August 15th

This morning we went to the hills with our Telcel phone to try it out. We finally had luck finding signal, although it was still difficult and we had to go to a hill that was relatively far away.

Steve sitting precariously (edit by Steve: comfortably) on a big rock on the La Vaquita hill.

Trying to talk on the phone by the big cross. There was a tiny bit of signal on the La Vaquita hill, but the phone was still impossible to use.

After that we went back and had lunch with the Reyes. We talked a lot over lunch, which we had outside on the patio in the middle of their home. They cooked a noodle dish (spaghetti, tomatos, garlic, and onions), Mexican rice, vegetables (carrots, peas, and potatos) and they also had the leftovers of the cow that was killed for the wedding the day before. I was happy that I was not asked to eat the cow.

Later we tried to go find Elena in order to speak with her about our project and everything else. Her daughter, Cindi, told us that she wasn't there (she was away tending the cows), but she'd be back in a while. We went to the store in La Vaquita in order to buy water and in the process discovered the elementary school, which we hadn't seen before. Ophelia told us about how the school is much nicer now because they installed new bathrooms and painted them (they have a really pretty mural now) and fixed up the buildings. They got money from the government to do it (they won it in a sort of lottery that was held for the schools in the area). The people also raised some money themselves and did the manual work in terms of the building. The classrooms looked pretty nice (good desks, whiteboards, books) but everything was in disarray (books on the floor, food wrappers, desks to one side).

The nice bathrooms they built at the elementary school and painted.

After the meeting, we went to a dance that she invited us to in Castellano. There was a huge carnival there with a lot of people (hundreds) from Castellano, La Vaquita, and probably other villages as well. We went there in Elena's van (which she owns). After watching some fireworks, we visited a friend of Elena's (the auxiliar of Castellano). I had a lot of trouble understanding what people are saying.