The country quinta

As you know, my homeroom/flex/advisory class this year is all 19, 10th grade girls, and has become the best 30 minutes of my day. The easy part was to instill the idea that we are family, they have been in school together since pre-Kinder, but it has become more than that. The high school administration looks to us to be leaders in the school and we have stepped up to the challenge. After a tough first four months of working our butts off every day in flex, we decided that a celebration was in order! 

I was thinking, let's take an afternoon and leave school and go eat somewhere as a group. Well that idea turned into - let's take the whole day off and go to one of the girls' quintas. 

What's a quinta, you ask? Well I had that same question and it was explained to me that it is just an extra house that the families go to on the weekends to get out of the city. Santa Cruz is a crowded, dirty city and in just a short 20 min ride you can be "in the country". The State of Santa Cruz is huge and consists of lowlands, farms, jungles, very tropical. So the suggestion came up that we should leave the whole day and head out to the quinta and relax. What should we do there? Well, there's a pool in the yard, karaoke, and a big BBQ. Ok, sounds good.

Now, in my head I see this sort of Florida style house with a quaint yard, pool and grill... what I experienced was totally different!

We pile in a bus and head out of the city, past the swirling dirt, discarded trash littering the streets, smells of filth, and just past the airport, north of town we are in the "country". The girls have brought their bose speakers again and are singing at the top of their lungs. I've let them organize the day and only brought one activity with me - a thank you card activity. The other 8 hours was planned by the kids.

We drive and drive and drive for 45 minutes and finally come to a turn off down a dirt road surrounded by sugar cane. I look over into the field and an ostrich runs by. Palm trees line the drive and the dusty fields say that the rainy season hasn't started yet.

We pull up and here's what's in store for me for the day...

I know, seriously.