Boxbol and a Mayan Ceremony

Last Sunday we headed to Nebaj with our team. Two of our projects and two of our staff are in Nebaj, so it was a good opportunity for most of our team to see and learn about another part of Guatemala.

On the road to Nebaj, there are always interesting things to see...

...like lots of watermelons.

We like to make our team do ice breakers, because we're the bosses and we can. :)

While the neighbors watch from afar, curious as to what the heck we're doing.

We learned to make Boxbol, a traditional Quiche dish. (We tried it the last time we were here, which I wrote about).

The corn dough is stuffed inside green leaves, rolled, and cooked.

It's served with a variety of sauces, usually a red tomato or a nutty one. It's super delicious.

Ruby thought so, too.

Cooking on the fire.

A few of the guys, learning how to make tortillas.

We celebrated birthdays since our last time together as a group.

We happened to be in Nebaj at the beginning of what is a sacred time of year for the Mayan culture. The 5 days of the New Year were beginning. We heard from some Mayan spiritual leaders about some of the traditions.

Meanwhile, Hazel made a friend. At first, this little girl was watching Hazel from afar as she colored. I suggested to Hazel maybe the girl would like to join her. 

Though a bit shy, Hazel handed the girl a crayon without saying much, and the girls colored together for a long time.

Breakfast one morning was "atol blanco," a white corn-based gruel. With BBQ corn chips on top.

On our last morning, we attended a Mayan "cleansing" ceremony. Our friend gave us a demonstration before we went (I, unfortunately, got food poisoning and was sick in the van while the rest of the team was participating in the ceremony). 

With 5 branches, the spiritual leaders whack each person on the head, hands, and legs, to help cleanse each person from their sins (this is how I understood it). 

Our boss, Cesar, who joined us for our retreat from Honduras, volunteered to serve as an example for us.

As always, I'm always thankful for the team and their ability to just hang out with our girls. It's a special part of the memories we are making, these team retreats. It's often humbling to be parenting in all of our impatience and stress in front of our team, but they have a lot of grace.