Fathers work day

All I have to say is, "When working under a tree becomes distractingly beautiful then you found the proper place to work!" Last weekend, the fathers from our school got together for a work day to build playground equipment and picnic tables for the school. The dads, and some moms of course, worked hard and even used reclaimed wood from the very tree that we were working under. We jokingly asked, "If the tree knew we are using her wood right now?" We eventually finished the picnic tables and all of the parts for the playground. The pieces will be moved in January to their new location at our new school facility just outside Granada town. 

   Working together was fun and we accomplished a lot considering the playground that we really wanted is not available anywhere in Nicaragua. A set of building plans, lots of wood, and plenty of hard work paid off. The school saved money, the kids will be happy and we used reclaimed wood from a fallen branch. It really does not get any better than that. Oh wait, the gigantic burgers, filet mignon, and unlimited beer for lunch made it better :)   

    

This massive tree was beautiful to work under. The bottom left of the tree is where the branch broke during last year's terrible drought.

Everybody had a job to do.

Expats from the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia as well as locals all chipped in.

Laying out our design before cutting was crucial.

Volunteering runs deep with a lot of these people.

The beginnings of the monkey bars are starting to take shape.

The beautiful home of our school's founder.

The clear and cool day was a treat.

The five languages spoken by these men were: Country-bumpkin, Nicaraguan Spanish, Dominican Spanish, Spanglish, and English. After the beer started flowing we all spoke various forms of Country-bumpkin, though. Interestingly, the more we drank the faster the saw blades spun and the straighter our cuts were, go figure. Just kidding we were responsible dads (because some of the moms were around). Otherwise, left to our own manly devices, we might have had to make a trip to the hospital with a thumb in someone's pocket :)