Monday - Day 8

The group returned to work today at Palo de Agua. The school was in session today--they were on vacation last week. About mid-morning the teacher had them take a break and the kids moved all the desks into the center of the room again for us to paint. It looked better with the second coat of paint.

We were also soaking bricks, then using a string line for measuring to build a latrine -- one brick with mortar at a time. Lots of activity.

After lunch back at SoL, we provided activities for the Learning Center (where we are staying). Nikki was a hit making jewelry with little ocean glass pieces; Bob had his loops again; Steve did lanyards with the kids; Troy made balloon animals again; Ted had bubbles; Christine, Linda, Claudia and I plus youth were helpers.

After dinner and group sharing, we decided we had better practice our square dance and Virginia Reel dances. That is supposed to be our entertainment for the village at the end of our time here. Nicole is our caller, and we´re using Bob´s I-pod and speakers. We´re not too bad actually!

Zip Line -- Sunday

There´s some great photos of everyone that went on the zip line --from Bob´s camera.

Day 7 -- Sunday

volcano; hiking
Las Catalinas & Lake Nicaragua


Happy Birthday, Kaitlyn


Our breakfast at the coop consisted of lots of fruit (banana, melon, mango, orange), bread rolls plus juice and coffee. Patrick took us to the Volcano entrance not too far away, then we loaded onto large trucks for the ride up the steep mountain. It was windy and misty at the top -- the cool weather felt good! We went with a guide on a hike around the volcano, but because it was so foggy, we couldn´t see down into the volcano or the view of the lake way or Granada way out in the distance. But we did enjoy seeing all the flowers and vegetation. Beautiful bird of paradise plants. It was like being in a rain forest with such lush vegetation. On the back to the entrance, our truck let us off at a coffee plantation where we had free coffee. Linda bought some ground coffee for us to take home.

The highlight of the trip for some was the zip line. They were suited up with harness and helmet, attached to a wire, and ¨flew¨over the canopy of trees, landing on 17 different platforms. I was trying to use Bob's photo card, but it isn´t working just now. The guys and youth were all pretty jazzed by the whole thing!

We stopped at Las Catalinas on the way back to Cuidad Dario for a view of Lake Nicaragua and tourist shopping.

Back at SoL, we went out to dinner -- a little restaurant around the corner owned by Enrique. He has usually prepared our lunch and dinner meals and brought them to us. His place was an attractive place with bright tablecloths. He had a buffet of chicken ¨enchiladas¨(small rolled & fried tacos) and a yogurt-based sauce, rice, beans, squash, avocado, spicy peppers & chilis, salad plus punch. It was Kaitlyn´s 14th birthday today, so Nikki had asked Enrique to make a cake (yummy chocolate), and had brought party hats and napkins for a real party. We had also strung a happy birthday banner and a pinata back at SoL, so the kids had fun breaking the pinata and doing the ¨tail on the donkey¨activity after dinner. It was a special day for a 14th birthday!

Day 6 -- Saturday

Linda washing dishes in our small kitchen; woman washing and hanging out our clothes

views on our drive

city square and street scene in Granada

horse-drawn carriage; quiganton in Granada city square

rice, corn, bananas; guide picking mangos that we enjoyed eating

walking through one of the newer houses on coop

Patrick pretending to eat a cicada (just a dead shell, really)

Jewelry and trying to drill hole in bean

dinner at coop on the covered patio

It was raining pretty hard when we got up and had breakfast. We eat at small tables under a covered patio so it was fun to watch the rain. Our breakfasts are simple. Corn flakes or oatmeal, tortillas or pan (if someone has gone to the market early to purchase them), bananas, peanut butter on bread, maybe some string cheese or mango, and always coffee for the adults. We wash the dishes by heating hot water on their small 4-burner stove, then use a soft tub soap on a scrub rag to wash, and add a capful of bleach for the rinse water. We dry and put away immediately so flies don´t congregate-- we also try to keep the food covered at all time because of the multitude of flies. We often leave our dirty clothes for the woman who comes in to do our laundry by using a scrub board and muscle power. We leave one cordova (5 cents) per item. She does an amazing job.

We put on our sunblock and then the insect spray before leaving every day.

This day, though, we are off for our weekend excursion rather than work. The same bus and driver that brought us from the airport to Cuidad Dario picked us up. It is a very comfortable bus. No standing in the back of the pick-up for this 2 hour ride.

It has been such a fun weekend, and we've gotten to see so much more of the country. It is a beautiful country with volcano peaks or rolling green tree-covered hills. We never tire of just watching the scenery, and little villages or activity along the side of the road interspered between the wide open spaces.

On the way to Granada, we stopped at a gas station mini-mart for potty and snacks. It seemed just like the gas station mini-marts in the States with fast food, ATM, coffee, etc. We unloaded at the Granada central square, and were immediately approached by people selling trinkets, or begging. Some of us rented horse-drawn carriages for a city tour to see some of the historic buildings. Granada is the oldest city in Nicaragua and many of the buildings are from a more colonial era. Some of us walked around the streets for shopping. Some of us walked to the lake, which is at one end of the city. Others went shopping or strolling. We saw a guiganton (large puppet-like figure impersonating a Spanish colonial woman) dancing in the square, with small boys playing the drums for the music. Our lunch was at a pizza restuarant -- yes, real pizza!

Then on to the agricultural cooperative where they also have a hostel for visitors. There were 3 bedrooms for 15 of us -- Urania & Patrick were with us. All had mosquito nets. The women got the 2 rooms that had bathrooms; the men got to walk a little distance to the pit toilets and showers.

When we gathered on their porch for our orientation, we noticed all the sounds: cicadas, birds, insects. Then we were welcomed and given an orientation by a beautiful young woman -- her father was one of the first members of the coop. There are 30 farmers who have small plots of land in the cooperative, and each has a house on their land. They have the best looking compost I´ve ever seen, and the soil in all the fields look so very rich. Our guide knocked mangos off a tree for us so we could eat fresh mangos. He also picked various other fruits that we could taste -- one that looked like an eyeball when peeled but the seed inside was good to chew for indigestion, we were told, and Ted seemed to enjoy them the most. Each farmer can decide what to plant. Beans, corn, squash, watermelon, tomatoes were some crops we saw. Our guide currently had watermelon plants, but it is riskier than beans because when they are ripe they have to be sold right away. Beans can dry out and be sold when the market price is good. We ended the tour at a house where the youth have a jewelry-making business. They let us try to use their drill to make holes in the beans or pods, then string them to make our own jewelry. Some purchased the necklaces they had made. Steve brought the lanyards to teach them how to do it, and ended up staying so long that he had a hard time trying to find his way back to the hostel area in the dark. Luckily one of the local children rescued him to help him get back.

We enjoyed the patio and hammocks while waiting for dinner. Lot of sounds. Quite a few bugs, large moths, beetles. (Ted had fun playing with the brownish horn beetle.) The youth squealed when a large moth got in their room. The coop served a dinner of chicken legs in a vegetable broth, rice, beans, tomatos, salad, squash with cheese. Most of us were ready for bed soon after dinner. Patrick ended up having to take one of the young women to a hospital -- she thought she was having a heart attack, but was given something and sent back home. Patrick has so many, many responsibilities. Lots of dog and rooster noises during the night.

Day 5 --Friday

Palo de Agua work and play

Activities and entertainment at Las Delicious SoL school

Baseball bats being made; clothes hung on fence to dry--very common

Resort where we swam and ate

I'm a few days behind because we have been on the go since Friday, with no time for internet connections. I walk several blocks to an internet place, and then have a hard time trying to make everything work -- and it's pretty slow.

Last Friday we returned to the work site to finish the upper white half of the painting in the old school, and to lay bricks on the gable of the new construction. Steve & Bob tried to get it in a straight line! Let's hope it ends up looking wonderful! Ted got to chip again. The rest of us painted -- but this time we had to scrape posters off the wall and do some cleaning first. They also took off the grate on the windows so we could do the second coat a little better, but then when it was time to put it back on, the grate wasn't dry, so it still looks pretty sloppy. Oh, well --- we tried!

As soon as we got back to our "home" in Dario, we had lunch and then got on the vans to go to another small village called Las Delicias. They have an SoL school program run completely by volunteers. Jaime (one of the staff that has been with us quite a lot) is the contact person who goes there once or twice a month to supervise. We were ushered in their small building and provided chairs in front. We were welcomed and introduced to the teachers, the guidance committee, and the 3 scholarship students. Then the children performed a couple of dances for us. They are the cutest children!

Then it was our turn to do activities with them. The children were divided into 3 groups. Claudia taught them to make origami boxes with colored paper. Steve had the biggest job with 3 full tables of children wanting to learn to make lanyards. Troy did balloons. Ted, Troy and Alicia blew bubbles with the children. Some of us then walked to a house where a young man makes baseball bats out of cedar wood. They were beautiful bats. Several of our group bought bats.

This village was largely destroyed by Hurricane Mitch, and has been rebuilt with donations from the global community. It is a bigger and more prosperous community than Palo de Agua, with healthier looking corn crops and cattle. The cattle are often moved on the roads along with the cars so we've been in cattle jams several times!

From there we were taken to a resort-type place that had a large restaurant and swimming pool. The youth and the men enjoyed the swimming pool. We ordered off of the menu and had a great meal in a very attractive setting. Fun evening.