After packing up and leaving Leon, we headed out to Playa Madera. Playa Madera is a little beach about fifteen minutes outside of San Juan del Sur were surfers come from all over to catch some waves. Once we were over the initial awe of the amazing accommodations called Parque Maderas, we headed over to a small school in a nearby village to start our volunteer project.
The school has 78 students ranging from two to thirteen years of age divided into three classes. The first day we helped out by picking up the trash around the school and the street. There is a big problem here with the disposal of garbage. Massive amounts of trash just pile up on the roads, and the trash that does get picked up is burned in people´s backyards. The ever-present smell of toxic burning plastic is motivation to bring in more volunteers to improve the way trash is handled. We sorted all of the litter we picked up and took the plastic out with us, so that at least that little bit was not burning into the air. The saddest part is that the kids don´t seem to realize that littering and burning plastic is bad. We tried to instill some new ideas about protecting the environment as we worked. The second day we spent the morning planting over 50 new plants at the school. We planted fast-growing trees to bring shade to the yard, fruit trees to provide the kids with snacks, and a small herb garden. The kids were all watching with excitement as we worked, and happy decided on a group of students to water the plants every day. In the afternoon, we taught English lessons and ran a workshop to teach how to make recycled paper. The hope is that someone will really enjoy making the paper and decide to turn it into a business, making handcrafted cards to sell.
The English lessons were a big hit. All of the students, pre-school age to adults, couldn´t wait to learn! I worked with the preschoolers. It was hard to tell if they were really soaking up the color vocabulary we were teaching them until the next day. We returned to the school in the morning and Dariela, a five year old girl who barely spoke the day before, held up a yellow flower and started shouting “Está yellow! Está yellow!” It just about melted all of our hearts.
All of the volunteering has been juxtaposed with hours and hours of beach time every day! Almost everybody has had unbelievable success learning to surf. I, unfortunately, am not one of those people. I´m the unlucky one who has been on crutches for the past two weeks, but I´ve had a blast watching the others master the waves. They´re starting to look like pros! Aside from the occasional sprained ankle, blistering sunburn, swollen black eye, skin fungus, jelly fish, scorpion, or wasp sting, we are all still in one piece! We´re spending our last days at Playa Madera surfing, swimming, and sunbathing as the excitement for free travel builds. Check back soon to see how it goes!
Love, Emily
