Day Two
La Mariposa runs so consistently that it already feels like we’ve been here forever vs. a day. The kids made me wake them early (7am) so they could help Oscar with the monkeys. They scrammed to breakfast and dashed off to the monkey cage; they are so captivated that they’ve begged me to ask if they can work with Oscar one on one in lieu of one of their formal classes. J chose to keep conversation and Gigi grammar if we can work it out.
Tonight after I’d gotten Baby-O to bed (don’t worry everyone- I had the key in my pocket and was 10 paces away!) the older kids and I hung out. They were collapsed in laughter recalling many parts of the day. It consisted of a lot of card tricks in between classes and meals. If you’d told me that Gigi would be asking me to quiz her on tenses I wouldn’t have believed it. In between ‘Another one’! J kept asking me in Spanish how my feet were and if I liked tomatoes! I knew their Spanish would never be the same but I was surprised to hear Gigi ask me the first day, “What is this ‘ser’ about?” I replied, “Did you hear ‘estar’ too?” When she nodded affirmatively I knew her relationship with grammar had begun!
The 3 teenagers from Davis are delightful (small world- the eldest is considering Whitman seriously----we’ll need to connect him with Peter! And their grandfather’s first cousin is a school board member I know!). The older boys are doing a home stay and doing physical labor in the morning.
We’ve met the most interesting people that it’s hard to believe it’s only been 48 hours! Here’s a sampling:
-Swarthmore English Professor
-Villanova Engineering Professor
-Boston gentleman traveling with his Mom and brother. Today he told me about his teenage son’s project designing a lithium-powered refrigerated suitcase to transport medicines into remote areas (you get the picture!)
-17 year old from Berkley who is here on her own, she’s incredible with Baby-O. It was sweet to say that she appreciated her parents supporting and encouraging her travel but that she knew her mom was at home worrying and she felt bad about inflicting the fear into her mom’s days.
-A set of 15 year old twins and their 19 year old sister all from Ann Arbor. The twins are soooo mature. Their father is a minister in an ‘extremely progressive Episcopal church’ I’ve seen them stringing wire for plants, shoveling cement, cleaning the chicken coops, spreading out coffee beans with nothing but good cheer.
and many more characters!
Needless to say, La Mariposa has in part been a blast because of the company. It’s been terrific to see the kids band together and really enjoy themselves in a way that is out of an old Disney movie. Today when Kyle from Berkley arrived she was desperate to teach them a game called ‘13’, later the kids reported that the teenagers knew it as Vietnamese poker!
Today they had a chance to ride in the back of a pickup truck.
I relented first with Gigi and then on the way back with J. At one point our driver stopped our vehicle and explained the kids had been gesturing madly about the view and that he thought they wanted us to take a picture. We all were surprised to imagine them ‘taking in the scenery’ so seriously but we all got our cameras out and took a shot. Later, Gigi explained that they were debating whether a certain cloud formation and rainbow was the gateway to Heaven.
She was incredulous none of the adults had noticed. Apparently one must sometimes ride open-air in the back of a pickup truck in Nicaragua. Ironically Rick and I did so nearly 20 years ago hitch hiking through Central America and I can remember it like it was yesterday.
We spent the afternoon at a pineapple ‘farm’ which was really a diversified traditional land holding. The gentleman farmed coffee, bananas, tomatoes, peppers, sugar cane and of course, pineapple.
The farmer explained that if Dole were allowed in their municipality they’d be eradicated overnight.
One municipality did so and all the small landowners are gone. He also insisted that the pineapples would taste different and different they were- unbelievably juicy, fragrant and overall scrumptious. Adults and kids alike devoured their plates.
I wasn’t sure how Baby-O would do on the field trip (they are offered throughout the week) but didn’t want to send the older kids alone. Baby-O begged to come along so there we were walking a 1/2 mile or so down a dirt road passing chickens and children taking in Mahogany trees.
Later as everyone sat listening to the talk she ate her Goldfish and pretzels and watched the ducks, chickens, chicks, dogs and puppies engaged as could be.
When she declared she had to go #2 I eyed the latrine structure and asked if she could wait. After a while it was clear she couldn’t so I hoped for the best. It was SPOTLESS inside and she laughed with glee at the idea that she was ‘outside and inside at the same time!’ As we made our way out I was humbled to see that the latrine was part of a public works donation program dedicated in 2010. Dole aside these people were poor. The floor was dirt, a smoldering log fire burned and water I’m pretty sure was trucked in. But as the farmer eloquently explained, the farm had been in his family for 3 generations and he proudly reported that in his municipality they won’t let Dole in. The pride was palpable as was when he explained that he doesn’t use the pesticides that are so common in the big multinational holdings.
A huge storm seemed to come up out of the horizon and I worried that Baby-O might be frightened. We were touring the farm by foot and I was definitely nervous myself since we were a good 20 minutes to the vehicles. As the wind whipped I turned just in time to see Baby-O shriek with glee and spread her arms howling with laughter that just beat out the howling of the wind. I guess I needn’t have worried. . .
On the way to the farm we stopped at a juice stand that is staffed from the poorest community in the area. It is the people that live just under the volcano. The gases prevent nearly anything from flourishing there and the people are plagued with health problems. Pineapple however can grow despite the circumstances. Our kids were thrilled to have Berman, Paulette’s manager lop off the tops of coconuts and drink fresh coconut water. Our family has been drinking it back home out of cans and the kids reported this was far more delicious!
Lastly, J was invited this morning to play in the town semi-finals for soccer. He’ll hopefully practice with the team on Thur (he was worried he won’t understand what is being said). Hopefully his Crocs will hold up and stay on! It hasn’t rained at all and although it’s been hot the weather has been really nice. I can’t believe I told him NOT to pack his sneakers. . .ugh!
Tomorrow’s afternoon activity is the History of Nicaragua from 1970-Present. Hmmmm we’ll have to see if the kids’ bite!
La Mariposa runs so consistently that it already feels like we’ve been here forever vs. a day. The kids made me wake them early (7am) so they could help Oscar with the monkeys. They scrammed to breakfast and dashed off to the monkey cage; they are so captivated that they’ve begged me to ask if they can work with Oscar one on one in lieu of one of their formal classes. J chose to keep conversation and Gigi grammar if we can work it out.
One of the MANY frogs.
The puppies.
The 3 teenagers from Davis are delightful (small world- the eldest is considering Whitman seriously----we’ll need to connect him with Peter! And their grandfather’s first cousin is a school board member I know!). The older boys are doing a home stay and doing physical labor in the morning.
We’ve met the most interesting people that it’s hard to believe it’s only been 48 hours! Here’s a sampling:
-Swarthmore English Professor
-Villanova Engineering Professor
-Boston gentleman traveling with his Mom and brother. Today he told me about his teenage son’s project designing a lithium-powered refrigerated suitcase to transport medicines into remote areas (you get the picture!)
-17 year old from Berkley who is here on her own, she’s incredible with Baby-O. It was sweet to say that she appreciated her parents supporting and encouraging her travel but that she knew her mom was at home worrying and she felt bad about inflicting the fear into her mom’s days.
-A set of 15 year old twins and their 19 year old sister all from Ann Arbor. The twins are soooo mature. Their father is a minister in an ‘extremely progressive Episcopal church’ I’ve seen them stringing wire for plants, shoveling cement, cleaning the chicken coops, spreading out coffee beans with nothing but good cheer.
and many more characters!
Needless to say, La Mariposa has in part been a blast because of the company. It’s been terrific to see the kids band together and really enjoy themselves in a way that is out of an old Disney movie. Today when Kyle from Berkley arrived she was desperate to teach them a game called ‘13’, later the kids reported that the teenagers knew it as Vietnamese poker!
Today they had a chance to ride in the back of a pickup truck.
I relented first with Gigi and then on the way back with J. At one point our driver stopped our vehicle and explained the kids had been gesturing madly about the view and that he thought they wanted us to take a picture. We all were surprised to imagine them ‘taking in the scenery’ so seriously but we all got our cameras out and took a shot. Later, Gigi explained that they were debating whether a certain cloud formation and rainbow was the gateway to Heaven.
She was incredulous none of the adults had noticed. Apparently one must sometimes ride open-air in the back of a pickup truck in Nicaragua. Ironically Rick and I did so nearly 20 years ago hitch hiking through Central America and I can remember it like it was yesterday.
We spent the afternoon at a pineapple ‘farm’ which was really a diversified traditional land holding. The gentleman farmed coffee, bananas, tomatoes, peppers, sugar cane and of course, pineapple.
 |
| Sugar Cane |
 |
| Papayas |
 |
| Coffee Beans Yesterday they spread out coffee beans to dry, placed them in big sacks and tonight they'll go to be ground. Apparently the coffee will be ready for consumption tomorrow. That's fresh! |
The farmer explained that if Dole were allowed in their municipality they’d be eradicated overnight.
One municipality did so and all the small landowners are gone. He also insisted that the pineapples would taste different and different they were- unbelievably juicy, fragrant and overall scrumptious. Adults and kids alike devoured their plates.
 |
| This is what a field of pineapple plants look like! It's a bit different than Iowa! |
I wasn’t sure how Baby-O would do on the field trip (they are offered throughout the week) but didn’t want to send the older kids alone. Baby-O begged to come along so there we were walking a 1/2 mile or so down a dirt road passing chickens and children taking in Mahogany trees.
Later as everyone sat listening to the talk she ate her Goldfish and pretzels and watched the ducks, chickens, chicks, dogs and puppies engaged as could be.
When she declared she had to go #2 I eyed the latrine structure and asked if she could wait. After a while it was clear she couldn’t so I hoped for the best. It was SPOTLESS inside and she laughed with glee at the idea that she was ‘outside and inside at the same time!’ As we made our way out I was humbled to see that the latrine was part of a public works donation program dedicated in 2010. Dole aside these people were poor. The floor was dirt, a smoldering log fire burned and water I’m pretty sure was trucked in. But as the farmer eloquently explained, the farm had been in his family for 3 generations and he proudly reported that in his municipality they won’t let Dole in. The pride was palpable as was when he explained that he doesn’t use the pesticides that are so common in the big multinational holdings.
A huge storm seemed to come up out of the horizon and I worried that Baby-O might be frightened. We were touring the farm by foot and I was definitely nervous myself since we were a good 20 minutes to the vehicles. As the wind whipped I turned just in time to see Baby-O shriek with glee and spread her arms howling with laughter that just beat out the howling of the wind. I guess I needn’t have worried. . .
 |
| The wind is whipping so hard Baby-O is watching to see if her flower will fly away. |
On the way to the farm we stopped at a juice stand that is staffed from the poorest community in the area. It is the people that live just under the volcano. The gases prevent nearly anything from flourishing there and the people are plagued with health problems. Pineapple however can grow despite the circumstances. Our kids were thrilled to have Berman, Paulette’s manager lop off the tops of coconuts and drink fresh coconut water. Our family has been drinking it back home out of cans and the kids reported this was far more delicious!
Lastly, J was invited this morning to play in the town semi-finals for soccer. He’ll hopefully practice with the team on Thur (he was worried he won’t understand what is being said). Hopefully his Crocs will hold up and stay on! It hasn’t rained at all and although it’s been hot the weather has been really nice. I can’t believe I told him NOT to pack his sneakers. . .ugh!
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