¡Que interesante!

Week three has by far been the most interesting week yet.

On Wednesday I once again visited the village of Yucanama, with my leader Angela and fellow interns Julia and Kenny (a girl.) While in Yucanama we:
visited a woman named Juana, and she gave us fresh miel y galletas (honey and crackers)
next she pounded the grey, paper machi type beehive on the table and all these dead grey larvae fell out, and she handed us some...to eat.
Yes, bee larvae is in fact a delicacy in Yucanama because it is full of protein. And yes, I ate them...
Next the other girls and I helped Juana tow her stubborn donkey up a mountain to gather fire wood for her stove. While we were gathering wood she found a live beehive. She tore large chunks off and instructed us to eat it. Now in Mexico, you can`t ever refuse food because that would be extremely offensive, so Julia, Kenny and I were stuck eating paper machi beehive with little bits of honey in it. And then we realize that we were also eating LIVE wiggling bee larvae. That yes, must be chewed because if you swallow it whole, you can feel it squirm in your throat. Seriously, I think I will be prepared for Fear Factor by the end of the summer!!
On Wednesday I also herded sheep up a mountain. . . in a skirt! Got butted in the hiney by a baby burro (it was my fault, I did whistle to get it to follow its mom), stepped on a cactus (luckily it didn´t go through my shoe) and ate pine tree sprouts. The people here think it tastes like lettuce. It does NOT taste like lettuce.
And amazingly, I was not sick on Thursday, praise God!

This week has made me realize that this trip truly is an adventure! I have continued to work on community service projects and make friends in Tlaxiaco, and my Spanish skills have been growing tremendously! Every Sunday I go to a Mexican Baptist church where everyone sings delightfully off key and I can sing as loud as my heart desires. It is simply beautiful. Today they had me take up the collection and pray over it in Spanish! It was amazing to fully understand the message today even though it was in Spanish - it is so exciting to know another language! Especially because everyone knows how much I love to talk! Haha.

Yesterday I climbed the mountain that I live at the bottom of. It is a beautiful, tree lined mountain with lush valleys between the forests of pines. The top is jagged red-rock and even from the bottom the sight of this mountain truly steals your breath! Hiking up the mountain took almost 2 hours and was an amazing team building experience! There was no trail, and the face was so steep that our group of 12 was often on all fours, clawing our way up the slopes. We would have to support each others feet as we tried to grasp the pine needle covered ground; no easy task. When we reach the peak, the view was astounding! You could see for hundreds of miles it seemed, mountains upon mountains with beautiful, lush forests in between the fields of corn. It was almost like my view from the airplane flying into Oaxaca. I`ll have plenty of pictures to post once I return to the states!

I can`t believe how fast the time is going now, barely more than a month remains of my trip, and although I am exstactic that I will return to those I love in the States, I know I will really miss the amazing people I have met through my internship, and the women of Tlaxiaco. So many of the women remind me of my grandmothers, and I truly value the friendships I have made, especially with the women in the market place. They understand the simple life, free from materialism and appreciative of the blessings they have received.

Thank you for the encouragement for everyone. Take care and God Bless!

Danielle