B and D's biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig adventure (Without much adventuring):

Morning, a wonderful time to look forward to and prepare for the day's activities, unless of course you are waking up at 5:50am with a 2 hour time change that is not in your favor like we were. Everyone was lured out of their slumber thanks to the wonderful smell of breakfast created by Cristian and Zach consisting of pineapple chorizo and toast. Cristian, Giselle, Trevor, and Zachary were going to spend the morning visiting El Plantel a nearby farm run by John, the founder of a chocolate company here in Nicaragua, to acquire Dr. Basha's crowning accomplishment, the weather station. On the other hand Dr. Basha and Derek's plan was to spend the day completing smaller projects around the house.

Derek learned he had the unique pleasure of fixing the bathroom sink's drip. The plumbing leaving the bathroom sink looked akin to a tubular crustacean one might find in the depths of the sea, complete with smells to match. Adorning his rubber gloves he wrangled with the fittings until they finally broke loose like tectonic plates shifting deep in the sea. The issue was found to be a cracked and rotting seal in the sink's drain. With the sink's water turned off this project was put on pause pending a run to the hardware store.

The next quest on the grand adventure was reviving Josh's food processor. The small plastic tabs on the lid of the device had broken off and the safety switch would no longer disengage. Derek successfully disassembled the device (much to the surprise of no one) and bypassed the safety switch. With the device reassembled he pushed the button and it whirred to life (much to the surprise of everyone).

During this whole time Dr. Basha had been on her laptop doing whatever it is that important team leaders do. Probably making sure we had enough work to do or something important like that.

Upon the successful reassembly of the food processor Derek and Dr. Basha began troubleshooting the case of the killer light socket. The light socket over the main table had been killing light bulbs at an astonishing rate. Sometimes they would last a day and sometimes a week or more. Halogen or incandescent, it did not matter. The socket destroyed them without mercy or thought. We first noticed that the back of the bulb socket was browned and singed. More clues were uncovered once we removed the socket from the ceiling. The plastic surrounding one of the screw terminals had cracked and was dangerously close to the other terminal. With our super sleuthing completed we prescribed a new light socket and added it to the list of things to get at the hardware store.

Lunch was an unusually sad affair as we learned of the demise of our favorite food cart. The owners of the cart had decided to spend more time helping the church which is very helpful and wholesome yet we could not help but feel sad. We ended up at a nearby restaurant per Josh's recommendation. It was good and very cost effective (only ~$3 US for a sit down meal and a drink!) but not nearly as good as the food cart which is some of the best food Derek has ever had.

We returned from lunch with our items from the hardware store. Zach helped Derek conquer the undersea crustacean that had attached itself to the bottom of the bathroom sink. It still managed to leave its mark by springing another leak after the first leak had been repaired. They retreated for the time being and made plans to battle it again another day. Also after lunch, Derek and Dr. Basha worked together to incarcerate the murderous light socket. With a much more light bulb friendly socket in its place they installed their first and hopefully last light bulb of the trip.

Derek and Dr. Basha's day wrapped up with them soldering cables in preparation for Dr. Basha's second crowning achievement, The Weather Station V2.0. After Derek taught Giselle how to crimp wires and construct the required cables, he sat down and wrote this article.

P.S. Derek forgot two of the projects that he and Dr. Basha worked on so Dr. Basha has to write this little note. We also fixed a cloth chair (replacing the cloth that was worn through) and a laptop that will help a farmer learn spreadsheets. The laptop was an ongoing project throughout the day and the chair was a bonding moment so Dr. Basha isn't entirely certain why Derek forgot about these. Probably had to go watch YouTube videos about cars...

CRISTIAN, Giselle, TREVOR, AND ZACH'S HUUUUUUUUUUGE DAY

Imagine having just gotten to another country and still being used to your own time zone. Well, after having spent the first night in Nicaragua, we woke up at 4 A.M. PST for our big day ahead of us. After eating breakfast and getting ready in the morning, our host Josh led us to farmlands in Nicaragua called 'El Plantel'. There, we were shown the way that crops were able to grow through the thick layer of ash in the ground as well as a greenhouse of sorts that had small planters of crops which allowed the farmers to choose only the best crops to plant in the crop fields.

Soon after, the four set off to retrieve Dr. Basha's weather station that was perched on two wooden planks above the ground. It consisted of a thermometer, anemometer, and a rain gauge.

From here, we all hopped on a cramped bus and rode back to our house in Masaya. Then Cristian, Trevor, Zach, and Derek attempted to fix the bathroom sink, while Giselle was helping Dr. Basha. But after several failed attempts at fixing the sink, we all decided to go to lunch at a restaurant in the center of town.

After having our traditional Nicaraguan meals, Cristian, Trevor, Zach, and Giselle joined Josh to a large market in search for food and supplies while Derek and Dr. Basha went back to the house. We returned with lumber for our projects and various fruits to snack on.

Trevor and Cristian later got to work on modeling a lockable cabinet on SolidWorks, Derek and Zach fixed the sink properly, and Giselle and Dr. Basha worked on fixing the weather station. Once we had finished our assignments, Zach, Trevor and Cristian began cutting the lumber into the necessary lengths to construct the security cabinet. Derek went to help solder things together for the weather station project.

We had to call it a day once the sun went down and decided to continue working when the next day came.