We are staying at the Fatima School run by the Dominican Sisters, on a beautiful campus and we have comfortable rooms and fantastic meals. Tonight a part of our dinner consist of a tradition- caterpillars! We will let you know how they tasted tomorrow!
The students here- Natalia, Lea, Katie, Andrea and Erin have been fantastic traveling companions- keeping a positive attitude, even through the 36 total travel hours, food that is unfamiliar to them, long hours of painting with minimal tools available and everything else there is to being away from home.
After our travel we finally made it as over 100 girls surrounded our van and sang a welcome song to us. So far we have going on a tour of the private girls school which has about 500 students Much like our school but it is a boarding school and mostly self-sufficient with pigs, chickens and a garden. The girls speak perfect English and are very friendly wanting to know our names and what the United States is like. Many students will go on to colleges.
We also toured the local clinic/hospital which was interesting. Most patients there have malaria, TB or HIV, which is interesting as you compare to our country where most sick are diseases and illnesses related to smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise.
We also worked for two days at the Barefoot School which is funded through the Sisters here. That school is for the very poor and every child there has donated close on, I saw a Rails to Trails Triathlon shirt on one boy, which is a Minnesota triathlon. We are all planning on leaving any clothes and shoes we won't need for the rest of the trip with them. This school is free for them and teaches them a basic education along with a trade- carpentry for the boys and sewing and the like with the girls. Most of the kids there do not speak very good English.
Tomorrow we are visiting the local orphanage, which we have heard is very powerful. The girls will be blogging about that in a day or two.
Thanks for reading, we miss you all!
Jayme Simon
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