Colin and Lillian reporting:
Today
was hot, humid, and hands on. We
started off by enduring a two-mile walk along muddy sidewalks to get to Escuela
Cristo Rey. When we got there, we painted two-square and hopscotch courts. We
also dug up and shoveled weeds and unwanted plants to make the garden a fertile
place to grow food for the school. While this was going on, another group read
to kids at the school and taught them games like Hot Potato and Head,
Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. We had a lot of hands-on fun with the kids. We played
soccer with them, gave piggyback rides, and played with them on the teeter-totters.
It was a busy, tiring morning of pure service and fun.
In
the afternoon, we set off to zip-line, walk in the jungle, or cook. The cooking
group enjoyed making yucca buñuelos (fried snack cakes). Yum! We
started out with a few chopped pieces of yucca, peeled off the skin, washed the
rest, and grated a mushy mess of the white, potato-like vegetable. Then
we mixed in cheese and flour, put the cakes on the grill, and then put sweetened condensed
milk on top. They were delicious. Another group interviewed townspeople in
Chilamate about local problems by walking into their houses and participating
in conversations in Spanish (which would be totally abnormal in the U.S.). Then
this group entered the jungle. While walking, we saw red-eyed tree frogs, giant
spiders, and a few howler monkeys. We even went hands-on and held a frog so we
could take pictures.
In
the evening we participated in a crazy water balloon fight for a team-building
activity. All in all, today was the most hands-on of all. We even had our hands
on some pineapple!