Day 4 Blog by Kian and Jocelyn

We started the day at 8:30, with six students working on building the new cafeteria and six others working in the classrooms with children. At noon we ate lunch. After lunch we and several Mayan children learned to communicate silently by guiding each other through a maze. Later, we split up into several groups based on our leadership styles and built water filters (on a budget). Before returning home, we visited the Mayan Museum, where we learned about Mayan culture and how to make tortillas and coffee from scratch. We also saw an example of Mayan dancing. Afterwards, the girls split from the boys and visited the Women’s Center and discussed Mayan women’s role in the community while the boys played (and lost in) a game of soccer against the Mayan children.

        It was very interesting to learn about the Mayan Culture. However, Julio, our guide at the Museum said that the Mayans are losing their culture, not only through the osmosis of modern technology, but also because newer generations are ashamed of their culture, especially when they leave the community to pursue higher education. For example, the women told us that girls that go to Dangriga for high school are embarrassed to wear traditional clothes that they have been wearing all their lives.

A few things that we hope to remember and learn from the Mayan Culture would be the dances, their cooking methods, and how different their homes were. We really appreciate them for opening their homes for us and teaching us about their culture (For example we help them make tortillas, and talk about the differences in our culture). We hope they remember us as positive, empowering leaders because we really appreciate them teaching us about their culture and working with the students.