Day #6, Thurs. June 30, 2016 - Play Time!

   Today was an unusual day.  Instead of our boat leaving at 8:45am, it left at 9:45am, so we spent our extra hour making a list of movies, TV shows, and books we promised Lucas the day before. Before that though (since dinner was at the same time 8:00), we had breakfast which was the same as yesterday; Mexican scrambled eggs, black beans, and, fruit salad.

   We arrived at San Marcos as usual. But instead of going to the workshop, we took a couple detours so Nate could show us some common building techniques used for walls (some consisting of horse poop) and roofs.  After picking up Fatima and Clara, we finally got to the workshop. We didn’t build but we took a backway which led to a very windy, hilly, and rocky, and LONG pathway on the mountain.  Along the way, we got to stop in a mini cave where we were able to cool off. We then continued and walked a very short distance to where a cement monstrosity was being built.  Even though it may not seem like that much it was pretty cool because we got to climb ladders and see the inside of it while it was under construction.

   Next, we went to Konojel to eat lunch.  In my opinion, this was the best lunch that we have had at Konojel because we had basil pesto pasta, salad, tortillas, and pineapple water with chia seeds; we also had one of Maria’s chocolate chip cookies. After eating, we got to browse and buy some of the clothing and bags the women there sewed from recycled material (they were beautiful).

   After lunch we got to swim in Lake Atitlan and apparently here, that includes epically jumping off a cliff into the lake.  So, for a while we got to rest in the water and just talk. At 3:00pm we had to arrive back at the workshop so we could play with about 40 kids.  Since there was so many, we had to split them into two groups. Morgan, Ellen, Lucas and I played red light/green light which was a lot of fun. We even made it work with the language barrier (AKA Lucas).  After a while it started to get slow though so we added in blue and pink light which meant jumping on two feet and jumping on one foot.  Meanwhile… Kennedi, Claire (who used her Spanish speaking skills to communicate), Maya, and Fatima were playing tape ball and froggy murder. After a while we switched kid groups. We continued the games but then after a while we started statues. But it failed so we switched to game of sardines. When it was time to leave we gave each kid a starburst. Overall, the kids had a lot of fun and ultimately we did to.

   When we came back to La Iguana Perdida, we stared the movie “She’s all that” and when dinner came we had black bean soup, chicken satay, and banana bread. In the moment, the others went to finish the movie while I am finishing up the last words of this post.

                                                                                          -P. Johnson