Yet another post this weekend because I would liked to share some pictures. Today I mostly hung out with kids. It was refreshing thought I needed a break from Speaking Spanish by 3pm. Cesia (9 years old) and Martin (14 years old) took me to their grandfather's small family farm about a 15 minute walk from our neighborhood. We carefully navigated a deeply washed out dirt rut that was filled with garbage. Thankfully it wasn't raining or it would have been a small river. We found some bones that Martin thought was the skeleton of a child as the site used to be a graveyard long ago, though Orderli told us it was from a deceased dog. There were beautiful trees with many strong roots growing down from the branches, some dangling which we used to swing like Tarzan. We walked through a pasture of weeds behind the cemetery and saw a group of men from the local churches with machetes clearing the area to keep it clean and beautiful I was told. When we reached the farms, the fields were beautiful, rows of rice with a few corn plant inter-dispersed, some scattered coconut trees and edged with plantains, mango, oranges, coconut, limes and many other fruits I've already forgotten the names of. Orderli, their grandpa gets up every morning at 4:30 to begin work here. He plants the seeds he's harvested from his own field of various types of beans, wheat, rice, corn and a few other things. About 85% of the planted seeds sprout and he later harvests this food for his family. They eat a lot of gallo pinto (a mixture of lightly fried beans and rice), plantains and a corn drink called pinol. Before heading home for church, we rested in the shade of a hammock and Cesia and Martin climbed a few coconut trees. When they finally found the coconut they wanted to get for me they needed my help stabilizing Martin up in the tree who was already boosting Sesia up to the coconuts. It was hilarious. And the coconut water was delicious.
I went to church with the family and again did not understand much of what the Pastor was saying aside from the Bible verses because I had my English Bible. However, they sang and prayed fervently and were very welcoming to me. I tried a pink milk drink in a bag afterwards that was too sweet and grainy for me (corn meal) and soon after went to the lake with Cesia and her cousin Cristhel, another young girl. They laughed and talked the whole way down the trail and would have stayed for hours if I didn't emphasize that we really needed to leave mmy skin wasn't feeling burned. I threw them off my shoulder many times into the murky, almost bath water-hot water. We swam under each other's legs, smeared mud on our bodies, played tag, dug holes, sung in Spanish and danced in water. On the way home the girls strung their sandals and wet swimsuits on a stick to hold between themselves, so they wouldn't have to touch their wet stuff I guess. They goofed off the whole way, teasing the small pigs and chickens and screaming while going up into the trees when a group of cows came by.
I went to church with the family and again did not understand much of what the Pastor was saying aside from the Bible verses because I had my English Bible. However, they sang and prayed fervently and were very welcoming to me. I tried a pink milk drink in a bag afterwards that was too sweet and grainy for me (corn meal) and soon after went to the lake with Cesia and her cousin Cristhel, another young girl. They laughed and talked the whole way down the trail and would have stayed for hours if I didn't emphasize that we really needed to leave mmy skin wasn't feeling burned. I threw them off my shoulder many times into the murky, almost bath water-hot water. We swam under each other's legs, smeared mud on our bodies, played tag, dug holes, sung in Spanish and danced in water. On the way home the girls strung their sandals and wet swimsuits on a stick to hold between themselves, so they wouldn't have to touch their wet stuff I guess. They goofed off the whole way, teasing the small pigs and chickens and screaming while going up into the trees when a group of cows came by.