Daily Archive

Today was the eighth day of Nicaragua! Like other weekdays, we woke up early, at around 6:30 a.m. Breakfast was a quiet, sleepy appreciation of delicious plantains, gallo pinto and cheese set before us.

We then piled the rest of the donation luggage into the back of the bus and headed for the school at around 7:45. As we pulled up to the school, we saw tons of kids milling about, toting backpacks and casually dressed.  This was all in preparation for today’s field trip to Granada!  As we did last year, our group took the students of El Divino Niño to the Granada for a nice, sunny day on the shore of Lake Nicaragua. We left the school in three buses, stopped briefly in the colorful central plaza of Granada, and then headed for the lake. There, we got into some seven lanchas (charming water taxi style boats) and began cruising between the isletas  (small volcanic islands) of Lake Nicaragua. We brought bananas and papayas for one extraordinary island with spider monkeys and white-faced monkeys. Using five limbs—arms, legs, and a very prehensile tail—the monkeys swung through the trees and snacked on our offerings. We sped back to shore and drove off to the next destination, a beach/park area of Lake Nicaragua.

 The teachers brought out two huge metal pots for lunch, with this fantastic fried rice with peas, chicken and sausage in it. We all sat down for lunch across from the beach. After they finished, some boys started a game of soccer while others began looking curiously towards the lake. Soon, most kids were splashing around in the lake, with the addition of at least half of our group. The other half was on the shore, snapping pictures… it looked like everyone had fun, either cruising the waves with some very excited kids or chatting on the shore.

After being called in, we jumped back into the three buses and drove to a marketplace in the town of Caterina. The astonishing view at the end of the market road, the vista point over the crater lake,  took some of us by surprise.  After a long cobblestone path of trinkets, the near birds-eye view of another lake came into view. We could see the wrinkles the wind made on its blue surface, the densely forested hills and mountains cradling it, and the even larger expanse of Lake Nicaragua on the horizon. It was awesome… but I’ll stop waxing poetic and let you all see it for yourselves when we come back with our cameras!

The students of Divino Niño School loved it as well. They took pictures using our cameras, drank in the magnified view of the lake from telescopes and binoculars, and took to the shops with much curiosity. A couple of them bought colorful toys, while a small section of our boys bought some beanies together. After about thirty minutes, we departed for the school.

After dropping the kids off, we began delivering the last of the packaged donations from California.  Sports gear, soccer and baseball, went to the Soya Cantera Center.   The Soya Center is the local youth center who derived it’s name ‘soya’ from a period of time that soy milk was provided to the children.   Hospital supplies and toys went to Betty Palma’s house. At last, we arrived back at Cantera at 6:50 p.m.

For dinner, we had chicken, fries, rice and some very intriguing beet juice. Once everyone was finished, we brought out a huge cake for Davis’s seventeenth birthday. After singing ‘las mañanitas,’ a traditional Spanish birthday song, customary song,  Isa’s neighbor and Free Trade participant came in with some beautiful items for sale. The girls took a lot of interest in the earrings, though the paintings, bracelets, wooden containers and sandals were equally as striking.

As for tonight, we all need to start packing our bags for Pochomil. Tomorrow morning we’re leaving Cantera for a brief respite at the beach. We’ll keep you posted, as always!

                                                                   –Sandra!!

Day 7: Lessons and Milestones

Today began the same as the previous. There was a medley of pancakes, fruit and fresh-squeezed mandarin orange juice. We went to El Divino Niño and began our lessons, late as usual. But everything seemed to work out and the lessons all appeared to go very well. My group, the P.E. group, had a lot of success with the first class, but not as much with the second class because they were much younger and more difficult to work with. In the end, it did not make much of a difference because working with the children at the school is so rewarding.

Once the lessons had finished, we all began painting. There were three groups, one in the large classroom, another outside and a third on Sandra’s mural. It was difficult painting the outside and the large, double classroom because the ceilings were very high and most of us are not tall enough to reach the ceiling. The job was a lot of work and on top of that, there was paint everywhere. Also, I kept messing up the mural and I found it very difficult to paint with the necessary precision to make Sandra’s work come to fruition. After about two hours of painting, we were all covered in paint and tired, but the walls were painted and the mural was almost finished. We then headed back to the bus and headed to a Cantera community center, Oscar A. Romero, in the barrio.

At the Center, we listened to young adult volunteers, one who hails from San Jose, CA, talk about their work and watched several teen performances. We watched a break-dancer, traditional Nicaraguan dancers and modern dancers. Then we viewed a martial arts performance that was very entertaining and different than anything we had seen thus far. Next, we spoke to some people who were learning English and viewed pictures of the volunteer work with the center.

Once we left the Center, we went back to Cantera and ate lunch and set up for the dinner later tonight. For lunch, we had steak, rice, salad, a mystery vegetable (Chayote) and a roll. For dessert, we had some cake. After lunch, we got ourselves ready for the dinner tonight.

At about five o’clock, we all went over to the cafeteria took pictures because we were wearing our nice outfits for the ceremony. At about six, the families and teachers arrived in our bus. We greeted all of them and headed over to the conference room that was beautifully decorated by Sister Mary Hartman, co-founder of Cantera. She is in her 80’s and full of wisdom and love.

The ceremony began with an acoustic version of the Nicaraguan national anthem by the Nicaraguan folk music trio, called Grupo Tabu. Then Jose introduced the club and we then sang the Star-Spangled Banner for the guests. Next there was a prayer and a speech from both Jaime, co-founder of Divino Nino, and from Ms. Gatlin. Then we began to give out the awards to the students from the school. After the awards, Jose explained the paint store incident and Ms. Koorhan translated for us gringos. We took one final group photo and headed to the cafeteria.

At dinner, all of the tables looked so elegant, and the food was delicious as usual. There was also live music, which entertained all the guest throughout the meal. After the meal, people began to get out of their chairs and dance. There were many interesting dance partner combinations, such as Ms. Koorhan and Jaime (or as some may argue, the best dancers of the evening). After about forty-five minutes of dancing, the families, graduates and teachers had to head back to their homes. Club members then cleaned up and headed back to the cabañas for bonding. We will now rest and prepare for another exciting, new day tomorrow.

Buenas noches,

SMZ