The Last Work Day (Friday)

The Last Work Day (Was Yesterday)

This is Kim and Jamie Breyfogle, reporting for duty in lieu of Cody, who agreed to make a donation to the JHC if we wrote it for him. Yesterday (Friday) was our last day of work. It started at 7:15am with breakfast, which consisted of: beans and rice (surprise!), fried eggs, fruit, delicious raisin bread with sugar on top, and another type of bread.

After breakfast, the folks from JHC came over to the dorms to talk about what inspired them and the difficulties they had in starting their community. They talked about the lack of money and the living conditions they moved in to, which were horrible. They had rats, scorpions, and snakes in their house, no screens in their windows, and the neighbors constantly peered in at them like they were a TV show. Then they talked about what they love about Nicaragua, the lack of consumerism, the acceptance of the people, and the creativity of the children.

After they were done talking, we headed off to work again. The painting crew painted again, some painted red stripes on all the buildings, some the black bars over the windows, and others the white walls. Other people were making death slinkies again, and had learned the techniques to a point where they didn’t cut themselves at all. (I think.) The doctors worked again with numerous patients.

After two hours we went back to the dorms for lunch, which was a beef stir-fry, rice, broccoli, beans, and other delicious foodstuffs that we don’t quite remember.

Then we walked across the street to tour a sewing co-op. Several years ago they received the status of a free trade zone. (Jamie-- Because of the rules of the free trade zone, while we were there we weren't in a country!) Having it be a free trade zone also means they don’t have to pay the really expensive 30%-of-the-price-of-the-product import and export taxes. It was interesting to hear the progress they’ve made. They buy organic Peruvian cotton and turn it into t-shirts, to which they can add pictures with their top-of-the-line silk-screening machine or send to be embroidered by another company. (If you’re interested they sell in orders of more than 200, as well as selling to various stores, including Maggie’s Organics, which is in Ypsilanti, MI.)

Then, back to work. The paint crew did more painting, but the death slinky crew was sent out to move yard brush because they ran out of the wire they were using. Also, Maria was still feeling sick and didn’t come and translate during the second half of the day, so we did most of the translating for the painting crew! It was a group effort… Lucas, the man in charge of the painters, was really good at understanding what we were trying to say, and used fairly basic Spanish, which made it so much easier!

When we came back one of our doctors stayed behind because she had to take a patient to the hospital. It was the second patient to be taken to the hospital that day, which is much more than the average of zero, according to Coury.

Supper was delicious, like all the other food they make here! We had pasta with meat-sauce, salad, garlic bread (!!!!!!!), and mango cobbler. After we ate we had a bit of time to digest before heading off to a disco.

Let me preface this part by saying pretty much all Nicaraguans are AMAZING dancers. I (Jamie) was watching a little girl who was probably about 8-9, and I just thought, “That little girl can dance better than I ever could or will be able to!” When we were deciding to go, Mom dragged us along kicking and screaming (figuratively speaking, of course) and we totally did not plan to dance.  I (Kim) did not, but I (Jamie) did! I (still Jamie) actually felt like I held my own, and it was so much fun! It was held at a bar. When the waiter came around asking about what we wanted to drink, I said “Just water.” He said, “Water?” and I was like, “Yes. Water.” Apparently the drinking age around here is 16 or 18 (we’re not sure which) but we don’t qualify under either age, let alone the American 21.

When we got back everyone said good-bye to Aunt Kathy because she left at 4:30am to catch her flight to get back home. We’re heading home at 5:30 tonight, and won’t get into Washington DC until 2:00 am DC time, 12:00am Nicaragua time.

Today’s our last hurrah, so we’ll make it a good one and there probably won’t be another blog tonight. Everyone should be home tomorrow (Sunday), so you can get the news in person!