Upon arriving, a little boy awaited rather impatiently as we filed through the stone gate into the front courtyard of the school. His dark eyes jumped from one person to the next as he waited for the girl he struck a bond with yesterday. Coming last, his tan face broke into a wide, white smile as Sherice walked into the school. He immediately gave her a tight hug and grasped her hand in his own. We were officially starting our work at the school.
After this precious exchange, we split into three groups to conquer the demands of the day. Sam, Bridget, Molly, Meredith and Sherice taught and played with the adorably cute children. Mallory, Tysen and Mr Keiper tediously mixed cement as Maureen, Caroline, Erin, Maggie, Courtney and Mrs Huffman valiantly dug a trench.
The girls that had the chance to teach split up between three classrooms to bestow upon the children a basic understanding of English. The children eagerly soaked up the knowledge like sponges and absorbed the basic phrases of "hello," "how are you?," "my name is," etc, etc.
In order to help the kids better understand and learn the language, they were able to scurry up to the board and translate the Spanish word to English. These wee little tykes would mercilessly push past and climb on one another in order to show off their newly acquired knowledge to their teachers. It was very humbling and rewarding to see how willingly and enthusiastically the kids soaked up this new knowledge - and as they immediately showed it off to their friends. The girls found it amazing how similar the kids were to those in the United States by responding more willingly to games and activities rather just the interminable hum of the teacher. Something simple, but it shows how truly similar and connected the human race can be to other people all over the world.
The cement crew bravely shoveled gravel into the barrels, transferred it to the other side of the school with the cement and then mixed the two scrumptious ingredients together. As mixing ensued, the team began the happy task of moving the pile an infinite amount of times over itself in order to bake a cement delight. They then began carrying the now wet mixture in buckets and allowed for the unknown man in the blue shirt to pour the cement as foundation for the toilets. This task had the happy act of seeing the progress being made to give the kindergartners a proper bathroom.
The dirt, gravel and cement powder sat placidly in a pile when not being moved. Observing this notion, Mr Keiper had the great act of throwing powdered cement on the pile. This harmless act created a grand explosion, resulting in engulfing everyone in a temporary dust cloud. Mallory successfully resembled a gargoyle as the gray powder enveloped her entire body. A little boy, meanwhile, took up arms and worked to give just a little bit of assistance that he could offer amidst the destruction.
In the morning heat, dirt and mud flew around the soldiers who honorably shoveled and pick axed (paxed) the trench. As the day progressed, their light tan khakis morphed into brown sandbags that hugged their sweaty legs. Their arms and legs strengthened with each swing of the axe, especially with the help of the very frequent water and children breaks.
After a good hour and a half of hard work and sweat dripping from their brows, the little children swarmed their nest. Tiny hands "toman fotos" of all the girls and their high pitched voices tried persistently to hold them in deep, intellectual conversations (at least that is how much effort it took for the girls to try to understand the kids).
After a very successful morning, we drove to the local church for a very "surprising" lunch of rice with meat. The priest welcomed us to his community and thanked us for volunteering and helping them. He was very grateful that we were helping him and his congregation.
Following lunch, we once again split into our different companies and took up the tools to continue helping the school. The groups that taught in the morning were able to organize and play games with the kids, the cement mixers fiddled with wire, and the trencher went back to diggin' up in the hot, oppressive rays of the sun.
The teaching battalion began playing organized games with the kids to get their hearts pumping and the blood flowing. They attempted sharks and minnows and a complicated hand game of zooma zooma in which the limited attention spans of the kids did not quite catch on to either game. Victory came jn the form of duck, duck, goose as the kids merrily cackled in delight as they ran around one another and could "lightly tap" each other on their heads. To add to the excitement, Bridget gracefully fell to the ground and the sweet kids immediately asked after her health and made sure she was okay before returning to their very exciting game.
After Bridget's fall, a girl started pouring water over Bridget's hands and instructing her how to wash them thoroughly and completely. Instead of returning to an intense game of duck, duck, goose, the little girl ensnared Bridget into a "chocolate" hand game and an hour and a half of straight picture taking and fighting over the camera. By the end of this exchange, this little girl ensnared Bridget into a great bear hug and would not let her go even though we would return on the morrow. Many of us had similar experiences in which we found kids that latched on to us and would become our dear little friends and "novios" (boyfriends) for the duration of the week.
The cement group changed from cement transport to the happy art of wire manipulation. Tying and twisting together rebar became a rhythmic dance for the three workers. It is amazing how many ways that one can safely play with rusty wire without getting stabbed and contaminated. For those that may not know, rebar consists of several long rods that are tied together with wire to create the backbone of the windows, door and floor of the toilets. Although a nice rhythmic, relaxing action, poor Mr Keiper could not figure out how to do the simple art of twisting and tying. As he eventually perfected this art, the prospects of a toilet materialized even more as more rebar was constructed.
Paxing and shoveling, the trenchers found most of their afternoon to be interrupted by very promiscuous teenage Nicaraguans. A very nice boy named Berta gallantly took the up the tools of Maureen and hacked away at the dirt. He used all of his strength and whacked with all his might to significantly increase the depth of the tunnel. A little later, as Erin fruitlessly fought with a root, Berta took two hard throws of the axe and defeated the burly root. As we asked for his foto, he bashfully sauntered away. The nice boy needed no thanks and did it only to help make the work easier - a chivalrous act that all men should learn to do.
After hacking away at the dirt a little longer, a group of four flirtatious young men beckoned the girls to talk to them. Because they were all rather dashingly handsome with their tight jeans, flashy belts and button down shirts, the girls could not resist to exchange a few words with them. The charming young lads began asking the girls for their full names so that all could become Facebook friends. After taking a foto, the boys began asking the girls questions and giving them a lecture on boyfriends, cheating, etc. It was very stimulating as they interjected the conversation by impressing the girls with their English by using such words as beautiful for all of their eyes, hair and general physical appearance. It was very nice for these boys to be so curious and welcoming to us and earning detention in the process of talking to us.
After a long day of work, our very sweet driver Freddie then took us for ice cream after a hard day's work.
From today, we are overwhelmed and filled with surprise at the deep happiness and joy all these kids possess. They live in horrible circumstances - no proper plumbing, tin houses, little food - yet they romp around and play like they have no
cares and are just happy to be living and breathing. From a culture that has too much and complains about not having enough, great lessons can be taken from their selfless behavior. We should be grateful for what we have and take life by the reins and live it to the fullest!
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