Day 3: Meeting Community & 1st Day of Building
Hola todos! We have now officially spent a full day in Suchilquitongo! It was a busy day filled with introductions, building a work table, eating delicious food, and organizing the work site. Our day started with exploring the hotel grounds a bit and discovering a playground area where we had a little pre-breakfast fun. We are staying at Hotel El Pedregal, which is a small hotel located in the community and about 20 minutes from our worksite. They are connected to a lovely community space that has a pool, playground, and kitchen. After playing on the swings and sew-saw for a little bit, we headed over to the kitchen for some breakfast. We got to try “memelas”, which are slightly thick corn tortillas topped with tasty toppings. They were delicious and filling and just what we needed to get our day started. After a cup of some delicious Oaxacan coffee we headed out to the work site.
Once at the work space, we were greeted by the members of the mesquite flour project. This was our first time meeting them so we had some fun getting to know each other through some icebreakers. It was really great to finally get to meet the community members we have been working with over the past two semesters! Afterwards, they gave us a tour of the work site and walked us through the steps of how they currently process their mesquite pods.
After learning even more about their process we broke into teams, one group working on building our work table and the other organizing materials and the work spaces. The team work gave us a chance to practice our Spanish speaking skills and learn some new words along the way. Once we made some good progress on the work table and work space, we had lunch overlooking one of the family member’s land. The worksite is actually located on land owned by the mesquite member Carlos’ family. Their home is located right next door and has an amazing view of the mountains. After having a nice relaxing lunch, we finished up the work table, cut some wood, and prepared for the first build day which will take place tomorrow.
Before heading back to the hotel for the day, we all meet as a group with our NGO leads Richard and Sarahi to discuss our community activities during our time here. Tomorrow we will have the opportunity to meet the municipal president. He was excited to learn about our visit and invited us to his office for an introduction and discussion about our collaboration with the community members. During our time here we will have the opportunity to meet various community members through interviews, exploring Suchilquitongo, and participating in cooking workshops that demonstrate the uses of mesquite.
Finally, after a productive day under a sunny sky we made our way back to hotel for dinner and some team time. We are excited to start the building process tomorrow, so make sure to following along for more updates! Gracias!
