We made it!

We didn´t think we´d have Internet all week but today found a little Internet cafe in Terebona, a small town where we are staying all week.

Day 1..Our flight got in Saturday night and we were all sweating as soon as we walked out of the airport. The nice thing is that Nicaragua is actually in the same time zone as Iowa except they don´t observe daylight savings time so they´re an hour ahead. So jet lag wasn´t an issue. We stayed in a nicer hotel than I was expecting the first night.

Day 2..We had a little orientation with El Porvenier, the organization we´re volunteering with for the first week. Then a women who teaches in Managua but is from the U.S. gave us a lesson on the country´s history and culture that really helped us understand a bit about Nicaraguans. After driving aroudn the city we ate lunch at the hotel and then drove about 3 hours to Terebona, a rural area. We are staying in the main town and have decent rooms. The showers are cold but we are thankful for running water and the light they installed in the shower today so we can see better and shower later at night since it gets dark at about 6.30 here.

Day 3..Monday we began volunteeering. We drive about 20 minutes to a small village in the Terebona area called La Dante. We spent Monday digging dirt from a dry creek bed and sifting it into piles. Then we mixed manure and ash in it to create a potting soil for trees. It is a lot of physical labor and we get tired really fast because there´s little shade and the sun is so hot. We reapply sunscreen constantly but most of us have gotten burnt a little and a few have had to wakl back and sit under trees for a while.We´re definitely consuming alot of water here!

Day 4..Today we finished our tree planting project! We scooped teh soil into little bags and lined them in rows then filled them with tree seeds and watered them. They´re goal for us was to plant 1000 but we had about 1500 done by this afternoon! The village will care for teh trees and eventually transplant them, often around wells to help catch water so it can drain into the well. They sometimes plant fruit trees for the people to use for food and profit but we planted hardwood trees to provide firewood to the community. This afternoon we visited a hospital and learned about the nationwide healthcare here and the ehalth issues in the area.

Tomorrow we are planting trees around a well and visiting a local school. Most of the group has taken a little Spanish and are picking up more words and phrases all the time. The local children like to helpand talk with us. We are all looking forward to climbing a volcano and shopping at a market this weekend before flying south to work with Self Help International for the next two weeks.

Emily