9
Location: Rio Claro
Our day began with the stressful realization when we noticed that Savannah and Felicia weren’t at the breakfast table. This was because a certain someone (Jordan) forgot to knock on their door to wake them up (also not completely her fault because they didn’t have an alarm clock). When they finally arrived, we all enjoyed a nice breakfast of rice and beans, eggs, fruit, and toast. After finishing up, we hopped onto the bus and headed back to Fatima’s house for a day of painting and some surprises.
Upon arriving at Fatima’s, we were greeted with paint cans and brushes. We divided into three groups and began painting the local nursing home, a house across the street, and another house farther down the road. After about 2 hours of painting, we all headed back to the house to grab a quick snack (kidding, kidding) of assorted fruits. All fueled up, we got back to work and finished up any painting that needed to be finished. This lasted for about two more hours, and then it was time for lunch! Fatima had prepared a meal for us with fish, rice, beans, vegetables, mashed potatoes, and for dessert- watermelon. Just as we were finishing up, all of the kids ran towards us excitedly. A group of 5 girls put on a dancing show for us, which was interesting and unique to watch. We all applauded and then split up into two groups again. One group stayed at the house and played games, and the other went to the park to play soccer. The group that remained at the house played Torsion (twister), painted, and many other childish games. The group at the park played a few matches of soccer before being drenched in sweat and returning home. At home, the kids had a small snack and then had to say goodbye to us. It was so sad to see them leave *plays Despacito*. After all the kids were gone, Fatima taught us how to make tortillas and pupusas. She’s a cutthroat chef too. Every little flaw would be pointed out, and she would have us restart our tortilla all over again. While our food cooked, an intense storm interrupted our meal, and a few of us (Josh, Amber, and Savannah) ran into the refreshing rain to cool off a bit. We waited out the storm at Fatima’s and then left when our driver, Hugo, arrived at our rescue. The lightning progressively got worse during our drive, and when we were about 2 minutes away from our hotel, the traffic came to a halt. As it turns out, a tree had fallen into the middle of the road. We made a group decision to get out of the bus and walk to the hotel. The whole area was experiencing a power outage, and so we waited out the storm harmonizing to many different songs in front of our hotel rooms. It was surprisingly good if I do say so myself;). When the power finally came on, we all threw on what we could and headed to a little diner called Buenas Dias for dinner. The food was so good, and we had such a fun time quoting memes and joking that we lost track of time. We headed back to the hotel and Anna, and JB briefed us for the next day. Slowly but surely, we headed to bed.
Xoxo,
The Girly Pops S&J