We left for our campo of Venue
early the next morning. It was two hours to the North of the ILAC center. The
ride there was shaky because after the first hour we began to climb up very
steep hills to get to the mountainside where we would be staying. I was scared
for my life when we started up the very narrow and windy road to the top of the
mountain. I swear the bus was almost vertical during that trip. We arrived at
the campo site and began to unload the bus and carry our supplies for the week
into Venue. As I walked down the steep hill I looked around me at the village
that would be our home for the next week, and I was amazed. We were told that
we might be taking bucket showers because there wasn’t running water, but it
wasn’t bad at all. The main part of the village that we stayed in had several
houses that were spread around. Everyone in this part of the village was related
by blood or by marriage. Our mom during the trip was Adita, she lived outside
of the village and she walked to all of the parts of Venue every day. We received
our housing assignments for the week, and went to our homes to meet the
families that we would be living with. Our mom also ran a store in the village
that people could buy snacks and treats from. After, we met them we had lunch
and went off for our first day of work.
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| Blue floor we layed for son and his mom. |
The work that we were brought to do
in Venue was concrete floor laying and planting Cocoa. A typical day would
start off with us laying concrete floors and end with us planting cocoa plants.
Laying the concrete was back breaking work. The concrete was mixed in the
street and then we carried buckets of it to the houses that needed the new
floors. Something that I thought was very cool was after we layed the floor,
professionals would come a spread a mixture of colored powder and concrete
together to create a colored floor. I thought this was something so neat,
because when I heard that we were going to be laying concrete floors, I thought
of the gray concrete floors, not about making them aesthetically pleasing. We
layed several floors throughout the week, and every person that we layed a
floor for was a person who was in need and deserving of it. We layed a floor
for a deaf woman who was unable to afford getting her floor replaced. She was a
very sweet woman. The one that touched me the most was when we helped a woman’s
son lay a floor for her. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and the son
wanted to lay the floor for her so that she could have a smooth floor to walk
on. He amazed me by how hard he worked to lay the floor for his mother. He was
putting all of the rest of us to shame. I admired his dedication, after we
finished with the floor; he bought us all a couple of two liters to share. Our
guide said that he had probably used his life savings to get his mother that
new floor. Late, we found out that he had a mental disability, but you never
would have guessed it with his interactions with us and how hard he worked.
That memory will always stick with me.
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| Cocoa plant that has been freshly opened. |
In the afternoon we would plant cocoa
plants on the mountainside. The way that we planted things there was not orderly;
it was just wherever there was space that is where we would plant the cocoa. The
first day our planting site was an hour hike away from our campo. I lost my
shoe in the mud that day, and I dug around in the mud for it and had to have
one of the other Rockhurst students help me dig it out. We hiked and hiked to
get to the first location. The kids were running in front of us like it was
nothing, while we were panting trying to keep up with them. Once we reached our
site, we began to plant the cocoa. The kids showed us how to pick ripe cocoa
and crack it open. You could eat the beans in the cocoa, but it is super
bitter. Later during our week we would go and see where the cocoa is dried before
it gets shipped out to become chocolate. The mountain where we were planting
the cocoa at was very steep. There were little fire ant hills everywhere, and
it became a rite of passage to get bitten by them at least once while we were
planting cocoa. The rest of the week flew by, as we worked during the morning through
the afternoon. Then we hung out with our families at night.
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| Drying area for the cocoa. |
On our last night in Venue, the
village threw us a goodbye party. They played music and we danced most of the
night away. It was a really fun visit and a good way to end the trip. I can
honestly say that I laughed, thought, and cried during my time there. Our week
ended sooner than I would have liked. The day after our farewell party we left
and headed back to the ILAC center. The ride on the way back was just as scary
as the ride up. When we got back to the ILAC center we all showered and then
went out into the town to visit an orphanage and go souvenir shopping. The orphanage
was also another unique experience. The orphanage there was filled with people
who were seen as burdens to their families. Not because their parents had died
and they couldn’t go anywhere else. I was happy to see that they had found
somewhere to care for them, but still there weren’t enough caretakers there. It
pulled at my heart strings and I wanted to be able to do more for them than
just visit and interact with them. After we left the orphanage we went souvenir
shopping and I felt weird going from the sadness I felt from the orphanage to
become an American tourist. This trip was a once in a lifetime experience for
me and I really hope that everyone takes advantage of the opportunity that
Rockhurst offers to go and help others and become servant leaders.
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