Good Luck!

This is a picture of Elvis, one of the kids from the neighborhood in Jinotega that the day care center is located in. Elvis and the other kids from the neighborhood were great and quickly learned my name so they could ask me when the volunteers were coming out to play. While we were doing repairs to the day care centers, I kept hearing “Bryson....jugemos...Bryson, let’s play!” Anyway, I eventually headed out to the front of the daycare center to see what was going on and as I looked over to where I had parked the van, I saw the back of a kid that was kneeling down facing the wheel. The kid looked suspicious and some of the other kids had mentioned that one of the boys had let some air out of the tires. So, assuming this might be the case, I started to walk to the van to see what was going on. The van was parked on a steep hill with a lot of water run off. As I got closer, I realized it was Elvis, and he wasn’t letting air out of the tires. He was washing the tires. With his little hands, he had been scooping up water from the water that was running down the side of the curb from the recent rain and using it to wash the tires. I later found out that in Nicaragua, it is considered very good luck to wash your tires before going on a trip and that it can help keep you safe. As Elvis knew that we would soon be leaving, he wanted to give us something back in return for the time we spent in his neighborhood for playing games and activities with the kids. His gift to us was good luck and safe journey....and he showed us by washing our tires!