For their last couple of days working in the village, the team was on the road by 7AM. They mixed and poured concrete floors, but the work presented some challenges. The 100-pound bags of material were located about a half mile from the project site so the village men were enlisted to move the materials. With 90-degree heat and 100% humidity, it was very hot work and coconuts provided a refreshing drink.
The team got to see life in the village up close and personal. Carlo Giraulo reports that a woman he had met was grinding rice in a flat mortar and pestle to make flour for tortillas. He asked to try his hand at it. While it had looked easy, after about 15 minutes his arms were ready to fall off from the effort. It appears those Guatemalan women are very strong!
Grinding rice is hard work!
Dental work continued throughout the week with filling and pulling teeth as needed. It is sad to note that some of the patients needing extractions were young children. As Bill Chadwick has told us from previous visits, chewing on sugar cane is common and a leading cause of tooth decay in that region.
As the team prepared to leave the village everyone came out to say goodbye. There were lots of hugs and lots of tears of happiness and sadness.
The final leg of the journey was an 8+hour bus ride that brought the team back to Guatemala City, reportedly much cooler than the jungle. The journey back was made more interesting by construction traffic, the need to pay to use gas station toilets, and armed guards at gas stations and restaurants. Fortunately, there was some great local food to be had during rest breaks.
Back at their hostel they had a chance to relax and get ready for some tourist adventures the next day. On their last day in Guatemala, they toured a macadamia plantation and spent some time in Antiqua among its little shops and its chocolate factory.
Time to relax in Guatemala City
The Guatemala team which included both Rotarians and church members, poured 12 cement floors, built 15 stoves, and worked on over 200 mouths. Everyone stayed relatively safe aside from a few bumps, bruises, and bug bites. At this writing, our intrepid team is back in the USA. We thank them for a job well done.