We woke up early this morning and left Guatemala City. I must admit I was looking forward to it and was kind of glad to be leaving. We climbed higher and higher and higher into the mountains and 3 hours later wound up in Chichicastenango. We met a Methodist pastor on the road and went down the mountain a ways. We wound up at a church in the middle of what seemed like no where. The pastor told us that we would be visiting a community of widows, but he wanted to start at the church because that was where the project started. In 1982, during the civil war, the army came into the village and bound most of the men and stacked them on top of eachother. They left them like that for several hours, and then they threw all of the men in the church and started it on fire. I believe there were 40 men in there. Later on, the women who lost their husbands were coming into the church after services asking the pastor for money or corn to feed their families because they could not make money on their own without their husbands. The pastor had nothing to give them, but went to the higher church to see if the they could do anything. The church told him if they feed the widows, the women will still be in need in a week, but they would be willing to try to find a few cows and chickens and land if the women were willing to work. The pastor told the women and 15 agreed to do it. They formed the community that has now expanded to about 350 families. After we learned about them, the pastor led us down the mountain, some spots were very steep and kind of treacherous, to the community.
We were greeted by the most adorable kids. Then, we sat down and talked to the women. 
They were all Indigenous, so we had the pastor translate from their language to Spanish and Ruth translate his Spanish into English. The women were so beautiful and the weavings and crafts were just gorgeous! I was so sad I did not bring more money! 
They fed us lunch, and even gave us pop, which they had carried down the mountain along the same steep path we had come down. I have to say that I think this was probably my favorite thing I've done or seen so far on this trip. It was great to be hiking in the mountains, but to meet these beautiful women and be welcomed so warmly into their community and to see how humbly they lived, but how much joy they had was just profound. After lunch and buying some stuff,
we hiked back up the mountain and got in the van and climbed higher and higher (sometimes wondering if we would make it- the van was not too happy!) and finally arrived in Chichicastenango. On the way to the hotel, we picked up our next speaker and went to the hotel and talked to Ricardo about Indigenous rights. He was interesting. He said that currently he is trying to get the government to let the Mayan people have a choice to be tried under the government's law or under the Mayan law. He believes that the Mayan people need to go back to their traditional ways and the Guatemalan government needs to let them. He also talked about the efforts to bring back the Mayan spiritually. He was pretty facinating to listen to. After talking to him, we got our rooms and left almost immediately to go to the a project in the city. This was kind of an off shoot of the widow's community. The pastor had taken the boys who needed jobs from the community and taught them how to sew and started a school for them to learn and given them a place to live in town. They mostly specialize in making purses, which were lovely. I bought a few. Then, we left and went into town and were a little early for dinner, so we walked around town for a little bit. It is a really cute town, and we will have lots of time to explore it tomorrow. We had dinner, which was great, and then went back to the hotel for a reflection. Tonight, Ruth asked us what feelings we had felt strongest and where. I had a hard time with that question. The most I've felt was with the kids today. 
I felt joy from those kids; when they greeted us, when I was photographing them, when they were trying to talk to me, when they took my camera. I think part of what's happening is that I've seen some horrible things and to save myself from emotional overload, I just shut down. I was glad to feel joy today, though. It was strong. Hopefully, I can start feeling more emotions on the trip, but not get overloaded. Well, I'm tired and I need to go take a shower. ¡Buenos noches!
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