Maddys Post

Yesterday we went to La Escuela de Tanque. First we were very nervous but then they started to warm up to us, especially the younger ones. I made many friends in kindergarten and first grade and preschool. We played hide and seek, hop scotch, and we played on the playground and I felt like a kindergartener again. I was patient with them. I asked them their names and what grade they were in in Spanish. Even though they didn´t speak any English and I barely spoke any Spanish, we still became friends. We donated many school supplies to them and their faces lit up when they saw that they were theirs. The boys in the group were very good at sports. And even though we had just taught them baseball, one of the boys still hit a homerun on his first try. At first he didn´t know what he had done, but when we all started high fiving him and cheering, he had realized that he did something great.

Tonight we are going to the hot springs again. At the one we went to Saturday, it smelled like rotten eggs because of the sulfur. Tonight it isn´t supposed to be sulfury so I´m looking forward to it even more knowing that.

Today we went to Don Juan´s farm. Don Juan was injured so he could not give us the tour so we had a man with a machete named Christian. He made the tour interesting and let us pick our own foods for lunch today. We picked tomatoes and lettuce and yuca. Then we squeezed sugar cane by cranking in the opposite direction so it was compressed and juice came out. Christian also made us eat a leaf called the jackass leaf. It was so bad and we had bad tastes in our mouth for the rest of the day.

We also went to Down to Earth coffee house where I had my first cup of coffee ever. It was very good. I learned that there are many different kinds of coffee and that filtering it through a cloth filter instead of a paper filter makes it taste even better. Mom. look into this. :)

I am excited to go zip lining tomorrow. Our guide, Roberto surprised us with another adventure. We each chipped in $13 to go on a crocodile tour. We are going to see 18 foot crocodiles and we are going to see them feed. I cannot believe that there are only 4 more days left! I don´t want this adventure to end!