Last week, my host sister Issela, her husband Eric, and I went to Ometepe Island for a four day holiday. It was during Samana Santa, which means Holy Week in English, and people tend to flood the beaches. The island's beaches were no exception.

The three of us had a taste of the island when my mom visited for a week and took us to Santo Domingo, to a nice hotel by the lake. It was a lovely time, but not long enough, so we all wanted to go back since two days that includes travel to and from Managua isn't much to get to know the island. It is world re-nouned for its beauty, and its volcanos: Concepcion and Maderas. The story goes that they represent a couple - the Concepcion is the male, very hot and dry climate, and its vegetation includes a plant with a leaf holding the shape of the male reproductive organ; Maderas is the female and its climate is much more humid and cold containing a lake in the middle, and grows a plant with a leaf with a form the shape of the female reproductive organ. The concepcion is active and according to experts, is due to explode any minute now, the last eruption occuring in 1957, according to wikipedia. A few years ago it started to tremor and everyone was evacuated from the island.

I was especially excited for the trip because we were staying with Erics extended family. He has a few aunts and uncles who live near altagracia, a central town full of history. Also many cousins. In fact, 20 came from one couple! She was young too, 46, and already with 9 grandchildren. I told her she had a strong body. Maybe it has something to do with all the fish they eat--her husband is a skilled fisherman.

We stayed with his eldest aunt, who was somewhere in her 80s. She was so hospitable with us the whole time and surprisingly active for her age. She lives alone (if you don't include her pigs, chickens, dogs, and cats), which is uncommon but seems to work for her. She enjoys the old style of living--without a service room (toilet or shower area). Each morning we made the trek to Erics other Aunt Chilo's house to have a shower and chat un rato (a little bit of time). We also went over to talk each night, which was our hosts custom. Nicaraguans on the whole are very family oriented and like to chat together and relax. Her house was pretty full of people, also quite common. She has 3 boys, two of which are married, all but the youngest with kids.

I like the island style of living--they grow a lot of their own fruits, vegetables, and nuts, which has also creates jobs since thy export a lot of plantain to the rest of Nicaragua, maybe further. Also, they exercise plenty. Many live in a community outside of the central town, which is where we were, and took about a half hour of walking one way. Biking is popular there, and a little quicker. Very near by, was a beach. Its a popular spot not only for swimming, but also washing clothes and the body.

I had my heart set on climbing a volcano since as of yet I hadn't. So that was our Saturday activity. We got up at 3:30 to make the bus at 4:30 in altagracias. Unfortunately our tour guide was late, but payed for a taxi for us. Eric was not sure it was a good idea for him to climb because he wasn't feeling in great shape. They made it half way then turned back, which was a good idea because on the way down they had more trouble and he fell a few times. I went on alone, even though I wouldn't advise doing that and probably shouldn't have. Over all it took 6 hours to climb (normally taking 4). The middle was gorgeous, from what I saw anyway. It was very foggy when we arrived so couldn't see much of the lake. There were a group of kids from a near-by village playing soccer in a field area by the shore. It was beautiful really and if I had known them, would have wanted to join in. The hike down was quicker, taking 2 hours. And I met a Canadian couple on the way, and somehow I knew they were Canadian before they said it. It turned out the guy had gone to the same university as me, and her sister lived in the same city as my mom. Maybe I will meet them again when I return. That would be interesting.

Overall, I really liked the island and want to go back someday. Even without eating Red Fish, which they say seals the deal on your return, at least once, if not forever. However, Erics little cousin wants to bring me some when she visits. It must be good fish.

Since the 22nd of December (my last post), some big things have happened. We celebrated la Navidad (Christmas) here in Nicaragua and it was definitely a cultural experience. Christmas eve afternoon I left work early and came home to celebrate my host grandpa´s birthday with a family lunch and piñata. The tradition in Nicaragua is to wait for 12 pm to eat dinner with the extended family. It ended up just being everyone in the house and I ate at about 10:30pm (only two and a half hours later than usual, so about half way btw). We stayed up to 12 and then my host mom, sister and thanked God together in prayer.

New Years eve I also left work early and a manequin was at the entrance to the yard with a sign saying something like ¨good riddens to the old year and in with the new.¨Not that exactly... That eve we listened to some more music, did a little dancing I think, I almost fell asleep in the chair, then went to bed for a half hour, and woke up again to bring our manequin out on the street to light it on fire. I didn´t realise that it had cherry bombs in the torso until it started exploding. It was funny. The plan was to go to the beach for New Years day (which almost everyone in Nicaragua does) but changed our plans last minute. My host sisters and I went to the zoo. I heard some people speaking German, another group speaking Arabic, and some more speaking English. It felt like a touristy place which I haven´t seen much of.

The week after New Years was MCC´s Mesoamerica spiritual retreat. That lasted four days and was a refreshing time. It was especially nice to communicate in English for that many days in a row and with new people. We got to reconnect with some of the SALTers we met at Orientation aswell which was encouraging. The place had warm showers (which I kind of didn´t realise till the last day) and two pools, which I swum in everyday. Also, it had airconditioning, but that wasn´t necessarily a good thing because the temperature change between my room and outside was giving me a headache and the sessions were a little cold. I think my body has adjusted to the hot and humid air here. I am predicting next winter will not be too comfortable.

After that, I returned to work for a few days, then we had a Nicaragua team meeting. I really like our team and am sad we will only be meeting all together two more times. We went for pizza and to the arcade for our fun day, then Greta and I saw a movie afterwards. Overall, a well apreciated break.

I am looking forward to February because my mom is making a trip down for a week or so.

Until next time,
peace and blessings.

I wanted to explain a little about my work and experience at Hogar Belen, what I am enjoying most about my work, and some of the insights I have had.

On an average day at the centre, I work invidividually with the kids. There are quite a few toys on the room which I lead play with. Sometimes we colour, do puzzles, talk infront of the mirror, read books, typical teaching stuff. I feel a little contained sometimes and so am working on more ideas to integrate into my teaching. Music, for example, is a big part of Nicaraguan culture and so I would like to make some shakers or other simple instruments to use with them. I have organized my theme ideas into months where I will concentrate on each one more specifically. I find this is helping me.

One of the things I like about my work and environment is the variety of experiences we engage in. In a previous post I descibed my basic schedule of work. In reality there are few days that fit that exactly. For example, there is a field next door to the home where we take the kids on occasion (at least once a week). I like participating in this because it gives me a chance to work with the kids in a group and also to work along side the other educators. My host sister is going to teach me some songs with actions soon to do with them. Hopefully the other educators are interested in learning as well and will use them as a teaching tool. During the past few weeks, we have been going to the equestrian centre for therapy. The kids love it! They look so relaxed as they ride, which is a rare sight for some of them.

Another thing I am particularly enjoying about my work is the sense of community and family type unit we have. The kids actually call me mama and the workers call each other mama or papa. Also I feel like my needs are well met there, like a family. And we have a lot of fun together. National holidays, such as Christmas, or Policia (a Catholic holiday) are celebrated with a Church service, meal, games, performances, and/or gifts.

The most precious part of Hogar Belen are the kids. Each child has such a unique personlity. They are all so beautiful. I am enjoying getting to know each one. The kids and workers seem to have certain workers they are more attached to, which is interesting to watch. I try to stay away from that role because my time is short and would rather encourage relationships between the more long term workers with individual children to give the children more stability.

Overall, I am thankful for my experiences and opportunities at the centre. My time seems short, but I have hope for it, with the power of prayer and some discipline.

*NOTE...I hadn`t meant to publish this post half finished so if you read part of it I added more.*

Since I last wrote I found the comments, which were a joy to read! A lot more has happened since then, which may be why I haven´t written in a while.

I had my first Nicaraguan style birthday. In the morning, I woke up to a hug from my host mom, then they put on a birthday CD, some Spanish, some English. I went to work as usual and when I got back we listened to the CD again. We had dinner, celebrated with delicious cake, then did some dancing. I was trying to imitate the tradition dance here. The girls wear big skirts and hold them out to the side or the front as they do a bit of a step. I taught my host sister some swing dance, but the music wasn´t quite right for it.

The next day, November 5th, was a day to honor the dead. I accompanied my siblings to the graves of the graves of their dead relatives to place flowers on the tomb stones. The cemetary was crowded with people and full of fresh flowers on each grave. There was sharing time at the back where most people were congregating. Unfortunately a favoured path was right across my family´s grandmas grave and when people passed on it upset my host sister. We tried to block it a little and ask people to walk around.

In turn, we are planning on visiting all the centres for each SALT or Yamen participant in Nicaragua (there are 4 of us). We visited two since last week: Matt and Maritzas. Matt works in Nagarote, a town about an hour out of Managua, as an english teacher. Since they were doing construction on the building when we came, classes didn´t run as usual and so we explored the town a little. Compared to Managua, the air is fresher, the streets quieter, but it´s a lot hotter! Lots of people were riding bikes and taking three wheeled carts around. Including us!
We went to the school for the deaf, where Martiza works, on their last day of classes for the year (which was monday the 17th of November). They were celebrating birthdays and Christmas and so had cake and icecream, yum. The founders were there and we were able to talk to them. The school is less than 10 years old and has grown each year. Now there are over 90 students who attend. One of the boys I teach at Hogar Belen used to attend that school but was suspended for behavioural problems. We talked about him a bit and was informed they have sign language classes at the school every Saturday beginning again in Febuary after break. I hope to attend some of them.

I don´t know if Nicaraguan news is big in Canada at the moment but there has been a unsettled atmosphere after the political campains on Nov 8th. It is affecting the economic situation in the country as the tourism industry suffers. If you would like to pray for this, please pray for peaceful decisionmaking. Also for less division of the country.

So how 'rural' is your environment? How far away is the nearest city?
Do you have any chores to do where you live?
So how and what do you teach the children? Do you have a translater?

Between my last post and this one I found all my comments and they were a blessing to read!

Thanks for the questions Marijke I wouldn't really describe my environment as rural. I am on the edge of the city and surrounded by too many cars, people, and small plots of land for that. Near where I work there are some fields of bananas, coconuts, and I don't recognise what else. Its a bit more rural, but there is easy and constant access to carts and fairly well kept roads. I will try and put up some pictures soon to help you visualize.

Today was the first day I took the bus system from my new house alone. Usually my host sister or mom accompany me places. I took a bus to the market then another to MCC's office, which is the other side of Managua. The whole trip took about 1.5 hours since there was some traffic.