Email questions and answers!

Matt,
Just wanted to let you know I'm as fascinated by your answers to the kids' questions as I'm sure they are. It's a great way to learn about a country most of us will never have the opportunity to visit. Keep up the good work. A couple of questions from me- What's a typical work day like for you? What's a typical day like for a 10 yr. old child?
-Alice Galvin


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Hi Alice! Thanks for the email!

My work day starts at about 8. I get to the health center in the center of town and we organize the day for about half an hour. Before 9 we have a vehicle available that drives us to one of the rural communities outside of Somoto. Some take 20 mins to reach, others 1.5 hours! All of it on dirt roads that you could never even ride a bike on. In the mornings we give health talks to pregnant mothers and brigadistas (volunteer health promotors in every community). In the afternoon we give a different talk to youth groups of about 20 to 30 teenagers. We usually get back to Somoto by 4:30. Jess teaches English 3 or 4 nights a week, so I´m usually at home cooking dinner. At night we sit on the porch and talk to neighbors, watch a movie at the house of a family we know, or go for a walk with Astro.

For a 10 year old in the city, the day starts around 6:00 with breakfast. School starts at 7:00. They have class until about 11:30 and then they head home for lunch. A different group of students use the classrooms in the afternoon. Students get a choice of the morning or the afternoon, but the morning is way more popular. The afternoons are usually spent at home or in the street doing the same things kids in the states do. Some are lucky enough to have TV´s and others go to the video game houses mentioned in the blog.
This schedule can be very different for rural families, where kids might have to walk 2 hours to and from school everyday, as well as take care of younger brothers and sisters.