Birthdays, Beaches, and . . . Illnesses
We arrived at beautiful San Juan del Sur on Friday, June 26th. We had lunch at the Pelican Eyes Resort, where we received a tour of the grounds and an informational session about the Jean Brugger Foundation. We saw monkeys, puppies, and other things that make you say, “Awww.” Today we are all hanging at the local beach just staying “tranquilo.” For my birthday (yes, today I’m the big 39) my wife bought me some espresso brownies from El Negro Gato, my favorite SJDS cafe. These brownies are to die for, and I’m afraid once my kids get a hold of them we might be medicating them with Benadryl to insure any sleep tonight. Tomorrow we are taking a bus to La Playa Maderas where some of the students will take surfing lessons.
Tonight many of the students have offered to babysit my kids so Annamae and I can go out for my birthday. We have been blessed on this trip to have so many wonderful students really love our children well. And even those who have taught them questionable ethics about dating (thanks to Stephen for that lesson!) have nonetheless served as great role models. On the topic of birthdays, we celebrated Jessie’s birthday last weekend by ziplining through the mountains in Grenada.
The biggest downer so far is that a number of students have fallen ill. The illnesses seem to be in 3 areas: GI, nausea, and fever/sore throat. We currently have 3 who are sick and 2 who are mending. But all have been in good spirits and are resting well. One nice thing about Nica is there are pharmacies everywhere and you can get many prescription drugs as OTC.
We will post pics from SJDS very soon, so keep checking in! Tengo que un buen dia!
