Monday, November 11, 2013

We're lovin' San Fran!

We spent another whole day in San Francisco, this time in the caseríos of Santa Rita and El Cimarrón. We weren’t given permission today to drive on the main road to San Francisco that’s under construction so we had to take the long way around. It took us about an hour and 15 minutes. But the view was beautiful and we got to see some different scenery than before.

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:

Matt said...

Another very busy day. The scenery is spectacular. I love those ripe coffee cherries, so pretty.