Cuidad Dario -- Day 1 and 2

Leaving Santa Rosa; luggage at airportPatrick Rickon met us at airport
SoL Resource Center where we are staying. Linda knocking on outside gate -- we're very secure inside the Center. A night watchman is even on duty every night.

Accomodations at SoL, Cuidad Dario

Staff & entertainers at SOL


Brick Factory ...............Linda showing pictures from 1996 to woman at Palo de Agua


We arrived!!! All the airline connections worked like clockwork. Some of us got very little sleep on the red eye flight from SFO to San Salvador, then another plane to Managua. Patrick Rickon met us --the coordinator of the Seeds of Learning program -- and with help, they loaded our tons of luggage in a van. The rest of us rode in a rented bus for the hour and half ride on the beautiful Pan American Highway -- no potholes until we turned off the main road.



We enjoyed seeing the green hills, the people milling around doing whatever they were doing --cooking, tending animals, visiting, caring for children, riding horses or buses. The sights and sounds and smells are very much Third World as we drove out into the more rural area.


Upon arrival at the Seeds of Learning Center in Cuidad Dario, we were very pleased to find we had 4 bedrooms for the 13 of us. Each room had a ceiling fan (much appreciated) with bunk beds, sheets, pillows, towels, and mosquito nets ready for us. The weather was pleasant the day we arrived, with a sprinkle or two that quickly passed.


After lunch, Patrick did an orientation session for us, then another staff person gave us a walking tour around Cuidad Dario. We found the market that had fresh fruit and where women make tortillas -- Linda, Bob & Steve went out early Tuesday morning and bought 2 dozen freshly made tortillas and mangos for our breakfast. We also found the internet place and phone area.


The school children at SoL welcomed us late afternoon with an incredible performance of music and dance. They are called Groupo del Sol -- and did wonderful Folkloric entertainment. The 12-13 instrumentalists traded off playing guitars, drums, accordian, marimbas, horn -- all amplified. The entire city probably heard them. Everything was memorized, and they were excellent! Several different groups danced -- all in wonderful dance costumes. We were mesmerized. Then they got all of us into the dance before the end of the evening. Great fun.


After dinner and showers, we were definitely ready for bed!


But up again early this morning for our trip to Palo de Agua -- the little village where we will be working all week. Some of us got to stand up in the back of the pick-up as we bounced our way up to our destination -- about 45 minutes. On the way we got to see a brick-making ¨factory¨ -- this area is known for their bricks. We also noticed men working in the fields with machetes. From Palo de Agua you can look back over the beautiful green valley. We saw many small homes with cows, pigs, chickens, small vegetable plots. As Ted put it, ¨Very poor homes with a million dollar view!¨

The people gradually gathered after we arrived. Linda and Ted brought pictures from their trip 13 years ago, and gave them to one of the women who remembered Linda. The woman was so happy to receive the pictures.


The community formally greeted us with more singing and dancing, and then we got to work. It was definitely manual labor -- mixing wheelbarrows of various sand, gravel and powdered cement. The shovel people were busy mixing and turning as the water was added. Then we filled buckets of the mixed cement and handed to the workers up on scaffolding who poured it into the crown -- the top of the brick structure. (More to come since this Internet store is closing.)