Day 7, Wedsesday, June 18
San Juan del Sur Word Day #2
By Ashley and Mallory, Jacksonville Florida
Mallory, Rachel, and Ashley woke up at 6:30 to go eat breakfast at a
restaurant across the street to grab some pancakes. The waitress took
forever to bring our food. Once we were walking back, Tim was already
driving off without us because we were late. We hopped in the back and drove
to the town market to pick up some bananas. Mallory and I got 60 bananas for
50 cordobas (about $2) when we originally were only suppose to get 4 bananas
and bring back 46 Cordobas! Once we got back in the truck, Tim assured us,
that all of the bananas were going to get eaten and we drove to the
Biblioteca Movil (mobile library). We waited outside until the lady got
there to open the place. We originally planned to leave at 8:00am to for the
schools we were going to go visit, but we ended up have a small dilemma (not
sure what it was) and left at 9:45. We met Jane who organizes the local book
program, and she took us back to the hotel she owned to give us a tour and
drink Cranberry juice. Yum. Once we finally left, we were crammed in a truck
full of eight volunteers. While we were driving Mallory and I fell asleep.
Once we arrived to the school there were several kids waiting for us to get
out.
After setting up the books for the kids to check out and check back in,
Mallory, Rachel, Gale and I, handed out school supplies that we brought from
Florida to the two teachers. Once handed out, Mallory, Rachel and I, gave
the little kids an English lesson on the chalkboard and taught them how to
say school, dog and cat. The kids repeated the English and Spanish words,
and we handed out paper for the kids to draw the pictures and write the
words above. We grabbed a little kid, asked them a few questions about
themselves, and colored their names on paper and gave it to them. They were
so excited to receive this and wanted us to draw pictures for them.
During this event, Rachel was playing with a yellow balloon with several of
the kids, Mallory was drawing pictures with the kids, and I was taking
pictures with the kids and teaching them some English vocabulary. One of the
volunteers came in with a bag of clothes and accessories to hand out to the
boys and girls. The girls got barbie dolls, hair ribbons, head band, and
clips. The boys received jerseys, t-shirts and shorts. After that, we said
our goodbyes to them, and loaded back in the truck to head over to the Costa
Rica border beach to eat lunch. It was so pretty as the clear water washed
up onto the rocks. Once we arrived, Mallory, Rachel and I, got immediately
into the water in our clothes without a doubt. After swimming for a while
and taking pictures in the water, we joined the volunteers and Gale to eat
lunch. While eating, we saw an Island separating Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
It was an amazing thing to be able to say you got to eat on the rocks of
this beautiful beach and swim in the water that separated Costa Rica and
Nicaragua.
After lunch we road back to the school to play with the older kids. Once we
got there we played Frisbee with a few of the kids. It was so much fun and
soon more and more kids joined in. Other than Frisbee playing, Gail and one
of the other volunteers were helping the kids check back in and check out
library books. Then all of us handed out beads and clothes to the older
girls, and the boy got more shirts. Then we said goodbye and left.
Day 7, Wedsesday, June 18
San Juan del Sur Word Day #2, Finca Las Nubes Group
By Brian “Kermit” Cranston, Boca Raton
I went with a group of about 6 people to Chris “Don Cristobal” Robertson's farm high above San Juan del Sur: Finca Las Nubes. He has a huge house with several guest houses (think resort) next to his house. He had a couple of very nice bedrooms, a billion hammocks, a big living room, and a very refreshing pool with a bar connected to it. He also had a couple of cute Capuchin monkeys that he had saved from recent dangers. We hung out there for about a half an hour, then went of to work. We stopped on the way to pick up some plants to plant. He explained what each plant was, and a good description of it. We picked out 50 of each plant and put them in the back of the two trucks that we had. After that he took us to the wood shop were they gather all the wood and make chairs, tables, etc. from it. Next we took all the plants up to the mountain where we would plant them. Chris brought some of his workers with us to help us out. Eric and I tried digging with big stick-like figures with a sharp nozzle on the bottom, but unfortunately we were not the best so we just helped planting and placing trees like the other part of the group. There was only one person that took it easy that day; Nicole Driggers. The day before she got hit by a surf board in the face and was unconscious. So she just helped out passing out trees and taking it easy.
After about and hour an half later, when we where done placing all the trees, we headed back to Don Cristobal's main house for lunch. They made us the best meal that we probably had on the whole trip. It consisted of homemade tortillas, white rice, chicken cutlets, taco meat, salad, and chips. And fresh lemonade. It was Delicious. And for the rest of the time we chilled out in his pool and played with his Capuchins. It was a day of paradise. But we learned that, hard work comes and gives us a little treat for what we did. And thats about it!. Enjoy! And thanks Chris!
When we got home, we had to immediately get ready for our game against the
Nicaraguan Junior National Team. We walked over to the court and Jordan
forgot her shoes to play in so we had to run back to the hotel to get them.
We made it though.
The big girls started and played the first two games, and the score was 1-1
Then our coach decided to put the little kids in to play, and we ended up
losing the set. The fourth game, the big girls came back, and destroyed the
team 15-4, but then lost in the 5th set. After the game, the two teams got a
picture together, and we left to go eat all together at a great restaurant
right on the beach! All of us girls bonded really well, and some of the
girls exchanged emails. After dinner Tim gave us all money to go get ice
cream together, and then we all went back to our room to get a goodnight
sleep.
