Yesterday was a day full of hard work, good food, and English classes. The majority of us woke up at 4:20 in the morning so that we could take showers and wake up, while a few people opted out of a morning shower and slept until 4:45, fifteen minutes before we hopped on the bus. While everyone was getting ready, Skarleth, Elena, and I picked up our bagged breakfasts of sandwich and a yogurt and put them on the bus.  Then we all piled onto the bus and were off for an exciting day spent working at La Canavalia, an agro-ecological farm with goats, cattle, cacao, chickens, and much more.

Once at the farm, we were divided into working groups.  One group made fertilizer and then made traps for the bugs that eat cacao leaves. IMG_0583[1] A second group made traps for the bugs and then fertilized the chuya plants.IMG_0588[1]  A third group, my group, fed the cows and goats and then pruned the cacao plants. IMG_0501[1] A fourth group learned how to feed the chickens as well as to take eggs from them. IMG_0576  We worked hard at our tasks for about five hours, then we ate a delicious lunch provided by our hosts, said thank you and goodbye, and left.

On the bus ride home, we had an exciting occurrence.  Our bus got stuck!  Now, this has happened before, as it has been raining a lot and we’ve been driving on a lot of dirt (now mud) roads, and every other time this has happened, Federico, our driver, has been able to deal with it without us needing to lift a finger.  This time, however, this was not the case.  We got stuck so badly that we got out, went to the front of the bus, and pushed the bus!  Just know that even when we come home telling you that we all did it by ourselves, it was really a group activity, one that exemplifies how far we have come that we were all willing to jump out of the bus and get muddy with each other, no questions asked.

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Upon arriving back at the hostel, we all rushed for the showers, which, let me tell you, we needed desperately.  Mud, sun, and hard work make for dirty, stinky, messy teenagers, which nobody really likes.  We had a few hours of free time in which we could rest, snack, and prepare for our English classes.  Then, we ate dinner and went to the school, where we were early, for once.  All in all, yesterday was an awesome, albeit exhausting, day.  We all got to experience something new, and the majority of us had good classes, all of which adds up to another success for the June 3 Matagalpa trip!!!