It was a strange beginning to this day, as CRF was having a large ceremony to celebrate working with the city and local department (State of Olancho) to begin a new Trade School. This is the upstairs of the building right next to the day care. They have rooms for Cosmetology, Hair, Cooking, and Welding, with some computer classes also planned. In working with the City and Government, CRF is closely tied to the community in helping improve the education of the young people here. They had a large band playing most of the morning, and it seemed they only knew one song, or at least it sounded the same.
At the ceremony, I got a picture of the three amigos (Bobby, Donny, and his wife Dana). They all did excellent. Donny, when asked to present, just said "No, I am good". But Bobby, shared a story about Albert Einstein needing his ticket on a train, with the key part being "I know who I am, but I don't know where I am going". Bobby is an excellent speaker, but I was more impressed by Dana, who not only translated, but completely mimicked Bobby's mannerisms and humorous attitude, helping everyone to enjoy the talk, and laugh throughout the story. Then afterwards, everyone went next door and upstairs to the ribbon cutting ceremony. I stayed out of the way and downstairs. But then Dana and CeCi motioned for me to come upstairs...so I did, then they motioned for me to join the group behind the ribbon, which I did. And then ended up actually cutting the ribbon with everyone else there. It was truly an honor, not expected nor deserved, but I did not want to make it awkward and say no. Somewhere I am probably on the local Olancho news broadcast of this moment.
On this day, we visited the school at CaCao. It went much better. In the previous day, only the girls wanted to play the memory game, but today, it seemed only the boys wanted to play. Sam got the bible drill going well on this day. I had better opportunities to connect with both the kids and the parents on this day. As they lined up for a meal that we had brought (always chinese), I would walk up and down the line performing some magic tricks, chatting with parents, and playing some of the games with the folded paper animals. On this day, I found a perfect group of young girls for the "Artist" picture, and it got alot of laughs from the kids and parents.
Back at the Day Care, Sam and Davis and Cash made it to the barbershop, and all got the #21. I did not get the official picture from Davis, but they loved that they all got the same cut, and they said they were starting a new boy band called 21 direction, and had some special moves that I also wish I would have captured on video or a photo. I was also able to chat with one of our cooks in the kitchen, Blanca. She is also a facebook friend, and Magan helped me get some home decorations that had some bible verses on it in spanish. I shared one with Blanca, as she has always been nice to me. Her nephew is also a good friend of mine on facebook, and I later found out that the cute little guy I loved playing with at the daycare was her grandson.
Bobby purchased some coconuts on this day, and handed one to Davis who chopped at it for many many minutes...and then we all got like 2 drinks of coconut water. I think the boys went into town for granitas on this night. I don't venture out much anymore, just sit and rest when I can. Haha...in our bunk room, there was often me, Brandon, and Patrick taking our old man naps.
A fun day again. We did all get our picture at the Campamento sign on this day, and had one guy that had drunk a little too much want to be in our group picture. The other cool random event happened that morning when Jonathan and I drove with Donny to get some gas for the generator. We got out to fill up, and I looked at the next pump over, and it was my good friend Carlos from two years ago. We hugged and I told him that Brandon was here, and he better come visit us at the daycare. He said he would and then left on his way. It is a small town, but that was still a pretty surprising event.
That night we had a team meeting to plan and talk about the next day where we planned to be at one of the largest schools. It was a good meeting and we were much more organized and ready. The memories were shared by all, many talking about connecting with Oscar, the teachers loving the water bottle gifts, and the boys sharing their 21 direction moves. And one more day was done.
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