Due to the slightly repetitious nature to our days, we have decided to condense our work week into one, very long, very informational, and highly entertaining post. First, a quick run through of how our days typically went; up we got at 6:45 am, or 6:55 am, or 7 am, or whenever we could convince ourselves to get up, and ready we got. We went downstairs to the hotel kitchen where our lovely cooks made us these fabulous warm breakfasts every morning. Even though many of us couldn't converse with these two special, highly accommodating women, they seemed genuinely happy to see us each morning and we were more than happy to see them each morning.. and to see the coffee on the stove. By the time everyone was through with breakfast, it was usually 8:05 am or so, and considering we were suppose to be meeting Devin, the UNICH students, and the Rise Now guys at the church at 8 am, we were always off to a good start. 

Once we got to the church, and loaded the bus, knowing who was going where, we started off towards Floricilla, which was to be our first stop, dropping off the garden group. Once they were on their way, the bus then drove to El Corrilito, where the park group got to work. Around 2 pm is when the garden group got to head back to the hotel and shower up quick before the park group got back around 5 pm. Then together we would have mindfulness & meditation time, each time led by a different pair of students, aimed at reflecting on our feelings about the day. After mindfulness, many of the students would choose to eat the dinner left from the cooks from earlier that morning, or get creative with what was left in the fridge. Others would choose to go out on the town and find a local eatery to see what was up. And more nights than not, many of the students would find their way to a local dance club where many of us would attempt to practice our newly learned salsa skills, taught to us graciously by our own Leslie and Nicole. With that in mind, here are a few things we found special from each of our work week days:

Monday: Monday was the first day for all of us to go out and see the different work sites. Unfortunately, Monday also happened to be the day that many of us Edgewood students started to get sick. But never the less, it was still an incredibly exciting day for many of the students; it really gave us the opportunity to really see what we would be looking forward to for the next week, and to set our goals early to ensure their success. For the park group, we saw a whole lot of work ahead of ourselves, driving up to a school in the mountains, looking at an uneven, over-grown, plot of land with huge logs every where that was some how, in a matter of 5 days, going to turn into a fabulous park for the kids of the school, and the kids of the community to play on. For the garden group, Monday was a lot of walking around the community of Floricilla, getting to know the area we would be working in, meeting a few families that already had trial gardens located in their homes. They also were able to visit the local middle school, and had the chance to see their very successful garden. Mindfulness, on Monday, was lead by Jackie and Andrew L. consisting of the creation of mandala's; circular, patterned based drawings, reflecting our feelings of the day.  Monday also consisted of the UNICH students presentation of their cultural exchange. We got the pleasure of being able to participate in culturally local things, such as a game many of the UNICH students grew up playing, as well as getting to see some traditional clothing and learn some of the traditional village dances. We also got a short lesson in Tzozil, a local, village language, spoken by a few of the UNICH students. 


Tuesday: Tuesday's work day was successful for both groups. The garden group had the pleasure of meeting Don Pedro, one of the founders of the community and farmer who awed many of the students with his wisdom and kindness. The park group got to start constructing many of the elements that were to be placed in the park, instead of just digging the holes for them. Tuesday's mindfulness was lead by Rachel and Olivia and consisted of a circular back massage chain in which we took turns discussing what we appreciated about one another, and what we were looking forward to for each other.

Wednesday: Wednesday didn't quite start how anyone had planned. First, we successfully lost 9 members of our group. Then our bus decided to not show up for 4 hours. After still not knowing where any of our group members ended up, the remainders of us headed up to the park project, and thankfully the lost members of our group headed to the garden project on their own terms. Despite a rocky start to the day, both groups had an incredibly heart warming afternoon, filled with lots of work getting done, and relationships developed. Instead of mindfulness this night, we gave our side of our cultural exchange, lead by Nicole and Leslie. They discussed the idea of the United States being a melting pot and how we were all from different places and how each of our cultures individually impacted our lives in the states together. We then taught the UNICH students how to hokey pokey as well as how to play Simon Says. After, both Leslie and Nicole gave small salsa lessons, which quickly spiraled into laughter and beautiful dance moves displayed in our hotel lobby for all to see.. and then of course attempting to teach them other collaborated dances, such as a personal favorite, the cupid shuffle. 

Thursday: Thursday went off without a hitch. The garden project was officially finished, while the park project slowly realized how much they still had left to do in under 48 hours. Mindfulness was lead by Taylor and Vicky where we discussed our favorite parts of the trip thus far, many of which consisted with the chance at getting to know one another better. 

Friday: OUR LAST WORK DAY! The bitter-sweet realization of it being our last work day set in rather early (before we even made it on the bus) with the joy of knowing this would be our last day of incredibly strenuous, dirty work, but the fear of not being able to get done on time for our 4 pm deadline. With everyone present, and helping hands every where you looked, today consisted of a lot of final touches and beautiful paint work done on all the elements. In total, the park had 11 elements: the sign, the bridge, the canal, the horses, the motorcycles, the wobbly balance beam, the tower, the bridge, the rocket ships, the see-saws, and the dragon, all primarily made of old car tires. Local members of the community gracious made us lunch, a beef stew, and many of the kids were just too excited to stay away. With the kids helping with busy work, such as collecting rocks needed for different structural things, and helping plant different fruit tree's throughout the park, and a ton of hard work done by all of us Edgewood students, along with the UNICH students, Natik, and the Rise Now crew, I can, with a warm heart, say we completed our park by 4 pm. With pride in our hearts, and paint and mud on our hands, we sadly said goodbye to a park and a community we had grown to know and love over the past few days. Friday's mindfulness, lead by Ousia, Steven, and Andrew S, consisted of journaling and discussing our feelings on if we were to do the trip again, what we would have changed and what we would have kept the same. We then all sung along to Edelweiss and went our separate ways, to dinner, to desert, or to blog. 

Looking forward to the next few days, our thoughts are on packing and what adventures we want to cram in to the short amount of time we have left before we are sadly forced to return back home. But greater than that, our thoughts are on all the people that we were able to meet, and get to be a part of their lives for a short amount of time, and how all of these people impacted our own individual lives for the better. 

When I say this is a day that no one will forget, I mean THIS IS A DAY NO ONE WILL FORGET. For our first free day, we literally went all out. All of the students (minus Ousia) decided to take a highly recommended tour that consisted of Agua Azul, Misolha, & Palenque. This tour was pretty much recommended by everyone, but every time someone mentioned it, they ended it with "but be aware... the road there is a bit bumpy and curvy." So up we got at 5 am to catch the bus to start us on our journey. All packed in tight with big hopes and pre-packed sandwiches from our lovely cooks (simply the sweetest women you will ever meet: they woke up at 5 to make sure that we had packed lunches to take with us), we were off. 5 hours was the predicted time to our first stop, Agua Azul, but approximately an hour in we had to make a slightly unexpected, abrupt stop when one of our members, Andrew S, decided he had to throw up.. right then. Shortly after we continued our journey when we stopped for breakfast at this restaurant located right on the side of the road. It was right about then that everyone started realizing we were all nauseous, most likely due to the rather questionable taco's from the night before. But none the less we got on the road again for another two hours until we came upon Agua Azul. Waterfall upon waterfall, this breathtaking sight was a never ending maze of true natural beauty. But quite frankly, as everyone has agreed, Agua Azul was no match to the raw power and breathtaking sights of Misolha.  This 35 meter waterfall was something one not only got to witness its great glory, but rather experience it first hand. Steven, Nicole, and Leslie had no problem stripping down and jumping in that water before most of us even got to the last step. While those three swam in the waterfall's down pour, the rest of us made sure to get plenty of pictures and explore a bit. Very quickly we discovered that you could climb your way behind the waterfall, which, of course, we immediately did. There is really nothing like looking up and seeing thousands of gallons of water being pour down right over your head into a vast lake just feet in front of you, while getting continuously sprayed with rainbow reflecting mist. And last, but certainly not least, we made our way to Palenque. This hyped up wonder far exceeded everyone's expectations. Literally right as you enter, you walk up to these amazing, hand-built, ancient Mayan temples. Hundreds of feet high, and hundreds of steps to get to the top, these ancient wonders still amaze to this day. Not only were they hand built, one stone at a time, these incredible buildings were the size of a football field with dozens of rooms and inter-changeable pathways. And no one could even hold a light to the view one saw when standing on the top. And to think some of these incredible buildings were simply created for a burial sight, like Pakal, whose play we went to see earlier in the week. This two hour excursion went by in a flash, as many of us were running from temple to temple, getting an amazing leg work out hiking up and down those stairs, and trying to see what every vendor possibly had to sell. And all too quickly we were back on the road again for a lovely 5+ hour bus ride, simply counting down the minutes until Andrew puked again. But sure as daylight, we made it back safe and sound and could not get to sleep fast enough.

We got to spend Saturday exploring two of the most prominent indigenous communities in the Chiapas area; Chamula & Zinacantan. We started off in Chamula, an extremely faith based community, with it's church located in the center of town, that dates back to 1592. Through the grace of their community, and a few hundred pesos, we were allowed to enter the church to observe the religious practices occurring. Many of these practices include the burning of candles towards specific saints to ask for guidance and protection in specific area's of their own lives as well as the lives of their loved ones. We were then able to walk through their market place and look at trinkets more centered around the Chamulan lifestyle. We then ventured over to Zinacantan where we met ... and her sister ... who graciously gave us a tour of their community, also centered around their churches. We were then taken to ...'s house where her mother and herself showed us how they weave shawl's and traditional Zinacantan garb. One thing we should mention here is that each different community has very distinct and elaborate traditional clothing, much of which they wear every day. We were able to try on some of these clothes, and found them to be stifling in the heat, expanding the respect we already have for these women. They then graciously made us lunch, consisting of homemade tortilla's (some of which they showed us and allowed us to press for ourselves), homemade guacamole, homemade salsa, turning everything into a delicious taco. After lunch, we got a walking tour of the more mountainous side of the community, which turned out to be quite a hike, in which we saw many places of prayer and healing located up in the mountains. The picture to the left is actually us sitting on a boulder used for baptisms by the community, looking out over the beautiful hillsides of Zinacantan, which happens to be known for their flowers. We then were taught how ... and her family are able to actually grow mushrooms in their own backyard with minimal resources, something that has actually become a source of income for them recently. We were then led to Yo'onik, a local Saturday school, where we were able to draw with the children each what is important in our lives. The results were beautiful pictures, new friendships, and a little cake with singing at the end. We returned to San Cristobal with just enough time for the UNICH students to arrive, to finally meet each other in person. We shared questionable taco's and endless discussions about excitement for the projects. And with that long day, once our heads hit the pillow, I can guarantee we were all out like a light.

Today was designated to getting to know, and be comfortable with, our surrounding city. Fortunately for us, our hotel is located in the center of a hustling and bustling, incredibly beautiful city, filled with churches, hotels, restaurants, and markets! We started our morning out with tortilla's for breakfast, followed by a rather interesting card game, designed to teach us how to effectively communicate with out speaking the same language (or speaking in general, as the game was played). After, we got an amazing tour of the city, including of climbing the 293 steps up to the church on the top of the hill, pictured to the left. We then got to go walk though the square of the city and find our way to an amazing little Christmas village celebration venue, complete with sledding and ice skating, neither of which, may I mention, is native to Chiapas. We then found our way to the most incredible Artisan market known to man. Churro's, bracelets, and trinkets galore. This little corner of the world was filled, make-shift ceiling to floor, with the most unique, hand crafted artifacts ever. Many of us could hardly keep our wallets in our pockets for longer than a moment before we found yet another thing we just had to have. After far too short of a time, we were dragged out by the bounds of our packed schedule, to a discussion with a Chiapas society member, about the socioeconomic, and rather diverse background, of the villages located around San Cristobal, the ones we will be working with. After a rather intriguing conversation about how we should never drink coca-cola again, a few of us had the opportunity to go to a play held in a local theater about the fall of the Mayan king Pakal. With fabulous costumes, fascinating fights, and English subtitles, the play was quite an experience. We wrapped up our night with a little salsa dancing and popcorn with hot sauce on it.

Well, today is the day! The sun is shining, and the tank is clean... THE TANK IS CLEAN! As many of you know, the mid-west has wonderfully unpredictable weather, which put a little bump in our road (literally), but never the less we all made it to the airport safe and sound, and surprisingly on time! With that hurdle covered, we gracefully breezed through Chicago security and made it to our gate with time to spare.. Apparently too much time to spare actually! Although we boarded the plane relatively on time, we ended up sitting on the tarmac for approximately 2 hours before we took flight. The flight itself was graceful, and snake free, and we landed in Mexico City Airport, with two hours before our next flight. After getting food, and stretching our legs out, we boarded our second, much smaller flight. 3 rows wide to be exact. But fear not, our second flight went just as smoothly as the first, and we made it to Tuxtla International Airport around 1 am, where we took some surprisingly beautiful taxi's into our hotel in San Cristobal. For many of us, this was our first experience with the Mexican road system, and what a system it is. Apparently rules are merely suggestions, and suggestions are out of the question. But, we made it to our lovely hotel Canadas del Sureste with no problems and were all too ready to go to sleep. We got our rooming assignments, and laid down with dreams of adventure