¡Hola! Bienvenido a Nicaragua!
Do you like our Spanish? We’ve really been practicing. We had this really beautiful welcome video of the children we met today singing, but we could not figure out how to post it. However, this candid shot of them should suffice for at least a dose of the awesomeness we experienced.
These children were truly the highlight of our day. We woke up at the crack of dawn and had to be at breakfast at 6:30am, hopped on the bus at 7:30am, and traveled for over two and a half hours from Managua to San Ramón each cramped with two days of luggage. However, upon our arrival at the Coffee Cooperative and its primary school, we were greeted with song. The group of girls you see above sang a traditional Nicaraguan welcome song to us that we wish you could have witnessed. It was absolutely adorable and instantly made the agony of our morning nonexistent.
Following this introduction, we learned about the background of the primary school, which is the only school available to the students who live on the coffee plantation. Due to this and funding limitations, many of the students do not have the opportunity to proceed past primary school. However, the students learn a lot of beneficial information for subjects ranging from mathematics to geography. There is even talks of a law being established that will potentially ban child labor and hopefully keep the children in school.
Despite all of this, the children remain happy. There were so many smiles and bright eyes glaring with excitement because they were genuinely ecstatic that we came to visit. They agreed to take multiple pictures with us and some of them even engaged in a game of tag and duck-duck-goose (a childhood game that many of us played, but did not realize was passed down to younger generations, especially in a completely different country).
After our heartwarming visit with the kids, we hiked up a trail through the coffee plantation. We learned about the process it takes to grow the beans that produce their delicious coffee. It was a long, steep, and sweaty journey, but we made it all the way to the top. In fact, we are the first group in the plantations history to make it there. Mainly because they did not have roads previously though. Haha.
All in all, today was quite the day. We laughed, sweat, and enjoyed some fabulous traditional Nicaraguan coffee and music. I think it’s safe to say that our fellow Bucks back in the States would be proud.
GO BUCKS!
Khalid Bowens and Stephen Carr