Yalchucti y Mayan Misa con Padre Pedro

This week has been packed full of extraordinary events. On Thursday, Matt and I accompanied Padre Pedro to one of the aldeas in the jungle. He is the only native Mayan ordained priest in the region, so having the opportunity to hear not only a Mass, but a baptism and wedding in the local indigenous dialect was something very view people ever get to experience. We had absolutely NO idea what he or anyone else was saying, but we stumbled through the motions making it appear as if we knew what we were doing.

At the actual aldea, we were treated like kings. They provided us, along with local community leaders, meals both before and after the service. We had some type of red, greasy soup with chunks of bird in it. I say "chunks" because that is exactly what it was - bones, fat and whatever else happen to have been attached. We did our best to eat some (trying to be courteous), but remember we had to do this twice in a matter of about two hours!!! We were nowhere close to finishing our food, so they brought in banana leaves to wrap our "take-outs" in. They were then tied up with split corn stalks. No joke. I felt like I was on Discovery Channel's Survivor Man or something...

As we left, they filled our jeep with gunny sacks filled with cocoa (coconuts), bananas, beans and corn. Enough food to feed us for weeks.

The day before, we celebrated a second day of Dia de la Independencia - this time in Yalchucti. Yalchucti is our second project site. We are currently building a chicken coup there that will supply food for the nutrition program, as well as provide additional funds with any surpluses - which there will be plenty as the coup is designed for 1500 chickens.

In Yalchucti, we spent the day playing in a soccer tournament. It was an adult male only team, but don't let "adult" fool you. These guys were ruthless. All they do is play soccer and you can tell. They are in really good shape and have no hesitations throwing their body across the field. Fortunately for me, the tallest one on the field was about 5'6'', giving me a considerable height advantage - the only thing I had going. We lost 4 - 5, but I had three of our four goals. I think this helped me make friends.