This past weekend Pachalum was host to five visiting volunteers who came to hang out with me and Tiara. It was a really nice, low key weekend, with some really good food, a nice pickup game of basketball (which I decided will be my new pastime, I am the most aggressive person out there, I just need to figure out how to pass and shoot and I can be Pachalum's MVP), and excellent cake. To start the weekend off, Tiara and I did some hair wraps for some of her students from one of the Middle Schools where she teaches. They came over on Saturday morning while we waited for volunteers to arrive. If all else fails, when I go back to the states I can set up a hair wrapping station on Telegraph until the economy picks up again:)
By 330pm all the volunteers had arrived, and we took lunch with us to go on the walk behind the church to the nice overlook of the valley (really the only walk I know of that is not a main road in or out of Pachalum). We arrived around 4pm and sat around until sunset, which made for some excellent photos.
Sunsetting
With Sarah, Devon, and Travis in a field of dried corn stalks
A really cool tree with bright pink flowers
Walking back to Pachalum from the field
On Sunday morning, we woke up early and four of us went on a hike up to the Pachalum sign, from where I took this photo, and then on to one of the caserios (smaller than an aldea), a good two hour hike.
In the evening I sat on Tiara's roof and watched the sunset.
On Monday, International Women's Day, the OMM set up a conference with local women leaders speaking about Women's Rights and the importance of fighting for Equal Rights. We had invited over 90 women from all of the communities and here in the cabecera to come to the conference. 60 showed up with an assortment of children, which is apparently a pretty big success (2 out of every 3 invites is not half bad), and we had a series of talks along with some dinámicas about working in a group and getting organized.
With Luz María and the practicantes in front of our poster of information. Unfortunately, we did not plan out the placement of the poster too well and with the backlight nobody could read it during the speeches...
I addressed the audience before launching into my favorite dinámica (the human knot). Along with a lot of stuttering, I attempted to convey to the women the importance of organizing into formal groups and participating in local development councils in order to have their needs addressed at the local and national levels.
Human Knot
With my special guest, Doña Estela, who sells me fruit. She was one of the few women who lives in the cabecera who actually came to the event (most of the participants were from outside communities, which is weird since it is far more costly and time consuming for them to come than a woman who lives just down the street) and she came in her Sunday Finest.
