Once again I have been blown away by what we have been able to see and do here; in Pampas Grandes more than ever. This community is so simple and humble, but they are some of the kindest most open people we have met. This is probably THE most laid back place I have ever been and I love it. Our current schedule consists of:
5:00 a.m. waked up (yes you heard me right) and go running with these two girls here that are hard core like that.
6:45 a.m. go home and squeeze in a shower and breakfast before school starts
7:45 a.m. school starts. We go to the school and pretty much just teach which ever class a teacher dosn’t show up for. Turns out it’s pretty common for that to happen. Our classes range from 11 year olds to about 17 year olds. These kids are wild and it’s kind of a joke that Teri and I are in charge of their little brains for 5 hours each day.
1:00 p.m. (this is when we start saying Buenos Tardes instead of Buenos Dias) We walk to our place that’s just across the street to take a break.
1:00 – 2:30 p.m. We head down to the restaurant that we go to everyday. I’m going to go out on a ledge here and say most people haven’t been to a restaurant like this one. There is no menu, you just sit down and they bring out whatever they are cooking back there. Most days you start with a soup that has a mysterious chunk of meat in it and next they bring out a plate of rice with another large chunk of meat. One day I made the mistake of asking for my meal sin carne. I got the biggest load of greasy chicken and the lady is like “no carne, it’s pollo”. Today I asked what the meat was and when I didn’t recognize the answer I decided it was best I just didn’t know.
3-3:30 We head to the field to make good on one or more of our promises to play soccer or volleyball with the kids. This is my favorite part of the day. These kids are tough man! They are so funny to play sports with. They’re nuts. Playing soccer with the boys is pure comedy. They are constantly running into each other and tripping in the awkward dirt/tufts of grass field they have to play on. They just do a few summer salts and keep on running. Yesterday our goalie literally came up to my hip and he was 80% the reason we won the game. The other 20% was because we had a child prodigy making all of the goals. The best part is that the girls are just as tough or more when it comes to volleyball. Teri and I whimper almost every time we hit the ball – it hurts sooo bad. My arms are finally starting to build up a resistance, but it has come at a cost. The first few days we were here my arms were black and blue. The other day the adults asked if we wanted to play “volley” and we said yes. It was the biggest shock to watch these fierce competitors on the court (if you could call it that). First of all they asked us for money to play with them. We thought at that they were just trying to rip off the gringos, but no, it was a wager on the game. My team won and I made a whole sole! (which is about 40 cents)
6-7:00 We start walking home. The sun is setting by now and so far I have yet to see a sunset that disappoints. It’s almost always stunning from our lofty spot up on the mountain top. We shuffle home with a few kids tagging along. We almost always stop on our way to get some treats.
7-9:00 p.m. Last of all we hang out in our kitchen with Diego (the main director of our program) and a few kids playing cards and drinking tea. There are very few options when it comes to food here and we usually eat avocado and pan (bread) for dinner.
9-9:30 p.m. We generally head to bed. This is the earliest I have gone to bed since I was 14 and was on the swim team, but let me tell you what I am ready every single time. It’s like a health spa here. Hard work, good food, lots of exercise, I’m in the mountains. Life is good.