Bucknell Brigade

After the morning talk, we were told that plans had changed and we were not going to be making concrete today. We would be removing telephone poles from the ground! Luckily, the telephone poles were only about 15 feet high and only about four feet into the ground. But we spent the morning digging out the poles with the sun beating down on us and a whole bunch of Nicaraguans driving by and laughing at the stupid gringos who were digging up telephone poles.

I was in a group of six people and I was the only guy. What that translated into was that I had to dig a lot. Luckily, a member of JHC, Juan, also was there to help us and he was better than all of us. After about 20 minutes of us struggling he would jump in and do twice what we had done in just a couple swings of the pick-axe. Apparently, it's all about technique!

We had a quick lunch and then headed back out and spent the afternoon the same way. It was nice to be outside even though it was really hot. The Nicaraguan landscape is hard to get used to with a huge volcano standing up above anything else in the background.

After all of the concrete telephone poles were up and on our homemade flat-bed trailer we headed back to JHC. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching Daniel Ortega being sworn in as president on a tiny TV. Even though I didn't understand everything that went on it was clear that this was turning point for Nicaragua and I realized how lucky I was to be here at this moment.

There were fireworks and other noises coming from the community throughout the process. It was extremely weird to watch how many countries were supporting Nicaragua on TV. There were representatives or delegates from 76 countries. And guess what? The U.S. wasn't one of them. I guess the trip was too far?

After watching the ceremony, we had dinner and then a local band came in and played music for us. It was just a guitarist, a bassist, and a singer, but they filled the room with noise. They were really great and I could tell how heartfelt their lyrics were because many addressed the daily struggle of the Nicaraguan. At the end, they pretty much forced us all to dance in the middle of a circle while everyone clapped and laughed. Of course I was chosen to go first! So I went out there and pretty much had some kind of seizure for about 15 seconds until I chose Tom to go in there after me. From then on everyone went in for a second and then pulled someone else in to be embarrassed just as much. I don't know if I said this clear enough, but I would probably be better at dancing if I had all left feet. So, yeah, I'm sure people enjoyed it.

After dancing the night away, we had to pack our bags because tomorrow we hike up to El Porvenir and hopefully mark our waterline path. We had been hoping for six hours to work, but it looks like we will only get four. We will just have to hustle. It's only a mountain, right?

And on that note, I need to get to sleep so I have something in my legs to push me on tomorrow! Night.