The best thing about staying in the community has been getting to know the people; locals, Kurt and the other guys volunteering. Working, eating and hanging out together!
The other evening was one of the best of the trip. Kurt and I had gone down the mountain to the nearest town, Reu (one and a half hour drive) to pick up supplies. Karen and Nathan (a fab chef) had agreed to team up with us to buy and cook a meal for everyone. Sara, Eluvia and Elaina from the kitchen, Kurt and Kevin and Jay, Ryan and Gustavo who were volunteers/learning trade joined us for a very alcoholic chicken casserole, plenty of Chilean red and local Gallo beer (at least for the Brits)!
It was a brilliant evening with laughing, joking and a great camp fire - one we won't forget. We've since had a few more crackin' 'pollo nights'. Meat up here is a rarity, it's expensive and without a fridge hard to keep, so it went down a storm! Though now a meal no longer feels complete without tortillas and beans.
As with many volunteer placements, we are definately learning and gaining so much more from being here than the people here are from us. Getting to know the way the community works, to joining local football matches (not unlike Meva's!), ferria's, sweet-15 birthday celebrations (the big one in Guatemala), to understanding the complexities and problems such as few people in the community being able read or write due to lack of schooling/bad government, most teens here work and hold a maturity way beyond their years. It opens your eyes to things.
As with many volunteer placements, we are definately learning and gaining so much more from being here than the people here are from us. Getting to know the way the community works, to joining local football matches (not unlike Meva's!), ferria's, sweet-15 birthday celebrations (the big one in Guatemala), to understanding the complexities and problems such as few people in the community being able read or write due to lack of schooling/bad government, most teens here work and hold a maturity way beyond their years. It opens your eyes to things.
But we feel we've been pretty valuable in helping Kurt and the community with their projects, especially on finishing off the new accomadation which would have been very hard without help and working on the trails. We've gone down as Kurts favourite volunteers, which can't be bad work!
It's been a brilliant January. We'll be spreading the word about Alianza through our travels and send a note to the travel books recommending it. It's definately inspired us to get involved with plenty of other projects, to stay in touch with Alianza and help them where we can. It's going to be different getting back on the road again, next stop Monterrico on the Pacific to release some baby turtles...
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