Wukro, day 2, busy and productive

Morning call was at 7:00. Here, at Saint Mary Mission, breakfast is at 7:15, lunch is at 12:30 and supper at 19:00h. After breakfast we took a run with Silvia, a Catalan girl that we met yesterday, and who runs marathons. They explained the way to the lake and we headed in that direction down a dirt and stone road. When we reached the lake there was no water, which is why we crossed it straight down the middle and headed towards a town that we spotted from afar. We decided to play Dora the explorer.

The town has its charm; it is like maze of stone, adobe and straw houses. When we arrived there were barely a couple of children in the street playing with stones, but in a matter of 5 minutes we were surrounded by 20-30 people staring at us from top to bottom and totally surprised. We walked up to the church which is at the highest point in town, from where we enjoyed good views.

When we descended, the children saw that we were a bit lost so they led us to the way out of town. And as soon as we began to run, they all joined us. We don’t very well know why but we thought it was funny. We were rather impressed with a little girl of about 6 years of age who was running barefoot down the stone sections of the road. Us, though wearing running shoes, well, we were being quite careful so as to not twist an ankle and her, as if nothing.

We ran together the whole way back, because as soon as we left some behind others joined us, thus all 5 Marias (us) and 20 children arrived back at the mission. What is quite clear is that we will never train alone, and it’s very amusing to run with them.

Upon our arrival Angel was going to supervise one of the infrastructure projects that are taking place in the area and we have to join him. There are 11km of little effective mud drains in water canalization, which have now been cemented and the difference in their crops is remarkable. On our return we stopped at the garbage dump, where they are trying to take advantage of organic waste to make compost and use as fertilizer.

In the afternoon we had our first contact with the Wukro football players. As you might imagine, the football ground has nothing to do with what we are accustomed to in the Basque Country. Most of the ‘rectangle’ is made up of clay and sand with some pieces of grass, very irregular and bordered by a row of trees and a wall, with a small rock signposting the centre of the field. We had made arrangements to meet with a player that bakes bread at the mission, and in the end we were 20.

We ended the day with the sensation that just with what we have live these two days it’s been totally worth the trip. We have yet to see what lies ahead…