Happy Thanksgiving!

So I’m state-side! I have been a little absent to the blog world recently. Not intentionally, and not because of a lack of blog worthy discussion (quite the opposite) but because there has been so much going on writing about it just came up last on the list!

Regardless, here I am. Once again in the beautiful US of A and once again fighting the same cultural battle I face every time I get my passport stamped. Fortunately the culture shock has hit relatively lightly this trip compared to previous trips and I have thoroughly enjoyed my first week back.

While the term culture shock is normally used in reference to entering into a third world country, I have found it to be equally (if not more) applicable upon reentry to the US. This country makes so many changes/advances in such sort time. I leave and when I come back 6 months later there is a new road, new restaurants, and new buildings. I expect to come back to the same place I left and that is never quite the case. That doesn’t mean it’s bad . . . just a little harder to adjust. I am so happy to be here though. I have already indulged in a number of guilty pleasures (grapes, cheese, Hot Tomales, Cheezits :) just to name a few, and cannot get enough of this great family I have. Last weekend I went to the Notre Dame- Wake Forest game with my mom, great end of the season to be back for huh! Hard to believe that after not missing a single home game for four years, I haven’t been to a single one since graduating! So I have definitely been filling up on all things football with my Dad; mostly college, but some pro too. Now just anxiously looking forward to this Saturday’s game against USC . . . Eeeeek GO IRISH!

My other adventure- Elementary School! Eryn is student teaching in a kindergarten classroom at Prairie Vista, the elementary school that we went to our entire childhood. Twice I have been able to go in and spend the day helping her out. (It helps to fill a little bit of the void I have when I’m not with all my kiddos) and it’s been a blast! In addition to spending the day with some adorable little ones, I have gotten to remember (or at least try to remember) all the memories I have of my 6 years in that building, and have come to the realization that everything is a whole lot smaller than what I remembered it as.

So that is a quick summary of my most recent adventures. Even though it makes life a whole lot more complicated, I am so very thankful for my two worlds, my two lives and the people that fill each of them. I am so thankful on this Thanksgiving for the ones who love and support me from both countries!

the fall of weddings :)

In the last 2+ years of living in Nicaragua, I had not attended a single wedding . . . until last month, and since the that one I have been to 3 and a half?!

It has certainly been a month of wedded bliss :)

First up was Kyle and Maria's wedding. The setting was beautiful, and despite starting nearly 2 hours late (true to Nicaragua time) the kids behaved wonderfully. And our biggest accomplishment- between 15 kids and a half dozen adults, we only managed to break one glass! (I was sure it was going to be more since the little ones are never allowed to use glass cups)

Leito did an awesome job with his ringbearing duties :)

And the happy couple (with a little cake on their faces)- photo taking by Joely :)

 

 

Wedding number 2: Bertha and Martin :)

 

Their wedding was here at the school in the gym. Bertha helps Shirley teach sewing in the high school. Again I will say I was quite happy with how our troops behaved! Although its a little different when you're here at your own place. Most of all I love how they all matched though :)

 

 

And last but certainly not least, is Jenny and Luis!

 

Their wedding was the longest in the making being as they have been dating over 5 years! Jenny is Leo's sister and the director of our school. Joely, Debonney and Grace were all in the wedding so we had lots of fun with wedding prep :) 

 

Here is the beautiful bride with her parents!



 

About to exchange rings :)

 

 

 Me and the girls!

 

And what, might you ask, constitutes a half a wedding?! Well what a good question. Here in Nicaragua the civil (legal) wedding is usually done separately from the actual ceremony. While in the states we usually (I think) sign all the legal documents the same day as the church ceremony, that is rarely the case here. So my half wedding? that was Jenny and Luis's civil ceremony. It was the week before their church ceremony and full reception. It was mostly family I guess, the lawyer, the pastor and some other people. They signed the paper and we ate :) Pretty uneventful but fun nonetheless!

 

So there you have it, a summary of what has gone on here 4 of the last 5 weekends!

questions

There is never a dull moment when you are working with kids. My day includes everything from scraped knees to screaming tantrums to uncontrollable giggle fits, and these things happen in every age bracket! I get asked every possible type of question from “Why do gringos (us Americans) always take pictures of our feet? (A really good question, who knows?!) to What does the word circumcised mean? and everything in between and all around. I don’t mind it. It’s usually pretty interesting, especially because it shows a little glimpse into their mind and how they are growing up so fast.

Yesterday I was honored to have an incredibly deep and intellectual conversation with Solimar. She may only be in 3^rd grade but her mind works in ways that far surpass her age. The conversation started about God and His angels and how the devil came to be. We talked about Adam and Eve and the beginning of the Earth. Then we talked about this skit that they have seen a couple times in chapel. In the skit God creates his people and gives them all crowns but the devil comes and convinces them that the crowns do not make them special and unique but instead the opposite, it makes them all the same. The devil though can offer them the gift of a mask that makes them each individuals and different. The people fall into the tricks of the devil and accept the masks in return for their crowns. Once they have the crowns on though, they cannot remove them and are held captive by the devil. Of course Jesus comes and conquers the devil but the deal is made that the people can have their masks removed and once again receive their crowns from God only if they ask for them. It represents our Christian walk and how we are all trapped in sin but if we simply ask, God will forgive us and give us back our crown and place in His kingdom. So Solimar and I were talking about this, mostly her asking question, me answering them in the best way I knew how. We talked about salvation and how we need Jesus, we talked about how He is the only way to get to Heaven and then we started talking about the end of the world. We talk about what the Bible says will happen at the end of times, what is happening now and how they coincide. But the part of the conversation that struck me the most was what she said next. We had talked about how because we are Christians we have no reason to fear the end of the world. We know that God is going to protect us and that we will be safe in a beautiful place when life as we know it here is over. As we were talking about that though she paused and she looked at me and said, “There is only one thing that I’m afraid about though. My mom.” You see Solimar’s mom died a little over 3 years ago. Her fear is that she doesn’t know what her mom believed. She doesn’t know if she believed in God, or if she believed in Jesus, or what happened to her in her death. I sat there trying to swallow the lump in my throat. What deep thoughts and a heavy weight this little girl carries. We talked about how we just have to trust in God and know that He will take care of us and that is what we have to believe in to carry us through, that we don’t know what happened to her mom, but that it’s our responsibility to make sure no one else has to ask the same question about their mom.

We talked a bit longer, and then slowly switched from one topic to another ending on something completely unrelated, but my mind still couldn’t let go of the look in her eyes when she said, my mom. Conversations like this make me surer of my faith in so many ways, but at the same time it brings up so many more questions. Like exactly that, how can you not only let a mother and daughter be separated in life, but death too? and Why can’t everyone just live happily ever after in a perfect world? These questions are ones that won’t have answers in this life time, but I simply have to trust. I have to know that my GOD is bigger, and He’s worth it. He’s worth not knowing the answers and He’s worth spending an eternity with without a second guess. It just makes our mission even greater. It makes my mission more intense. I don’t want to have to ask that question about a friend or loved one, I want to know that when I die and go to Heaven, there is going to be a rockin’ party and everyone I love will be there.

 

 

Fish Soup!

So what do you do when you receive a donation of 1,000 lbs of fish heads??? You make SOUP!

This week the ministry was blessed by a donation of Red Snapper fish heads, so of course we had to try them out with some soup Friday. I must say, although I love fish, I have never been a huge fan of fish soup. The bowl I had Friday though. . . was quite delicious! I was not the only one that enjoyed it either. The kids all LOVED it. Ruby ate 2 and a half bowls full. Now that's saying something!

Moises with one head. . . that is a large fish.

Picture tracing

People in Nicaragua are very resourceful. They find ways to use things we would normally throw away and use them in creative ways.

Our girls (and lots of other kids too) copy the pages in their coloring books. They use carbon copies and trace the pictures in the coloring books, never actually coloring in the book, but making as many copies as they want onto regular paper and coloring them there. It lets them color the pictures over and over and makes it so that you don't have to rip out the pages to give them away or hang them up. . . I don't know I thought it was a pretty cool idea when I first found out about it.

An unlikely friendship

I really enjoy seeing the relationships between all the kids here. For the most part, they all get along really well. Some are closer than others, some are best friends, some are on and off best friends, some are better off spending the least amount of time together possible!. . . But I would like to say that the two with perhaps the most unlikely relationship would have to be Luviana and Ruby.

I mean, just think about it. A friendship between one girl who is blind and one girl who doesn't talk and barely walks. . . Now how do you suppose that works?

They definitely have a love/hate relationship. Well, Ruby has a love/hate relationship with Luviana, I think Luviana's mostly just a love relationship with Ruby :) Ruby has been run over too many times by Luviana coming down the hallway to completely trust her.

But here is the situation- all the bigger girls go to school every morning at 7, then the little ones go to preschool at 8. Some days Ruby goes to preschool with the little ones but recently she has just been wanting to stay here with me instead . . . So that leaves a four hour time block- from 8-12 where its only them two in the house. (I mean with me unless I'm in class and then when I'm in class, with the lady who works here, but still, thats a lot of time for just the two of them). Luviana loves to care for Ruby. She loves to get her what she wants and help her walk where she wants to go, and really she does a great job at it for the most part. . . Aside from those times when her blindness slightly interferes; such as like I mentioned when she runs over her seated in the hallway, or when she tries to help her walk and walks her into the door frame. . . you know, somethings like that.

It is quite remarkable how they interact though. Somehow Luviana has figured out how to read Ruby's grunts and babbles, and in the same way, Ruby knows how to get across to Luviana what she wants. Sometimes I will just sit and watch them, amazed at how it all works. Isn't it interesting how God puts certain people in our lives, sometimes the most unlikely friend, or not even friend, just the most unlikely aquaintance and they in turn impact you in a way you never imagined.

Ruby and Luviana are opposites in most every way possible. . . but God has fabricated this relationship in a truly unique and special way.

Fogata!

We had a bonfire! and ate s'mores :) made from chiky cookies and roasted marshmallows. . . pretty resourceful if you ask me!
(those are the ones that are like butter cookies with one side dipped in chocolate)



 

Braids

We have gotten on a real braid kick here. With so many girls, there's plenty of heads to practice on! One braid I'm particularly impressed with though, is this one:

 

It doesn't look that exciting until I tell you that this is Solimar (8 years old) and she did it herself! She can french braid her own hair, and have it come out looking like a real french braid. I don't think I could have put a regular braid in my own hair until I was in high school, so woohoo Solimar!

 

Photo dump!

Sometimes I or other people take pictures of the kids either looking really cute, or doing something fun, or just being themselves and I don't have a specific reason to write a blog about it, so I don't. . . But then I think, these pictures are just too great not to share, so here are some. Just for fun :)

 

Teeth

I somehow, without much difficulty, have managed to completely erase any moment in history when I had a loose tooth. Obviously I must have gone through the stages of loose teeth and gaps as a child but I can’t seem to remember anything about it. Now though, I am living in a house full of children going through every tooth losing stage, and the chills are slowly coming back.

I can take care of most any cut, bruise, or bump. I can clean glass eyes, and I can clean stitches, I can wipe up messes of most any kind, but the one thing I cannot do. . . is teeth. I don’t know just the sound and idea and action of losing teeth just sends shivers up and down my whole body. I will encourage wiggling and pulling on the teeth, but don’t you dare be in the same room or within listening distance when you decide you want it to come out. To every one of the kids I will say find someone else to help you pull it out then come back and I’ll sop up the blood.

The most recent tooth to come out has been Samari (yesterday morning), although Solimar, Ofelia, and Luviana are coming in close. I think Solimar’s should be the next one to pop so long as Luviana doesn’t pull hers out just for the fun of it (it’s not nearly ready yet. . . beginning stages of looseness) But this missing tooth of Samari’s creates a grand total of 4 gaps now :) It would be a cute little ‘All I want for Christmas is my FOUR front teeth’ smile except that they aren’t the main ones. The top is gap, tooth, gap and bottom has gap, tooth, tooth, gap. . . So really she just looks adorably dorky. I took this picture of her last night, it’s hard to tell, but there are definitely four holes!

 

Stay tuned for the next installments of ‘The unending tales of toothless children’

English Access Program

I'm not sure I've ever mentioned on here before, but I also teach an English class after school for a program sponsored by the US Embassy. It's called the English Access Program, a 2 year intensive English course for students between 14-16 years old (when they start). The program is running in countries all around the world and has something like 12 classes throughout Nicaragua, two of those classes are here in El Crucero! I taught for 4 months last year, and then started up again last month teaching the same class that is now in their sixth level. They are a pretty great group of kids :)

We had to turn in pictures of our class so I figured I would share it here too!

Her favorite spot

Ruby loves the swing! She could spend all day out there if someone would sit with her :)

The Independence Day March!

This week we celebrated Independence day for Nicaragua. The kids have been practicing for the March for a while now, so everyone was quite excited when the big day arrived.

Everyone got dressed up in their new clothes, tied their hair up pretty, and set out for the adventures of the morning.

As soon as all the marchers got out the door (all the students met here at the school, marched together to where the parade started, and then came back by in actual parade form), Camille and I started to get the non-marchers (little ones plus Luviana and Samari) ready to go out and watch. We are pretty ideally placed in the middle of the stretch that runs about 5 km.

We got to the end of our street just as the first school began to march by (we were school number 4 of about 10). The little ones were mesmerized by it all. They sat in their little chairs, their eyes glued to the students marching, and the drummers banging away.

 

We were quite a spectacle ourselves too. Most people that walked by took a picture of the kids all sitting. Remember how I had mentioned before here that here people most people don't sit and watch, they march right along side the students. . . whatever they prefer! 

 

But at the end of the day, although everyone was nice and tired, I think the morning had been a success! Here are our march-ers:

 

 

The blue sashes represent the excellent students, and the red, white and blue, the very good students.

 

Yay Nicaragua!



The Wedding

Leave it to Solimar to come up with the marvelous plan of having a wedding ceremony in our living room.

The first thing she told me the other day when she woke up was, 'This afternoon we're going to have a wedding, you're invited!'

I continued on with my day not really thinking much about it until that evening when we got back to the house and she reminded me again. 'Let's do it!' I told her, 'Who's getting married?'

So here was the cast of our drama :)

Bride: Samari
Groom: Luviana
Pastor: Solimar
Singer/Bible Reader: Yorbanny
Guests: Jhoselin and Lauren

And I would have to say Solimar did quite a good job directing too!

Afraid of the dark

Whenever I get that twinge of 'and why am I here?' (it doesn't happen often, but you know sometimes when life just throws you a bad day) all I have to do is think about events like the other night, and I know exactly why.

I had just turned off the light in the girls room and was sitting on my bed when Samari came walking in, her her eyes brimming with tears. When I asked her what was wrong the tears just started falling. I was sure one of the other girls had said something, or her and Luviana were fighting about something, but she wouldn't say. She just came and crawled in my lap cuddling up with me. When she finally was snug in my arms, she looked at me and said, 'Mommy, I'm afraid. It's too dark.' Samari is six and the youngest of the five girls that I have sleeping in the house with me. Therefore even though she's not the youngest in the home, she definitely milks the roll of youngest child when we are just us 6 over there. With that being said, she has never complained of the dark before. She goes to sleep just fine on her own (she shares a room with 4 others and my bedroom is an entire 10 feet from theirs) and has never been afraid of the dark. But as I was sitting there with her hugging me, I was just pulled back to the whole reason God called me here. I'm here to kiss ouchies, to braid hair, to clean up after accidents and to be arms to snuggle in when the room feels just too dark. And I could never get enough of those things (well maybe not the accidents, but the others you know)

Camille's Birthday!

A couple weeks ago we celebrated Camille's birthday!

Camille is pretty amazing so it only seems right that she got some pretty awesome candles on her delicious cake :)

We all love Camille and thank God that she is here with us!