Trip 1 Day 5

Today we didn't work at our project, and had a day of leisure. We left for a very small village down the road. Again in the back of a mini pickup. We were accompanied by a young man from Freeport Illinois and a young lady from the North of Germany, both of whom spoke Spanish far beyond our abilities. Our tour included a seminar given in native Spanish on the history of the village, and how they made woven fabrics, rush matts, and ground coffee. This was in native tongue so the guy from Freeport interpreted for us. The items they made were for sale and so we purchased many of them via our interpreters. I found the young lady from Germany most helpful.

The story of the village is that after a bontiful year the citizens had a great celibration and most over indulged and fell asleeep, with the cooking fires still burning, resulting in the village burning down. They were very poor so they went in search of financing to rebuild the village, a successful effort. However they could not make the payments and the loaner foreclosed and to this day still owns the entire village. The villagers to this date still pay the landlord a week's labor each year. Sooooooooooooooo the story goes.

The proceeds of our purchases are turned over to the village with most going towards educating the children, so in addition to believing we received great values in our purcchases it is heartwarming to know when our money goes.

Upon returning to Antigue we toured a beautiful church that the iterior had been recently restored. Saw another one on theway

Notwithstanding that we got rained on in transit back to Antigue, the ride was good with a great driver and we had a very interesting venture in the village.

Upon returning to Atigua we toured a beautiful church with a recently restored interoir. On the way back we saw another smaller church, and then we went to 6:00 mass at another refurbished church. (all catholic of course) However the 6:00 mass was delayed as there was a wedding mass going on when we arrived. Sooooooooooo we observed the bride and groom and wedding party, and then attended mass, most of which we didn't understand as it was in Spanish of course. Fred had us read the readings and gospel before we went to mass so we were prepared.

We topped the evening off with a good German meal at the German restrant next door.


Joe Bosman

.