We gringos are starting to wilt on the outside under the heat, but our spirits are high!  We had a great day out yesterday.  Janeth decided to stay around camp and to go shopping in Rivas with our caretaker’s wife, Beatrice.  She finally got so hot that she came back to the camp to cool off.  When she got here there was no wind and the lake was like a mirror.  She was enjoying the lack of the almost constant wind, that is until it became dark.  Then the bugs came out.  She described them as being like black lady bugs that bit.  When we arrived at the camp last night at 9 pm, we thought the electricity had gone off, but Janeth and Oscar’s family were sitting on the porch with the lights off to keep the bugs away.  Janeth said that we were very lucky to have been gone so that we didn’t experience the onslaught.  I am afraid that we might experience it tonight, but here’s to hoping.

This morning we are going to visit two schools.  One school is a short walk west of here.  It has 47 students in it who range in ages from 6-12, but all are in first grade.  They are the students with learning disabilities that have been “let go” from the other schools because of the difficulty in teaching them.  They have to write on a wall with chalk because they have no blackboards, books or paper.  We have ordered a couple of boards for the school and Peter’s idea of the week is to take over the school and call it “School of Joy”.  He wants our students to see how most of the world is educated.

After that, our students are going to walk down the beach and see the school that we painted last year.  We are also getting them a couple of blackboards as well.  We are going to bring them some of the donated school supplies that we brought down with us.  What we brought them last trip lasted them a whole year and they were very thankful.  Some of the donated clothing that we brought last trip were given to a single mother with five children.  A month ago someone burned her house down while she and her children were sleeping.  They barely got out alive, but they lost all of their possessions.  It is good to know that what we are bringing down is being put to good use.  We will be handing out the clothing we brought down to the 60 kids when they go home from out next three day camp on Sunday.

Our three day camp starts on Friday.  We will have Sunday afternoon to rest up.  Monday we are going to give the camp a thorough cleaning and give away the rest of the donated items.  Tuesday is our “big hurrah” where we drive an hour to the west to Pacific Coast.  From there we will be hopping aboard “Pelican Eyes” for an all day sail south toward Costa Rica.  We will have lunch on the beach, hopefully fresh tuna that we catch during our sail; poor us.

There is very little wind tonight, we fear that the black bugs will descend upon us. It is just getting dark, so we will see in about 15 minutes.

Everyone worked very well this afternoon.  We got some of the doors sanded and painted and also got our road gate painted.  Campo is sure looking spiffy.

Bethany