20 March

This is Ileabeth and Cheri writing. Today was productive and very long.... We left for our first experience with a public school, in the neighborhood of Acahualinca, just down the street from La Chureca, the city dump. Many of the 650 students who attend this school have grown up in the dump or at least around it. Most of the families live on money made from picking up trash and recycling it. They make up to $2 a day doing this. The government is beginning to pour money into this neighborhood first by getting rid of the city dump, then by providing housing for those 200 families who lived there. The entire neighborhood smells like you´re in a trash can. There are many smoldering piles of garbage anywhere you look. Dogs run loose in search of a meal.
The principal of the school worked in La Nicaraguita for 15 years before her current job. She invited us to help her school create a compost pit. We had two teams of hard workers today - one on the compost pit for the first two hours, and the other in the cafeteria doing many jobs. Some washed dishes, others peeled oranges and squeezed them by hand, others washed tables, mopped floors, washed windows, prepared hundreds of plates of rice and hundreds of cups of juice. It was hot and busy in that cafeteria.
It was even hotter outside. Lots of picking and shoveling for the compost pit meant that our students needed to dig one meter down and about 12 feet long by 6 feet wide. It was no easy task under the blazing sun. We had to go out for cold water and snacks four times!! They were amazing. It was also exciting when we dug into and burst two pipes which no one expected to find. But alas, we are in Nicaragua, and no one got upset. As the principal said, "Everything can be fixed."
Although we were supposed to leave at noon, the kids really wanted to finish the pit, so we did, and left around 1:30. We also took time to visit a jewelry workshop and education center whose mission is to get people out of the dump, provide a sustainable craft with a monthly income of up to $65. It has been a huge success and is called Hope Nica. They have a web site which I´ll pass on to you.
Quick lunch back at Rafaela´s and then our students visited for a short time classes in the afternoon, something they usually don´t do. The classrooms are blazing hot and crowded and it´s difficult to sit still. Showers were a must and then the teachers treated us to a party at 6, complete with food, games, and dancing. We´re slowly gearing up to say our good-byes as different groups are celebrating us.