San Ignacio

I'm in San Ignacio this weekend to experience the life of another volunteer. San Ignacio is out of the mountains not far from San Antonio and is referred to as an urban town. It's still far from what we consider "urban." The volunteer's house has no hot water, no air conditioning, and sporadic electricity. Most of the streets are still dirt roads. Both Creole and Spanish speaking people live here. With two other trainees, we went shopping with the volunteer at the town market this morning. We had papusas for breakfast - delicious!! The other volunteers were not familiar with papupas and I showed them to eat them with the shredded cabbage and salsa - my time in San Francisco is making me a worldly gourmet! Still no coffee or tea was available. The open market was noisy and packed with people selling produce, crafts, and clothing - even a couple of booths with Mennonites selling cheese. I took pictures of them until the volunteer warned me that the Mennonites believe the camera grabs their spirit. Of course, I stopped immediately.

We later walked about two miles to the river for a swim. Needless to say, it was hot and humid and I was struggling with the heat. Once we got to the river, there was a rickety, unstable bridge made of wooden slates - the one like in the Indiana Jones' movies - I was half way across on the bridge and kept thinking this was a bad idea, but fortunately the other young volunteers were gracious enough to urge me along. After we got on the other side, they discovered that the swimming hole was back on the other side. Here I was walking that #@! bridge again.

Access to phone service here I was able to talk to Kim and Ryan - the first time I had the opportunity to really have a long conversation and catch up on their lives - it was soooo nice!

I get to see a movie tonight!!! The San Ignacio movie theater is one of two theaters in the entire country. The other one is in Belize City. This will be interesting because it's run by a young American couple. If there is not enough people in the theater, we can pick our own movie.

My right hand is still in a splint - the doctor says one more week. The wrist is much better and healing well. I am very careful to walk down the grassy hill at the house and found out that I'm not the only one slipping and sliding...and I thought it was "old age."