Sunday, December 1, 2019

Nicaragua Part 4

Day 5! Thanksgiving day!  Did a run with Lee.  He was able to borrow a kid's bike and came with me.  Ran by some cows on the outing. 

Fried eggs, rice and beans for breakfast. 




Thanksgiving morning we went to the Triolo school to bring in toys that we had donated to the Mother's room (the one we painted Monday).  There was a little ceremony for the completion of the room as well. 












Lee did some more eye exams as well. 

The women each received a cinch bad with some items...can't remember what was in there.  Chris had brought them. 




These twin girls were so cute!


I snapped a couple of pictures of the neighborhood that is directly next to the school.  Even with the poor living conditions, in general they seem to be a happy people. 



These are the sugar cane fields that I mentioned earlier that are for the alcohol company. 

Bus ride back!

Lunch at the ranch! 


It was so sweet, they put out some USA decor for us! 

I went into town to a grocery store that afternoon and Lee and Elden went on a short bike ride.



The cheese from Wisconsin was actually an okay price all the way down in Nicaragua!  Fun flavors too!

For our afternoon activity a lady came and we carved or attempted to carve the jicaro plant.  It has a hard shell and squishy inner.  First we cut off the top to dig out the insides. 

Then the plant was boiled and we scrapped out the remaining innards.















Then you carve them.  They are SO hard to carve!



Carlos had a knack for it.  And he's done it several times. 




This lady was the "head lady" and was so talented and FAST at carving the jicaro. Incredibly strong hands. 











We hung out that afternoon playing UNO, Scum, visiting and taking naps.




See the bag of cereal?  It had Nesquick cereal in it.  We gathered everyone and did our tradition of saying three things we are thankful for on Thanksgiving.  Usually for a representation of the pilgrims we put three corn kernals on each plates.  But I forgot to bring some so we improvised with Nesquick. Which happened to be made out of corn, haha. 



Right before dinner we had some guests!  The tall, stupid woman, and the short, smart indigenous man. We heard about them in Leon.  The lady symbolizes the wealthy, royal women of Spain or Europe.  The short, smart indigenous men fall in love with them but the ladies don't love them back. It's kind of a cultural satire type of thing.  They did a dance for us with some people doing commentary in between. 



The kids tried out the costumes after the performance. 



Thanksgiving dinner!  SO delicious! 

I loved how they served everything that night.  It was amazing. 














That night we participated in a New Year's tradition there.  You write down things you don't like that are in your life or that you need to let go of and throw them into a fire to burn them up.  Then you write down things that you want to keep or have in your life.  To make them blossom and grow you throw them into a water fountain. 







We each received a certificate for our participation that week.  Though it was more fun that anything!  I couldn't believe it was already our last night at the ranch.  Kind of sad. This is Alma, who is taking the lessons from the missionaries!








The night ended with sparklers and fireworks. The fireworks you can just buy there are so awesome!












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