Friday June 19th

Friday June 19th

We were awakened by some fierce thunderstorms! We lost power for a few hours but we were all fine and still made it to the work site only a few minutes late. However, we were too dedicated - even the construction workers slept in because it was too much rain to work ;)

So we came back to Tranquility Lodge for a bit until the rain slowed down - which allowed us to do some more shopping for local crafts- and then headed back to San Marcos. We passed out the final flip flops, did storytelling drawings, made pipe cleaner monkeys and played with homemade bubbles. The rest of the afternoon everyone spent their time finishing up the playground.

Right before school let out, all of the children and teachers came outside where we wrapped a huge ribbon all around the playground and had an amazing ceremony. They did a playground blessing in Quechi, the San Marcos city council rep gave a speech, Sarah and Elaine gave another blessing and then the lead contractor cut the ribbon - with a machete :) We then welcomed all of the kids on to the playground for juice and cookies called "hard time" cookies.

After the work day we got cleaned up and all headed back to San Marcos for a celebration with the local teachers and construction crew. They made delicious cheese dip, BBQ chicken, baked beans, slaw and FLOUR tortillas. We added to the menu by bringing the cake we ordered the day previously- everything was fantastic!! There was live music by Jose and his family including a harp, guitar and violin. So of course we had to dance and were lucky enough to have traditional lessons from Jose's Godmother. We even got to wear the local Mayan traditional skirt to help with the dancing. One final note from the evening was how unbelievably clear the sky was when we left the celebration that night- it was magical.






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