EIL Intercultural Learning

¡Buenas tardes! Things are really busy in Ventanilla in my last week here, as the whole town is preparing for it`s annual Fiesta de Santa Maria. Every year the men from the village spend about a week building in the village church in preparation for the Mass and Rosaries of the festival. This year, the villagers have sacrificed the money for a big musical performance at the festival in order to build an impressive roof for the church. I have been helping with the construction which is sweaty work because of the lack of shade! The make-shift scaffolding is a little wobbly, but it is safe enough.

My jobs include mixing cement, sending bricks up in the pulley system, and throwing (yes, throwing!) bricks in pairs up to one of the builders on the highest tier of the roof! These guys are brave! In the evenings I have been attending the Rosaries, which are really only attended by the women and children of the village. The singing is really beautiful, and you barely notice the onslaught of mosquitos as the sun goes down!
 
The festival also hosts a big football tournament between villages along the coast, and I have volunteered myself for the Ventanilla team. The pitch is on the beach, and running on the sand is tiring, so I have been going for early morning runs just before the sun pops up over Ventanilla`s infamous ventana (a window in the cliffs), and playing matches in the evening with local kids. It is really tiring training on the beach, and it seems Rocky Balboa was even more of a hero than I thought!
 
I am hopefully going to perform a couple of local songs with one of the guides, Perfecto. One song `Santa Maria Tonameca` is a song about the Oaxacan coastline, and name drops Ventanilla - it`s a great tune, I can`t get it out of my head!
 
Last week I visited another Ecotourism project on the coast in a place called Escobilla. This is a really popular spot for the golfina turtles to lay their eggs, even more so than Ventanilla. I spent the day planting the tiny Mangle Botoncillo plants which they cultivate here in bags before planting around the lagoon. The lagoon here in Escobilla is just as breathtaking as in Ventanilla - it seems there is no shortage of sublime scenery here in Oaxaca!
 
I`ve plenty to keep myself busy with this final week anyway, entonces, hasta luego amigos!