Erie, PA - Follow Gannon Volleyball in Central America! The team will spend the week of August 2 - 9 in Nicaragua, where they will play several matches against the Nicaraguan national team and perform community service throughout the country. Each day this week, Gannon players will write journal entries recording details of their adventure abroad. We hope you'll check back to read details of this once-in-a-lifetime trip!
Day 5
This morning our team traveled to a local school help the children with their English skills. When we got there the children were very excited to see all of us. We each got a partner or two, sat down with them to draw pictures and teach them the English words for what they drew. Most of them drew their families, houses, flowers, animals, and sports. My teammates and I were having as much fun as the kids were. After the drawing was done we played frisbee and chalked up the sidewalk with them.
Once we left the school we went to, our guide for the week, Tim Kelly's property for lunch. It's called Earthship and it's a self-sustained house. The walls are made from tires, concrete and glass bottle spacers. There are solar panels on the roof to provide electricity and all the rainwater is collected in enormous tanks, goes through a complicated purification system and is then used as the water in the sinks, toilets and showers.
After we ate the kids from the school came to Earthship. We did some face painting and played games like, ninja, duck, duck, goose (or cat, cat, dog, because we didn't know how to say duck or goose in Spanish) and red light, green light. When we ran out of games to play we sat down and sang them some of our childhood songs, and then a few of them sang folklore songs to us.
We drove over to the next town (about a half hour drive) to play the National team again. Our match was a great addition to a wonderful day! We finally won our match in 3 games by scores of 25-21, 25-21, 25-20. The venue consisted of a lime green and bright blue concrete court with a roof over it and of course loud music. About a hundred people showed up to watch. During the match our blocking progressively got better and played a big part in our win. It was a little hard to adapt to the dim lighting of the 'gym' but we eventually figured it out and made due.
After the successful game, we headed back to San Juan Del Sur to dine at one of the best restaurants in Nicaragua. We had a delicious meal of chicken, pork, fish, mint spiced rice, mashed potatoes, and balsamic roasted vegetables. I think most of us agreed it was our favorite meal so far.
-Chelsea Barrett and Sarah Glancy
