Siesta l Riley

At every school that I've been too, I've gone on walks during siesta (the 2 hour break in the middle of the day), which usually turn into great adventures. My favourite siesta during teaching would be the second time that I went to the school New Creation. I was with Marieke, Sarah, Luke, Bay (Shelby), Rachael, Brady and Teresa. (Brady and Teresa were visiting for the week and came to schools with us). There were more people than normal, but it made for an especially  great day, plus being with Rachael you know something fun is gonna happen. Anyways, since Rachael knows the area, she led us this partiular siesta. She took us down this one road which had huge houses on it. The last house was three stories with a gated garage, beautiful iron fences, and real windows (which you dont often see because windows are often just barred holes with shutters/blinds) so basically this house was the epitome of wealth. But, not even a block away we passed over a colvert and the sceneray totally changed.  Now, the road that we were walking on was dirt, there were more trees and open space, and the houses were little tin shacks with barbed wire fences  to protect against intruders. It was crazy to see the differences in the houses when we took a few steps away. We went from walking past gargantuon homes to little tin shacks in just a few steps. We hadn't gone very far and already my mind was blown  as to how people could live in these massive houses when their neighbors live in tin shacks. We experienced the two extremes of the rich/poor scale on the same road almost next to each other.

           We continued down the dirt road with tin shacks to our right and open fields and trees to our left, it was quite pretty. Walking through the village,  children started following us, some who we recognised from compassion (a sponsor kids school which we visited earlier in the day) and some who we didnt recognise. The kids were all around 7-9 years old and very energetic. A little girl grabbed my hand as we walked down the road and I ended up carrying her on my back just like everyone else in the group was doing. She said that she recognised me from me teaching at her school (New creation), so that was super cool that see had recognised who I was. Anyways, as we continued walking we passed a hibiscus tree and all the kids made us go over to it so that they could pick us flowers. The kids picked the flowers and then tucked them into our hair so that we all had a flower, it was such a cute gesture of kindness. We continued down the road saying hi to the people we passed and then Rachael asked the kids to show us a cacao tree. They brought us to one which was at a fork in the road and the boys started to climb the tree and bring us down cacao. Cacao looks like giant beans growing on trees and their insides look like marshmellows but harder. The kids  opened the cacao on rocks and eventually after 4 or 5 bad ones there was one good one that we could eat. All the kids dove in to grab some and somehow I ended up getting a bite, it was sweet and delicious. The kids continued to compile cacao and open them. As we stood waiting and watching the kids, a herd of cows passed with a farmer on his phone looking bored, and a guy on a horse rode past with two dogs chasing after. After a while,  we had to start walking back because it was nearing the end of our siesta. Luke, Sarah, and Rachael hoisted kids up on their shoulders and pretended that the kids were planes. The little girl on my back, who was named Anna-Franchesca (or something that sounded like that) was snuggled into me with her head resting on my shoulder. She seemed content to just lay there so we kept walking like that. We walked back through the village and Anna-Franchasca hopped off and ran away randomly, only to run back a few minutes later giggling and wanting another piggy-back ride. We once again passed the colvert which was like a separator between two worlds and the scenery changed back again to paved roads, giant houses and the bustle of car noises in the distance. We got back to the school, New Creation, and we had to leave because we were getting picked up at the end of siesta. I put Anna-Franchasca down and said goodbye and gave her a hug. She gave me a kiss on the cheek and then we all hopped in the van and all the kids waved at us as we drove away. I think that this was my favourite walk that I've been on so far; Siesta walks are so much fun and I can't wait to go on more adventures!