A day in the country...

So, this motorcycle is coming in really handy for our work here! We had an extra box of books this year so we decided to add a new school to the program. Mily recommended Aldea Dolores--a rural school near a small town called San Miguel (where we went yesterday). Kira and I left around 7AM and made our way to the school. It was a beautiful trip on a curvy, bumpy, hilly road. It was actually pretty fun on the dirt bike!
We had to leave the motorcycle at a little store to walk across a suspension bridge to the school. It was really cool! We ended up getting to the school at the same time as a group of students from the high school in Salamá. Part of their program was to interview the director at this rural school to investigate the major causes of drop-outs in their town. They were neat kids and it's always good to see the youth working to make their own country a better place!
The director of the school was enthusiastic about starting with Books for a Better World. He gathered the kids together so we could read to them and present the books. It was great to see how excited they were. The school had a lot of indigenous kids from very poor families so it was a perfect candidate for our program. Toward the end of our visit we gave the older kids a chance to read to everyone. I was impressed when one of the guys from sixth grade got up, in front of everyone, and read a few pages from a book. Not only was he a good reader but he seemed confident for his age. I told him he could be a good teacher someday :-)
We got back to Salamá and ate lunch--chicken, rice and veggies. We still had plenty of daylight so we decided to take a trip to San Jeronimo just to check it out. We found another bumpy road (I guess our butts weren't sore enough yet...lol) and started down the path. We ended up at a river with a dam where they divert water into a canal to water crops. It was a beautiful place surrounded by mountains and streams. I love discovering new places! On our way home we stopped by a restaurant/fish farm where they serve fresh fish and ostrich meat. It was really good! I felt like I was in Chandler, AZ...eating ostrich...lol! Kira and I decided that we were reducing our "carbon footprint" by eating at this restaurant. The fish were right there and the ostrich farm is a few miles away. Fresh food is the best!!!