Jack was not on the road with us, but it’s been a good road. First day. Dust, heat below through a land new. Then Papa John’s but avoiding Nicacarts (mule and two wheels) we landed in San Juan del Sur, mothership, Earthship, Brookeship captain leadership we would learn. Second day. Pescados.. Almost too much. Great sunset. Lydia mama to my girls but you go girl, coach Nate keeps them straight. We did good. 200+ viewed us and Nica team volleyball. Swell politics go to hell. Kids rule. What could beat riding standing up in the back of a truck? Wind on the beach. New Boys. Surf. Another day watching eleven teens with orphans donned with real smiles. I wonder. Too may kids on TWebs’ back. Chad doing 30 pound curls and swings with wide-eyed boy kids. Girls’ games up and down open, closed. People come tour wherever we go. Hillary needs teen volleyball girls – people to people – they make real connections. This week is amazing. Up early. Who knows what’s in a volcano? I learn this is serious when we drive 50 feet from the caldera and are warned, “Park your car facing downhill for quick getaways.” Acid sulfur no cross can exorcise fields of aa lava. Move on. Routine road. Mule. Fruit stand. Kids never move till you beep their butts off the road. Semana Santa carry the saint through the streets block the road – attack the bus. Girls squeal, boys laugh out loud scared. Then, the masks around the bus proving Semana Santa is OK. Last game for the girls. New team we have met this week who would have learned PV – SB over-privileged would put themselves out. Play their hearts out. Bond. Love Nica kids. Love the challenge. Food, sweat and ask for more. More comes today as we hunt the Nica shark instead. Feeling water breeze run. Thousands of lake beach people. The place to be. On boats thousands of islands, some with trees, some with palaces, some with monkeys. Birds. Lilies. Giant trees reaching a hundred feet over the water and into the air. What? Feeding the monkeys is better than riding standing in the back of a truck? Who wouldn’t want a monkey hug to change your life with a few new friends forever? Thank God I am here now.
Tour Reflections
By Coach Nate
If asked to describe our trip in a simple phrase, it would be “Heart Warming”. I know that sounds a little cheesy, but on a number of levels I will leave Nicaragua with a renewed spirit.
Taking a group of 21st Century American teenagers to a Central American country and asking them to disconnect from their technology-based lives made me a little apprehensive. My apprehension has proven to be totally unwarranted.. Their willingness to drop pretense and be silly with one another with only a deck of cards and some really poor attempts at singing, Megan's rendition of the National anthem excluded, (that was gutsy!) has reminded me that despite the texting & iPods, kids are still kids and that does the heart good.
I hope the girls will find something similar to what I found, that a smile goes along way. We were fortunate enough to spend a few days with a number of local children, first in the community of El Carizal and later in an orphanage outside of Jinotepe. El Carizal is located just outside of San Juan del Sur, where we spent our first three nights. On our first day we went to visit Lydia & Dave's Earthship and on the the way we stopped on a couple occasions to pick up some local boys. While those children have very little in material goods, they more than make up for it with endearing smiles and outgoing personalities. Although communication was slow their smiles broker my stillness and encouraged me to attempt my horrific Spanish. That afternoon was a warm up for our Tuesday excursion across from their school. Although the school was closed for the Easter holiday (Semana Santa), Brook was still able to get approximately twenty kids to join us for a few hours of play. Again smiles broke down the doors and before you knew it the girls were coloring, playing volleyball, soccer and whatever else could be thought of. With a limited vocabulary but a spirit that exuded from the local Nicaraguan children. Wednesday was our designated beach day. To no surprise we stopped in El Carizal and loaded both trucks with as many local kids as possible. Once at the beach, the girls and the locals took to the water, the fearlessness of the boys was not surprising as they surfed and body boarded. After water time everyone took to a soccer game, making use of the beach volleyball where fun was the number goal.
Thursday morning we left San Jun del Sur and headed towards Jinotepe. After an interesting drive we checked into our hotel and quickly made way to the a local orphanage. Our Jinotepe hosts, Doug and Julie Effinger, informed us that there were between 40-60 children living there at any one time and each child has a special story. What was so incredible about these children was how warm they are and immediately after arriving we were bombarded by smiling faces. This is when I met Oscar, who for the next two hours would rode on my shoulders and asked me to spin him endlessly. He basically took a piece of my heart for a ride that hasn't stopped yet.
My spirit has also been touched by the wonderful "ex-pats" that have moved here to work on things that they are passionate about. From Doug & Julie leaving their grown kids in the US to work with children in Nicaragua to Matty, one of our guides, how came south to work on the earthship because of his belief in sustainable housing. And finally Brooke, our fearless and incredible guide, that seems to make friends with every Nica child she comes across. At our last match in Managua Brooke left the game to get us additional water, delivered the water and immediately grabbed a volleyball and said she needed to give it to a girl she had met outside in a local barrio. She spent the better pat of the next hour peppering with the girl and her friends. The passion she has for the children in El Carizal is evident in everything she does, from the tours to the real estate she sales. If she can help these children then she will find a way to. It was refreshing to my spirit.
Lastly the country itself. Nicaragua has a beauty to it that reminds me of how things used to be. Cars and buses sharing roads with carriages to the dirt roads where cows have the right-of-way. The street vendors working for your business to local restaurants that will cook the days catch (thanks Chuck, Chad & Trevor!) The beauty of the sunset at Pelican Eyes to the vast views from Volcan Masaya and the stillness of the morning of Granada. What an absolutely beautiful country. Volleyball was the vessel for this wonderful trip, but the journey was so much more.
