Day three! Beautiful mornings.
Cal was up probably at 5:30am and went around taking pictures. I laughed out loud when I saw this one.
The mornings were really nice. We tried to get to breakfast at a decent time (just at at the ranch) so we could eat leisurely and hang out. A good start to the day. I also went on a run and Lee came with me.
There is a swimming pool at the ranch with no water in it. The kids played gaga ball instead.
Across the hall from the two bunk rooms were two different bathrooms. One for girls, one for boys, which we quickly abandoned the gender thing and just use whichever. It was funny because the showers didn't work in them so we would fill up this corner basin with water and use the bowl to dump water on us. We did find out pretty early on that there were two showers down by the pool and they worked great.
The "front" of the ranch.
The bus.
Cal and Thomas had fun sitting by each other on the bus.
Monday, day three, we headed to a high school outside of Leon in a place called Troilo. They did a little presentation for us when we arrived.
We then split up. Most of us started painting this room that Chris had added on to the high school. It will be used for mothers and kids. The high school is more like a community center. A few years ago the kids would just meet outside. A church in North Carolina sends funds to employ teachers every year. And it's good they opened one in Troilo because it didn't work for the kids in the country to go to Leon for school. But not many kids would stick with school being outside. It was hard when it would rain, or in the heat. Chris was able to get the school built and more kids are enrolled now to go to school. And it keeps more of them out of the sugar cane fields as well. The sugar cane fields are for an alcohol company in Nicaragua. They don't treat their employees well, and many of them get sick from the chemicals the company uses on the crops.
I wish we would have known there wouldn't be paint trays. I totally would have brought some! But we made do.
Lee did eye exams on people that lived close by and any students that needed one. He didn't have the means to give them glasses as that is a big undertaking with the government and needing a variety of glasses, etc. but at least he could give them a prescription if they needed it and could save money on the exam.
Deb split off and talked to two different groups-first the teenagers, then mothers from the area. She talked to all of them about making goals, working towards them, not giving up, not letting people abuse them (that's NOT normal), to stand up for themselves, work together and that God will guide and bless them.
The ranch brought us lunch and we ate in the chapel, or main building where the presentations were held.
Hanging out that evening playing Uno.
See the geckos below?
That night a lady spoke to us about the history of Nicaragua. I wish she would have told us about the current history like the 60s, 70s and 80s with the guerrilla wars and such. The kids had a hard time staying awake. There was a dance presentation at the end as well.
Tuesday we first went to a school for a little tour.
We also bought ice cream from a vendor. People push around a little insulated cart/cooler.
Then we spent the rest of the day in Leon touring around. We ate at El Sesteo.
We said goodbye to Caityln. She was one of our interpreters, but had to return to her regular job. She teaches English at a high school.
We then went around Leon a little bit with Orlando. We thought he was coming with us just for fun, but turns out he was kind of our security guy.
We spent some time at the little market by the main park/plaza in town. We had fun holding the parrots.
We then went to a grocery store, La Union and bought some fun stuff. We tried not to buy too much since we were still on foot. Orlando got pretty stressed at the grocery store because we all started wandering off. We wanted to do the moto taxi's in Leon, but Orlando didn't like that idea. Plus we would have had to split up. But I still want to do them sometime!!!
The juice pouches between the cartons of juice and the jugs of juice are about $0.15 each! They are fun, but also not very sanitary. Who knows who stacked them, who has been touching them while shopping, and then you have to hold them with dirty hands, and then put them on a questionable dirty conveyor belt and the clerk touching them. We did buy some, but I think next time we are going there we will not get them.
We met up later to go to the basilica in town. Before that we waited by the church, hit up some little outdoor shops, went to McDonald's and went to a fabric store.
They had mint flavored cones for ice cream! And you could buy a mini cone for about $0.70 or something.
The basilica!
We went up the side entrance to the top first. One of the first stops, the bell area.
We then went outside to the top of the basilica.
Next up we went inside the basilica.
Somewhere from above you could see the square where we went shopping earlier. Plus we saw the HUGE stupid tall woman, and short smart indigenous man.
We stopped at one more grocery store on the way home, La Colonia.
This a yucca plant-what we ate the first night.
Ben & Jerry's was about $9!
Juice pouch.
We had someone at the ranch do some laundry for us. All set out to dry on the line!
A braclet Elden got at the market earlier that day. They also got their own clacker toys names tricky tracka, or tracka tracka.
Some type of thick chicken stew for dinner (I know it's not stew, but something like it) with tortillas. And of course some yummy juice.
Some people went to take showers that night saw a lovely visitor. Lee promptly killed it.
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