Guatemala Day 6

Today we woke up with excited spirits, for we were to drive 3 hours to Eagle’s Nest! On the way, we played “Name That Tune” and our ears were blessed by Caroline’s angelic voice again. When Coach Hatch was about to burst, we stopped for restrooms, coffee, glass-bottle coke, candy, and cookies. We hopped back into the van and were on our way to our destination. After many winds down the rocky dirt roads, we arrived alive...barely. At Eagles Nest, we jumped out, stretched our legs, then had a wonderful time at Falon’s hair salon school where she taught us all how to waterfall braid. Lunch was fabulous. Corrie almost teared up when she saw the “healthy option” of grilled chicken, veggies, and mashed potatoes. After lunch we all ventured outside to get a better look at the scenery and to have our usual photo-shoot. About 87 pictures later, we went to tour the “girls wing” of Eagles Nest. There, we got to hold the world’s cutest babies and play with the pig-tailed toddlers. We rocked, chased, laughed, and nodded even though we we had no clue what the kids were saying due to our lack of spanish skill. Coach Hatch then found out that the orphanage needed help with an outside chore. So, we split into two groups: one to stay with the kids, another to go work outside. When we walked outside we saw a huge pile of dirt. We quickly found out that our job was to level the dirt. We got to work shoveling, pick axing (“pig axing”-Megan), and wheeling the wheel barrel (“barrow”-AnnHilton) full of dirt to an alternate location up a steep hill. Many of us had near-death experiences as Emily was swinging the pick-axe, failing to yell “CLEAR” before striking the dirt. Others of us (*cough* Courtney) claimed the experience to be the hardest thing she has ever done. Towards the end of our task, Coach Hatch had us in a game situation yelling “10 down, 9 minutes to go!!.. Oh now were down 12! Hustle! Hustle!” After hauling the last of the dirt, we shared our last goodbyes with the sweet children. We watched in sadness as Ashley had to leave the little baby girl with whom she fell in love with and has decided to sponsor. Afterwards, we walked to the roof for another photo-op/photo-shoot round 2. We piled back into the van and headed to the hotel. All settled into our rooms, we walked to the restaurant where we had a nice meal of spaghetti, steak, and waffles. At dinner we were accompanied by a lovely stray canine who sat under the table for the duration of dinner because Ashley made the fatal mistake of feeding it. We meandered back to the hotel, stopping occasionally to check out some street-side merchandise. We cleaned up then had our nightly “pow-wow.” Everyone dispersed to their rooms to attempt sleep on the beds made of bricks (aka- best sleep of Corrie’s 17 years). That’s all for today. Over and out - Cille and Corrie