"Aye, gringos!"

For some of the kids in the community, we were the first gringos they'd ever seen.

When we rode into the village in our van, kids came running up to the side of the road, pointing and shouting, "Aye, gringos!"

At the lunch meeting with the Circle of Friends and Neighbors, a big group of kids gathered around us and stared. One of the little girls, maybe 6 or 7 years old, came up to me and stroked my arm. We both laughed. She was also really fascinated by all of my earrings. 

All of the people in the community have been really open with us. Two people in our group spoke Spanish, and they did all of the translating. No one ever mentioned being poor. They all said Fundacion Simiente and Heifer have helped them a lot, and they hope to keep working with them in the future. They did say they needed more wells and more irrigation. Water is definitely key here. 

They also mentioned education. One of the women told us that her daughters are in school and she wants them to focus on learning. They're working with Simiente to learn how to build the stoves the foundation is currently installing in people's homes. So in the future, they'll be able to build their own stoves and won't need the foundation to do it for them.

We asked our host, Maria, about electricity. She said she doesn't really want it. At night, she told us, it's nice and dark and you can see all of the stars. "Bonita, no?"