Yaxunah: The Adventure

Hey there everyone! Hope all of your weeks are off to a good start. I'm back in Merida for a day and a half and thought I would let you all know how my trip to Yaxunah went this past week. Let me just sum it all up by saying that it defiantly had a huge impact on me and will be something I will never forget!
Saturday morning, my host mom drove me to the bus station where I was to meet our group and head to Yaxunah for 4 days. Yaxunah is a little pueblo or village about 30 minutes away from the famous Chichen Izta ruins. We were told that we would be going there to do some community service projects and to get to know what life in a peublo is like. Other than that, we didn't know too much so I tried to have an open mind and see what the trip would bring.
Our bus took us to Chichen where we met our Coordinator/Director for the trip. His name was Elias and he was great. Let me just back up and say that our program director did not go on the trip with us so it was the 11 of us from the Butler Program (2 students stayed behind as they had conflicts with the dates) along with 2 students from UADY-a gal who is studying anthropology and came along as part of a project and another guy who was our paparazzi for the weekend and took video footage of just about everything.  After piling all of our stuff in a van (and by piling I mean shoving  everything including ourselves into the van and shutting the door super fast so that nothing would fall out), we drove 20 minutes to get to Yaxunah. As we drove along, there were less and less buildings until all that was around us were trees and grass. It was kind of like driving to the middle of nowhere.
Once we arrived, we got a quick introduction at the cultural center where we would be working for the next 4 days. The center was recently built and is really nice. By far the nicest building in the area and even had ac in one of the room and internet access. It is a source of pride for those who live in the village and they work really hard to keep it looking nice.
Our first order of business after the meeting was to go to our houses. I ended up rooming with a friend from the program, Sarah. Our house was owned by a single man and he met us at the door to welcome us. Our "house" was a cement block that had one light bulb, a bathroom with no running water, and a table with a stereo. Sarah and I got a kick out of the fact that the stereo was really nice and blasting mariachi music. It was pretty different than our houses in Merida but it was really interesting to see a different type of life here in Mexico. The man showed us where the water was ( a 5 gallon bucket in the bathroom), gave us a key, and left. We then hung up our hammocks, set our backpacks on the table and headed to eat lunch.
Lunch was served in a little hut and was made by a woman and her daughter. The food was some of the best I have ever had in my life! We ate soup with chicken, veggies, and rice and hand-made tortillas. After a quick siesta in our hammocks, it was time to get to work.
The first job we had was to clean up the cenote. We all grabbed life jackets and plastic bags and headed down to the cenote. After climbing a really freaky ladder to get down into the cenote, we swam around picking up trash and dead leaves that had fallen into the cenote..Defiantly easier said than done, especially while swimming but after 2 hours we had it pretty clean.
That night, we had a bonfire with the other volunteers from the village complete with marshmallows and stories. It was fun to interact with the other students and volunteers and get to know some of them. Some of us sang them the song One bottle Pop, Two Bottle pop, ect, and they got a kick out of that. We then returned to out house for our first night in a hammock. Sarah and I talked for a while before calling it a night and it was really fun to get to know her better. Surprisingly, sleeping in a hammock isn't too hard and is actually a lot of fun..once you get the hang of it. Unfortunately, we had some roosters living close to us who decided to crow all night so that made it a little hard to sleep.
I woke up the next morning and went for a run. It was fun to run on the only road that goes out from the town. It was so peaceful and quiet and I loved it. I can back, took a "shower" from the 5 gallon bucket and headed off to breakfast with Sarah.
After breakfast, we split up into groups to accomplish different tasks. One group made PIB, a type of meat that is slow cooked underground that we would eat for lunch, another group made a stone path, and our group raked up leaves and cleaned up the area. It was fun to work with the other volunteers and pick up on some Mayan words. Lunch was amazing and we had a break afterwards for a siesta. I had my quiet time, napped, and read a little.
We then went for another swim in the cenote and got a tour of the museum. That night was one of my favorites. We were all eating the dinners our host mom's had packed us (we brought our own food to eat for dinner) in the center of town when all of a sudden, kids started to show up. I decided to start a game with them and we ended up playing for hours and more kids joined us. We played tag, soccer (futbol), baseball, and just ran around. It was so much fun and the kids loved playing with us and wanted us to take pictures with them which was adorable.
That night, Sarah and I had some more late night pillow talk and then went to bed. After breakfast, we all set off to explore some ruins that are close to the village. These ruins were not very well kept up( they were pretty much in the middle of the forest) so we had to hike though lots of foliage to get to them but climbing them was pretty sweet. It was also cool to be able to see ruins that not a lot of other foreigners get a chance to see.
Back at the cultural center, we got to work sanding rust off of the fence surrounding the cenote and repainting it. It was a dirty job but fun. A group of us started singing Disney songs which made time go by a lot faster. We then ate another delicious lunch and went to our houses for siestas. Later, as Sarah and I were walking back to the cultural center, two little girls came running out of their house and gave us both huge hugs and asked us if we were going to play with them again. We told them of course and headed off to finish painting. It was adorable and made me feel so special.
After we finished painting, we went to the park to play with the kids which was super fun. Then Sarah and I headed home. As we were sitting in our hammocks talking, we discovered a huge spider on our wall that started moving. (There had been a few that were there that didn't move so we just left them alone) This one though, was giant and freaked us out. We both screamed and I jumped out of my hammock to grab my shoes to kill it. It ran behind the door though and just as I was about to try to throw my shoe at it, a little girl came into our house asking us what we were playing. Her parents followed behind explaining that the little girl heard us scream and though we were playing and was sad we didn't invite her...Hilarious! We quickly explained that there was a huge spider and that we were really scared and that's why we screamed. The dad took a broom that was in our room and brought the spider outside. He and the mom just gave each other a look that said, "wow!'. I imagine they thought we were pretty silly but in our defense it was a huge spider and we both weren't looking forward to sleeping in the dark with that thing crawling around. After thanking the family a million times, they left and Sarah and I collapsed into a fit of laughter. The whole chain of events was hilarious. We then went back to talking thankful that the adventure was over...or so we thought. About 15 minutes later, it came crawling back in and this time I decided that we had to kill it. Sarah was freaked out so she stayed in her hammock taking pictures (naturally) and I armed with my tennis shoes and a broom stick set out to kill the spider once and for all. It finally ran into the door separating the bathroom from where we slept and there I killed it. It was pretty discussing but at least it was dead and we could sleep.
The next morning, was out last day. After running, I found a tarantula in our toilet and decided that maybe I was glad we were leaving. After finishing up laying the rest of the stone path at the cultural center, we visited a school and then packed up our stuff and headed out. Some of the kids came and tackled us with hugs and begged us not to go..it was so precious and almost made me cry. They followed behind our van waving. We arrived back in Merida around 4. The first thing I did when I got back was take a nice, long shower which felt amazing. I feel so much more thankful for running water, a fan in my room, and a bed to sleep on.
Working in the village taught me a lot about a different lifestyle here in Mexico. I learned that the people of the pueblos are proud of their Mayan ancestry and are happy where they are at. While their lives are really different than mine, I learned that I could appreciate the simple way they lived. It was such a privilege to be able to spend 4 days there and I know that part of my heart was left with the kids there.
Today, I went to el centro and explored el mercado or huge market. You can literally find anything and everything there! Tonight, we have a Halloween party with our program so that should be fun. I'm not feeling the greatest-I’ve got a super sore throat and cough so you can be praying that that gets better so I can enjoy the next few days. Tomorrow, some of us are going to the beach and then I have homework and we head out at 12 that night to go to Chiapas. Love to all!