The following post features student writing.
Buenos días señores/señoras,
As everyone’s favorite cartoon dog, Snoopy (of course), once wrote, “It was a dark and stormy night.” That pretty much sums up most of the day, despite the fact that it wasn’t night most of the day, because it was the day, and not night (until night time, when it was night)…
The day started like any other. We woke up at 6:30, and went to breakfast. Today was an amazing food day. Breakfast was pancakes, topped off with a spirited argument over real versus fake maple syrup. Real is better. It’s not even close.
The work day consisted of painting a final coat on the accessibility ramps, as well as continuing to help Miguel install the wall inside the soon-to-be education center. We also started a new project today, which was digging stepped shelves into the hill next to the ramp. Eventually there will be level ground on which we’ll place planters that will line the ramp. We advanced really fast and with a lot of hard work and effort we got the first level out of two done in the morning.
Cierra tests out how her pink shoes look against the green ramp.
Of course the recycling center is going green.
Lunch was fried fish with a yuca mash and some vegetables…as we said above, today was an amazing food day! After lunch, we had a partially disappointing attempt at two more hours of work. Due to rain we had to call the day early since there were not enough jobs that could be done; poor Miguel was running around trying to give us something to do, but most of our remaining tasks are outdoors. Mother Nature decided to throw in a solid four, maybe five or six, hours of rain and fog. The early afternoon here looked like a scheduled siesta, with everyone either unconscious or close to it. That is, except for Cody and Alia.
Our leaders managed to rouse a bunch of us to join him on a walk to one of the nearby pulperías, or village stores. The walkers battled their way through rocky, uneven roads on a quest for ice cream, cows, the river, and the One Ring. They didn’t end up finding the One Ring.
Our ice cream tasted especially good next to this babbling brook.
Winner, winner, (fried) chicken dinner. It was amazing. Vera, our chef, along with her sous chefs of the day, Julia and Kenna, finished off our amazing food day with a bang. The evening culminated with the arrival of a different group that will be staying above us until Sunday, and us deciding on our independent projects while our new neighbors moved in.
Hasta la vista baby,
Eric y Sophia