Guest entry by my mom about her visit, part 10 of 14

DAY 9 (Corral Grande):

At 7 a.m. we hop in a van full of teachers for our wildest ride yet. Today we'll be visiting Elizabeth's third school. This road, which drops straight down almost at the edge of our tires, is often blocked off during rainy season because of landslides. We got lucky; no landslides today.

We're told that people who live in Corral Grande, our destination, commonly dream of going to America so that they can earn enough money to move out of this bowl-like valley and live in San Pedro where they would have easy access to grocery stores and where the landslides couldn't trap them.

On the road to Elizabeth's third school

The bus can take us only so far. The son of Elizabeth's school director picks us up in his truck and takes us the rest of the way to his family's house. The director's daughter serves us coffee the way Guatemalans assume everyone drinks it: black and super sweet. As we sit in a small room that includes a single bed, the director talks animatedly about the computers that Elizabeth's project will bring to his school. In rapid-fire Spanish, he tells Elizabeth about a man who has volunteered to build the computer tables that the students will need. He smiles often at me and Brian and asks us questions through Elizabeth.

The director invites us to spend the night at their house in the event that the expected rain makes the roads impassable. (Luckily, we don't need to take him up on the offer.)

We walk to the newly constructed school to meet up with Elizabeth's reading group. They've been reading Harry Potter. Today's group is much larger than usual -- the readers have brought a bunch of friends to watch the Harry Potter movie that Elizabeth has brought. One of the boys runs a long extension cord from a neighbor's house over to the school, snaking it through a window to provide power for the TV. (Electricity will be available here eventually; construction is still underway.)

A neighbor lends electricity to the school.

Hooking up the TV for movie time.

Harry sounds a little different here.

During the Harry Potter movie, the students are
more attentive than Elizabeth has ever seen them.

After movie time, we return to the director's house for lunch. Lucky us! The women have prepared a feast. We start with a chicken-and-rice soup with potatoes and carrots. Fresh palm-size tortillas pile up in front of us as they come off the stove. Plates appear full of baked chicken and rice with a cucumber-onion-tomato salad. Delicious, every bite.

A home-cooked meal. No better way to make people feel "We're glad you're here."

Making tortillas. Six are baking on the stove top.

No fast food happening here.

When we finish our meal, we exchange gifts: I give them chocolate and souvenirs from Oregon; the director's wife presents me with an embroidered tablecloth. I'm grateful that Elizabeth has found her way to people of such generosity and warmth.

The director's wife gives me an embroidered tablecloth
just like the one I've been admiring on the family's own table.

I will never forget these matter-of-fact words from Elizabeth: "The baño is outside. There's no light. Use the bucket to flush."

After lunch, the director shows us some Mayan artifacts that he has dug up in his back yard while planting vegetables.

Imagine finding something in your yard that was
carved by human hands over a thousand years ago.

More Mayan artifacts.
Really, can you imagine holding these things?

[Day 9 to be continued]