Last Weekend Roundup: July 5-6

On Saturday, Oriana and I had planned to spend the day hanging out with Francisco, AGAIG’s jade artist, and his family. When we showed up, he said “So, what are you going to make today?”

Oriana and I both worked on new pieces. I used the diamond saw first to cut my piece out, and then began the process of sanding it into the right shape. Jade is about a 7 on the hardness scale. The only rocks harder are stones like rubies, sapphires, and diamonds. So, to cut jade, you need to use a diamond saw. Then I spent the rest of the day sanding. You have to sand it forever to get it to the right level of smoothness that you’d see in a jewelry store. I’ll have to go back over there to finish it.

I’m not telling you what the piece is…because it’s a present.

Francisco’s wife, Odelia, made us stop and eat some lunch. We sat down and proceeded to talk about Francisco’s childhood, about Mexican slang that is ruining Guatemalan Spanish, about old folks in the village, and about poverty.

We talked with Francisco about making a trip to the mountains to hunt for jade. That will likely happen in August. We’re planning a trip to see some Mayan ruins in Quirigua in a week or so. We’re hoping Francisco will join us.

We worked some more on the pieces and then had to run to try to catch the last bus back to Antigua. We were meeting Erin and Laura for another AGAIG volunteer’s going away party. So, we hung out at the party for a while and then went to a tucked away club that we’d heard about from locals—we were the only two Americans there. It was kinda nice. We danced a while there and then the club closed down for the evening. We flagged a cab luckily—it was pouring—and were on our way back to San Miguel.

On Sunday, we woke up late, did some laundry and got ready to play soccer up at the cancha. We played for the full two hours. It started to pour and I couldn’t see very well with my glasses wet and foggy. Oriana stayed up at the cancha to play with the boys.

I walked the girls home—we were all sopping wet. The whole time we were walking, the girls were making jokes and each time we dropped one off they would ask if we were playing again next Sunday. They all seem to really enjoy the two hours we’ve carved out for female bonding on the soccer field. Even three weeks ago, these girls were deathly afraid of the ball—they did much better this week and they’ll likely continue to improve.