Monday, March 23, 2009

Day 5 ~Nicaragua, La Bolsa con la familia Torres Mayorga

Wednesday, March 11th
We got up early to finish working and got back to Club Chacraseca to go to León. We finished up, got cleaned up and we were off to León for shopping! This was an experience all right! I was always to be in the tail of all the caravans, so when we were in León, the policia decided to let Mike, the main person we were following, go straight forward, but did not let Cheryl go, and forced her to go right. I saw this, and of course, I wasn't about to go straight knowing Cheryl is going right, and since I had Rosita in my truck, I figured we won't get lost. Therefore, we went and then had Cheryl follow me, while Rosita directed us to the Cathedral to wait for Shari to come get us. Finally, they found us, and then we headed to the historic part of our trip.


A woman named Claudia showed us around El Fortin, which was similar to a concentration camp. People who spoke out against anything were taken here. Twenty people per cell and they had to stand to live and sleep. Went to the bathroom standing up and many died within days. It was so horrible to think about, and to be in a place where people were once tortured. Although so sad, the view of all the mountains and volcanoes was amazing.


We then got back into the trucks and drove through the garbage dump. We had a truck full of melons to hand out to families who live there. All the people swarmed us and begged for more melon. I cannot believe that people live in those conditions. It smelled terrible and everything was burning. We left the dump, went shopping, and got lunch. Cheryl, Pat, Rosita, Mairita, and I went to a restaurant looking for shrimp to eat. The first restaurant did not have it. We went to the same restaurant I went last year and they had shrimp, so Cheryl, Pat and I ordered shrimp, about $15 each we spent on our plate of shrimp and a glass of delicious juice. Rosita and Maira had Hamburgers for lunch.


After lunch we went shopping and sightseeing around the court square. We went to the cathedral square and I got a few things there. I bought a hammock, some coffee, a little guitar, and another toy, and postcards for my scrapbook. We left León and headed back to club Chac. for dinner; I was still too full from my shrimp lunch that I did not really eat any dinner, just drank their delicious juice. After dinner, we headed back to the family's house and hung out with them for the night. The students reviewed their lesson plan and rehearsed it for the family. The boys (Kenin & Exequile) loved it.


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