August 1, 2009
Holy cow, July flew by!
Picking up from last time….
Satrurday we went to the club, nothing to exciting there… Sunday we went to watch one of our Nicaraguan coworkers play baseball, then went to a place about a 1/2 hour bus ride away from here that has waterfalls and the water is said to be holy and very good for your health.
This whole week we had 20 elementary school teachers at the Solar Center. In the morning they would go and help at the school and then in the afternoon they would come to the Center. They had a lot of activities for them this week. We had a traditional Nicaraguan dance lesson for two songs.
This past week we also had a history lesson on Nicaragua. It is so interesting because they had a Civil War not that long ago. People in their 50´s fought in it. Like for us Vietnam was recent, but for Nicaragua, not only were the men affected by it, the wives and children were also involved because it was fought in their backyard!
Last night we also had a ´despedida´ -going away party- for the teachers and also for Edwin. Edwin is a Civil Engineer and lives in Sabana Grande and his contract at the Solar Center ended. He helped in the production of Solar panels, but now he wants to get back into Civil Engineering. They had many games to play and food to eat. It really was a lot of fun because most of the Solar Women and their families came. It was a great opportunity to hang out with everyone.
I am starting to have mixed feelings about the end of my trip. I have gotten to a point where I can kid around with everyone and have some really good friends here, volunteers and locals included. The guys that work at the Solar Center full time are basically like my big brothers. Thursday they were putting up a trellice type of thing to support some type of fruit trees they just planted. I was their little helper and I gave them wrenches and drills, it reminded me of home! A lot of the women will come up and rub your back and are super sweet and we are now comfortable with each other. A lot of the kids I can pretend fight with and joke around with. I walked home with my family last night from the party because it was dark and I held my little sister´s hand while we were walking. I really love the people here, they are very welcoming. Looking back on my first days until now, I am surprised that I have managed to have relationships with soo many people soo fast here. Even my Spanish has grown. I still do not understand everything by any means, but I am getting to the point that somedays I can actually have conversations and communicate with people. It is just kind of crazy, in retrospect, how fast time flew by! The first couple days seemed to be too long and now the weeks are feeling a little too short!
Today we are planning going to a patron saint festival near here. Tomorrow I am planning on going to church, watching a little baseball, and then go to town with my little sister and treating her to ice cream.
It should be a good weekend, but it will probably fly by once again!
- Maria
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