Trip day 6

Yesterday was the last day of work, today we are just driving to Antigua where we will have nothing but free time, then off to the airport tomorrow.

So the agenda said "reforestation," which is going to an area where a lot of trees have been cut down for the cooking fires (and whatever else), and planting little saplings in their place.  This project has two purposes; one is to obviously take the impact of the stove replacements one step further:  the old way was very inefficient, and we are trying to make up for that.  The other is to help support one of the Ama women's circles, who have chosen to start a little nursery selling these saplings to various organizations.  We didn't think we could get the last 1.1 stoves finished in time unless some of us skipped the reforestation and worked on the stoves instead.  Since Jim, Krysta, and I all did the reforestation last year, we didn't feel like we would be missing out by skipping that experience, and we went to work on the stoves instead.  Apparently it wasn't as nice a place as last year, and we didn't miss much except for poor Natalie getting sick (altitude sickness?).  Krysta and I went back to the site we were working on the day before and finished it up, which went way faster than we even expected.  The kids weren't nearly as chatty, but the older boy did mix the mortar for us, and he kind of hung out and watched us at least.  For that stove in particular, it felt very strange for us to leave, Krysta said she felt the same way.  I think it was because we showed up, worked really quickly, and then were out of there, as opposed to spending all day with the people.  Plus, not everyone was out there to say goodbye to.  Oh well.  So we headed back to Jim, who was working alone at this point, and helped him out, or at the very least gave him some company!  By the time we finished the second layer, it was time to go to lunch, at least we though.  Apparently my watch was dying and the time was speeding up, but we didn't figure that out until we had already hiked down the path and down some steep streets to get to the lunch meetup place.  Oops!  Ah well, some good exercise and some fresh air, since the stove area here was super smokey smelling.  By the time real lunch arrived, so had the rest of the group (except Natalie who was sleeping in the van), and with everyone's help we were able to get it all the way finished.  It was nice to have helpers, it freed us up to play with the little girl and the sweet sweet (well not if you ask Nhoj, who got his face scratched) baby.  Then we had a little closing ceremony where we all stood around in a circle at Donna Francisca's house (where my first stove was) and they all told us how grateful they were, gave us some blessings, and said they had nothing to repay us with, so they were making us a lunch.  They also gave us flowers, which they would normally sell in market, wrapped in cloth (placemat size) that they wove themselves.  Those they also could have sold in market, it was an awesome gift and more than any of us were expecting.  Last year we had the remarks and lunch, but not gifts.  Also, we did a prayer where Donna Francisca said (in heavily mam accented Spanish, then the Ama lady who's name starts with a C but I am blanking on right now translated it into Spanish, and Lucy translated into English for us) to just hold hands, close our eyes, and give the moment to God, which I think we all expected to just be silent prayer.  But we were awed when they all starting saying their own prayers out loud.  None of us knew what they were saying, even those who spoke Spanish because they were all talking at once and very fast, but we sure felt it!  It was amazingly moving, you could actually feel a change in the energy it that space, we all just stood there silently and let it rush over us.  Awesome.  Then they gave us the flowers and it was time to eat!

The lunch was great, and I had some of the best guacamole I've ever tasted!  But we didn't dally too long because it was starting to rain.....again.  We made it back to the van and actually all the way back to the Ama house before it rained, so we actually had one day where we were all dry!  On the drive back it started to hit me, especially when we all had to get out of the van for the deep dip that bottomed the van out (we did this every time we passed this part, coming and going), and someone said, "for the last time!"  Then I started to get sad, I think I will be really sad when I get home.  Half the group passed out in the van, but I was awake and feeling every sore spot on my body.  The day started out with so much energy, but between the hunching over, picking up heavy stuff, and hiking up and down steep, slippery paths, my body was ready to call it quits.  My knees still hurt this morning, but maybe that had something to do with the salsa lessons also!

When we got back, we all took showers then headed out to check out town for the last time.  Mostly we souvenir shopped, Krysta and I stopped at some little shop and bought some going out clothes (I got a cute red dress for $10, can't beat it), then we got back 5 minutes to dinner time, impressive since none of us were wearing watches.  Then after dinner was just some hanging out, Krysta, Natalie, and I were trying out all kinds of outfit combinations, just having some girl time, then it was salsa time!  We had 3 instructors come here to teach the 8 of us plus 3 of the Ama folks, and it only cost us $2 a person (except really $0 a person because Jim paid for us all!).  It was amazing; I was finally actually able to do it!  I got to try it for a little while with the main teacher, who is a professional, award winning salsa dancer, and seemed like a generally fun guy, and tried it with Nhoj the rest of the time.  Nhoj and I were both messing it up, but we were equally committed to figuring it out, so, although I originally wasn't even going to participate, we were the last ones out there dancing, even after the music was gone!  Good thing, I needed that 2 hour workout to burn off the last of the Xelapan cookies.  After that we went out, back to Pool and Beer, but they were having some event and it was crazy crowded, which I did not think was fun.  I did get to see Ashley's crazy dancing though, she was a hit!  Then, after much confusion and group wandering of the streets, I finally ended up back at the Ama house close to 1am.  The rest of the group (except for the two Ama people who escorted me home) stayed out; I don't even know when they came home.  Ah, well, good times in Guatemala.  We are definitely going out and living it up in Antigua tonight, I need to wear my new dress, so hopefully I can sleep in the van.