By: Josh Villa
All the projects are done! As satisfying as it is to know that our project is completed and that (hopefully) we helped the people of Project Hombre, it also means that we will be leaving Cancun tomorrow.
Students sit down to have lunch with the residents of Project Hombre, after completing their projects for the week.
Probably the best part of the day was sitting down for lunch with the people who lived at Project Hombre. Some of them spoke English and some of our group spoke Spanish, but at my table we had two ‘brothers’ (they call each other ‘brother’) who spoke very little English and the CFACT people at our table didn’t speak Spanish fluently. Nevertheless, they were still very friendly and always tried to answer our simple Spanish 101 questions – even though we didn’t really understand much of the answer.
Besides the company, the food that they had was fantastic. They served enchiladas with a sauce that looked kind of like barbeque sauce but a little thicker. It was so bizarre because it was sweet, yet salty. It was mild yet spicy. I wish I could’ve asked what it was but the language barrier got in the way. The food, not just the lunch we had at Project Hombre was always fantastic (except the one time we had lunch at McDonalds – but that was only once I promise!). It was nice to get away from the two biggest components of American food: fat/grease and salt (again, excluding the one lunch and McDonald’s). The food wasn’t anything that seemed altogether too exotic. It was very recognizable, even to someone who is far from an expert on food. What the major difference was, in my opinion, the quality of the food and the spices. As most people would expect, the food tends to have a little spice in it, which I like as long as it isn’t too overbearing. But moving away from the processed foods and towards fresher food was extraordinarily refreshing.
All-in-all the trip was a success. I am happy with the work that we did, with the people that we met – both the residents of Project Hombre and other CFACT members from Minnesota and the rest of the country and it was unbelievable to get out of the weather of Minnesota and enjoy the warmth and sun of Cancun!
