Working - Part One

Today we got a lot done. All of us students were up and showered by 5:50. We like to get up early so that we can go and sit on the hammocks every morning. Now that we don’t have Radiance, we go to the hammocks instead of cooking. It’s one of the most relaxing places we have ever been. That’s normally how we start our day.

Then we had some great homemade tortillas and biscuits with peanut butter, black beans, pico de gallo, and fresh fruit for breakfast. This gave us all our energy to spend on the kids in La Democracia. We worked from 9:00-12:00. We then had an hour break. From 1:00-3:00 finishing up. Most of this time was spent with the kids, because they loved to help us work and are so excited for their new playground. One of our most amazing workers was Luis, the foreman of the project. He just kept working while all of us were playing and joking around. One little boy who we spent most of our day with was Glenramos. He loved to play with us because he wasn’t in school yet (He’s 5.). He was fascinated by our cameras and sunglasses and had so much fun playing with them.

After our hard day of working, George and the male teachers went to the river to swim, while the girls showered and went to the hammocks to hang out with all our new British friends. All of the students from two universities in England are at Monkey Bay with us and love to talk about the differences between America and England. Every morning that we have been here, we have spent at least an hour hanging out with the blokes from the Mother Continent.

Then it was tally-ho, so we could have a delicious dinner consisting of chicken and black bean burritos ! Muy bueno! Once dinner was over, we had Magda, the owner of Monkey Bay. She and her husband started out in a tent 20 years ago, and they have made an ever-growing animal sanctuary. When that was through, we had an egg drop challenge. We were divided into two teams according to our personality profiles. Once that was over, we had a wonderful scientist named Emma tell us all about tarantulas. Then we had a once in a lifetime opportunity where we got to see tarantulas in their natural habitats.

Finally to end our day we got to go to a restaurant named Amigos. This is where we got our caffeine fix with Diet Coke and chocolate cake. Today was a great day, and we hope to do more stuff tomorrow.

- Sarah and Catherine