hoy: ¡gran festival de libros!

We woke up early this morning, relatively well-rested, to begin our big day out: today was the book festival. We'd planned it to start at 11, but the truck that announced it all over town said 9 am, so we weren't quite sure when it would start. Kids started to trickle in early, but most came around 11 when we were all ready for them. We had butterfly-making, face-painting, maraca-building, bubbles, the portable bookshelf of Libros para Niños, and a dance class taught by Lyndsey (with translation assistance from Caitlin) on the stage shown above in front of the Catholic church. Only the little girls (and Heidi) wanted to dance, but the little boys sure liked to watch!
Our bubble solution was less than successful in our eyes, but it didn't prevent the kids from having heaps of fun playing in the soapy water.


The masks, DeAnna's brilliant idea, were a wonderful hit.

Eduardo, who spoke to us late last night with much enthusiasm, and in very good English, about the incredibly inspiring work he does distributing books to children so that they will get hooked on reading (something he feels is not encouraged in the classroom by most Nicaraguan teachers), holding the mic for his friend and colleague Mario Montenegro, children's songwriter and author of several books published by Libros para Niños, Eduardo's organization. Mario was great, and we have it all on video.


Later, Christina, dressed in character, read El Gato Sombrerado to the children. She read beautifully to an enthralled crowd.

Some of our face-painters' handiwork

The festival ended sooner than we expected to due to the departure of a crowd of kids that had been tricked in from another community, and the start of some harsh winds threatening to blow our tent over. We cleaned up quickly and sat down to a much needed lunch at El Gato Negro, the very veg-friendly cafe and English language bookstore. We did a quick debrief of how the festival had gone (as well as could have been hoped for, given how little we knew about what might happen), and then split up to go work on our journals and essays, pack, and, in some cases, have another margarita at the Pelican Eyes resort. Today was our last real day in San Juan del Sur... we leave tomorrow morning for some volcano climbing, a clothing delivery to Los Quinchos children's home and school, some pottery shopping, and Managua. Sniff.

The day ended with a big goodbye dinner with all the library staff, to whom Lily and Pat distributed presents brought from Maryland, and ice cream at Eskimo. Mmm, limón y piña...