This is the second 4th of July in a row that we've spent outside of the US. In honor of the 4th, I wore the most American things I brought with me: my duck dynasty shirt and a red sock. Expecting it to be just another day here in San Juan del Sur, I was surprised to find that many restaurants and bars have a 4th of July special type thing that they do with "American" food (in quotes because it's a very Nicaraguan twist on American dishes, but it passes) and there are gringos aplenty that go to such places. Katie, Amara, our saviors B and M and I went to one of these restaurants tonight and were pleasantly surprised by the fact that Nicaraguans can somewhat pull off fried chicken and potato salad. After this, we went and got ice cream and then moseyed back on over to our hotel. Later on, we heard fireworks and were startled, not so much by the fireworks but by the kids that started screaming their heads off immediately after the first firework was set off. Apparently, at Pelican Eyes, which is the super nice and very fancy hotel in San Juan del Sur, they do a fireworks show on the 4th for all the Americans that are staying there. We could see the fireworks through our tiny kitchen window, and, not gonna lie, I actually love watching fireworks. I would hate to be the one setting them off cause they're super loud and people get blown up by those things sometimes, but I love watching them.
Anyways, earlier today Amara and I taught our respective classes (Amara with the help of Katie), and that went well. Not as many kids showed up today, but I think that's because it was the first day of a vacation today, so they might have forgotten or wanted to sleep in or something. It didn't really bother me that much, though, because the 6 or 7 of my students that did come were really good and it was obvious that they actually wanted to learn. That made me happy, because it's a lot easier to teach when the students actually want to learn. If any teachers are reading this, I'm so sorry for the times when I seemed super uninterested, because I realize now how immensely frustrating that is, and I'm gonna try harder to mask my disinterest in the future. The least I can do is pretend, right?
After teaching and the break that we have between our morning and afternoon activities, we went to Spanish school from 1-5 as usual. It was extremely hot today and there was absolutely no breeze whatsoever so I was pretty sure I was just gonna shrivel up and die, but I made it out alive, lucky for you guys. During Spanish school, I saw the owner of the school's mom throwing rocks at something. This lady is no spring chicken, but she's a pretty able old lady. I looked over and saw her throwing rocks off the balcony and I was pretty confused, and my teacher saw her too, so we were both confused. We didn't really think anything of it until we took our half hour break and heard a commotion of kids yelling and the owner of the school's husband making excited exclamations. We went over and discovered that there was a snake over there, and they had killed it. It was actually a pretty large snake, skinny, but probably as long as I am tall (about 5'6"). It was green and scrawny and decapitated (they had managed to cut its head off somehow). There was a hoard of white children huddled around the dead snake with a couple local kids and a few adults, and it was quite the spectacle. Last time we were here, we didn't see any snakes, andI was surprised to see one this time because there aren't that many in San Juan del Sur. One of the little white kids picked up the snake and was holding it up for everyone to see how long it was, then he wiggled it in front of one of the local adult guys, who proceeded to yelp like a little girl and jump backwards, which I thought was pretty hilarious.
Friday was a relatively normal day, other than excessive heat, which we dealt with by going swimming. I always think that I'm getting used to the heat, but every day it manages to feel hotter than the day before. Washington weather spoils me, and to be honest, I would rather be in frigid rain every day than in this weather every day.
Today, we slept in a little, then went to a store called Pali, which is about fifteen minutes up the road and is kinda like the QFC or Safeway of Nicaragua. We went there with M to buy all the supplies we needed to make all the food we'll be taking to the orphanage tomorrow. We bought lots of bread, chicken, cheese, mayo, pasta, and tuna to make sandwiches and tuna salad. Tomorrow, when we go to the orphanage, we'll be teaching the girls paper quilling and having lunch with them. Later tonight we'll be preparing all the food so we don't have to do it tomorrow, which should be interesting because we get to use the hotel's kitchen and apparently it gets really hot in there. That concerns me, because it's already really hot outside, so if it's "really hot" in the kitchen, what exactly does that mean? Ehhhh we shall see.
That's all for today! More later (with details of the orphanage visit and the really hot kitchen).
Aneesa
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