Day 5, Basura and Brews!

Day 5,
So this blog is a couple days late because the place we stayed did not have internet.

We woke up at the ungodly hour of 6 in order to be in our new home El Hongo, which means mushroom in spanish, by 9. Upon arrival we dumped our luggage at the hotel and went to the community park to meet the people we would be working with and the mayor of the town. It was a very warm welcome and made picking up garbage (garbage is basura in spanish, hence the title) a little more tolerable. The workers had already put the garbage and brush into big piles along the road and it was our job to load up all of the piles into the back of trucks. Armed with our shovels, rakes, and a pitchfork wielded expertly by Rai, we went to the task and had one street done in stunning fashion. Graham and Michael accompanied our new amigo Paco to the dump to empty the smaller truck, then headed back to continue. Paco had to go pick his kids up from school and take them home, so to horror of everyone else Michael was put in charge of driving the truck. Not just any old truck mind you, one with very little upholtestry, a broken gear indicator, and a sketchy engine. Michael did a fantastic job driving the truck...as long as you don't ask the rest of the group! After we finished filling up the truck a second time we were directed back to the park for lunch in the kiosk-ish thing. The lunch was an incredible multiple course meal cooked for us by some locals, who were making fresh tortillas right below us. We were absolutely stuffed at the end, so what better way to top that off than with a trip to the brewery? We drove to Tecate, Mexico, to the Tecate brewery where they make Tecate, Sol, Carta Blanca, El Indio, and Dos Equis...all owned by Femsa Coca-Cola. After a short video that was mostly an advertisement (from what I understood) we were guided around the factory to see some of the history and how it's made. At the end of the tour some of us enjoyed a free sample of Tecate beer in the Jardin Cervezas (Beer Garden). Exhausted from our day of work we headed home to shower and have dinner at the house of Arturo and Eunice. We were given yet another delicious home-made meal and played baseball with their grand kids Jeremiah, Carla, and Nathan. The evening was spent playing with the kids and chatting, over all a very very fun time. We passed out in our hotel rooms, ready for our next early morning.

Stay Classy Iowa City!