Thursday-- Orinoco

we were up early for breakfast that Mrs. Williams (co-owner of the Green Lodge) made for us with eggs, toasted coconut bread and homemade guava jelly.  after eating, we grabbed our luggage with the help of Wavel and Henry who work at the Pearl Lagoon filtration system and 60 empty 5 gal bottles and made our way to the chartered panga for the 45 min ride to Orinoco.

The 5 gal bottles we brought on the Panga

Yovett hired the panga driver for a flat fee plus $20 a day (and $ for gas) to be with us all week in case we needed to order parts from another town, or to take us to Kukra Hill for our last visit.

On arriving we made our way to Hotel Garifuna  a 2 story building with 8 guest rooms and a communal bathroom on the first floor and a restaurant/bar on the second floor.  The hotel had no air conditioning, but included a fan on a stand in each room.  In Nicaragua, a fitted sheet and a top sheet is usually the extent of bedding provided.

It is usually hot enough that "normal" folks don't need a blanket, bedspread or cumforter--- but I am very cold natured and I would have welcomed additional bedding.


I had one window with unmatched curtains, two beds one light bulb in the ceiling and one outlet for the fan or charging a phone.

 Electricity was on from 9 am to 1 am- usually- one night the power stayed on til 5am (we heard later because of an emergency at the clinic which needed it)  No charging phones overnight as I'm used to doing.   The hotel is owned by a man (from Finland whose English is quite  good) and his wife who is, I think, Nicaraguan.

Yovett had arranged for us to eat in a restaurant a few blocks away owned by Miss Erica Crisanto.  She fed us 3 times a day for the 4 days we were there.  We had mostly fried meats (fish, chicken, shrimp), breadfruit, chicharones, casava root, lots of beans and rice both separate and mixed and plantains.    This meal was our first lunch-- there is fried chicken hidden under the cucumbers and tomato slice.  The stuff around the plate is casava root (tastes like potato)   between the cucumbers and chicken is some cabbage salad.  An interesting and very good tasting meal.

Health and Hygiene classes began about 10 am with 7 ladies  to be trained as teachers for their community.  Interesting among these 7 was a doctor, a nurse, and a special ed teacher.  The other 4 were church leaders, but rather shy, so I'm not sure how effective they will be as teachers.  Marjory and I went through the first lesson (what are germs, can you see, smell, taste them)  We talked about the creation and did the lessons contained in the teachers' manual.  We continually reminded our student/teachers that the notebook/manual could be a helpful resource for their classes.  We left quantities of worksheets, coloring pages for children, and games to be used in their teaching.  We brought costumes for the water based skits (Parting of the Red Sea/ water from a rock, woman at the well) which will remain in Orinoco to be used in their teaching.

The Living Waters teaching model requires a different group of students in the afternoon which the morning student/teachers can practice teaching.    This first day of classes, we had a different group to be taught, but few of the original 7 came back.  The doctor taught and Marjory and I taught as well.

As our class was over, we checked with the others on our team to see if the system parts had been released from customs.  The answer was no!  Our driver friend Fernando in Managua, had put the remaining team members in touch with a non-profit in Nicaragua who might be able to help.

Breadfruit

Supper was fried chicken, mashed potatoes (I think?) rice, garlic sauce and fried banana chips.  As a side treat we were treated to fried breadfruit which grows on the trees all around the town.

Walking back from supper, we used flashlights.  While there were a few streetlights, there weren't enough to keep us from stepping in the ever-present horse poop all over the sidewalks. 

View from the porch.

After supper the group met out on the back porch of the hotel to converse and discuss.

The builders in our group had spent a frustrating day, doing what they could to get the site ready for  the eventual arrival of the equipment. (drilling holes in walls, and rewiring for the pump in the well)

The night was long with multiple dog howlings and rooster crowings.  Noises that most city folk are not used to hearing ALL NIGHT LONG.