Monday:
Today was our first experience with doing official mission work and we could not wait to get started! Our team broke up into three different groups. One group went to work at a day care type place for developmentally challenged people of all ages. Another group went with something called "The Mobile Library". This group went around to local schools and dropped off books for them to read and played with the students. My group went to a local restaurant across the street from our hotel and worked one on one with the waiters by teaching them basic English terms so they can better communicate with the tourist customers. It was fun to work with the waiters because they were close with us in age, but it was also very difficult because some of our partners (including mine) did not know how to communicate very well in English. I can't speak Spanish; he can't speak English. To put it lightly, our communication barrier put a slight damper on our lesson, but we soon got the hang of using hand motions, smiles, and stick figure pictures to be able to ultimately teach each other our native languages. I don't know that I am qualified to teach a Spanish speaking teenager the english language, but I tried my best and had a blast doing it!
After our morning mission was finished we had two hours to rest and get lunch before we all came back together and went to "Carizal". This is a school that teaches English to local children. It runs from 2pm-4pm and only focuses on teaching English. I am not positive of the schooling system here, but to me it seems like the school aged children go to regular school until noon, and they have the opportunity to go to English school in the afternoon. It seemed voluntary because it was so laid back, but it seems like they highly recommend people to attend. The English school had age ranges from about 3-22. I hope to be able to learn more about their school system in the next few days so I can have a better understanding of what the children do on a regular basis.
Working with the children is such an awesome experience. They are so loving and fun to be around. It doesn't bother them that you had just met a few minutes ago, they will still be grabbing your hand to play with them, giving you the biggest hugs, and kissing your cheek when you have to leave them. They are so thankful for all of the time that you spend with them, and I am equally as thankful for the time they spend with me. The memories I am making here will never leave my head and I am so thankful for it all.
Tuesday: today was day two of missions. Our team stayed in our groups, but switched what mission we were involved in. Today my group went with the "Mobile Biblioteca". We were picked up from the hotel at 7:45am and were on to the first school by 8am. The mobile library goes around to each school, about 33 in total. The schools get a stop from the library about once a month. Today we visited three schools. While at a school we read "The hungry caterpillar". It happens to be one of my favorite childhood books, but this book was in Spanish. The leader of the mobile library had us read to the children. Hahah this was a FUNNY experience, that's for sure! None of us speak good Spanish and we especially can't read it well. The children laughed at us and kept correcting our speech, but we tried our best! After reading the book we helped the kids do a craft and played a few games while everyone was getting their chance to trade in their library books. I spent a lot of time at one school playing baseball with two 5 year olds who could hit the wiffle ball all over the field. I tried hitting against them and failed miserably...the little boys laughed at my attempt and called me a "gringo". All those years of softball didn't pay off, I must have been nervous! :) I had a really great time with the kids and am always so happy to spend time with their bright smiling faces!
We returned to the hotel at 12:30pm and had an hour to eat before we left for our afternoon activity: zip lining. We took a canopy tour over the beautiful trees on the mountain side of San Juan Del Sur. It was definitely a scary experience to have your life in the hands of a simple pulley system and a wire hundreds of feet above many, many trees. We all had to get strapped into some pretty uncomfortable harnesses and came down the mountain in 17 stops zipping from line to line. We could hear the call of wild monkey's, but unfortunately none came into sight in the attempts of hitching a ride with us...bummer! I felt like a real George(ette) of the Jungle. Such an incredible experience!
Our night concluded with some pool time and dinner, along with our favorite ice cream shop right up the street. We are enjoying our last night in San Juan Del Sur before we head to Granada tomorrow morning. We will miss staying across the street from the beach, but I am very excited to see what the rest of the trip has to offer.
Keep the prayers coming! Many x's and o's to my family and friends and I will blog again soon!
Location:San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua
