Community Service- Yaxunah

During the crazy month of October, so much happened. Between exams and papers...let's just say it was a rough month. The 25-27th the group, minus two, went to Yaxunah, a rural village right outside of Chichén Itzá. While there, we participated in community service with the local youth group, Los Jaguares, and slept in almost traditional mayan housing...we got to set up camp, aka our hammocks, in the government provided cement part of the house, seen in the foto with my roommate for the trip.



Our first day consisted of dividing into two groups to help local families with the front of their houses. Basically, we cleaned the front yard, moved rocks to build a wall, planted plants, chased chickens and puppies, created a pathway from the road to the front door, and prepared the area for a cement step to enter the house. By the time we were done, i was covered  head to toe in dirt. the highlight of the day was definitely seeing a tarantula with orange spots...Eeeak! lunch and dinner was served in one of the local family's house where we enjoyed fresh maíz tortillas. Best thing ever!!!

Day two was even more fun! the day was dedicated to helping out around the Cultural Center and Museum in Yaxunah. Thinking my group had an easy task, similar to planting plants, ended up not being true. for a couple hours or more, we moved rocks, moved more rocks, shoveled rocks in the pathway, moved more rocks, shoveled rocks back, dug dirt, moved dirt....well you get the point. exhausting!! but we were rewarded in the end with a nice long swim in the Cenote, which by the way is an area where the limestone caved i allowing for underground water to rise up and flood the area.

Later on in the afternoon, we went back to our designated work sites and finished up with the cement stairs. Followed by a fogata, campfire, with marshmallows and games to get to know the other volunteer workers later on in the night.

Saturday was a somewhat easy day. The groups went to other houses to help...but i ventured off with a couple of other people and went to see the archeological site of Yaxunah, which was about a 10 minute walk from the Cultural Center

The last activity of the day was to make cochinita pibil, a famous yucatecan dish of pork, spices, and lime cooking in a pit. After copious amounts of squeezed lemons for lemonade, my trip started going down hill. Enter: Misadventure #2 of the trip...the first being a nasty eye infection...the second being, I still have no clue entirely. 12 hours later, my hands were swollen, red, and extremely sore. It ended up being some sort of acid burn/allergic reaction to lemons and the plants at the archeological site....

Thus ends this story.....Next up: Chiapas!