Making Friends (Wednesday 6/7/2023)

 

We are meeting and doing things with other students coming to Copan to learn Spanish. Harry arrived a week ago and is staying at our host family’s house while learning Spanish at the other immersion school in town. Harry is only here a week and is making the most of it. He is an intrepid adventurer. In fact he is learning Spanish so that he can travel with one of his daughters who is in a Spanish club in High School back in their hometown in Virginia. Another NPH volunteer, Julie, came to Copan a few days ago and is learning Spanish at the school that Harry attends. Harry made a reservation to learn how to make chocolate at a local artisan chocolate shop (Mayan Harvest) and invited the three of us to go with him.

We met at the artisan shop in the early afternoon and were given a tour in which we learned about the steps to make chocolate.  We harvested cocoa pods; broke them open; extracted the seeds; learned about the fermentation and roasting process; then ground previously prepared (fermented, dried, roasted, and husked) seeds and blended them with sugar to make basic chocolate.


Allen & Harry Making Chocolate

We also got to taste! and the opportunity to purchase more chocolate from the store!

After the tour, we got coffees and visited with each other on the upstairs balcony while a huge storm rolled in. Thunderstorms with lots of rain are frequent here, but this is the first time that we experienced it during the day. Sheets of rain came down and it seemed from every direction, with lots of wind, thunder, and lightning. For more than an hour, we were hostage to the storm, stuck with each other and only coffee and chocolate for sustenance! We waited for it to abate before going back to our homes for dinner. The rain had cooled the air and cleaned the streets but left plenty of water (puddles, gullies, and minor creeks) to walk through on our way home. The power was out (also a frequent occurrence in Copan) and we had a candle light dinner at our homestay at Doña Tina’s (que romantica!).

Doña Tina holding a Flor de izote - the national flower of El Salvador - before using it in a dinner "saladita".

Comments

  1. Barb BoettcherJune 9, 2023 at 5:47 PM

    Hello, you two! So great to get updates, thank you. May God richly bless you and those you minister to. Come, Lord Jesus, and be exalted. All glory and honor to the Lord of all. Hugs!!

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