Step one: Pinata making!

Yesterday we started making pinata's with the Mariposa's and I'm so excited to keep working one these the rest of the week, it's such a cool project. Cesar is the man of many trades, he can do just about everything and apparently is a pinata master, so he's teaching all of us. It was quite the adventure for me to find all the materials for this project...but I told Hassell that even though it took forever to get everything, and I was super sweaty and tired, seeing that the girls are having fun and love what we're doing makes it all worth it. If you want to make a pinata this week with us this is what you need: 1 Balloon Some String 1 Newspaper (cut into small squares) 1 large paint brush 2 cups of glue/water mixture Tissue paper (colors your choice) Cardboard (poster board, really) I think for all of you, you will find these materials quite easily. Hassell gave drew me a map to find everything, I was basically going on a scavenger hunt. She said go to the corner by the market for newspaper and there would be a women there who sells newspaper by the pound. I needed 15. After asking around for a bit, there was surely enough a women who sells newspaper by the pound. I told her how much I needed and then she said, "da mi la plata, primera" She asked for the money and then told me she'd be right back and walked down the street somewhere to get the 15 pounds of newspaper. A part of me was like "what if she doesn't come back?!" but she did and I was throughly impressed that the aged woman carried all that I needed back to me. Things are done differently here and you gotta have faith that the best will come out of the sometimes mysterious situations, love Nicaragua. The rest of the materials were relatively easy to find, transporting them back to Tres Pisos was rough though...I thought my arms were going to fall off, seriously the amount of walking we do here with sometimes 20 pounds of materials to lug around has kept me FIT. :) So here's your first step:

Blow up your balloon and hanging it with your string from a ceiling, we tied a string across the room so all the girls could stand and do this. Prepare your glue/water mixture and with your paint brush paint the mixture onto your balloon and place a newspaper square onto the balloon. You are going to continue to do this until your balloon is completely covered and you will have to do 2-3 layers of newspaper, so literally put the glue mixture all over your pinata, even on top of the last layer.

The girls did an excellent job gluing and pasting...and making a huge mess haha.

Lotta bodies, lotta pinatas, lotta fun!

When you finished yours newspaper layers you will need to let your pinata dry over night (or a couple nights). Stayed tuned for the rest of the steps to finish your pinata, we'll be working on them tomorrow at activity.