Sunday in Comintacillo

Four of our friends are having their last day in Comintacillo. Joni, Jackie, Margarita and Karen return to Xela later this afternoon. (Liz and I venture on for 2 more days....auditing stove-building and attending an important meeting with AMMID.)

Another bright and beatiful day especially since it is weekly market day in town. Villagers come from miles around. Possibly they will sell wares and/or trade up to goods they need.

Our Hotel Los Pinos is very close to the pig and livestock market. Pigs and piglets of all sizes are all around. Cattle are also plentiful. Sheep are also seen but they are very distinct minority.

Thousands of indiginous Mayan families mill about this find day. We must be the only gringos in Comintacillo. Not too many things to do today except: 1)Buy the items necessary for a Joni+Liz cooking extravaganza 2) Buying weaving material at the AMMID store in Comintacillo 3) Going to see Charlie-the-peace-corps-worker's house. 4) Helkping chef Joni and chef Liz prepare the big lunch

Guatemala Stove Project as well as the Peace Corps like to diversify and extend the cooking/eating habits of the local people. To this end Joni organizes a "fruitata" (Eggs, potates, onions, sweet peppers) and Liz organizes a "corn-meal-bread"-style cake. Everything turned out really well and the local ladies were watching carefully and taking mental notes.

Funeral in Comintacillo: Just as the 4 volunteers have left for Xela, Liz and I walk by the cemetery, as usual, but this time there is a very large funeral entourage going by. Since Liz has a camera at the ready she is urged by some casket bearers to take a few photographs. They stop the entire village funeral for a few seconds while Liz takes a some photos. Later she seems to hear from the funeral tributes that the deceased person was an elderly woman in her nineties.

Comintacillo has wonderful people and our visit is very well received.