Buscando Estudiantes ~ Always an Adventure

Today, the teachers had a meeting to set up the schedule for these extra classes and afterwards, they were sent out to go house-to-house informing their kids who had failed classes about the new plan. This task however, was not as easy as you might think. Two 5^th grade teachers invited me to go with them out to one of the comarcas (towns on the outskirts of my municipality) to invite their 5 students who lived in that direction. I was happy to go because they lent me a bicycle and it meant I would get to see a whole new part of my community. So the three of us (one in a dress and HEELS) mounted our bicycles and headed out on one of the roads that leads out of the urban center.

Between the Mayor's office and the police station, the road changed from asphalt to cobblestone. Once we passed the police station it was dirt and rocks the rest of the way. Luckily, it was a little overcast and there was a gorgeous breeze, so the ride was very enjoyable. As we got farther and farther out of town, the scenery changed completely from compact houses situated pretty much on top of each other, to nothing but plantain and papaya plantations in both directions. The people changed too. In the center of town, everyone – boys and girls, men and women – zips back and forth on bicycles and motorcycles, appearing very “American” in terms of clothing and attitude. Farther out of town though, the only people on bikes were the farmers – a wide range of young, beautiful jovenes (youths), middle-aged men, and elderly campacinos (life-long farmers) – all of whom were strong, tanned, determined, and generally fairly serious. Almost all of them had the same exact attire consisting of a baseball cap or sombrero (straw hat to protect from the sun), jeans, black rain boots, and of course a machete hanging from their belts. The only women in sight, were the ones watching their children play in the yard, or the ones hanging out their clothes to dry.

Finding the kids on our list was an adventure all on it's own. Here in Nicaragua, a typical address is the following, “from the school, 2 blocks south, half block west.” There are no street names, let alone house numbers. You can imagine that once you get out off the beaten path, such vague directions become even more vague. The direction we had to one boy's house was literally “on the way to Ojo de Agua” (which is the name of a town). Oh silly me, we were also given the name of his mother. Of course that left us with no choice but to ask as we went along.

For me, this made for a fun-filled day of exercise, fresh air, and excitement. I got to see the beautiful views (so mad I didn't have my camera), talk to some really awesome people, get out of the house, enjoy the breeze in my hair, witness a pet monkey playing in it's homemade jungle gym...I could go on and on. You would think though that this would be nothing but an extreme inconvenience for the other teachers. They've lived here all their lives, and therefore didn't have the novelty factor like I did. Surprisingly though, they were perfectly content riding 4 kilometers (in one direction) to find their kids. They commented to me about how hard it was for the kids to ride in to school everyday. On a good day, the students can probably make it in about 45 minutes by bicycle, but when you factor in the extreme sun they have half the year, or the daily rains they have the other half of the year?! It's a miracle they make it at all! I guess it was that line of thinking that kept the teachers from complaining even once about the trip that neither of them had planned on making when they woke up that morning.

To sum it all up, we found all 5 kids in just over two hours, including a soda break at the house of one of the students. It was a great day and I can't wait to buy my own bicycle so I can go for rides like that just to explore!