Following last night's blog post, we had our first dinner at La Fogata and it was absolutely delicious. In just 2 meals here, the students have quickly learned to expect to have rice and beans and "some sort of meat" each time we eat. Several students went back for seconds and we THOUGHT that after a long day of travel and a full stomach, one would want to go straight to bed... we thought wrong. There were several requests to swim in the pool- at one point there were 18 out of our 20 swimming. They had a football, they were talking- a good time had by all. The only scare in the evening was when the power flickered out twice. Life off the grid? Thunderstorms? Too many air conditioning units running? Who knows ;)
It was tough to sleep in when you're still on Ohio time. Or when the sun comes up before 5. Or when you hear dogs barking. Or when the rooster crows more than once. Mrs. Wooden and I went for a walk before our 7:30 breakfast so we could get our bearings in this area. We saw a sign for Bahia Adventuras, the company that does our snorkeling tour, and since we knew where they were located, we decided to walk the 800 m down that road and figure it all out. We had so much fun watching all the school children walk with their parents. One girl and her father rode by on bikes, the father wearing his daughter's pink backpack. If we would have had enough time, we would have kept going to figure out where the school was. We also passed 2 surfers walking down the road, then all of a sudden, we became more familiar with our surroundings and realized that they were walking back to Casa de la Surf, the place we stayed last trip. Our hotel is just half a mile from there; it was nice to finally get an idea of where we were staying.
We had a "typico" breakfast- rice, beans, eggs, and fruit. They also had toast, cereal, and pancakes for us. They are doing a great job of making us feel at home! We packed our bags and met up at 8 to go do community service. We made a quick stop at the market for some Powerade and snacks, then followed Mau to a very small community.
Rustic Pathways has found that a lot of the schools in the area have had their major needs met. A lot of the community service there is now cosmetic- just painting or minor improvements. Mau has done a fantastic job of getting involved in Uvita's community and found some families that are really in need. The little "settlement," if you'd call it that, where we worked had 6 houses and a chicken coop. The houses there are mostly made of plywood sheets and corrugated tin. There are anywhere between 8 to 12 people living in each house, with rooms as small as 4x7 feet. It was like taking a college dorm room and splitting it into a kitchen, then 4 other rooms, and fitting your extended family in there. The houses are extremely hot and the kids often stay outside as much as possible to stay cool. Most of the houses have dirt floors, which is a major problem during rainy season- water rushes into their homes and can flood them. One of the families has two young children that are constantly getting sick because of the dirty water. They need concrete walls and floors to keep the water out. The students didn't have a chance to go inside the houses today, but Mau and Edguardo brought Mrs. Wooden and I through so we could get an idea of what we'd be doing tomorrow. It was a very emotional experience to see how these families are living and to hear their stories. We're going to talk to the students about it after dinner tonight so they can be prepared for working directly in and around the homes in the morning... anyway...
We had several projects to complete today, mostly helping with three houses. One house had its concrete foundation completed. They used drywall for the walls because it is less expensive than cinder block, but it is more susceptible to the elements. One of our jobs was to paint the drywall with a special treatment to seal it. Another job was mixing cement to complete the floor in another house. We mixed one bag of cement with 10 buckets of stones, then loaded wheelbarrows full to empty and spread inside. After the first load, one student said "That's all it covers? That was so much work!" to which our guide, Carolyn, responded "Yes. So imagine the one man that lives here doing all this himself. Think about how much you are helping!" The other projects involved a new house being built entirely out of cinder block. One group mixed a smooth, watery cement to spread on the outside of the cinder block house to seal it. Another worked to dig a trench behind the house to re-direct rushing rainwater.
It was HARD work. We took plenty of water breaks and frequently re-applied sunscreen, but you could tell we were exhausted. Mud all over our clothes, concrete mix in our hair, rosy cheeks, shirts that were absolutely drenched. Everyone was impressed with how hard the students were working! We had just 2 mishaps today, one that occurred about 5 minutes in. Morgan and Rem were digging the trench just a little too close together, resulting in Morgan getting hit with the shovel. She is TOUGH. We checked her out, got her water, and she bounced right back into work- it didn't bother her at all. She's sporting a cut on her lip, but no swelling or bruising. After we cleaned up, it became evident that Peter worked a bit too hard and he was dehydrated. He took some time to rest this afternoon and he is doing much better now.
The guides gave us just 10 minutes to shower quick, get ready for surfing, and get down to lunch. This group was determined to shower- I wish some of them would move that quickly during the school day! Lunch consisted of, you guessed it, rice and beans, a special type of pot roast, potatoes, plantains, and watermelon. Again, students went back for seconds, and they definitely earned it. Sunscreen was reapplied and we headed down to the national park to surf! There isn't much of a beach there- the rainforest goes right up to the shoreline, so we only have a beach when the tide is low. I told the students that you can find howler monkeys in the trees here and David was the expert spotter- he found 3 of them hanging out in the trees. The best part about it is that when you call out to them, they answer!
Three Rustic Pathways guides work at the Uvita surf school during the summer. We were split up into 4 groups on the beach, discussed safety, and went over the basics on surfboards we drew into the sand. Once we had the moves down, we grabbed our boards and headed out to the water. Some of us were better than others. By some of us I mean everyone and by others I mean me. Our group is filled with naturals! I think I saw everyone get up on their board. Allie F was probably the best one out there, although you will hear plenty of argument from the boys... We surfed and swam until about 4:45, which is incredibly fortunate, since the storms typically roll in around 4. The sky opened up and the lightning was in the sky by the time we all got back to our rooms.
That's plenty for now. Dinner is in 5 minutes. We will probably hang out and play games this evening, but I'm sure we'll be in bed before 9:30 this evening, unlike last night.
No one is sunburned, no bug bites, but we're all definitely sore. Hope all is well in Ohio!
Pura vida :)
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