summer school, nica xmas, and kittens!

Summer school = a little bit of chaos, mixed in with thinking on your toes, a dash of planning ahead, and a ton of fun!

Matt, myself, and 4 other volunteers were placed at Elba Zamora (lucky for us, the same school with the same kids) with 2 ayudantes and given free range to come up with math, Spanish, English and art lessons for 2 groups of kids (1st-3rd and 4th-6th). Matt got stuck working with the youngins, which proved a good deal more of a challenge, but started to get into a decent rhythm just in time for Christmas break. Between kids who just wanted to play, lessons that needed to be scaffolded for multi levels, ayudantes that sometimes helped, and some volunteers that might have been happy just playing as well.... it became evident that there was dire need for a positive behavior system to be in place and in depth plans done in advance.

I decided to switch over to the older kids which fit like a worn glove after having more experience with 4th and 5th graders. I think I decided that is the age range I enjoy most, as you can do so much more with students once they have some background knowledge and a basic skill set under their belts. Teaching the basic skill set is much harder! So the joy was stepping into the actual teaching shoes again, working with a group of 9-12 kids, having 2 other volunteer helpers, and having a group of kids that mostly were pysched to be participating. Sounds like the ideal classroom variables.

The fun part was having as many art projects as we wanted and going to the campo for some serious soccer, frisbee, and tackle the adults games played by all!

So after 3 weeks, Christmas break came which was kicked off with an awesome end of the year party for all the kids of 3 different schools out in a rural barrio called San Ignacio. It included, soccer games, tackle the adults, spin the kids, face painting, pinatas, food..... and..... dancing!
The dancing was the best part as the volunteers had to perform traditional Nicaraguan dances (folklorico) and the kids shook their hips to some reggaeton! Matt and I were dubbed Viejita (little old woman) and Viejito (little old man) as we danced in costume, roles reversed and 12 cup sizes bigger, and made everybody laugh their socks off! The funniest moment occured when Matt's nalgas (balloon butt) fell out, and then later when his bloomers dropped and tripped him up. Check the link below for a brief trailer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jODcEruvAA

Other Christmas festivities included the not to be mentioned new additions to our abode .... also known as gallo and pinto. Our roomie rescued them from the street and we are nuturing them up to be big bad mice killers, that we will unfortunately and undoubtedly have to find other homes for. There is a quiet joy to kittens, as they eat, sleep, play, and repeat all day and night long, being so little that there pouncing around doesn't even make a sound.

And Nicaragua didn't let us down with trickytrackas and bombas ringing above our heads and in our ears for the first 1/2 hour of the birth of the nino de dios (12 am), and then providing us with a nice, hot Christmas day. Look out snow, you're overrated anyways! New words to the song: I'm dreaming of a hot Christmas, just like the ones I currently know....
And well, we were at church first thing in the morning watching the communions of 4 of our favorite kids, which was followed by a party at their house - music, food, and I'll let you fill in the blank. Starts with a Pin and ends with a Yata! Aka, the new Nicaraguan currency as at the end of every week we seem to be paid in them.

volunteer xmas dinner

nicaragua: tierra de lagos y volcanos

Off to Leon for the weekend.

Leon is a city due north of Granada about precisely 2 hours. Unless of course, you decide to leave on Friday afternoon and hit the worst of rush hour traffic in the capital. On top of that, the stretch of highway from Managua (the mid way point, and the capital) to Leon is currently being worked on and therefore our minibus transport had to stop several times in lines of cars and semis.... however stop is not exactly what it did. Our driver decided that nothing was going to make him wait, and so he weaved in and out of oncoming traffic, sometimes with 3 cars doing the same thing in front of him, up hills, around corners.... all what we would call standard traffic rules, were completely out the window. 4 hours later, we arrived, and were very thankful for that!
>>>> As stated in an article on Nicaraguan driving we just read, "If you have to subject yourself to public transportation as a means of commuting, pray to a higher being."

However, during this most adventurous drive, we did realize the truth behind Nica's most popular nickname. It truly is the land of lagos (lakes) y volcanos... as in any direction you choose to go, you are guaranteed to see at least 2 of the ginormous, ominous mounds along the way, half of which either have a cloud or a smoke stack sitting on top. It took Matt back to 5th grade as he said "Now that's the type of exploding volcano you make for the science fair!"

In Leon, we did not go volcano boarding, even though it sounded mighty tempting. After having a roommate recount how her friend ended up in the hospital post V-boarding, we decided volcanos are much prettier to look at from a distance.

But we did discover instantaneously that having a 2 year old guidebook and a 4 year old map handed over by a friend, is like being on a scavenger hunt where what you are looking for no longer exists. So we found our own hostal, Casona Colonial, which proved to be nothing fancy but clean, quiet, comfortable, affordable and nicely decorated with xmas lights around a palmtree in their atrium.

The highlights:

Leon is a beautiful city in that it is covered in: murals which tell the story of the revolutionary history, colonial churches blackened with sut from previous fires (set by those intent on destroying the city after being run out), plenty Christmas decorations, and a very vivid central park.
Leon is an affordable city that offers reasonable food at very tasty prices, including many vegetarian options. We are now on a mission to make Chana Masala, after eating it at Cocinarte! Also affordable and more abundant are clothes, and not story books persay, but other practical things one buys at a Libreria (bookstore) like notebooks, pencils, stickers, coloring books, etc!!! As far as educational information goes, don't expect to find anything decent on a weekend. We've decided books are like ghosts in that town, there are many stories about their existance, and everyone recounts having seen them, but alas we had no such luck. Nor do we have any photographic evidence that they exist.

>>>>>Double click the photo above to examine more closely the "macho" breakfast! The price of which coverted into dollars is 75 cents!>>>>>>

Leon is only a 20 minute taxi ride (cost = 5 to 10 dollars) / 1 hour bus ride (cost = 50 cents) from 2 beaches. Amazing the difference in price! The beaches are pretty and the towns offer good ambiance, however be prepared for some mighty fierce wave action! As our roomie said, the waves are like being in a Nica washing machine, lots of tumbling around, and good luck getting out clean.
Last but not least, Leon might just offer you up your own personal tour guide in the form of a shoe cleaner / student looking for a pair of shoes himself for his graduation. Whether the story is legit, one may never know, but needless to say we did get a very detailed description of 1 mural in 10 minutes, for the small price of 20 cordobas, or 1 dollar. Of course, he was hoping for the pair of new shoes, but with idea that money doesn't solve all problems, our motto is to focus on the time and interaction spent with people we meet on the street. >>>>>Stayed tuned for a story on Carlos: our neighborhood street kid who is now making the rounds to volunteer houses close by for meals, toys, and more.

first communion

Woke up before the alarm which was set for 5:50 AM. Got up while the air was crisp and cool and the sun was just beginning to brighten. Took a taxi to Iglesia La Ermita de Socorro in order to meet the family we work with for one of the girl's First Holy Communion. We sat and listened to the church mass from about 7 to 9 am and then stayed for another hour at the church for a small fiesta for the kids, which included very loud music, food, and of course a pinata! We now know, that a party is not a party in Nicaragua if there's not a pinata. After that we were invited back to the mom of the daugthers house for more loud music, salsa dancing with the kids, and a delicious lunch! We enjoyed talking to the grandpa about all sorts of things including his job, politics, animal rights and traditional games, and more. Even though it was really hard to understand him as he talks very fast and does not enunciate any of his words but they all bleed together. Therefore, we resorted to facial expressions and the good old "nod and smile" tactic.

La Andris (pronounced without the s at the end)

Andris's sister Fatima and the cousins! And yes, they really did hit this pinata!

Cousin Yuel, Grandma Escarlet, Fatima, Granpa Cristobal, Andris

The grandparents gifted Matt 2 or 3 of the children if we wanted.

Andris thought it would be a good idea if I tried on her veil. I agreed.

la purisima en calle santa lucia!

What is La Purisima? Well it's the 8-day-long celebration of the purity of the Virgin Mary of course. But never once, for the purity of the Virgin Mary have you woken up at 2 am to the sound of a brass band in your living room followed by what sounds like gunshots over your roof and then a police siren, thinking to yourself "What the feck (to copy the Irish) is going on???" Ok so, the brass band isn't really in your living room, and the gun shots are really just loud ass fireworks (called bombas here). And the police alarm is the ambulance that follows around the people who light off the fireworks. So relax, breathe normal, and go back to sleep.

The Purisima entails going around to a different street each night with a statue of the Virgen Mary on a huge float, saying the rosary multiple times, playing music, and having practically everyone in town come out to witness the event. But before that, in the day time, the entire road prepares for the festivities. The preparations include decorating the street with hanging lights, streamers, and pictures of angels. Also people take this opportunity as an annual repainting of their houses... and then adorn their doorways with balloons and banners and flags.

Here the Virgin Mary is taken door to door and serenades

each family, as the brass band plays.

Band members

Matt took this awesome picture of our neighbors as they were checking out

the preparations and the foreigners that live by them. That'd be us.

A la homemade pizza pizza pizza! So good the mice ate it too!

The street vendors beginning to set up their goods.

You know you've got talent when you can carry huge

containers on your head in between the thick crowd.

Neighbors playing with a popa! (globo)

Truce.

That'd be all the inhabitants of the city right there!

One of the floats for the procession, which really turned out

to be a precession with all the people walking in the front.

From the Santa Lucia front porch.

Peel me an orange, mr. orange peeler man. Peel me an orange to eat.

Sally's fantastic new addition to our house and a collection of previous and current roommates. Did we mention we know have a french baker living with us.

Can you say, score?!

promocion de elba zamora, 2010

We timed it right coming back early from our travels, in that we didn't miss the sweetest graduation ceremony ever.... six kindergardeners and two 6th graders were promoted at Elba Zamora. It was also extra exciting, in that it was the first time we saw the kids after 10 days or so, so they all came running out to greet us with big hugs and smiles!

Matt fixes Christopher's bow tie.

Christopher leads Matt to the graduation room.

Getting Christopher and Estefani to smile!

As the students and parents begin to enter.

Lupe (short for Guadalupe) and Sandrita dancing.

Christopher and Natalia doing bachata.

Lupe's mom (Maria Jose), Lupe, & Sandrita.

The big reward!

Pobre vaca took a good beating.

This is a once in a lifetime smile! Estefani is always extremely serious for photos.

costa rica: pura vida

Or puro dinero is more like it. Not only is everything double or triple the price of Nicaragua, but you can see money in action immediately after crossing the border. Take for example this fancy bus right here, compared to Nicaragua's chicken buses, this is riding in the lap of luxury. Also, after we survived the chaos that is called "the border" it was ironic to see Nicaragua's muddy puddle of a road turn into nice new pavement on the other side.

Let me just vent on the border for a second. Wow. Ok, so after you pay 1 dollar (3 or 4 times) to the community of Penas Blancas on the Nica side, you walk through a gate into a huge lot/road area with buildings, cars, buses, people who will rip you off with exchanging cordobas to colones or vise versa, banks where the ATM is not open, and by the way, without a clue as to where to go or what to do. Good thing I like to read informative guide books before I attempt such an adventure, or we'd have probably ended up in jail. You must get your passport stamped on both sides of the border which sounds easier said then done as the Nica immigration building is like a block away behind what looks like a bus stop and the Costa Rican one is down the road a good football field or two. Also, you have to pay a hefty fee ($4 pp) to leave Nicaragua and an even bigger one ($12 pp) to get in. However, Costa Rica doesn't make you pay a penny. Ok I'm over it.

Needless to say, after our 12 and 1/2 hour bus adventure we made it to Jaco (J sounds like H in Spanish, so phonetically it's Haco), Costa Rica, which honestly looks just like it sounds. It's a visual onomatopoeia. We say this because it's a tourist trap, without a pretty beach. But it was worth it, because we got to see our good friend Sarah Medrano and meet her 30 peace corp buddies as well. They were staying in this killer pad with a sweet swimming pool, which we took quick advantage of. (And also the hot water showers!).



What we learned about peace corp volunteers might sound like common sense: THEY ARE MOTIVATED, AMBITIOUS INDIVIDUALS.. who love to drink! They decided to cook homemade pizza, pancakes, and an entire Thanksgiving feast for almost 3 dozen people. So lucky for us, we got in on a most tasty American tradition. Plus the turkey probably came skinned straight from one or their sites.

Matt and I's new favorite game, we'd like to teach to Andi and other friends back home.

Liar's dice!

So another topic of discussion between us and the Costa Rican peace corp crew, was that of what these 2 silly countries think of each other. And who does the Rio San Juan really belong to? Well of course as you can see here clearly marked on the map, it's 100% NICA! (As they show us daily scrolling along the bottom to local news challenge). But it is a sad typical story when neighborhood countries can't get along, one is rich and one is poor, so the poor immigrate to the richer country in search of jobs to support families back home, and the rich complain about the social services the poor are taking advantage of.... in addition to blaming the poorer countries inhabitants for all the drug and crime related problems, when really they are caused by locals just as much if not more. Sounds familiar.... Besides who invented borders anyways? They are just lines drawn on paper, and as our Native Americans ancestors taught us, land does not belong to anyone.


On a more serious tone, did you know that in Central America, rum and cokes come prepackaged in a can???? Amazing!
P.S. This was just for show, after taking one sip we decided to stick to our original intentions of not condoning the consumption of coca cola products, or sodas in general. Yuck, or Jaco! We'd much rather just stick to drinking Tona!!! In fact, we're drinking one right now! Yum.

So our ride back on the buses began with an alien invasion: ATTACK OF THE GIANT GRASSHOPPER! Seriously, this dude was on the inside of the window to begin with and is literally as big as my hand. If you know me, you know I have big hands! And Matt being the hero he is, gently opened the window and ushered our friend out. While Navi panicked and said, "ahhhhhh get that thing away from me .... but i want a picture!"
Sadly, we do not have pictures of the HUGE crocodiles we saw on the side of the river bank as we drove by, or the majestic red and green parrots flying from a tree into the sky. Which reminds us, Renee - you need to invest in some glasses that double as cameras. That are stylish too.

We stayed the night in Liberia to break to 12 hour trip up coming back home. We were impressed by this newspaper wall. And by our favorite food ever- plantains!

They're like the cottage cheese of the fruit world, you can cook them like 12 different ways and they go with everything! Matt even says you can make a belt out of their skin.