We have all returned safely to Tela after five days in El Pital, located on the beautiful Cangrejal River. This trip was quite the adventure. We woke up bright and early Saturday morning to smush 12 people into our rental van and begin the two hour journey from our home in Tela up into the Cangrejal River Valley, known by locals as La Cuenca. We made it to El Pital around lunchtime on Saturday, and were dropped off at different families' houses to begin our homestay. We ate lunch with our respective families and then met back at the local high school (which, by the way, World Camp helped to construct last year) for an orientation of what we were scheduled to do Monday and Tuesday morning: a census of the Yaruca community. These questionnaires were quite the adventure, as we surveyed families ranging in size from one to 15 members, and talked to some people as old as 85. By lunchtime Tuesday we had almost completed the entire community, consisting of about 70 families.
Those surveys were not the beginning of our work, however. On Sunday morning we had painted and installed some "SLOW: SCHOOL ZONE" signs to put on the road outside the school. We also installed a few trash cans near the community soccer field, which involved hauling rocks from the river up a hill and down the road. It was pretty exhausting physical labor, but the river itself was gorgeous.
Emily with our basurero and newly-constructed wall
Monday and Tuesday afternoon we taught at the primary school in Yaruca, where we found the kids were the best behaved out of all those we have taught. The groups were split into boys and girls for both days of the curriculum, which seemed to make a huge difference in the flow of the class. We were pretty exhausted after two mornings of doing the census, but we made it through teaching the kids and enjoyed a yummy snack of pastelitos and soda on Tuesday after we finished teaching.
Our trip was not all work, however. On Sunday afternoon we embarked on a "river hike" that actually turned out to be a "trek up a raging tributary over three waterfalls and some raging rapids"... in a torrential downpour. Thanks to some intense teamwork we made it up the river safely, and enjoyed a natural rock slide at the end before walking through the jungle to a cooperative on the other side of the river from where we were living. How does one get back across the river, you ask? Well. The answer lies in the form of a canasta - which is basically a metal basket suspended on a cable across the river. It was up to the lone male individual in our group, one of our translators, to use the crank-type device to ferry us all across. Of course, he was up to the challenge, so once we were all safely across we changed into some dry clothes and then went home to have dinner with our host families.
Oh, just climbin' a waterfall
The canasta in the middle of the river
On Wednesday morning, we said goodbye to our wonderful hosts at around eight in the morning and then drove down the mountain to Omega Tours, where we were scheduled to go white water rafting. In three rafts, the group wound its way down seven miles of the Cangrejal River, going over several rapids and enjoying one boulder that offered a prime spot to jump off. When we reached the end, we were all exhausted from the trip coupled with the work we had been doing the previous days, so we piled into a few trucks to be driven back up the mountain and be fed a delicious lunch of pasta. We then relaxed around the pool for a few hours before traveling back to Tela in the afternoon. All in all, El Pital was an enjoyable trip, but we were all happy to use our own shower and be back in our own beds... our house in Tela really has become home during the past month.
The group at our last school!
Hasta pronto,
Ana
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