and we got a lot of our food from the trees - coconuts, malabar spinach, tangerines, and tree cherries. We got to build a garden - which again was fun but super sweaty. We had to be thrifty with our resources including food - which is the hungry part. When you are digging a giant garden bed, you get hungry. We got to watch the animals roam free all day - fun, definitely fun. 

Enough of me rambling...see for yourself. 

Guatemalan money: 8 Quetzales = $1

You can buy water in bags instead of bottles = still plastic but less waste in a land fill.

Our neighbors who were so kind and welcoming all week: Alfredo and Brenda with their kids Lester 10, Julie 14, and David 6

My first catch ever!!! And we didn't even use poles!!! Lester taught me how to just chuck the hook out in the water and pull it in.

Corn field in which most food comes from here. Corn tortillas and tamales are make up most of the diet. 

The house we stayed in is at the bottom of this hill right in front of the lake. 

Front of the one room house. 

I did 11 haircuts in the community and they love to watch!! Nothing like having an audience. I bet this is what it feels like to be on stage at a hair show....except I'm not in heels and no one paid me to do it. Darn. 

We got to go to a local soccer game at a really nice field. Guatemalans are serious about their futball. 

Our not so comfortable bed...but at least we had a mosquito net and a fan. No dengue this week!

This little girl would come by each day to sell us tostados con frijoles y queso for 1 quetzal each which is about $.12 ( a big tortilla chip with refried beans and homemade cheese...except mine were without the cheese).

If we were to live down here full time, neither of us would be allowed to own jeans and all of Kyle's double layer basketball shorts that weigh 10 lbs when wet would be made into rags. All of our clothes would be light cotton, wicking, or light linen. 

Kyle the monkey

The garden before which used to be a chicken pen.

Kyle's roof design. He's a genius.

Our terraced garden after 4 days of tiling and leveling by hand with a pick ax, machete, and a rake. 

In order to make the roof, Kyle had to climb these trees many times to cut the royal palm branches. This also involved me throwing the machete up to him. I failed the first two times. oops. Also, the ouch noise I make is from the coconut rolling into my shin. 

Our last bit of Panama.