DAY 7 Wednesday May 20:

Beth…

We started today off well after a restful night in beautiful Santa Rosa. School, as I mentioned, is at 7:30, so we had to high tail it out of there to be on time. We finished up our last exercises with the questions words, which actually take a while because we go around to each pair of students and make sure they are pronouncing the question and answer correctly. I wanted to make note of the students who were really trying, so I took out a piece of paper to mark down the standouts on the half of the classroom that I cover. Boy did that have an effect! All of the kids started looking at each other and trying to see what I was writing down, but I folded it, mainly to make them sweat it out a little. Wha ha ha ha. All of a sudden, the students who weren’t so interested in trying made a pretty strong effort to improve did. I would like to give myself a little pat on the back for that clever teaching tool. Muy bien yo.

We had lunch with a very kind lady named Anamarcia, who went on and on about how it was a pleasure to have Julie’s daughter and her friend over for breakfast. She made us tortillas, and beans with a side of sour cream. We also had some kind of milk or fruit juice (it was hard to tell) that was very sweet with a hint of nutmeg. I loved it, but it was too sweet for Kate. She had the most adorable puppies that chased her chickens around. It was pretty funny.

For the afternoon class, we decided to start covering basic vocabulary because we already taught them how to ask all the general questions they would need. Only three students came today, but it ended up being quite entertaining anyways because it was more personal and we were able to play some games that just take too long with a large group. We would say something in Spanish and ask them to translate it into English, and they would tease each other while they tried. Good times good times.

We ate lunch with Anamarcia, who was again as nice as she could be. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same about her chickens. Let’s just say they are a little on the wild side. While we were eating, one particularly aggressive one was scoping us out, deciding how to go in for our food. I could see the look in its eyes that whole four feet away, and I knew what it wanted. That chicken thinks it’s gonna get some food, that’s funny. For most of you that know me, you know it’s a difficult thing for me to share a bite of sandwich to a hungry friend, much less a butt-ugly chicken. Puh-leeze. Anyway, it came around closer and closer, and with a giant leap jumped onto our table. Being the stunningly brave people we are, Kate and I screamed in unison like little girls. Wow. We quickly shooed the chicken away, but the shame of having been scared of what normally is our food remained.

After class we managed to sleep, yet once again, in our most wonderful hammocks. I can’t decide if those are a blessing or a curse because, even if you aren’t tired at all, as soon as you sit in one, its pretty much guaranteed that you will fall asleep. No joke, it has been tested and proven. Unfortunately, I caught a little something and was rather sick for most of the day, but being able to take a nap was very helpful.

After the nap, we prepared rather quickly for our bible study. We decided to talk about God’s love and just how profound it is, as well as how his commandments for us are not just a list of rules or restrictions as they might seem to be, but rather a way of living that sets us free and gives us the strength to have a more fulfilling life. Now try saying that in Spanish, I dare you. No really, go ahead, because I probably could have used the information to sound a little smoother than I did. Not to worry though, it ended up going well anyway.

Once we got there, we first sang several songs and read a few verses. I was a little nervous that I would have to leave because I was feeling ill, but by the grace of God I felt quite well the entire time. After about 20 minutes, it was our turn to go for the gold. Needless to say, our Spanish was a little rough, because it is rather difficult to put across emotional messages rather than basic ideas. It began quite slowly and was a bit awkward, but after a little while I think we were able to get the message across. The people helped us with words we struggled with and couldn’t have been nicer. After our study, we decided to give our brief testimonies. For whatever reason, it was much easier for both of us to talk about our testimonies, or at least I felt like I was able to speak more smoothly. Gracias a Dios, we were able to finish without making fools of ourselves!!

We then decided to play a game that is something like “the great wind blows for” or “never have I” where everyone sits in chairs in a circle, except there is one chair too few, so one person is left over, and has to stand up. The person standing says something along the lines of “the great wind blows for people wearing sandals”, and everyone wearing sandals must get up and find another chair. The person left over has to share something about his or herself, and start another round. Take a wild guess at who was left over first. Bet you never would have guess it was me, would you? Oh yes, you betcha. A girl once known for being one of the fastest on the soccer team could not beat some 10 year-old children to a chair. Oh boy. So I shared some basic info like where I am from, how many sisters I have, etc. Almost immediately, I was asked if I had a boyfriend. When I answered yes, one of the older women said “see muchachos, she is already taken, too bad”. Slightly embarrassing, to say the least. But not quite as embarrassing as the fact that I proceeded to lose the next three rounds. Oy yoy yoy!!! I decided to just stop changing chairs even if I should have J Oopsies!! When Kate went to the front, they also asked if she had a boyfriend, and from then on out, everyone had to answer whether or not he or she had a girlfriend or boyfriend.  For those who did not have boyfriends, the boys would always say, “Do you want one?”  It was pretty hilarious. We played for quite a long time and finished the game with a particularly funny occurrence. The previous person said that everyone had to get up and find a chair on the other side of the room. In a rush, a young (pretty fat) boy and several women collided in one corner, and the boy ate it. Oh man it was awesome. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any funnier, a lady who still needed a chair leapt up to grab the one the boy missed. She went at it with such vigor that she proceeded to snap the chair in two. Oh man I haven’t laughed that hard in a long, long time. I couldn’t breathe for about 5 minutes afterwards. It’s things like this that make you so excited to get up every morning. Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor J

Later that night, we had dinner at Anamarcia’s. She made us beans, rice and an egg, a particularly common meal here. We went to bed pretty quickly after that in Santa Rosa because the lights were out. Nice J.

Must say that was an awesome day. 

DAY 6 Tuesday May 19:

Kate…

So, last night we slept in Santa Rosa (J)  The power went out, so Jairo, our neighbor, and Alberto, a gardener from El Transito, took us to Santa Rosa… on motorcycles!  Beth says, “Sorry Mom.”  It was my first time and I had a blast!  WHEEEE!  Beth wants to agree, but feels like she can’t say it out loud. Oopsies.  But just know she’s thinking it.

This morning, we began teaching the kids the words that most questions begin with: Who, What, When, etc…  We practiced the pronunciations and basic and common questions that they might come across.  We had them practice in pairs or, compañeros, and you could really tell who was trying and practicing when we told them to.  After they practiced for a couple of minutes with their partner, Beth and I would walk around and ask one student to say the question and the other the answer, and after that, we asked them to switch roles.  The ones who didn’t try expected us to completely say it word by word for them, which kind of tested my patience.  But definitely a test from God…  The ones who did practice were ready for us with their best pronunciation possible.  Their homework was to practice saying who, what and when for the next class.

We forgot to mention that Jairo put up two hammocks for us yesterday. AWESOMEEEEE.  So, when we got back from class, guess what we did?  Yup, you got it, hammock timeeeee.  YES!  Amilcar dropped by, which means, he wasn’t in class.  Muy mal.  But we hung out with him nonetheless and had some fun just talking.  I busted out my mini iPod shuffle and let him listen to it.  He was so funny, so I gave him both headphones and let him dance away.  Too cute.  And hilarious.  And precious.  Oddly enough, Colbie Callait was his favorite singer, and he especially liked the song “The Little Things”.  He even tried to memorize some of the words.  Haha too cute.

For lunch, Ronal and Elle had us over for lunch.  We had ceviche, tuna, and rice and beans.  YUMMYYYYY.  While we were eating, the kids came home from school and ate their lunch too.  Alminto was chowing down on his food, so much, that half of it spilled all down his shirt and pants.  All he did was laugh and say “mama!”

In the afternoon class, we continued working on the question words.  The Pastor attended class today and every time he said something in English, whether he said right or not, he expected an applause.  Which he got, by the way, with a few giggles in between.

At 5 PM, we headed to the “cancha” or basketball court.  We played soccer for about two hours.  DURO!  I am proud to say, the girls took the cake AGAIN!  We beat the boys by not 1, 2, or 3 goals, but 4!  After Beth and I scored a goal, we would both do a crazy celebration.  Most of them laughed at us at first, but before you knew it, everyone had their own victory dance!

On the way back to Rancho Fifo, the lights went out. Perf.  Ronal and Elle had us over again for dinner, in the dark.  While we were waiting, we played with Emily, Ronal, and Alminto and got some pretty cute pictures of them.  For dinner we had… RICE AND BEANS!  And some fried cheese.  Interesante…

Because the lights were out, we went to Santa Rosa again.

A pretty comical day overall.  Gracias a Dios.

DAY 5 Monday May 18:

Beth…

Monday was our first full day teaching both the little ones and the adults. Lord have mercy. We slept in El Transito, and put together our lesson plan pretty quickly. We decided to do the alphabet with the kids first, because after teaching the adults we realized that they have very little background. And when we say little, oh we mean little. So we went through the entire thing pretty easily, but it was a bit painful to hear them attempt to pronounce some letters and words and fail soooo badly. Hey, at least we only have up to go from here, right? We arranged a time to teach for the rest of the week with the teachers. Guess what we chose. Just try. Bet you didn’t guess 7am did you? Oh yes, 7am, perfect. We chose it because its so much cooler, and most people are up and about by then because the sun rises at like 5 anyway. This trip is about sacrifice and serving at all costs and times of day. I’m just going to tell myself its good for me. Anyway, we made lunch for ourselves with limited ingredients, we do what we can, can’t say its super healthy though. We also forgot to mention that the people here have generously fed us multiple times with delicious meals, usually beans and rice with eggs, beans and rice with cheese, beans and rice with tortillas, or beans and rice with fish. Did we mention beans and rice? I must say, its so tasty here, OM NOM NOM, according to me, or YUMMMAY according to Kate. It’s much better than in the States, probably because they cook it in fat. Funny story, I thought I was going to lose weight on this trip. Do NOT think that will be happening.

That afternoon, we taught the adults again, and reviewed question words, like who, what, when, where, why, how and which. They seem to be catching on a little bit and their pronunciation is slowly improving. We have them get into pairs and practice questions and responses with each other.

Later that evening, we played soccer again. Once more it was men vs. women, and boy, some of those girls have gotten competitive. We may or may not have had a slight influence on that. The men won the first game and the women one the second. If you look at the pictures, you can see just how sweaty I was. Cute. Good thing Kate nor I are looking for attention from los muchachos here, luckily for Josh and Martin :-P. Honestly though, we have gotten a little unwanted attention, but most of them are all talk with their friends, and actually kinda scared of us. WEANIES.

Per usual, a fun, fulfilling, and filling (thanks to the beans and rice) day.

 

DAY 4 Sunday May 17:

Kate…

Today was our rest day.  We spent Saturday night in Santa Rosa, which is a nearby beach development, but not many people have built houses on the land.  But, there is one family, the Marletts, who have built a BEAUTIFUL home and have been gracious enough to let us stay there when and if we need to (Thank you Terri and Chris!).  We woke up this morning and finished our blog for the first day.  Took a little while.  Oops.  I’ve always been good at procrastinating. 

After we finished, we asked Veronica, who is the caretaker of the house, to take us back to El Transito.  Waiting for us when we arrived were Amilcar, Julio, Alminto, Ronal, and Emily, our little entourage.  Love them.  Alminto, Ronal, and Emily are brothers and sister and live across the street.  They are the cutest!  Alminto is 4 years old, full of it, loves attention (and Oreos), and sounds like a little girl still.  Ronal is 5 years old, and a little gordo (chubby).  He loves to smile and be around us.  He always calls us “las gringas” and always wants to know where we’re going.  Emily is the oldest of the three and is very quiet, but she is a sweet girl.  We already mentioned Amilcar, but Julio is our next door neighbor.  He is fourteen years old and a talkative one.  Sometimes too talkative.  But he is also a very nice boy.

After that, Amilcar and Julio accompanied us to the beach.  We ended up walking to my Mom’s friend’s hotel.  His name is Roger.  He is also a gringo from the states.  YES!  We’re not the only ones!  We stopped by to say hello and drop off some saddle soap, horseradish, and sour patch kids, things you can only buy in the US that he misses dearly.  After hanging out for a bit, we walked back with the two boys and took some fun pictures.  They were incredibly fascinated with the camera.  Amilcar took my glasses and was looking extra fly.  They were a little big for him, which only made it cuter.  Beth ended up dunking Amilcar in the ocean in all of his clothes, but he didn’t seem to mind.  He actually quite enjoyed it.

When we got back, we rested for a little bit, and then made our way up the “painfully,” said Beth, HUGE hill to the 5 PM church service.  Their service is very different from what we’re used to.  There were about 20-30 people there.  They sang a lot, clapped a lot, and when the Pastor was praying, each person was also praying out loud.  Something very different and new for Beth to see.  They also stood up a lot, which for a two hour sermon, was not so much fun.  The Pastor gave a sermon on the story about Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden from Genesis.  I forgot to mention the pronunciation of Beth’s name by the Pastor.  Basically, can’t describe how he said it.  He was not even close.  At first, he actually didn’t attempt to say her name, but after Beth was like, “Pastor, what’s my name?”  he tried but struggled and it came out as a grunt.  Perfect.  Right before the service was about to end, the Pastor asked us if we wanted to sing a song?  Haha me and Beth sing…  That’s funny.  We said maybe next time.  Which you will hear about later. Beth would like to add that Emily held her hand the whole walk back from church, and she thought it was adorable.

After church, we had a quick round of cards with the Pastor and the little ones.  I decided to bring out a bowl of oreos.  Funny how Alminto thought de deserved three and everyone else only deserved one.  He grabbed those things so fast!  No one else even had a chance.  Too cute.

Overall, a relaxing beach day with an awesome church service.

DAY 3 Saturday May 16:

Bet… (I mean Beth!)

Today, we went to the beach again in the morning for some quiet time. The weather is beautiful here in the morning and the evening, but during the middle of the day it’s intensely hot and really best to just sleep, or that’s at least how we have dealt with it J. So at the beach, we read our bibles and relaxed in the shade. A couple kids came to visit, and per usual, I was wearing my most awesome tourist gear, so we got a lot of strange looks. Just for the record, Kate’s look was a little touristy too :-P Not to worry though, I didn’t chase any birds today. We basically just relaxed for about an hour and headed back to prepare for our next English class at three.  We started the blog, and as you can see, it is still a work in progress that we may or may not have procrastinated on a little bit. Oopsies.

 

For lunch, we took on the arduous task of cooking for ourselves with our tiny gas cooker. I would like to say that we did a pretty good job. We had ham, green beans, an apple and crackers. Kate was a little less than pleased to eat her vegetables, but with the help of the ham and crackers, she was able to manage and force them down. Kate would like to add that I did not particularly want my apple, but she forced me to eat it because I made her eat the veggies. Fine Kate, we are even J

So that afternoon, we taught class, and decided to review the alphabet and the pronunciation of each letter, because most people here have simply memorized a few phrases that don’t really sound like English because they say them with a Spanish accent. It was fun to teach them how to pronounce things like “th” (for example telling them to put their tongue in between their teeth) and the word “am”. I think they are starting to learn, which is very cool J

We played cards again that afternoon. It does get a little frustrating to play with the kids because they just say “mentira” or BS after every round. Kinda annoying, so we decided to play another game. They taught us one of theirs, which is similar to Rummy and pretty fun. I think I am going to try to teach them another game soon.

That evening, we played soccer for the first time on the basketball court. They actually don’t have a soccer field, because they used the space they had to make a baseball field, which is the most popular sport here. It was a lot of fun to play with everyone, and we decided to play men against women. I am proud to pronounce that with mine and Kate’s help, the women won. Get it girls J We may or may not have shown off our moves a little bit, just for fun. You know, after 15 years of playing we should be able to do something.

Overall, another good day J

DAY 2 Friday May 15:

Kate…

Today, we woke up to find that someone had eaten our bread.  Great.  It’s not like we were planning on having sandwiches everyday for lunch or anything.. No biggie.  We were wondering who on Earth was able to break through the steel barred door and take little bites of our bread.  It’s not even like the whole thing was gone.  Just random bits.  We asked our neighbor and the Pastor, and it turns out, we have little cat friends that like bread.  Now we know to keep our food locked up in zip lock baggies or in the refrigerator.

We went to the beach for the first time.  Beth looked a little bit like a tourist, but just a little bit ;)  You know, just bright clothing, a hat, sunglasses, a HUGE backpack, flip flops, a camera, an orange water bottle, and white skin.  But no big deal, she didn’t stand out or anything…  This is where Beth first met Amilcar.  Amilcar is a little boy from the town who comes from a rough background, but is still a precious boy that craves attention.  He was fishing with a coke bottle and fishing line and was actually pretty successful.  He had about ten fish in his little pile on the beach.  The vultures were crowding around his fish and after he left to fish again, they would try and steal some, but luckily, Beth came to the rescue!  To stand out even more, she ran at the vultures like a crazy woman.  She even flapped her arms like a bird to speak their language… (this is true)  Beth would like to add that no birds were successful in stealing any fish.

Later that day, we gave our first English lesson.  We had about ten people come, ranging from 14 to 32 years old.  We reviewed basic conversational questions and tried to get a feel for what they already knew.  It was interesting to see what they had trouble pronouncing.  “th” for Beth was especially hard, and even after a week’s practice, they continue to call her “Bet” or “Best”.  Kind of hilarious.

Later that evening, we played BS, which we called “mentiroso” in Spanish.  The Pastor ended up winning..  weird.  But it was a lot of fun and a good ice breaker for us and the kids that were there.

When it was time for bed, we set up our mosquito net (our lifesaver) and put on our fan (also our lifesaver).  Overall, it was a pretty good first day.  Just adjusting to the lifestyle, mosquitoes, and heat.

DAY 1 Thursday May 14:

Kate…

So, I landed in Houston at 5 AM.  Our flight to Managua wasn’t until 9 AM, so I had some time to kill.  I decided to look up Beth’s flight and tell her where to go after she got off the plane, because I figured that would save her some time, seeing that her plane was supposed to land around 8:10.  She called me just as she landed around 8, and I told her we were boarding soon.  She freaked out a little and said, “Great, I’m going to be sprinting to the gate, 120 speed.”  She definitely got there with LOADS of time to spare..  Good job Beth.  I didn’t sleep at all the night before because I left LA at 12:45 AM.  I watched a movie and then couldn’t fall asleep, so on the flight to Managua, I passed out.  We finally got into Managua and had no problems with our bags.  They were waiting for us on the conveyor belt.  Hallelujah. 

Beth…

So I left for Houston around 5am from my house, which left me a bit tired because I had managed to go to bed around 3 that morning. Good job me for leaving the packing until the last minute. I slept straight through my flight to Houston, and landed only to call Kate and find out that our gate for the flight to Managua was basically on the opposite side of a relatively large airport. Nice. I finally got out of the plane at like 8:15 and sprinted, yes like 120’s speed sprinted to the gate. It was a freaking LONG run, and boy am I out of shape. Turns out my effort was pretty much unnecessary though, because I got there with like 15mins to spare. I took out some cash, but, being in a hurry did not take out enough. Looks like I was just on top of my game then lol. Kate passed out for the flight to Managua, and I talked to a guy who’s daughter is going to adopt some kids from Nicaragua. Very cool. We finally landed and walked out to find the airport employees all wearing masks. That was comforting.

Kate…

So initially, when we first walked out, we didn’t see Luis or Veronica, so we might have been in a TINY state of panic, but no big deal.  We decided to buy some minutes for the phone my mom gave me that works in Nicaragua.  After buying some minutes, we called Luis only to find he was standing like 20 feet away from us… haha whoopsie.  We loaded our 4 MASSIVE suitcases into the back of Luis’ truck, and off we went to the supermercado (that’s supermarket for all you Gringos, Dad).  On the way there, I was a little nervous that someone would just snatch one of our bags, because they were just chillin’ out there, but we made it safely.  Once we were in the supermarket, we spent about 1.5 hours trying to decide and find all the food we wanted.  A lot of sandwich meat, milk, cereal, OREOS, water, juice, soda (shhhh), bacon, cheese, crackers, mustard, mayo, thousand islands dressing, vegetables (yuck!), frutas, eggs, and bread.  In the middle of our shopping adventure, Luis brought us some pretty delicious ice cream, and two scoops of it!  NOT GOOD!  Finally, we made it to the checkout only to find that our bill was only $129 for 11 days worth of food.  It probably would have cost us about $300 in the US.  VERY NICE!

Beth…

Right after we landed we were able to get our suitcases really easily, though I did try and chase down several that weren’t mine. Once again, just on my game. We couldn’t find Louis at first, and I could just imagine my dad loosing it if he was there. Oh Dad. But we had a phone, bought some minutes, and called him only to find he was about 15-20 feet away from us. Well done Rice girls. We loaded everything into his large truck and it fit pretty snuggly, so it was hard to imagine loading groceries and a refrigerator in there as well. I loved looking out the window as we drove and just watching people. There are so many people out and about, and the city is so lively. Everyone has very American clothes, and there are a lot of American billboards and products. The difference is in the general environment. Houses are small, dirty, and made of trashbags, slabs of wood and corregated tin. It didn’t take us long before we got to the grocery store. We had to lock all the luggage in the back under bungie cords. While I never felt threatened as far as my safety, robbery is a huge problem there and you always need to be aware. When we got to the supermarket, we pretty much bought half of the store, I think Kate included a list above. We did a good job reinforcing the fat American stereotype lol. Everything was so cheap though, because 20 cordobas are about equal to 1 dollar. In total it was less than $150, pretty cheap for all the stuff we bought.

Kate…

We then had to wait for an hour or so as Luis had some business to do.  We hung out in a tiny air-conditioned room and tried very hard to be patient.  Not one of my strengths.  That’s why I don’t play golf like Justin does.  After that, we went to an appliance store to buy a refridgerator for my mom and all of the food we bought!  I found one that was 5-6 feet tall and made the purchase!  Beth said she thought the same one would have been twice as much in the US.  YES!  GREAT SUCCESS!  Now, here was our dilemna…  We had to fit oodles of food, all four suitcases, and a large cooler Luis and Veronica brought for all of the perishable foods.  Interesante…  Es posible?  SI!  Con Dios todo es posible.  Luis worked some magic and off we went!  I was getting tired at this point, seeing as I had only slept a couple of hours in the last 18 hours or so, so I decided to take a little nap on the way to El Transito.  20 minutes later, I was awaken with some fried chicken and coke.  Guess what?  I wasn’t tired anymore!  YUMMYYYYY.

Beth…

After the supermarket, we had to wait for Louis to do some work at his office, and ended up hanging out in an office with a friendly coworker. Afterward, we went to an appliances store to pick up a refrigerator for our house in el Transito. The store was so nice, and it felt really odd to walk in there after seeing what the rest of the city looked like. There were large flat screen TVs, dishwashers, cameras, and of course, refrigerators. It was just like being in a store in the United States. Kate bought a pretty big one with a freezer and all, and I thought that there was going to be no way for us to fit all of our luggage, food and that massive appliance into the truck, but Louis did somehow, and it looked pretty ridiculous because the fridge stood upright. I got a little sick in the car, and I think it was because of the ice cream I ate, but it didn’t last very long and all went well on our 1.5 hour trip to el Transito. The scenery is amazing, with rolling hills and tons of trees. I loved just looking out the window and eating the fried chicken Louis got us while Kate passed out in the seat next to me. With her mouth open. Cute. She looked like a baby bird with its mouth open for food. Thank God for free entertainment.

Kate…

When we got to El Transito, we started to unload the car immediately because we didn’t want to lose the light.  Pastor Carcamo came and helped us unload the refrigerator with Luis.  Beth and I would have done it, but we decided to get the groceries instead.  Haha.  Luis and Veronica gave us the cooler with ice, so we left all the perishable foods in it and loaded everything else into the kitchen.  The kitchen is small room that is not connected to the main room.  You have to go outside to enter the kitchen.  It has a small, metal-fenced door with a HUGE lock so that no one can take anything while we are not there or in the middle of the night.  We left everything else on the counter and proceeded to put our suitcases in the room.  Estella, my mom’s caretaker for the house, and one of her oldest daughters came to sweep the room and the porch before we settled in.  Luis, Veronica, the Pastor, Estella, and her daughter all left, and finally we were left alone… SIKE!  Julio, who is our next-door neighbor, called out to us, “Muchachas.”  We were not alone…  Julio is the son of Naya and Jairo.  He has two little brothers, Cairo and Christian, who is a new baby of three months.  He wanted to talk and had lots of questions including, “Y Dona Julie?”  Meaning and Mrs. Julie, where is she?  Yes, my mom is cooler than me.  But only in El Transito.  Sorry mama.  Meanwhile, Beth and I did not realize, but we were getting bit to death.  Awesome.  Finally, Julio ran out of questions and we went to go lock the front gate, which also has a HUGE lock on it.

Beth…

I had imagined what El Transito would be like so many times before I came here, and while I knew it would be different from that image, I was still surprised. I hadn’t pictured horses wandering around randomly, or the condition of the houses being quite as run down as they were. I loved the fact that there were a ton of people out and about, with kids running around in groups playing random games. Soon after arriving, we took the refrigerator in the kitchen, which is separate from the main room just like the bathroom is, and took all of our food in. We couldn’t refrigerate anything that night though because we needed an extension cord, and needed to allow the gas in the fridge to settle. Being the geniuses that we are, we left the food on the counter. I’ll let you know how that went in the next section.  We walked around just a little bit, went to a small bar about 2 houses down and used the internet cord to email our families. By the time we went back, it was getting dark, and we decided to call it a night. We decided to lock the gate, and well, got a little surprise.

Kate…

As Beth and I were meddling with the gate lock and a small flashlight, someone began throwing rocks at us.  My initial thought, “AH!”  But I tried to keep it inside.  Well I did grab onto the Beth and say, “What was that!”  We realized, they were rocks.  And this happened a couple of times while we were at the gate.  I proceeded to freak out a little.  I mean who throws rocks, honestly!  Next, we decided to grab some water and lock the kitchen, and again, more rocks.  No bueno.  We were a little scared at that point, especially me.  We went inside the room in a little state of panic.  Beth whipped out her pepper spray in 2.5 seconds and I grabbed the flashlight.  Now, I don’t know exactly what I thought I was going to do with that flashlight if someone did attack, but I had it just in case…  Wow.  I then thought it would be a good idea if we turned the light off inside the room, but left the light on on the porch, we they couldn’t see inside, because the windows only have sheer curtains, but we could see them outside if they got on the porch.  Wow again.  Then, we thought it might be a good idea if we turned off the porch lights too.  Just dumb.  So, there Beth and I stood behind the front door, ready to spray and shine if someone dared to barge through our door.  Beth kept saying I think we’re safer outside, because there were people out and about, even though it was dark, and hopefully they would see or hear us if something happened.  I thought the exact opposite.  I felt safe inside where they couldn’t reach us.  Eventually, Beth convinced me that we were safer outside, and we turned on all the lights and went outside, pepper spray and flashlight still in hand.  Then Julio, our neighbor, and Josue, one of Estella’s sons, came to talk.  Thank the Lord.  Those rock throwers couldn’t get us now!  Then a few minutes later, the Pastor came.  Hallelujah.  We told them that we were a little frightened, but they assured us that we were very safe and that there is no crime in El Transito.  We went to bed a little more comfortable, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t jump up a little every time I heard a sound.  And the same goes for Beth!  J

Beth…

I think Kate did a pretty good job describing this lovely incident. I would just like to add that I did think it was kids the whole time J I did get scared when we were in the house with the lights out though because it really sounded like someone was on the porch. Funny story, it was the wind. Aren’t we valiant. Also, while we were in the house, I taught Kate all of the self-defense moves I know. Thank you mom. It was really comforting to know we have so many friends close by that are concerned for our well-being and want to make sure we are safe and comfortable. We haven’t had a problem sleeping there since. Not to worry Dad, we are still alive :D