Pretty flowers along the way
On the road again
Cows in the road
Ripe coffee
They are ready to be picked when
they are dark red/purplish
Our first stop was the 10 families in the caserío
of Santa Rita. It was great to be able to actually visit Santa Rita because
during our last census in 2010 we weren’t able to make it there because of the
weather. It’s always nice to be able to greet people in their own homes. Most
of the homes we fairly easy to get to, but the last house was quite a walk. We
walked up a “trail” that looked like something out of “The Jungle Book” before
we reached our destination. But, as usual, it was worth the hike.
The first family we visited
He was one of the high school
scholarship recipients
Swinging away
Sweet!
Standing by his poinsettias
Maggy: Look! It's a lost sole!
(Hahahah! Get it?)
Maggy: Take a picture of that pig!
Alisha: That's a dog.
Handing out cards and gifts
Walking up the "path"
Awesome tree!
Dog house?
Snake house?
It looks like there's an 89 on the butterfly
One cool dude
Puppy!
This tree looks like it's branches
were stacked on top of each other
Then we drove a short while to the canton of El
Cimarrón where there are about 20 families. Cimarrón is another canton where we
weren’t able to visit every house during the 2010 census. So we got to meet
more people that we didn’t know! Yay! I have to admit, even though San
Francisco is a huge community and it is very spread out, I am so glad that we’re
able to have the opportunity to visit each individual house. We continued to
hand out more cards and gifts and we traveled through Cimarrón. We definitely
started handing out more hugs as well!
Michelle & Cecilia
Walking to more houses
Precious face
Clothing washing area
Giving hugs
Maggy: Take a picture of that tree.
Alisha: Which tree?
They didn't want to be in the family picture
More poinsettias
Incredible view
Flowers
Run, kitty, run!
One of the guys that walked with us
Gourds growing in a tree
Going down the road
Ducks!
We ate lunch in this woman's house
Around 1:30pm we stopped to eat lunch in someone’s
home. Everything had been laid out very nicely for us. We feasted on chicken,
rice, tortillas, and a giant bowl of vegetable soup. It seemed like a lot of
food, but I managed to eat it all. Once again, after eating such a big meal it
would have been nice to take a quick cat nap in a hammock, but we didn’t get
the chance.
So tasty
Let's eat!
After stuffing ourselves with all the delicious
food it was time to have a meeting. Perfect timing, right? It was an important
meeting so even though I was tired I did manage to stay awake, pay attention,
and take notes. Cimarrón, though technically a part of San Francisco, has
formed its own Directiva. So it will be working separately from the rest of San
Francisco. The Pastoral Team will also work with Cimarrón as will our church, and
we will be working with them apart from the rest of San Francisco. The meeting
today was basically to do introductions, talk about the work on the Pastoral
Team, discuss responsibilities of the new Directiva, and go over what the
church is and isn’t able to do for the community. Basically, Blanca gave them
her “mother hen” speech that she gives to all the communities. But the group
also talked about the needs of the community and the health of people in the
good. Overall it was a good meeting and I think a lot was accomplished.
Meeting with the Directiva
When the meeting was finished we went to the
remaining houses to deliver packages and cards. We had a great time meeting the
rest of the families in Cimarrón. Plus we had a great group of guys
accompanying us. They seemed to get our humor pretty quickly. It was quite a
walk to the last 2 houses we visited. We again we were on a “path” that was
difficult to follow. But I was glad we made the walk. We left the houses on a
different path which took us right on the side of the mountain. It was a
spectacular view of the fields and San Vicente in the distance.
Sitting on a little boy's swing
I asked if he would share his swing with me.
He smiled said, "No." Hilarious!
With his family
The swing all to himself
A sweet couple!
Flor de Pascua
Thanksgiving dinner?
Chatting with folks
The group that walked with us
Lovely view!
This is a dog, not a pig
Another ornament
And on we go
Petting the German Shepherd
Nice looking road
One of the guys that walked with us
Corn and beans
Walking along the "trail"
New beans!
What a view!
We had some more fun after all the gifts had been
delivered. We got to visit the large water tanks that the community uses to get
clean water. The guys in the group immediately climbed up on the water tanks
and invited us along. Michelle and I ran over to climb up the metal ladder on
the tanks. The view from up top was amazing and we posed for several pictures.
Then I climbed up on the other water tank so I could get photos of the group
and they could get photos of me. I’m not sure why we did this. Someone
suggested it and it seemed like a good idea at the time.
On top of the water tanks
A good lookin' group
Lovely ladies!
Alisha photobomb
Katherine climbing up the tank
I'm on top of the world!
Climbing down the ladder
After our fun with the water tanks we climbed
aboard the pickup and headed back to Berlin. When we arrived back at the Pastoral
House we left almost immediately to get some ice cream. On our last trip to the
ice cream shop I got passion fruit ice cream so today I got raspberry flan. After
eating dessert we returned home for dinner: tacos!! Then it was blogging,
chatting, laughing, and off to bed. Tomorrow is our last day in San Francisco
and we have to be ready extra early!
Water source
Bus vs. pickup
Who will win?
Nice looking road there
Let's get ice cream
Mmmm, so good!
1 comment:
Another very busy day. The scenery is spectacular. I love those ripe coffee cherries, so pretty.
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