This morning we had some visitors in front of the condominium. Coco peeled some, um, cocos (coconuts) for us. He was really quick, too. Kind of like he's done it a few times. Then we had another guy show up to sell us some lobsters. One of them was really big. Take a look.
We did some really good work today. We got dirty, sweaty, and covered with paint. We started the day by going to the school in El Frances. As soon as we got there, we were surrounded by more than a dozen children. The children were anywhere from about 6 to about 12 or 13 years-old.
We went in and looked at the school. The sign in front of the school says ‘Escuela de El France.’ That’s interesting, because they omit many letters from their pronunciation of words here. Instead of saying ‘El Frances,’ they say ‘El France.’ When they make a sign, they spell the word as they pronounce it – without the ‘s.’
The school is a cement building with walls painted green and roof made of corrugated steel that is painted white. The entire school is about 20’ x 50’. It has two main rooms for instruction – this occupies the bulk of the building. The last section of the building is about 20’ x 10’ and is divided into two rooms. One is a larger room used for storage of supplies – and there’s not much of anything in the room. The room we will use for the library is about 10’ x 10’ – the size of a small bedroom in a typical home.
Shanlee and Megan worked with Rachel and the other children to rake leaves and debris to a corner of the school yard, then they cleaned up inside. They swept cobwebs off the walls and swept the floor. Then they started painting while Greg and I went to get wood for a book shelf. We bought a 14’ piece of 1’ x 8” wood. We walked it down the street to a man who has a power saw. He cut the wood into two 3’ pieces and four equally sized pieces (about 2’ each).
It is interesting that we all have simple construction materials in our homes. Almost every home in my neighborhood has hammers, saws, levels, and other basic tools. Here, there are maybe four people in the area that have saws. We found Pao – probably ‘Pablo,’ or Paul, pronounced without saying the ‘b’ and ‘l’. He had a small shack made from cinderblocks with the typical corrugated steel roof that had all of his tools – a saw, a drill press, and a router. Pao probably does a significant portion of woodwork for people in El Frances.
When we got back, we were amazed at what we saw. They had done some incredible painting using four partially filled 1 pint cans of paint (yellow, red, brown, and burgundy) and a gallon of white paint. With the help of the local kids, they had put hand-prints all over the walls and decorated around them. It looks very good and will be something the kids will always own. They had put a painting of the planet Jupiter on the wall, a butterfly, and words like grow (crecer), read (leer), and learn (aprender). On the door the had painted a sign with yellow stars that reads ‘Biblioteca,’ or library.
While they continued painting, Greg and I built the shelves. They are 3’ high with four 2’ shelves. Simple, small, and it will meet the needs of this small town. They will probably have a few dozen books on those shelves. Compared with the tens of thousands we have in our libraries, the thousands we have in a typical elementary school, or the hundreds we all have in our homes, it is a humbly-sized library – seemingly pathetic. But it is infinitely more than they have now.
The other thing about this morning was sweat. Shanlee and Megan said they were sweating while they painted – Shanlee said it looked like a teardrop in front of her eyes, but it was just sweat dripping off of her forehead. I was the same. I was hammering nails into the wood for the shelves – I was sweating before I’d done six nails.
Shanlee and Megan were talking to the kids outside. It was cool – even without knowing a common language, they were able to smile and say a few words. Shanlee was sitting with four or five kids and they were laughing. Shanlee was able to say things like ‘Sí,’ ‘No,’ and ‘Loco.’ It was funny. Kyah was helping Shanlee a bit, as well – Kyah speaks pretty decent Spanish.
One funny thing – Shanlee had a bunch of teenage boys asking her if she was married. Shanlee said, ‘Sí!’ They asked her if her husband was inside the school. Shanlee said, ‘Sí!’ They left, and Kyah asked if Shanlee knew what they had asked her. Shanlee said, ‘No!’ Kyah explained, and Shanlee decided that was probably better. They came back later and tried to convince Shanlee that she should give them a kiss. Shanlee decided her poor, jealous daddy couldn’t handle it and she said, ‘No.’ Smart girl.
We took everyone but Shanlee and Rachel home to get them cleaned up. Most of them had paint all over their hands. Cleaning that up is simple, right? Not. The paint was oil-based paint, so water is pretty inefficient. We got back to the condominium and Megan went down to the beach to see if salt-water would help. It did a little bit, but not enough. Greg talked to the guy in charge of security at these condominiums – his name is ‘Coco’ – and he brought us a cut-off two-liter bottle with some gasoline in it. Megan and the kids weren’t impressed with the smell, but it did the job.
Once they were all cleaned up, Greg went to get Rachel and Shanlee. They had painted squares of different colors all over the floor - reds, whites, and yellows. They were so covered in paint that they walked home so they wouldn’t get paint on the car. Once they were cleaned up, we just had leftover empanadas, rice, beans, some fresh flat-bread, and water for lunch. We still needed the paint to dry, so we are waiting to put the books in the library.
Instead, we went to Rincón (means corner) to see an American they know there. Her name is Cindy, and she is building a home on a beautiful hilltop with views of the ocean, the valley in Rincón, and the surrounding hills. But first, we decided to relax.
We went to Playa del Rincón (Beach of the Corner) and relaxed in the surf. The beach is at the end of a small bay. No 20’ waves, just the occasional 4’ wave to get salt-water in your mouth. Tasty! We played there for maybe 30 minutes, then went to a river that empties into the bay. The bay-water was nice and warm. The river water was significantly cooler. We had a good time.
Then we went to visit Cindy. As I described, her home is at the top of a hill. To get there, you have to take a one-lane dirt road that has nowhere to turn around. We drove up the hill for ¼ mile before we arrived at the gate to her home. The gate was made with round pieces of wood about 5’ high. They were bound together by wrapping them in barbed-wire and then leaving a line of about 12” to the next piece of wood. This made a fence of two parts, separated in the middle and set into the ground and bound with wire at the top to hold the two sides together while still allowing for them to be separated to provide access.
We walked up the hill to her home. She has at least four dogs. Every step closer, we saw another dog come around the corner and it would join the others in barking. Cindy wasn’t home, so we had to leave the books there along with a note on their origin. Down the hill from her home, Cindy is building a school for the children of Rincón. It is similar is size and construction to the one in El Frances. We left the books for her to use in this school.
The homes here are so humble. We would never consider living in these conditions. Most of their homes are so simple. They provide shelter and a covering, but none of the simplest conveniences that we enjoy - running water, toilets, carpeting, air conditioning. Those are all outside their grasp financially.
By this point, it was nearly 7 p.m., so we headed home. We passed a ‘killing tree.’ We didn’t know what that was. When they want to slaughter a cow for meat, they tie it to a killing tree – just a palm tree on the side of the road – that is close to the butcher’s shop. This is done on Friday afternoon. On Saturday morning, the meat will be hanging in the butcher’s shop, and by Saturday afternoon, the meat will all be purchased and gone. We had stopped to see the steer that was tied there, and the butcher smiled to us. He walked towards us, pointed to the steer, and then drew his hand across his throat to indicate that the steer would be killed. He had a great smile.
We also stopped to buy some fruit at a fruit stand in Rincón. It was pretty cool – the man there sold us two piñas (pineapples). He asked if we wanted them prepared for us, and we agreed. He took his knife and cut the sides off, cut it three ways down the center, then cut the pieces off into a plastic bag. It was pretty cool – and it was really good piña, too.
We arrived home just before 8 p.m. and had dinner – it was late enough that we decided to just finish off the leftovers. I think the one thing all three of us are struggling with is the temperature. It’s not so much that it’s hot, but it’s hot and humid and you always feel sticky. We’re never quite comfortable – or at least feeling like we do in the middle of the desert in Utah. Even at night, when it’s completely dark and it should be cool, it still feels muggy. I suspect it’s something you get used to. If we had more time here, we’d probably get used to it. In the few short days we’ve been here, we’re not used to it. It’s really just a minor irritant in a beautiful country.
