May 24th

This was our full day in Awas Tingi. We ate breakfast at Ivan’s house and then we went to a meeting of community leaders to discuss their needs. The people said that they needed better access to clean water. They knew that the water that they drink is not always clean, especially during the rainy season.    They also expressed a desire to improve the abilities of the teachers in the village. The people at the meeting were very grateful that we had come and one of them even said he believed it was the will of God that we had come.

When we were done with the meeting we went to the school in Piñera to do some education with the children. Even though school was not in session, around ten or fifteen children gathered to hear us talk about the water cycle, filters, magnifying glasses, microscopes, and clean water. For the education my job has been to take a group of kids around and look at things using the magnifying glass or “lupa” and to help with the microscopes. While I have enjoyed doing this, it has not always been easy due to the fact that I know almost no Spanish. This became even more complicated in Piñera and Awas Tingi where the people speak a combination of Spanish, Miskito, and Mayagna and it is often hard to tell the difference between the three.  Most of the time I had to communicate using my hands and body language. But even though I wasn’t able to speak to them using words, I was still able to see that they were excited about what they were learning. When I was helping with the microscopes the people who had seen something often laughed or gave a little exclamation when they were finished. It was cool to be able to see that they understood and were interested in what they had seen.

When we were done we ate lunch and then went to Awas Tingi to do water education in the secondary school. The children in this school were in fifth and sixth grade. They were all very well behaved and attentive.

When we had finished doing education at the secondary school we went back to Piñera to give out some water filters to five different families in the community. We showed them how to set up, use, and backwash the filters.

We finished giving out the filters and then we went down to the Rio Wawa to take some river showers. For me this was definitely a trip highlight. We had been pretty sweaty and dusty from working outside all day, so it was very nice to get clean and cooled off in the river.

When we were done with our “shower” we went back to Ivan’s house for dinner and then we had a bonfire. John played us some lovely music and we had a great time of sharing together. It was great to hear about the things that people had been learning and to be under all the stars together. It was the perfect end to a great day!

-Lindsey