We Have a Long Successful Day of Work at School

Tuesday was the day we dove into our work at the Escuela Basico El Hato.  We left the hotel in Cotui on time, and then spent quite a while in town completing two necessary shopping trips.  First we stopped at a hardware store for painting supplies, and then we went to a school supply store to fulfill the wish list completed by the teachers at the school at our request, buying globes, meter sticks, compasses, posters, and other important classroom materials.  While the leaders did the shopping, several of us took a stroll around the block, marveling at the variety.  We passed and an amazing mansion with pristine gardens and a tiled sidewalk in front, and right next door, a garbage-strewn vacant lot. We passed an urban elementary school and heard familiar classroom noise coming out of the louvered windows.  We passed a few eating spots with cooking occurring on the sidewalk, a clothing store with NBA uniforms on mannequins out front, another school, a motorcycle repair shop, and the headquarters for the opposition party in the upcoming presidential election. Traffic, mostly the ubiquitous motorbikes, zoomed past constantly.  It was an amazing contrast to the spot we were headed.

Shopping done, we followed the now-familiar route to Hernando Alonso, and pulled up to the school at 11:00.  We quickly piled out of the bus and went right to the library room.  We were delighted to see that the hundreds of donated library books had been delivered, which meant we could go to work in three groups.  The first crew, led by Wilhelmina Miller, started immediately sanding and scraping one of the walls to prepare it for a new paint job.  The second group, led by Beth Ryan, began sorting the books and preparing to cover them with sticky, clear shelf paper.  A third detachment went next door led by Tracy Smith, ready to finish yesterday's art project and start a new one.  She showed a group of students how to trace their hands on pieces of colored felt, and then cut them out.  She'll use these, a pair from everyone in the school community, including us, to construct a giant colored wreath on a banner-sized piece of felt, making a wall hanging that will be a wonderful memento of our visit.

Back in the library, the book covering was well underway, and already a small group of curious students had edged into the room, eagerly looking at the books and showing them to each other.  Their excitement at seeing so many new books to read was contagious.  Meanwhile, the sanding and scraping soon gave way to priming the wall with a coat of white.  We quickly went past the noon hour, and although the entire group was scheduled to return to the hotel for lunch, six volunteers elected to stay at the school and keep working.  Wilhelmina was joined by her daughter Molly, Eliza and Caroline Rodi and Peter Huizenga on the painting project, and Beth, now joined by several volunteer mothers and older students, kept up with the book covering enterprise.

Our trip to and from the hotel for lunch, of course bringing food for the dedicated crew at El Hato, was quick by our standards, but we were delighted to see that the painting crew had completed the final coat, a nice lime green, and the book covering work was more than three quarters completed.
The rest of us dove in in all three work areas,and shortly afterwards, as the school day ended, Sam Ives and Sam Strohbehn were given the job of taking a group of students outside to the playground to keep them busy while their classmates finished their art works.  Only a day after their arrival, Sam and Sam confidently took control of a large, boisterous group of kids and played the dodge ball game they had learned yesterday.  Peter Huizenga joined the group, and the game inevitably turned to a form of soccer "keepy-up" and then a full-out futbol game.

Back inside, it was amazing to watch how the process of covering all of the books had turned into a true community effort.  Parents and older children worked diligently to get the job done while Wilhelmina and Mary Miner took turns holding an infant, freeing up her mother to work.  Slowly, the children left school, some pulled away despite their objections.  The Americanos are quite a draw.
As we prepared to leave at 5:00, the hardest separation occurred as we attempted to halt the comprehensive hair-braiding party on the front walkway,  where Isabelle Hall, Andrew and Mia Gilardi were all having their hair braided by a large, admiring number of girls.

Our bus finally filled and left, and we headed further down the road away from Cotui, and through a neighboring village, where tomorrow we'll visit the local middle school to drop off some donated books and clothing.  We wound up and down the beautiful green hills, passed an after-school baseball game on a local diamond, and at the bottom of a long downhill slope saw that the road disappeared into the reservoir which we had seen several days earlier, at the other end.  It was a reminder that several villages had been sacrificed to build the dam and the reservoir.  Progress is painful sometimes.  Walking back up the hill, we stopped at a small resort which had actually provided housing to a Norwich Church group on a previous visit.  The popular music was blasting in the main dining area, which also contained a pool table.  We sipped soft drinks and watched several of our group challenge some of the locals in eight ball.  Others walked the grounds, which provided a beautiful view of the  reservoir and the surrounding mountains.  The breeze was warm, the grass was green, the flowers were beautiful, and the members of our traveling group enjoyed a chance to visit with some of their friends at the resort.

We aiming for an early start tomorrow, and are hoping to see the library cabinets installed.  While that happens we will sort and catalogue the books, and continue our art projects.  We have a few surprises for the students, too.  It seems that some of us packed bubble wands and bubble solution!  See you tomorrow!