At the river

Recently we took the students to the river for a picnic lunch and swim. We don't do this often enough (you know how I love to swim, even in black water that is probably hiding monsters) because the walk is about two hours long each way. Most of the teachers rode their motorbikes, but since the students had to walk (and because I'm not allowed on motorbikes per Peace Corps rules), Junio and I made the long trek with them. Even though only about half the kids could actually swim, they had a blast splashing around in the water. They were doing flips, playing volleyball and rugby, racing, and I even taught them to play chicken. A few of the more industrious students hung off to one side, fishing, pulling up piranha after piranha. One was nice enough to demonstrate how strong those little fish jaws are: put a stick or fishingline anywhere near their mouths, and they'll snap right through it as though it was nothing.
A bus came by, so they loaded all the girls, and as many students as could fit, onto it for a ride home, but several still had to walk. All the teachers rode back, this time Junio included, so I walked alone with the few boys left behind. Of course, I got horribly sunburned despite the hat and the gallons of sunscreen, but this sort of day? Totally worth it.

They call this the "bicycle" but it's more like "drown the kid in the middle"

"Toss the teacher" became a big hit. I let them throw me, too, but since I had the camera, there's no picture of it.

Might as well take a bath, since there's all this water