Learning to Mow the lawn

Leo was so excited to be able to help Don Pedro mow the lawn. Its the little things :) 

 

Chicks and chickens and monkeys, oh my!

A visit through Granada :)

We were so generously invited to have lunch at the house of some friends who live near Granada (a town about an hour from us) which happens to, debatably be, the oldest cities in Central America. In addition to having a great lunch, we also got a tour of Linda and Julio's chicken farm! That is quite the excitement for a dozen kids :) And I have to say, it was pretty interesting for me too.

Chickens:

These are the egg laying chickens, there is a fancy conveyor belt type of thing that collects the eggs as they lay them and pass them down to the end of the line.

Here are the guys that collect the eggs at the end and put them into the cartons.

It is quite a process. . .

So after enjoying learning about all the chickens and their egg laying process we hopped over to Lake Nicaragua for a trip through the islets :)

The kids were thrilllllled to be riding on a boat and couldn't wait to see what adventures awaited them.

 

 

The kids trying to get close enough to feed the monkeys on Monkey Island :)

 

 

 

Successful day!

Hervideros de San Jacinto

If you drive to Leon, and continue driving even a little further, you will come across the small town of San Jacinto. Otherwise it wouldn't be a call for much attention except for the hervideros, the boiling hot springs. As you walk up it is likely that a small child will grab your hand and offer to show you around the field. Our guide was 12 years old. Without a guide you run the risk of walking on soft ground and falling into the boiling mud pits. . .

As you walk through the field you can see the steam and feel the heat radiating through the ground. The smell of sulfur and thick steam make it difficult to breathe, while holes and openings in the ground show the boiling clay that is likely connected to the nearby volcano. The kids will grab the cooler clay and mold an animal or little pot as they walk.

Other than an interesting attraction, I'm not sure that the field serves much of a purpose, but it was definitely a breathtaking site to take in.

Above shows the steam coming out of the ground, and below, a close up of one of the boiling clay pits.

When power goes out. . .

We do homework by candle light. . .

Masatepe day trip

When we are all together our group is hard not to notice. . . it goes without saying that we are a larger than average family. So it is an unusually exciting blessing when we are all invited over for a meal. We were recently asked to have lunch at the home of a family that goes to our church. It was a delicious soup that everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

And although we go to Masatepe every week for church, we rarely get the opportunity to just hang out while we are there. So after lunch we went to the park and the kids ran out all their energy before we got cleaned up and ready for church.

Debonney and Joely with our smallest host

 

 Aren't these two the cutest!!! (three if you count the puppy)

 

 Enjoying our soup

Swinging on the swings!

Hanging out with my little buddy

 

 The pretty flower drawn in my mocha :)

The perfect group snack

We love palomitas.
They are requested approximately 20 times a day. (more or less) but we usually end up actually making them once or maybe twice a week.

I mean really, who doesn't love a bowl of popcorn while you are all snuggled up watching a movie. Especially when you are snuggled up with two or three or five little ones on the couch!

So palomitas (popcorn) are a special treat loved by all in this house. And really you can't beat it. One bag costs less than $1.50 and makes enough popcorn for 20 of us.
So you can add it up:
1 bag of popcorn (maybe 1.5 if we are really hungry)= $1.50
1/2 cup of oil (spilt between the multiple batches)= maybe $0.25
1 stick of butter (margarine)= $0.50
20 minutes of gas for cooking and a couple pinches of salt= hardly worth mentioning

So we have the before:

 

The cooking process:

 

the after:

 

and the enjoying :)

Teachers' Day Out

I'm not entirely sure who first came up with the idea of a field trip without the students, but its somewhat of a genius idea! Take off school for the day, and go somewhere fun with all the rest of the people you work with in the school, while leaving the kids home. . . sounds good to me!

We spent the day at the Islets of Granada. So in a short summary, drive to Granada, take a boat to a little island, fish, make lunch, and hang out enjoying the lake and its beautiful views. I don't know about you, but I consider that quite an enjoyable day trip.

 

 

I caught a fish! (I wasn't expecting to even fish, let alone catch something!) It was also my first time using a handmade pole (fishing line attached to a stick :)

 

 

Lake Nicaragua

 

 

The volcano on the edge of the lake.

 

 

Our boat

 

 

Our little island

 

 

 

 

Ale and I

 

 

Some of the others trying out their luck fishing

 

 

and the truck ride back home.

 

The Circus :)

So a while back, we were blessed with the chance to take ALL the kids to the circus!!! The last couple days that the circus was here they had a special of two for one, so we decided to pack up the van and head to Managua :)

Most of our kids had never seen anything like a circus, so they had no idea what to expect and were very much looking forward to it. I have always loved magic and acrobatics and circus shows, so I was pretty excited myself too. And I would have to say that I was surprisingly impressed! The kids loved it too, although I think they were just as thrilled to simply see the animals and when they did anything beyond that, it was an added excitement.

 

 

There were prancing horses, trick doing dogs, crazy clowns, 

 

 

tigers that climbed on stools, ran in a wheel, and jumped through fire,  

 



 

 

a man that did circles inside and outside of a spinning twirly wheely thing, a juggling dancer, acrobats, flying motorcycles. . . 

 

and a lion that rode a motorcycle!



 

So over all, a successful trip!

Debonney's Quinceañera

This beautiful girl got to have a very special day. We were all so privileged to have the opportunity to take part in the celebration of her 15th birthday. So many people came together to take part in pulling everything together and it turned out wonderful.

 

Here she is looking stunning :)

 

 

Some of the guests

 

 



Me with the birthday girl!



Waterfalls

How special are we, we have our very own waterfall right outside the door every time that it rains!

Cleaning beans. . .

I had quite the group helping me cleaning the beans before I put them on to boil :) Picking though 10 lbs of beans goes a lot quicker (and is a lot more enjoyable) when you have helpers.

Ruby was really intense about it too. She wouldn't let anyone help her and wanted her own bowl to put the beans into.

Luviana and Caleb helped too, they just didn't get to be in the picture.

Waspam: Kisalaya- Casa de Esperanza

This was my first time back to Waspam (Kisalaya) since the new house had been completed and the kids all moved in! It's a great house. There is tons of space outside and the house itself has so much room for all the kids to spread out in. Its a log cabin style so its nice and sturdy, and with all the windows the breeze just blows right through :)

 

 

 

And of course one of my favorite parts is hanging out with the kiddos. 

 

 

 

 

In case I don't get enough practice here in braiding hair, I had 8 new heads to work on while I was there.