The day started bright and early with my 5:30 alarm. We left the house a little after 6 to make the one hour walk to the school. It was a good work out, but a little sticky with the heat that has now set in here in Managua.
When we got to school, I went with Kelly to her first English class with the 4th graders. The kids learned how to say “What is your name?”, “My name is _____”, “Where are you from?” “I’m from Nicaragua.” It was fun to be a fly on the wall in the class, and I even got to participate in one of the activities. All of the kids wrote their names on a name card using the new phrases they learned, and then Kelly took their pictures to help learn their names. It looked like this…
…and this.
(Since you can’t read it, it says “My name is Nicky. I’m from the Chicago barrio”)
After seeing the classes, I spent most of my day thinking about lunch. I spend most of all my days thinking about food, but in this case, I’m referring to it in a more formal sense. I was asking questions and observing cooks to get a full understanding of the lunch program that I’ve been working on for the last month or so. It was really good to get a better handle on the quantities of foods they serve – things like 30 pounds of rice for 250 kids or, to make a fresco (fruit drink), 70 oranges and 10-17 pounds of sugar. As I had already suspected, I learned that they use a lot of oil in the cooking – too much, really, from both a cost and health standpoint, so that will be one challenge to overcome with the new menu.
In addition to observing, I also got to help serve the kids. They were really cute (preschool through 6th grade) and also really entertaining. I saw one kid drinking her chocolate drink out of her half-eaten hard-boiled egg, and another eating off of her plate while it sat on her lap, about a foot from her mouth and under the table. Kids do the darndest things.
After a good day at the school and an early return home, Kelly and I went to the Palí – quite literally, the Nicaraguan version of Sam’s Club, owned by WalMart – to stock up on ingredients for one amazing quesadilla dinner. I think it may have been my favorite yet, which is saying a lot since Kelly is a really good cook!
In all, it was almost the perfect day. Almost. However, one incident at the house last night did put a damper on things. It seems that my horse-neighbor is annoying in more ways than just having a human cough and living 2 feet from my bed. Our neighbors informed us this weekend that horses also attract…tarantulas. Apparently they’d found nearly a dozen in their house (gross!). It freaked Kelly and me out then, but since we hadn’t seen any, we didn’t worry too much. That changed last night when a big tarantula came out from the desk at the house. I will now be checking my sheets and shoes even more carefully, and let’s just say that if I find one of those spiders in my bed, you won’t have to read about it here because I will be on the next flight home! Sorry if that grossed anyone out but hey, it grossed me out too and I'm living it.
On that note, Happy Valentine's Day!
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