If You Teach a Woman to Fish...

"Hey, Amy, do you have any ideas for plans this afternoon or would you want to take the girls fishing?" I thought fishing sounded like a good idea. Jenean and Gloria were very excited about it and the girls were pretty pumped, so we jumped in a van in search of a lake. I was a little concerned we didn't have any fishing equipment, but Jenean and Gloria seemed okay with it. Maybe we were going to get some practice being "fisher's of men?"

We arrived at Buenaventura and asked for a good deal (translation: free) to get in and fish. We were finally granted permission and walked around the lake. It turns out that Jenean had a fly fishing rod. The girls impatiently waited for her to put a fly on and then for the fish to start jumping out of the water.

After about 15 minutes, one of the girls said, "You mean we haven't caught anything yet?!?" They started to "snail" for snails and I soon had way more snails then I have ever wanted.

Magda smiles from her seat in the tree.

Needless to say but we weren't catching much. Karla found a stick and was using it to catch big weeds. We decided it was time to move on.

As we walked around the lake, looking for the perfect fishing spot, we came across a few fishermen with nice poles. I am not sure exactly what happened next, but they offered to teach the girls how to fish and let them use their poles.

Gloria, Michelle and I watched the action and tried not to get hooked by any bad casts. When it was my turn, Jorge asked me if I knew how to cast. I told him I did, but it had been awhile. Hmm...apparently way too long. I wasn't granted the privilege to cast again.

Lupita climbed up in trees to watch the action from a perch.

Watching Paola catch her first fish was such a joy, because she was so ecstatic and not grossed out about it at all. I was excited that we didn't have to take the fish on our drive back. As we packed up the two fishermen had a juntita and came back with this to say:

Jorge: Why don't you just take the fish she caught and the ones we caught too.

Me: (Silently screaming "No!" inside) Oh no, that is fine, we would never ask you to sacrifice your supper.


José (Now said with more passion) No, you must take these fish! These girls need to know how fresh fish taste.


Me: We don't have a container and you have already done so much, we have all these wonderful memories of the day.


Jorge and José: Girls, do you want to try real, fresh fish?


10 CVE girls: YES! YES!

Somehow it turned into the fish (in the bag) and then their watermelon. I really hope they didn't have starving families at home. Jenean, Gloria and I had talked...none of us had ever cleaned fish. We hoped with everything in us that the guys would be willing.

We left the smelly fish in the van to stop and take this picture.

Jeff and Limón came to our rescue and cut the heads off and then fileted the fish...I guess we had nothing to worry about. All who wanted to were able to enjoy some wonderful fresh fish for supper. :) We definitely have some work to do on our fishing abilities, especially because some of the girls want to go back to the lake every Saturday to "provide food for the whole orphanage." Kind of a high goal considering we caught one fish between the 13 of us! :)