The Final Presentation

Today marked our final of four presentations to various communities in need of potable water. We hiked about 20-30 minutes outside of Antigua to a village called "La Guardiania" to present to two groups -- one in elementary school and one in middle school. The journey up was a bit interesting, as Amy and Natania rescued a small puppy last night and tried hard to find it a home. They eventually were able to find a kind family to take it in. Upon arrival to the school, the children greeted us with smiles and "holas" to show their excitement to have new visitors. The first group came out and the children sat down on the concrete and began to chat amongst themselves until Lencho immediately captivated their attention. Soon, my group was up and we began to present. The first run went well, but some parts were a slight bit long. Nonetheless we quickly learned from this and corrected ourselves for the second group shortly after. In the end, it was a very good culmination to our hard work.

Soon after the presentations, the children were excited to play a game of football (soccer) with us in the large field across the road from the school. The children even have jerseys to represent their school and team! It turned out be a very intense game, as the Señoras assumed the role of the coaches and shouted directions from the sidelines. In the end, our team got destroyed with a final score of 5-1. We thanked them for a good game and began to walk back to Antigua.

In the afternoon, we went with our tutors to the local Jade Museum to learn about the different kinds of jade present in Guatemala, as well as the refining techniques. We learned that a statue of an owl made of green jade takes about three days to make and costs about $400! We were then able to look around the shop and see the high prices for the jade, as well as understand understand our own Mayan Zodiac signs. Some of us are fish, some are jaguars, some are sharks, etc. We soon left and headed for the chocolate museum.

Upon return from the jade museum, Ross, Even, Max, and I attended a chocolate making class at "Choco Museo" in order to help with our presentations of the Guatemalan food. When we arrived, we were greeted by Pablo, an enthusiastic Guatemalan who taught us the history of chocolate, as well as the processes of fermenting, roasting, shelling, grinding, and refining the beans. In the end, we were able to taste three different chocolate drinks -- a cocoa shell tea; a Mayan drink with paprika, water, and other spices, which turned out to be very spicy and bitter; and a Spanish version with milk, sugar, anise seed and black pepper. We made our own chocolates as well with a variety of ingredients, including coconut, macadamia, oreos, salt, and others.

Overall, today has been a great experience, both in our final presentations and in the jade museum. We were able to learn about the history of jade in the Mayan culture and experience the entire refining process of the chocolate bean. Tomorrow, we look forward to regrouping at the house in Chris's neighborhood in order to debrief one last time about our presentations and our work in the communities, as well as to begin our first rough draft of our presentations.

As the week has passed, we have had the opportunity to see such a different side of Guatemala and to have an impact on childrens' lives each and every day. See you tomorrow!

Kyle