Today was the first semi-routine day. On the days that the guys don’t have games or day-long field trips, they will have two 1.5-hour sessions of Spanish classes, lunch together, followed by some time for planning of activities or group processing. Around 2:00 they will have a lecture or a short field trip, before they have some free time and return home to their host families.
After lunch today we heard stories of how the first nights with the host families went. Each student also had an assignment to find out from their family a list of groceries and basic necessities they buy each week. Then the students went downtown to the street market stalls to ask (in Spanish, of course) the prices of the goods. What they couldn’t find in the market stalls, they went into a supermarket to price. Later we’ll use this information to estimate how much a family has to spend each week, and then we’ll compare that with some typical salaries.
I think the guys are becoming semi-famous in Jinotepe. While walking through the market a woman in a stall selling fried foods asked me (Doug), “Are you one of the players on the team from the United States?” While it was flattering to be mistaken for someone who plays baseball on a team, I assured her I was not, but I was one of the leaders of the group here. She wanted to know when they would play a game, and then insisted she would be there to see it Wednesday morning.
Maria was able to reserve the local stadium for a team practice at 4:00. This was an unscheduled practice, so it came together at the last minute. Although the sky threatened to rain, as it had done the day before, it didn’t, and the team got in about 90 minutes of practice.
