Day 3: Concrete Jungle
What a day...
This morning started off with breakfast in shifts before we left for our two separate volunteer locations. Group 1 was headed to a nonprofit preschool to volunteer with children living in San Juan Del Sur. The kids varied from 19 months to 5 years old. This school helps teach young kids English to ensure a wide spectrum of opportunity in the future. The volunteers got to help out and play with the kids through various games and activities.
I was a part of Group 2 which headed to a nonprofit center for adults with disabilities. At the organization, the adults were taught to make purses and bags out of bean and potato sacks. We started off by sitting in a circle and asking each other questions to get to know each other. This really tested some of our Spanish... Luckily, we had a tour guide who made a fantastic translator. All of the adults were extremely friendly and kind. They varied in age from 18-38. Then, we got to spend some one on one time with the adults. It was difficult to hold conversations due to the language barrier, but it is incredible how easy it is to interact through body language, smiles, and laughter. I played a very confusing version of Sorry with our head coach, Aaron, and two women in the program. One of the women, Lily, was born with Down's syndrome. The other player's name was Antonia and she was born with cerebral palsy. After our game, we got to watch them work on the bags they were currently making. It was amazing to watch Antonia sew sacks together despite her cerebral palsy. After they showed us their work, we were able to purchase their beautiful bags as well as some bracelets they had made.
After our different volunteer work, we met back up at the hotel where we piled into truck beds that drove us out to lunch in the countryside. As we stood crowded in the back of the truck, our stability depended on beams that outlined the bed. We held on and drove up and down hills, through towns, and landed in a small community in the woods.
A few women from a local Cooperative cooked us lunch which consisted of chicken, rice, beans, avocado, salsa, fruit, and hibiscus tea. The Cooperative aims to provide jobs to women within the community. After we finished our meal, children from the community came and played games with us such as Uno, Trouble, volleyball, and soccer, as well as making puzzles and jumping rope. Hopefully Aaron doesn't see this, but I totally saw him get dominated on the soccer field.
The rain began simultaneous to our departure. Let me remind you, our mode of transportation was standing in an open truck bed. Nonetheless, we held onto our beams, titanic-ed, and smiled through the rain all the way back to our hotel.
After about an hour of resting, we walked one block over to the location of the second match of our trip. Instead of a hot sweaty gym, we were playing the Nicaraguan national team on an outdoor concrete court. The warmups took place during sunset with only a street separating us from the beach. Our team was a little apprehensive about avoiding the rain, avoiding injury, and handling the wind in an "indoor" set up, but everyone ended up embracing the elements with open arms. The team won in straight sets, 25-23, 25-20, 25-19.
We ended our day with a team dinner as we celebrated our 2-0 lead on the Nicaraguan team and reflected on the action-packed day we had.
Looking forward to another full day tomorrow,
Tess :)
This morning started off with breakfast in shifts before we left for our two separate volunteer locations. Group 1 was headed to a nonprofit preschool to volunteer with children living in San Juan Del Sur. The kids varied from 19 months to 5 years old. This school helps teach young kids English to ensure a wide spectrum of opportunity in the future. The volunteers got to help out and play with the kids through various games and activities.
I was a part of Group 2 which headed to a nonprofit center for adults with disabilities. At the organization, the adults were taught to make purses and bags out of bean and potato sacks. We started off by sitting in a circle and asking each other questions to get to know each other. This really tested some of our Spanish... Luckily, we had a tour guide who made a fantastic translator. All of the adults were extremely friendly and kind. They varied in age from 18-38. Then, we got to spend some one on one time with the adults. It was difficult to hold conversations due to the language barrier, but it is incredible how easy it is to interact through body language, smiles, and laughter. I played a very confusing version of Sorry with our head coach, Aaron, and two women in the program. One of the women, Lily, was born with Down's syndrome. The other player's name was Antonia and she was born with cerebral palsy. After our game, we got to watch them work on the bags they were currently making. It was amazing to watch Antonia sew sacks together despite her cerebral palsy. After they showed us their work, we were able to purchase their beautiful bags as well as some bracelets they had made.
After our different volunteer work, we met back up at the hotel where we piled into truck beds that drove us out to lunch in the countryside. As we stood crowded in the back of the truck, our stability depended on beams that outlined the bed. We held on and drove up and down hills, through towns, and landed in a small community in the woods.
A few women from a local Cooperative cooked us lunch which consisted of chicken, rice, beans, avocado, salsa, fruit, and hibiscus tea. The Cooperative aims to provide jobs to women within the community. After we finished our meal, children from the community came and played games with us such as Uno, Trouble, volleyball, and soccer, as well as making puzzles and jumping rope. Hopefully Aaron doesn't see this, but I totally saw him get dominated on the soccer field.
The rain began simultaneous to our departure. Let me remind you, our mode of transportation was standing in an open truck bed. Nonetheless, we held onto our beams, titanic-ed, and smiled through the rain all the way back to our hotel.
After about an hour of resting, we walked one block over to the location of the second match of our trip. Instead of a hot sweaty gym, we were playing the Nicaraguan national team on an outdoor concrete court. The warmups took place during sunset with only a street separating us from the beach. Our team was a little apprehensive about avoiding the rain, avoiding injury, and handling the wind in an "indoor" set up, but everyone ended up embracing the elements with open arms. The team won in straight sets, 25-23, 25-20, 25-19.
We ended our day with a team dinner as we celebrated our 2-0 lead on the Nicaraguan team and reflected on the action-packed day we had.
Looking forward to another full day tomorrow,
Tess :)
Comments
Post a Comment