Monday - Gifts for the children

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Hola from Nicaragua
The weather today didn´t seem as hot. There were some overcast skies but it didn´t rain at all today.

We had a tasty breakfast of Nicaraguan pancakes and honey and then we set off for the build site. Every morning we stop for bottled water and ice for the cooler. It takes about 50 minutes to get to the site but it is only 16 kilometers. The road is very rough with lots of large rocks.

Today we continued with building the rebar structures, hauling gravel , hauling sand, adding concrete blocks and mortar to the walls. There was also a very specific job of bending metal rods into rectangles. The person working on it made it look very easy but several of us tried and it is really easy to do badly. With some practise, we got better at it.

After lunch of spaghetti, rice and beans, carrots, plantain chips and some vegetable that was kind of like squash, we got the kids organized to play some soccer and do some crafts. They moved the desks outside under the tree and got busy making some bracelets with cotton thread.

We also gave out the balsa wood airplanes. We had tape ready to fix any issues that came up. They were a big hit with the kids. Many of them completed bracelets and necklaces and they got to keep the little bundle of thread colours that they chose. After that Ronald got the kids lined up and gave them a pep talk about brushing their teeth and how they want to do it three times a day. Then we gave each person there a new toothbrush and toothpaste that was brought along by Marcia. They were donated by her dentist.

We returned to the hotel for rest and relaxation before dinner. We can´t all take a shower at the same time or the water pressure completely disappears. The girls usually go first and then the boys and then the adults.

The power was off all day on Saturday . It was a scheduled outage. The hotel cooks with propane so we were not affected that way. There have been a few short term outages as well. After the sun goes down and the power goes off, it is really dark here. We have flashlights with us and the hotel has a generator.

All is going well. We are learning to work and play together as a group. There have been a few hiccups along the way but we are doing good work here, the kids are happy and the school is getting built.

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