It all started on a warm but slightly breezy morning on March 17. We rolled out of bed with a pep in our step and made our way to breakfast. For breakfast we had eggs, ham and fruit; however, Ansen wasn’t feeling it so he just had one singular bread, leaving the crust behind.
After, we got on the bus to see that the kids from Centro de Fe were already waiting there for us, all smiles filled the bus as we were excited to see each other once more. As we made our way to the Nature Reserve, we sang sing along songs and had small discussions about what life in Nicaragua and in Canada was like. When we got there, we had a quick presentation on the work being done at the Reserve and what we would be doing. We were split into 4 groups (with difficulty despite being in the exact same groups the day before) and perused the grounds. We eventually made our way to a Marine and Lake museum where the guide only spoke Spanish and unfortunately our Español no bueno, so we looked at pictures of native fish and Ansen admired the wall of plastic and how blue it was. Our groups took turns walking around the reserve and planting trees in little tree planters…as you do when you want to plant trees. After getting our hands dirty and thoroughly washed, we had lunch, which consisted of chicken (per usually), potato salad, and safely washed vegetables (as we were insured by Lester). After eating our meal, we slowly made our way to the bus, anticipating the events yet to come.
On the bus ride back to the school, we continued with our sensational singing and as we were driving we were touched by one of the students crying because he didn’t want us to leave. He said that he had felt a real connection and friendships starting to form, besides the language barrier. We got to Centro de Fe and hung out for a bit while the boys’ paparazzi crowd grew from not only the girls but to the guys as well. The art teacher prepared the mural ready for us to paint our names on the wall while we hung out with the students. Darius and Karson talked with one of the boys about their music and he talked about his music with them.
As soon as the mural was ready, we made our way to the staircase and grabbed a little cup of different colours of paint, such as yellow, red, green, white, light blue, mild blue and dark blue. We proceeded to sign the wall with little pictures of the trip (Tom painted a dead gecko, which he swore was alive but like all his other gecko “friends” was clearly deceased). As soon as the Canadian students were done we watched the Nicaraguan students to do the same. Despite the heat, we played tag inside the school and bought ice cream after. It’s always a good time buying ice cream because Lester has to translate between the ice cream man and you and most of the time you just hand him money and hope for the best and then he gets the right flavour. Today he must’ve been low on sleep because chocolate ice cream translated to orange freezy. After the Nicaraguan students were finished we said our “goodbyes” and “see you laters” and took our final pictures and got on the bus.
We got back to the Nehemiah Centre and had a family of missionaries as company for supper. For supper we ate stir fry on rice. Afterwards, Steve (from Resonate) gave us a presentation on the history of Nicaragua. We had our meeting and daily announcement of the travel and COVID-19 situation. We are sad to say that we have to leave Thursday morning at 6am instead of our original plan of Saturday morning. We have had a great trip so far and are extremely excited for our last day tomorrow and can’t wait what it will hold.
- Ansen and Makenna
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