POST by RENZ: Carried Away on the Carreton

Fran loving Nicaraguan hugs

Here in Nicaragua, the richer of the poor people use carretons to get around, get fire wood, transport crops, etc. We have a carreton and five horses and a foal. A carreton is a wooden cart pulled by a horse or a strong animal like that. We use ours to collect kids for the school. I go in the morning with Fran and Yader.

We pick up the kids that live too far to walk and the kids that their parents cannot drop them off at our center. Sometimes it takes longer than other times but it is fun and I like doing it.

At midday we take the kids that we collected back home. It is hard sometimes especially with the rain and the flooding. One girl´s house is up a big hill and the carreton cannot go up it because it’s really steep. So I am the one that usually has to walk up the hill, to her house, and see if she is ready.

Most of the time she is ready, sitting down, watching the tele, but other times I just wait outside awkwardly until she comes out. She is really dulcet and her name is Francesca like my sister. On the way to get the kids, it is a bumpy road. There are a lot of holes and hills. Sometimes it is hard to get around because of that.

One day when I was learning how to drive the carreton, we had a lot of kids with us. Francesca, the little girl, dropped her hair clip so Rene went and retrieved it. While we were waiting for Rene to come back, Moises, one of the boys in the school, was hitting the horse with a branch to make it go faster.

The horse & cart, with Yader driving

Suddenly the end of the rope got stuck in the wheel whilst we were going and it scraped my thigh. I felt my leg burn! It hurt! I had a big mark across my leg and some type of yellow, sticky liquid was coming out of it. We had just left the house and I could have gone back but I didn’t because I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.  So Yader took over the reins and we were off again.

Lorenzy's leg - YOUCH!

When we were going down the first hill, I went to get a drink at Yader´s house. Yader let Rene drive the cart down the hill for some reason. When I came back to where they were I saw that all the toddlers were off of the cart and some were crying. I asked them what had happened and they said that the carreton had gone too fast down the hill because of Rene´s driving and that is why they had jumped off and walked down the hill.

Lorenzy

We took them home and came back to the house as fast as we could. When I got home I showed my mum what had happened to me and she took care of it. The next day it hurt even more than when it had happened and I could barely walk. Now it is much better but it still hurts. Rene is now not allowed to drive the cart with passengers on it. He is psychotic.

Rene reading to Capital Edge kids

POST by RENZ: Sez's Rearing Ride

My family has five horses and one of them is pregnant. They are quite small and quiet. All of them are pretty much like that except for one, "Mexico".

He is almost the smallest horse that we have but he thinks that he has a lot of 'power'. Even though he  supposedly got neutered, he still has a lot of pride. He will have to get neutered again because they didn't do it properly and so he still has it.

One day, we decided to go out on a ride with four of the horses because Midnight is too fast for any of us kids to go on  so we did not take her. I went on Cadburys. She is pregnant and get's into bad moods, but she is obedient.

Sezni went on Mexico and you already know how Mexico is. He is obedient when he wants to be but when there is a mare around he won't be so obedient. He sometimes goes wild. Sezni's favorite horse is Mexico so he always rides him.

My dad and Francesca also went. My dad went on our white horse which is called Cookie and Cookie does not like going up or down hills. He is the tallest horse that we have.

Francesca went on the smallest horse who is VERY stubborn. Her colour is really dark grey with white blurs all over her. 

That day we decided to go a different route which I had never gone on before. It was where there is mountains and is really pretty to go to. Since we went there, we go there quite a lot to let the horses eat grass and we just sit and do whatever we want to.

That day, we had a race to see who could go down and up the hill the fastest. I don't remember who won but it was fun anyway. When I go there, I usually bring a note book in which I can draw things in.

The path to get there is a dirt road and it gets ruined by the rain when it is the rainy season and so it has a lot of bumps and ditches.

When we were on our way home, there was a mare in a paddock when we passed it. She was sort of red with a blackish brownish main. Francesca and I passed her quickly because she looked sort of mean. Sezni came after us but when Mexico saw the mare, he started to go to her.

 Sezni did not know what to do. He was trying to control Mexico but he couldn't because Mexico was stronger. Mexico was trying to get onto the other side but he couldn't. All of a sudden he went on two feet and Sezni was yelling at the top of his lungs "HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

 At first we were all just staring at him but then Francesca started to try and help him but her horse was too stubborn. Sezni was still screaming and my dad had his mouth wide open with the camera out and ready to take pictures but he was frozen.

Then my dad got back to his normal senses and went to go help my poor little brother.

Once we got out of that mess my brother was almost in tears and we were laughing but trying not to make Sezni feel bad.