8-day trip to Zona Reyna

Hi guys,

I was getting better at posting updates, and the only reason I was delayed was because I just went on a really eye-opening trip to visit the communities in Zona Reyna. This post is the overall summary post, but I will update more with stories from certain talks with families or experiences or observations.

I went on a 10-day campaign with our asesora from Nebaj, Ana. She has family members who live in a town called 31 de Mayo, one of the communities in Zona Reyna.

We planned a trip to go to 10 communities to do publicity and campaigns. These communities are remote agricultural villages. Crops range from corn and black beans to cardemom and oranges. Most of these towns have no electricity or running water (except for Paroquia).

I'm attaching a map to roughly show where I went. Thing is -- these communities are not actually far from Nebaj -- roads don't exist to get there in a shorter way so we had to take a very long, circuitous route. Even then, the roads that do exist are rocky and steep. I'm actually guessing where some of the towns are. When I checked google maps, only El Pinal, Las Pacayas, Saquixpec, La Taña, and Uspantán actually show up on the map.

I had three goals for this trip:
1. support Ana on the publicity and campaigns
2. talk to the families, understand what life is like, what their needs are
3. interview the families in Río Azul about the stoves we have built for them

I was able to accomplish all three though I had to cut my trip short to 8 days because I had to get back to support another campaign near Quiché.

Schedule:
Day 1 -4:30am depart Nebaj --> Uspantan --> San Antonio (publicity)--> El Pinal (publicity)--> Las Pacayas (sleep at a family's house) [the lady of the house is Elena. She was an incredibly kind woman who opened her home to us graciously and offered us food. Ana knows the family. picture of us both in the two Elenas pic]
Day 2 - 7 am Las Pacayas (publicity) --> Paroquia (publicity and sleep at hospedaje)
Day 3 - 7 am start Paroquia (publicity cont) --> Rio Azul (publicity) --> 31 de Mayo (sleep at Ana's family's house)
Day 4 - 4 am depart for Saquixpec (publicity) --> Napoles (publicity) --> La Tana (publicity) -->31 de Mayo (sleep)
Day 5 - laundry in the morning [see laundry pic]; 31 de Mayo (afternoon campaign) (sleep at 31 de Mayo)
Day 6 - 5:30 am depart for La Tana (campaign) --> Napoles (afternoon campaign) (sleep at family's house in Napoles)
Day 7 - Rio Azul campaign and stove interviews [attached pic of Don Nicolas and his family with their stove after finishing the interview with him] (afternoon) (sleep at family's house in Rio Azul)
Day 8 - depart at 4:30 am to drop Ana off at Saquixpec campaign and Helen heads back to Nebaj

Overall, it was a tough trip, but really incredible. Again, I feel so much gratitude for what we have in the US and was touched by the kindness of the families we visited.
I will definitely post more on this trip later.
Hope everyone is well! Happy Holidays!