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| Kara and Ariel, the messy Sleepers in one bed... Maya and I, the still quiet sleepers in the other bed |
I’m the only one in our group of 4 who sets a morning alarm to get ready for the day ahead. Every morning we have to be ready at a certain time to go to breakfast and start the day… usually leaving at 7am or 8am. This morning, we had an 8am breakfast planned and when my alarm went off to wake me up at 7:30am it didn’t wake anyone else up. I got out of bed and turned around looking at Kara and the girls sleeping peacefully, the open bathroom, the available space to move around and opted not to wake them up just yet haha. When I did eventually get everyone up, we walked down the street to a breakfast spot with Alex and ordered eggs, which naturally came with beans, rice, and a tortilla. The only one who put down the beans and rice was Ariel… but she has an unfair advantage over us since her father is Brazilian!
We grabbed our things and headed straight to Los Trejos to observe Alex running a practice with the first community team we have established. Enmanuel surprised us on the side of the road as we were driving to Los Trejos this morning. He had taken the bus in from his home town of Caraso and jumped in the back of the pick-up truck! How exciting! Turns out, Enmanuel was planning to spend the whole day with us!
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| The kids from Los Trejos arrive in the back of the truck! |
The boys of Los Trejos seemed to enjoy the practice a lot, they worked hard, listened to Alex, and I was able to see Alex put some of the things he learned over the summer into practice with his own team in his own language. He did a great job!
At the end of the session, I talked to the boys about taking advantage of this amazing opportunity to be the first team established for our new league. This gives them the opportunity to practice more before other communities have even established teams! I talked to them about respecting the coach and paying
are. Are they a person that can work well with others or someone who just plays by himself? Do they have a strong work ethic? Do they respect others? These are key fundamental building blocks for this program and its important to be very specific with the boys.
I can tell this could be a rowdy group and in order for Alex to keep control over them he needs to nip any mal-behavior in the bud. In the beginning of my talk, with the boys one of the boys started whispering while I was talking. I clapped my hands in his face, and said “When I talk, you listen.” From that point on, I had their full and undivided attention. It was also good for Alex to see that you can be sharp with how you talk to the kids without being negative or scary. Sharp and positive is the way to go.
We dismissed the boys and then loaded up the truck to head out for a much-needed leisure afternoon. 10 minutes into the trip to the lake we pulled into a gas station and realized that the truck was leaking a lot of oil! After I paid for the gas my coins fell out of my wallet all over the ground. Enmanuel immediately jumped under the car to retrieve them and put them into my brand new white wallet not realizing that they were covered in oil. I gasped and Alex turned to me with a worried, questioning look on his face and I said in spanish, “Enmanuel just put black oil into my brand new whatever-this-thing-is-called!” holding my wallet up to show him. Not being able to say the word in spanish just made us all erupt in laughter and my initial disappointment, of my new white wallet turning black, disappeared.
We happened to be parked right next to a grocery store so while Mario and Alex tried to figure out how to resolve the situation, the rest of us headed over to the grocery store to get some yummy snacks. Yogurt, banana, orange juice, cinnamon bread… we went straight for some of our favorite breakfast items that have been replaced with beans all week. All good snacks to hold us over until we got to the Monkey Hut. When we returned Mario told us to get in the car and hurry! I think he put some oil in and he had to speed back before it all leaked out again haha. Good luck in Nicaraguan traffic. Beep, beep, beep… I felt like I was sitting next to an American… not just because we were in a rush, but also because I could feel the stress radiating out of him… My first thought was, “this feels familiar” and then I thought… “oh it’s because he’s rushing around like an American.” We made it back thanks to Mario’s American hustle and switched to another truck for the day. That’s the fastest I’ve ever seen a Nicaraguan move.
When we arrived to the Monkey Hut which is a popular spot amongst a few lake front touristy resort spots that have Swimming/Kayaking/etc., a restaurant, tables, hammocks, rocking chairs, WiFi, etc. Everything you need to be comfortable. Except there was one problem with the Monkey Hut… it was SO crowded, I could not believe it. So we decided to walk up the street a block to the next resort “Laguna Beach Club”… we walked in to find a much more tranquil spot with all the same amenities but just a little nicer and for the same price! Excellent. We went swimming and chilled out enjoying some much-needed relaxation and some DELICIOUS food.
Kara and I made a new friend… a parrot of some sort that just hung out with us. By our feet, on Kara’s backpack and eventually on Kara’s finger! It could dance, talk, smile, and mimic some of our movements… very cool! We felt like the bird
After 4 hours of fun and relaxation we packed up and made our way back to Managua. On the way back we went on the hunt for 2 things internet to add to the internet stick (for my computer) and ice cream. After being directed to the grocery store and then to the chicken place in the food court and then the pizza place in the food court as places where you can supposedly get Internet (what?) we finally were able to buy it at a gas station. We don’t have a ton of internet access here but there are 2 things I need to get internet for at least once a day on my computer- one for the blog so everyone at home can follow along (so far 700 hits thanks everyone!) including the girls parents (Bonnie and Linda your girls are safe!). Also, I need to be in communication with our contacts in Belize and the Belize volunteers who fly out tomorrow to make sure that everyone is prepared and takes off without a problem. I’m just giving an explanation because I’m not the type of person who needs to be constantly connected. In fact, I like being away and out of touch, it’s very relaxing.
Ariel and I played a hilarious joke on Maya and Kara that had them going all night long. We told them that tonight was the initiation night and we were going to do something to them while they were sleeping that could only be done in Nicaragua. The guessing immediately ensued. Are you going to put bug spray in my hair? Are you going to put something in my bed? The guesses Kara and Maya were coming up with were so funny and off the wall that it had us laughing until they passed out. Funny how the two people thinking we are going to do something to them in their sleep are the first 2 people to fall asleep. Ariel and I were up very late. She wrote in her journal and I posted the blog from the day before. I will wait until the next blog to tell you all what we did to them in their sleep… hehehehe.
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| Door to our new room |
This day was great and so necessary, especially for sanity. The tight dorm situations, communal bathrooms, and beans on beans on beans, wore us down. I believe this is my 10th trip to Nicaragua and on all of my trips, this was definitely the toughest conditions. I was actually really surprised with myself because I haven’t felt uncomfortable in Nicaragua probably since my first trip down when I saw everything for the first time. If anyone would be accustomed to the lifestyle it would be me. This week took me right back to that first trip and I had to re-accustom myself all over again. So if it was hard for me then I’m so so proud of Kara, Maya, and Ariel for sticking it out when we were at camp. Once we got out of the dorms and back to the church room we are staying in with more space and our own shower, all of the discomfort dissipated… room to breathe. So today it was really great to spend our first day in our new accommodations, observe the beginning of the program expansion with Alex’s practice in Los Trejos, recharge the battery, eat some regular food, and relax a little after the tough and busy week so far.
Today has been MUY MUY MUY exciting so far. I have a quick moment to post the blog from yesterday but I have such exciting news about my final meeting with Katia today about the league and plans for expansion! I can’t wait to share them………. in the next blog post! Stay tuned! Thanks for following along and for your support!
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