Miel y Pelota

This officially marks the end of the fastest week yet.

Monday was a surprise trip in the morning with our teachers to see a sugar mill (trapiche). The place is located two minutes past the Guatemalan border.  Everything is natural and we could see it all before our eyes. Everything is done in the open air, (I hope the wacko health and safety mentality we have implemented in our North American food system never gets its dirty hands on this) and the process is slow. Once the juice is crushed out of the sugar cane it is actually sold as a drink, that is if it doesn’t continue through the rest of the process. Next it boils for six hours slowly getting thicker until it becomes a honey. At one point we were dipping sugar in sugar; i.e. dipping a sugar cane in sugar cane honey . . . “pretty sweet!” The end product is absolutely delicious, super sticky, and almost has a caramel taste.

Enjoying the ride there with Bruno

Crushing

Where the magic happens

Part of the hardening process using plantain trunks

Tuesday night Carin and I finally met for dinner. Yes, it only took us three weeks! We had a lovely time catching up on the past couple of years, and musing about the future. This is likely the year that she will leave for Spain after 15 years of living in Copan. And for those who don’t already know she is a fantastic artist and you can check some of her work out here: www.carinsteen.com.

The next couple days I spent helping my family, meeting people passing through the house, and of course doing homework and going to class. Thursday night the owner of my school (Kathy) invited me to a Rotary International club “reunion.” Basically what that entailed was an evening at the most beautiful outdoor “community center,” free food, and pretending I don’t speak English for the night around gringos.

Today, I went back to the school I volunteered in two years ago; El Sinai. If I have any regret on this trip it is that I didn’t return earlier. I recognized about half of the kids from before, and when the teacher asked if they remembered my name the response was a loud unified “RICARDOO!” That was humbling. Of course I ended up playing a sweaty game of pelota with the boys, and was lucky enough to have my taxi driver take some photos. Unfortunately, I was once again reminded that just because there is a school building doesn’t mean there are children learning. I won’t go into details here, but there is a serious lack of teaching at the school, and it made me want to tutor every child there.

After attempting 1 vs 8 I decided I needed some help.

The crew

This was also officially my last day of classes, although I will likely hang out there tomorrow, and Monday before my bus leaves at 2pm. =(

I am torn because I love home, and I want to come home, but somehow I still want my flight to be cancelled.