July 8, 2015

Today was our first day at the work site.  We got quite a bit done, which is good because our day was cut short because of... wait for it... RAIN!  And lots of it too!  Coming from drought ridden California, it felt so refreshing that I stayed out in it for about 10 minutes.  If I had known that we were going to have to walk back tot he car in the torrential downpour (at least according to this gringa), I may not have done that.  But it was so nice to hear the rain - I never realized how much I missed it until I heard it.  So now we are back at our home for the next two weeks.  The food is still so delicious and I could totally get used to someone cooking me lunch and bringing it to the work site each day, instead of the PB & J's that we get at SSP, hahaha.  Because of our unexpected trip back home, we were able to watch a video on the recent political history of Nicaragua - the Sandinista Revolution.  Like much of Central & South America, up until the 1980's, Nicaragua was under a military dictatorship.  The revolution, while successful, did take it's toll on the economy, which is why Nicaragua is the second poorest nation in Central America, after Haiti.  It's almost time for dinner and rumor has it we're having homemade tortillas!

Our work site

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Nancy (one of the other chaperones) and I had a conversation earlier about the availability of water to the community of Miraluz.  They don't have running water and rely on 3 water wells to get water from.  Yesterday, I was talking with Julian (the regional director for Seeds of Learning, the organization that SSP teamed up with to make this trip possible) and he mentioned that each house is limited to a certain amount of water jugs per day.  It's amazing at how your perspective can change on what you think are necessities when you are serving a community with much less that you.  Nancy and I came to the conclusion that the people in Miraluz only bathe maybe once a week and/or for special occasions, and toilets are latrines - holes dug in the ground (18ft deep), with a seat built on top.  But, even though the community struggles, many still seem content with what they do have.  It's amazing, and make me feel like they are much richer than me in many ways.