School Frustrations

School Frustrations

By Leila

6-24-14

As you know, Bambi and quite a few other schools here are very unorganized. There are three things that I am going to mention in this blog that have made me very frustrated because of their disorganization.

1. The shapes:

One day I walked into class and my teacher wasn’t in the room yet even though I was a little late that day. As usual, all the kids were going crazy and it was chaos. I went over to my regular seat, next to Junaysi, and realized that she wasn’t in the best mood. She was staring at the boys who were all standing up. The thing I hadn’t realized was that they had wads of paper in their hands that looked vaguely like some 3D shapes that each person was supposed to make (even though Junaysi and I were the only ones who had).

Junaysi filled me in on the rest of the story and it turns out that they had literally opened up our containers without asking us and started throwing our shapes around. When the teacher came in, we told her what happened and later in the class she talked to us about responsibility and respect. Justin, an annoying boy in my class, said that I had thrown something at him. Really Junaysi had thrown something at him out of frustration, but we sat right next to each other and Justin just wanted to blame me for something. The whole thing was just crazy and a perfect example of the part of Nicaragua that I don’t like.

2. The plays:

This is a very long story with lots of little stories attached to it, so it’s going to be long. First of all, in ECA (Expression, Culture and Art) we had to do two plays. Half the class did one and the other half did the other. My group decided to do the “Three Little Pigs” so we told everybody in our group to come to practice on Saturday at my house. Only five of eight people came, even though we had told them all about it. We met two more times after that, and only three people came each time, including me. We decided that if they didn’t come to practice, then it was not our fault and they wouldn’t participate in our group. However, if they found a part they could do and practiced it, then they could do it with us. One of the people who didn’t come, Kenyi, hadn’t gotten permission from her mom, but still wanted to do it. She had her part down pretty well so we told her that of course she could do it with us.

The day came and our group did well, but we couldn’t compare with the other group because they were doing theirs on a different day. We told our teacher that two people didn’t do it with us because they didn’t come to practice, but guess what she did?! She had them join the other group when they only had two days left to practice!! Apparently, Naydeling, a girl in my group, had actually told the other kids that they could not do it with us and they ended up calling her names in the street! So that earned us another lecture on responsibility and respect from the director of the school and Padre Martin, the Catholic priest! But I didn’t know much about that part of the story.

 

3. El Panel:

One day, in Language and Literature, we were doing something called “El Panel”. The class would split up into groups of five and copy down some information about a topic. The next day they would present it and one person in the group would ask the other group members about the information they had learned.  My group didn’t get it all copied down in class because they kept switching topics. So, they said they would come and pick me up the next day to go to Maria Magdelena’s house to finish copying. Well, nobody picked me up, so I had hardly any information to study and had never really understood what we were going to do anyway. When we presented it in class, I did okay because one of the kids in my group lent me her notes. This is another example of disorganization and irresponsibility in Nicaragua. I ended up doing an independent exposition on our environment in Camoapa to make up my lost points.

 

Leila’s Math Competition

Leila’s Math Competition

6-22-14

By Emily

Last fall when Leila joined the 5^th grade class at Bambi School here in Camoapa, school was really tough. She couldn’t understand much and would get very bored with the long afternoons. We couldn’t even get ahold of the textbooks that they were using in order to study or do homework at home. So when she realized that she could understand the math class perfectly well, she was delighted. Math, the universal language, became a bright spot in her day. Actually, math has always been a bright spot for Leila. She has excelled at it in Decorah and loves doing regular math problems, but also is really good at logic puzzles and games such as Quinto.

It didn’t take long for Leila’s 5^th grade teacher to recognize this strength. This February, when Leila started 6^th grade, she had a new teacher, Profesora Maria Elena. Maria Elena is a new teacher at Bambi, but she has 16 years of experience of teaching 6^th grade at one of the public schools here in Camoapa. In fact, she still teaches there, every morning, before her class at Bambi that starts at 1230 pm.   Maria Elena is a serious teacher, who arrives at Bambi every day looking a little exhausted. I was initially impressed by her stamina though, because her demeanor and tone of voice never changed throughout the afternoon. Although she would still look exhausted at the end of the day when I would pick up Leila, she was always still calm and serious, which is saying something considering the level of noise and energy in her classroom.

In April, Maria Elena told me that they were considering sending Leila to a math competition. I was not sure what kind of competition it was, but when we learned that word problems would likely be involved, Leila wanted me to tell her teacher that maybe it would be better to send someone who could understand Spanish better. Maria Elena nodded in agreement and said that Leila did have more trouble with the word problems. A few weeks later though, Leila said that she, Junaysi and Dietmar had been chosen to study after school with their teacher a few afternoons and then take a test. The student with the highest grade would be the one to represent Bambi at the Camoapa-wide competition in May.

So Juynasi and Dietmar came over to our house a couple of times to study with Leila. It was fun to see them study together. They are all three smart opinionated children, so there were many lively debates. Leila soon realized that they had not yet learned the order of operations, which really astonished her. Over time, Leila learned that the same math concepts are covered here as they are in Decorah, but not necessarily in the same order. So it was fun to see Leila teach them the order of operations, referring to their textbook as well when they argued with her.

The day came for their little mini competition at Bambi at the end of the week on a Thursday. I thought the test would be after school, but when I arrived at 530, it turned out the rest of the class had been dismissed early and Junaysi, Dietmar and Leila had already completed the test. The rumor was that Leila had won!    The results were announced at a parent meeting the next morning. I was a little surprised when the director of the school, Profesora Karla, announced it by reading each of their scores. (We are not used to test grades being shared with the class and/or other parents in Iowa, but here is it common and expected.) Well, Leila had won by a landslide, with a score of 91, with Junaysi and Dietmar with scores in the 60s and 70s. Leila was astonished that she had won by this large margin, especially when she realized that her only errors has been careless mistakes.  Then Karla explained that this competition was nationwide, and that whoever won the Camoapa competition would go on to the Boaca Department competition, and then eventually on to Managua if they kept winning. I asked Profesora Karla if it was even allowed to send a non-Nicaraguan student to a regional competition and she assured me that the only requirement was she was a student at the school. So many parents congratulated me and started putting their hopes on Leila.

So began the real studying. I was proud of Leila and excited for her, but also very impressed by her motivation and concentration to study. Her teacher let her borrow a 5^th grade math text book, and Leila would just read it as much as she could. She worked hard to learn how to spell and read very large numbers written out in word form in Spanish, and she practiced a ton of word problems and geometry in Spanish.   Maria Elena even told me that she wanted to work with Leila on the weekends and after school each day.   So we took Leila to her house on Saturday afternoons to study as well. On weekdays, I would pick Leila up at 6 instead of 530, because Maria Elena wanted to stay late with Leila and Jason. Jason is the 6^th grader who had won his competition at the public school in Camoapa, and is a student of Maria Elena there as well.

Finally, the day of the competition came, May 22nd. We had initially thought that it would be May 28^th, but the date was moved ahead for some reason at the last minute. Andy had to be in Managua that morning, so after getting Elsa off to school, Leila and I walked across town to a building way up high on a hill that is primarily an adult education center for Camoapa. We got there at about 8, and the competition was to start at 9. There were others waiting as well, and more came with time. Kids from several grades were participating. Finally, they allowed us to check in and announcements started at about 930. After the usual prayer and singing of the national anthem, there were long explanations to the students and parents alike. I didn’t understand it all, but the speaker did stress several times that all the students were winners and even if they didn’t leave with the highest score, they should be proud. Finally, they asked the parents to leave.

We sat outside while the students were given a whole other set of instructions for a while. It even appeared that one of the proctors was reading aloud the whole test to them. I think they finally got started at about 1000 am. So when Jason and another girl came out at about 1015, I was surprised. Leila came out at about 1030, glad that it was over, and with relief that she had understood everything. The test had only been 10 questions/problems and she thought it was pretty easy. There had been one question that she was unsure what they were asking, but she had taken more time to review everything several times. She was optimistic that she has gotten a good score, but also knew that there was stiff competition. She had found out that the test was not timed, but that if there were two scores that were tied, the person who finished first would be the winner. So she knew that if she had gotten the same score as Jason, he would win because he finished before her.

It was about 1100 when the last student exited the classroom. At this point, we were told to wait for the results, which took over an hour. Meanwhile, they kids were given a snack and a sweet drink. I had to call Helen to ask her to pick up Elsa from school at 1145 and then take her to Yessenia’s house to wait for me to get home. She needed to eat lunch and get to school at noon herself and Andy was still in Managua.

At about 1215, everyone was called back in for the results. After much discussion about how the boy and the girl with the highest points would proceed on to the Boaco competition, they finally announced the winners.   I was sitting way in the back, and not with Leila, so I wasn’t sure I understood every correctly, but I did hear that Jason received first place for the 6^th grade boys. His score was 94. I was hopeful that Leila would be the girl winner, because she had not thought that she had missed anything.  But it was not to be. Leila ended up being the third place winner for the girls with a score of 72. After hearing this, her teacher Maria Elena turned to me and said that she wondered what it was that Leila had not understood because she too had spoken with Leila after the test and knew she had thought it was easy. After all the winners of other grades were announced, she went up to ask to see the tests. Well, to make a long story short, we were only able to see the test for a minute or two, and ask about one question in particular. All the students had missed this problem, including the winner, Jason. In fact, it was the only problem that Jason had missed.

Before explaining what the problem was, I must pause to say that there is a strange custom here in Nicaragua. Often a person will use a comma instead of a period to notate a decimal number. For example, the number 10.56 would be written 10,56 instead. This is incredibly confusing to me, but Leila had adopted this custom because that is how everyone in her class, including the teacher, was writing decimal numbers. I suppose the context of the problem lets one know that the number is not one thousand fifty-six, but really ten and 56 hundredths.

So back to the test. Leila explained to me that one of the problems had a number that was something like 5,987. When the proctor read the test to them beforehand, he made a point of reading it with a period, not a comma. So in this case, Leila (and Jason, and the other students), understood the number to be 5.987, not 5,987.   Leila was really sure that she had understood his Spanish correctly. So she solved the problem accordingly, and had missed it! The proctor told us afterwards, that the comma was indeed supposed to be a comma, and not a period! UGH! Well, it turns out that all the students made this same error. I was even able to see another test being read by another parent and her child had made the same calculation as Jason and Leila! So clearly, the mistake had been made by the proctor, not the students. But our argument fell upon deaf ears.

In the end, this is not where Leila lost most of her points however. She only missed one other question, but it was worth a lot of points and was a “fill-in-the-blank” question. The instructions for the question were not clear to me either, and I don’t remember the exact wording of the instructions, but I do know that they included the words “number of sides”.

The problem was as follows (translated into English, of course): Triangle________Pentagon_________Heptagon__________Nonagon__________.

Leila had understood the problem to be asking the student to fill in how many sides each figure had. She had studied her geometry hard had learned all these names in Spanish, so she knew the answers and filled in (in Spanish of course): three sides, five sides, seven sides, nine sides.

Well, she lost credit for every single one of her answers, because the question was asking her to complete the list according to the number of sides that the next figure in the sequence should have, so her answers should have been: Square, Hexagon, Octagon, Decagon. Bummer!!

In the end, our initial worry that Leila wouldn’t understand the Spanish well enough did actually lead to her missing a lot of points. It was frustrating to us though, because it wasn’t even a word problem, it was just a fill-in-the-blank problem that had poorly written instructions. She had no issues understanding the math and told me that the questions were actually too easy to be considered 6^th grade math. I told her that I was incredibly proud of her for understanding the Spanish at all, and for having the guts to go to the competition!!

On the way home, Leila was really worried that her friends and classmates would be very disappointed that she didn’t win. They had been really rooting for her, telling her for several days that she just had to win. So we stopped at home to get some lunch and then I took her to school late. Her teacher had gotten there first and so everyone already knew the news. And Leila needn’t have worried. They all greeted her with smiles and congratulations for getting third place for the girls.

Fast forward a week later: During the Bambi Mother’s Day Act on Wednesday night, Profesora Karla surprised me in front of everyone with a special gift presented to me for being the exemplary parent, helping Leila and her classmates study extra hard. She proudly announced Leila’s third place win, and thanked me for my help with Leila. I was too surprised to think about it clearly at the time, but I wish I had had my wits about me enough to have announced that the person who really deserved an award for working extra with the students was her teacher, Profesora Maria Elena! After the day of the Camoapa competition, she continued to work with Jason every day after school and on weekends. Jason went to the Boaco competition last week. Although he didn’t win this time, I think Maria Elena was really proud of her two special math students!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cooking in Nicaragua

Cooking in Nicaragua

6-15-14

By Helen

This year in Nicaragua, I’ve had a lot of extra time. Something that I’ve starting doing more of is cooking and baking. I’ve a lot of fun looking up recipes on Pinterest and trying them out. However, I’ve also faced a lot of challenges. For starters, our oven. First of all, it’s really small, so you can only fit one 9×13 pan in it, and maybe one 8×8 and a small bread pan. So whenever we make cookies, for example, it takes FOREVER because you can only bake one pan at a time. And, we can never tell what temperature the stove is at so we always burn things. Also, the lack of certain ingredients. Some things we just can’t find here, or else we can only get them in Managua, and even then sometimes the stores will randomly not have something. Heavy whipping cream, lemon juice, and cream of tartar, to name a few. We’ve actually had visiting grandparents bring us things like cream of tartar, peppermint extract, and food coloring. I’ve been keeping a “recipe book” of all the recipes I’ve made that I found online. Here’s a list of everything I’ve made:

•  Best Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa- We love this recipe; it has become a regular for our family here. The spices on the fish are really good, and when we first got here it was mango season. Then the mangos disappeared so we had to use pineapple, which is also good, but mango salsa is the best. Thankfully now they’re back in season.
• Lime Bars- I really wanted to make lemon bars, but for the longest time we couldn’t find ANYTHING lemon- no lemons, no lemon juice, nothing, and so I made these instead. And we were still getting used to the oven, so I burned them.
• Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies- This is a good example of the tiny-oven-takes-forever-to-bake-cookies challenge.
• Apple Coffee Cake- We got here in August, so pretty soon it was getting to the time of year where in Iowa, the leaves, temperature, and apples were dropping. We were really missing the fall season, so I made as much stuff with apples as I could.
• Egg, Potato, and Cheese Breakfast Casserole- I made this for breakfast one Saturday
• Italian Style Shrimp- My dad bought some shrimp off of a street vendor, so I looked up this recipe. The shrimp turned out to be really tiny and tough, though.
• Italian Style Pasta Sauce- My dad and I made up this recipe to eat with pasta with the shrimp.
• Cheddar Biscuits- This is a red lobster copycat recipe that I made to eat with the shrimp and pasta, and they are oh-so-good.
• 
• Apple Crumble Bars- I kind of went crazy that night, because I made a dessert too. Going along with the fall/apple theme.
• Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls- I actually made these the afternoon that Grandma Johnson got here, so they could rise over night and we could eat them the next morning. They are HUGE and YUMMY.
• 
• Dried Basil Pesto- I’ve had fun finding new lunches here, and I really wanted some pesto but we didn’t have any basil, except for dried.
• Homemade Alfredo Sauce- Made this to go on pasta, for one of the suppers with Grandma J.
• French Silk Pie- Yes, I went there. It’s actually not as hard as it looks, and it’s REALLY good and REALLY rich. I made this for dessert on the Alfredo pasta night, and as I was making it that afternoon, the guys showed up to put the windows in our gaping kitchen wall. So I was beating eggs and melting chocolate while they were hammering and drilling everywhere.
• 
• Breakfast Smoothie- We love making liquados, or smoothies, here, and this is a banana recipe that you can add whatever flavoring you want to. I usually add cocoa powder or cinnamon, but the good thing is that the bananas are so sweet that you don’t need to add any sugar!!
• Pineapple Salsa for Fish Tacos- This is the pineapple recipe I was talking about.
• Flour-less Chocolate Cookie Bars- I made these for Natalie, the Peace Corps Volunteer who can’t eat gluten. I personally didn’t like them very much, but she did, which is what counts.
• Coconut Pineapple Muffins- And so starts my muffin obsession.
• Cinnamon Apple Muffins- The second type of muffins I made that same day.
• 
• Angel Food Cake- This was the most epic of cooking experiences in Nicaragua. My mom requested angel food cake for her birthday, so I set about making one. Except I was faced with a lot of challenges; it calls for cream of tartar, which we didn’t have. You also have to cook angel food cake in an angel food cake pan, which we didn’t have. We ended up actually MAKING a pan out of cardboard, tinfoil, and duct tape. I looked up substitutions for cream of tartar, and learned that if you’re using it during beating egg whites, it helps them fluff up and you can substitute lemon juice. If it’s used as a baking agent such as in cookies, you can substitute baking soda or baking powder. In angel food cake, you whip up twelve egg whites with the cream of tartar, so I thought I could substitute lemon juice (which by then we had found). It worked for that purpose; the eggs beat up and formed stiff peaks. But apparently in angel food cake, cream of tartar serves both functions, because the cake didn’t rise. At all. Also, while we were cooking it, we started getting a weird smell… We thought oh no, the duct tape is melting. But it wasn’t, so we left it in until it was done. It finished cooking and cooling, and was still the same height as when we poured in the batter. So that night we had a very dense angel food cake with chocolate frosting and strawberries. But before we ate it, we had another disaster. My mom was turning 42 years old, so we put 42 freaking candles in the cake. We lit them, she made a wish, and then she blew them out. But she didn’t. Because we realized that they were trick candles, which means when you blow them out they come back. And these trick candles were apparently a lot trickier than American trick candles, because they never went out. They started melting onto the cake, shriveling up the flowers, and we almost started a fire. We had to get a washcloth and squeeze them out with water before they went out. It was a night to remember!

 

• Peppermint Bark- And then the Christmas Season came. And we baked. A lot. This peppermint bark is amazing.
• Sugar Cookies- A classic sugar cookie recipe that we used for cut outs, when my dad literally MADE us cookie cutters with scrap metal he found around town.

• Fluffy Eggnog- I was really missing eggnog, although my mom and Leila don’t like it, so I looked up a homemade recipe. I call it “fluffy” because it’s not smooth and creamy like the kind you buy at the store (I like the store-bought kind better, but the rest of my family does not) because you have to beat it for a long time. I like it better the second day, when it’s flattened a little bit.
• 
• Candy Cane Pinwheels- Yummy peppermint shortbread cookies made by rolling up white dough and pink dough, and then cutting slices.
• Fresh Fruit Tart with Pastry Cream- Grandma Young gave me a fancy tart pan and a book of pies and tarts for Christmas, so I really wanted to make something with them. This is a tart with an almond crust and a French pastry cream that I topped with strawberries. I made it for New Year’s Eve.

• French Breakfast Puffs- These were supposed to be mini doughnuts but we don’t have a doughnut pan here so I cooked them in a muffin tin (which we didn’t find for a long time either!!)
• Chocolate Cupcakes-After Grandma Young gave me adorable cupcake wrappers for Christmas, I kind of got into the whole cupcake thing.
• 
• Vanilla Cupcakes- As I was saying…
• Vanilla Buttercream Frosting- To go on the cupcakes.
• Chocolate Frosting- Also for the cupcakes, and also the frosting my mom has used for just about every freaking four-layer cake she’s made for every birthday ever here. And then the cake either breaks, the layers slide apart, or both. It’s foolproof.
• Chicken Salad- For lunch.
• Granola Bars- I really wanted to try making homemade granola bars, and I added chocolate chips, almonds, and craisins. But for some reason they turned out really weird.
• Orange Chicken- I used extra orange zest and it turned out a little too orangey.
• Cream Cheese Frosting- To go on more cupcakes.
• Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes- I didn’t like the first chocolate cupcake recipe very much so I found a better one.
• Divine and Healthy Pumpkin Muffins- Grandma J brought us pumpkin puree in October, but it turned out to be pumpkin pie mix, not pure puree. It was fine because we could still make a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, the most important thing, but then we had the other Grandparents bring us pumpkin puree at Christmas so we could make pumpkin bread and muffins.
• Divine Banana Muffins- I’ve made these banana muffins like five times at least. I made them for our family, and then when the eye brigade came I made like a triple batch for them. Then I made them again for our family and again when Grandma and Grandpa J came to visit.
• Healthy Apple, Yogurt, and Oat Breakfast Muffins- I got really into making muffins with yogurt.
• Healthy Chocolate Muffins- These also use yogurt.

• Mini Chocolate Strawberry Tarts- I made these for Valentine’s Day. The chocolate filling was supposed to be a pudding consistency, but I used chocolate melts instead of chocolate chips, so it got kind of hard. It was still really good though!! And we ate them with strawberries, a real treat.

• Healthy Banana Muffins- More yogurt muffins. As I said, I have a muffin obsession.
• Lemon Bars- My favorite deserts are lemony things and chocolaty things, so I was really sad when we came here and lemons were non-existent. We even found a box mix in Managua- for lime bars. But we miraculously found lemons at Rachel’s finca, so I made lemon bars.

• Chocolate Marble Cheesecake Tart- This is another tart from the pie book my Grandma gave me. It’s a chocolate marble cheesecake with orange zest; my dad requested it for his birthday.

• Lemon Meringue Pie- This is one of my all-time favorite deserts ever. So I made it.
• Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Muffins- These are jumbo, muffin-top, chocolate chip, bakery-style muffins. And I love them.

• Gluten-Free Almond Cheesecake Crust- I used this to make a cheesecake for Natalie’s birthday and it’s actually really, really good.
• Easy Fudgy Brownies- I used these for the next recipe.
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs- On my parent’s anniversary, they abandoned us and went on a hike up Mombachito all day and left us at home. Sooo we decided to make these gifts from God. They’re basically uncooked cookie dough (don’t worry it doesn’t have eggs) wrapped in brownie and then dipped in chocolate. And then with chocolate chips sprinkled on top. They are SO rich and SO good.

• Popcorn Balls- Just an easy marshmallow popcorn ball recipe that we made for the Les Miserable movie night with Natalie. We added chocolate chips and craisins to half of them, which is really yummy.
• Banana Cream Pie- When Grandma and Grandpa J came to visit, I wanted to bake something but I didn’t know what, so I asked them what they wanted. Grandpa immediately said a banana cream pie, so a banana cream pie it was! I was really mad because we didn’t have heavy whipping cream, so I couldn’t make the whipped cream to go on top, but it was still yummy.

Other things I’ve made that aren’t in my “recipe book” because they didn’t come from online include Thanksgiving food (read: pumpkin and cherry pie!!),

a ton more Christmas cookies from our traditional recipes,

prune cake, cinnamon rolls, scones,

and others. It has been really fun trying new recipes and baking, and also has been a huge challenge. It’ll be really different when we get home and we can actually set the temperature on the stove, or can go get just about any ingredient in town or better yet, actually pick it on our own farm!

 

 

Mombachito Hike- An Adventure or a Nightmare?

MOMBACHITO HIKE – AN ADVENTURE OR A NIGHTMARE?

6-20-14

By Grandma Pat

Paul & I visited Andy, Emily, Elsa, Leila & Helen at their ‘home away from home’ in Nicaragua in early June.   It was wonderful to see them so settled into life there, busy with work, school, volunteering & local activities. They shared their growing understanding of the culture, the town, the country; many of their friends welcomed us with invitations to visit & delicious local food; and the girls sound great speaking Spanish!

We enjoyed spending time with them in Camoapa observing their typical days & learning more about their activities, visiting the Sunrise Foundation school (Andy’s work), walking around the town, and visiting the home or finca (farm) of several of their friends. But the most dramatic event for me was a hike to the top of their nearby mountain, Mombachito.

The hike began mid-afternoon, delayed by an enjoyable lunch and visit with good friends, two of whom joined us on the hike. Andy took us to the starting point at the end of a very rough, narrow dirt road. Emily led the way, following the east route she and Andy had taken on their “anniversary hike” – less vertical and hopefully less muddy than the one they usually take up the west side. The first half or so went up on cow-paths fairly steeply through pastures, with increasingly dramatic views back down toward the town.

Then the open pastures abruptly ended and we entered a dark, thick woods along a steeper, somewhat muddy path. It was a constant challenge to find a firm foothold and move upward rather than sliding back downward. I kept getting winded and wanting to stop, but Elsa was marching on ahead of me (with a little help from Mama) and I figured if she could do it, then I should be able to do it also!

Finally we reached the top ridge.   Another 10 minutes along a very narrow path full of ants – no stopping! – to the very highest point with its 360 degree views.   We waved to Andy and Paul almost straight down below us at the mountain pool. We looked west at the orange sunset – and realized we’d better move fast to get back down!

Well, the sun went down and the narrow, rough trail was through thick, dark woods. We could hardly see and had to find our way down a very steep, slippery path! Most of us had headlamps which helped a little, but it felt like we were mostly feeling & sliding our way down – for an hour or more? Helen held my hand much of the way down, helping me stay up if I slipped and I helping her a few times, too – muchas gracias to her. It was a big relief to see the headlights of the cars at the end of the trail and realize that we all made it down safely in the dark!   Fortunately no bad falls, no snakes, no scary animals, no losing our way.

So back to their house in Camoapa to shower, clean off our muddy shoes, recuperate, have some supper. I was pretty exhausted, but it felt good to have accomplished the climb they all talk about – reaching the summit of mighty Mombachito.

 

 

Grades

Grades

By Emily

6-19-14

Our girls have always enjoyed school in the past. We have gone the public school route for various reasons (another blog another day maybe), and wanted to continue in that vein here in Nicaragua. Mostly we wanted more exposure to kids their own age, and opportunities to hear and practice the Spanish language. In the end, we chose private schools in Camoapa for the kids (mostly due to smaller classroom sizes, closer locations, inexpensive tuitions, and the advice of neighborhood friends.) The girls were not eligible to attend the Hogar School where Andy works because those funds are for underprivileged children whose family meet certain at-risk criteria.

When Leila and Elsa started school last September, just about a month after we got here, we told them not to worry about getting good grades, doing homework, or even understanding what the teacher said. We just wanted them to experience some Spanish immersion. I would sit through class with them (Elsa all morning and Leila all afternoon), and often we left early, if they were exhausted from the language difficulties. Helen was taking online courses, so she didn’t enroll in school here last fall.

“Summer break” started at the end of November and school didn’t start up again until early February. By this time, the girls knew a little Spanish and felt more comfortable attending school by themselves. Leila especially had made some friends and we had been playing board games and soccer a lot with Denzel and Dietmar over the break. Helen was ready to start school too, although somewhat worried about getting the work done. So we just reminded them that grades were not important, but participating as much as possible, and just being around kids their own age would help so much with their language learning, as well as making a few friends. None of them asked or needed me to stay at school with them anymore, especially Helen, who wanted to navigate the whole thing by herself from the start (thanks to her cousin Allie who was visiting at the time, she wasn’t alone for the first day).

In the past, our girls have been able to pull off straight As fairly easily. They have been challenged at school to varying degrees and take pride in their good grades. So we didn’t want them to feel like failures because we knew that it would be impossible to make As here and we warned them that they may not even have passing grades. We told them we didn’t care about their grades, just as long as they tried to understand, communicate and learn a little Spanish. Grades from here do not transfer to Decorah schools anyway so there would be no lasting effects from any low grades earned here. (I could also digress here into my ideas about reward systems such as grades, but I won’t go there either.)

So, having said all that, as preparation for the following report cards….what do you think of these grades? They are from the first quarter, which ended near the end of April.  Speaking for myself, I have never been more proud of a 61, a 74, or an 87!! Especially when the girls tell me that many of their classmates had far lower grades!  (There are no secret report cards here and often test grades are announced out loud in class.) There are even a few 100%s, mostly in topics such as Math and English. (For your interpretation, AA: 90-100, advanced learning; AS: 76-89, satisfactory learning, 60-75: AE, elementary learning; and AI: < 59, initial learning.)

Elsa’s report card (1^st grade):

Leila’s report card (6^th grade):

Helen’s report card (9^th grade):

I thought that the biggest complaint our girls would have at school here was that they couldn’t understand the language. But that hasn’t been the case. They complain more about the rampant copying of homework that goes on, the tons of wasted time, the disrespect towards teachers, the constant talking and getting up during class, and the many missed opportunities for making learning more fun and interesting, etc.   But I’d better stop here, because I don’t really want this blog to turn into a Nicaraguan Education Bashing Session. I know that resources are tight, and cultural expectations are different. But I can’t disagree with the girls when they say that they wish they could just transport some of their classmates or teachers into a Decorah classroom for just one day, so show them what school can really be like!!

Well, we have tons of people to thank for their success in school, including Maria Alejandra, Lidielba, Yessenia, all of Leila’s classmates, and all of their teachers, just to mention a few. But much of the credit has to go to our girls themselves, because they don’t get translation during school at all, and don’t have access to google translate either while at school. They rarely ask for help with homework any more, and even Elsa has willingly completed her homework all this past week without me even asking about it. Today her homework consisted of using vocabulary in sentences and she wrote all three sentences in Spanish all by herself!

 

Elsa’s Writing Game

 

Elsa’s Writing Game

6-19-14

By Elsa and Emily

(Note from Emily: Elsa and I played this “Silent Writing Game” more last fall, but it was fun to do it again today. In the game, you talk with one another through writing, usually for a period of 15 minutes or so. You are not allowed to talk, although often we have a hard time following this rule strictly! Elsa surprised me this time by switching to Spanish in mid-game. And then instead of switching back to English, she used drawings to answer my question. I have tried to provide a few extra pictures of some of the things we were writing about. )

This is the pentagonol prism that we made:  we left one of the sides open because Elsa wanted it to be a little house for a little creature as well:

 

“Que compraste en la tienda de tu escuela esta mañana?”  Means, “What did you buy at the store at your school this morning?”

Elsa had bought a little tiny paint set with two cards to paint.  She went right to work painting them when she got home, and then was inspired to make her own!  She is now asking if she can get her own youtube account when she is 10 so that she can teach others how to paint too!

And last, a picture of our “Mo”:

Delvin’s Story

Delvin’s Story

(Note from Emily:  Earlier this year, I decided to repost a blog every now and again from the Sunrise newsletters that are on the Sunrise website (the organization where Andy is working this year).  So now I am finally posting another one.  We left the original piece, written by our Nicaraguan Social Worker, below the English version for those of you who enjoy reading Spanish!)

by Aleyda Rios Herrera, Sunrise Social Worker at the Hogar Luceros del Amanecer

around January 2014

Delvin is 18 years old, currently in the first year of secondary School (7th grade), studying computing. The family of this young man lives near the property of Sunrise board member Rachel Greenwood. On March 8, 2006, walking in the neighborhood, we found this boy in his small house weaving a seat cover. Upon seeing the poverty of the family, we asked his maternal grandmother if the boy attended school. She replied no, he had gone for three years without advancing, the teachers couldn’t understand his speech, the other kids made fun of him, and so together (his biological mother and maternal grandmother) they had decided to not send him any more.

Two days later the boy’s mother – Mirian – visited us at the center to learn whether we could help. She explained that she would like Delvin to learn to read and write, but she couldn’t teach him herself as she was a single mother working seven days a week for a monthly salary of $22. (Delvin knows who his father is but has never known him.) She explained to us that when the boy was just months old he fell off a table, and she thinks he has a brain lesion and that might be why he has never learned and can’t speak well.

We immediately enrolled Delvin in the center and conducted assessments to learn what level he was at. We also had him evaluated by a pediatric doctor, Dr. Oscar Montiel Alarcón, who determined that Delvin had suffered meningitis when he was two, resulting in cognitive impacts. The mother didn’t fully understand this diagnosis, but we immediately enrolled him in our school. While working to stimulate his intellectual learning we also discovered he had hearing problems, and worked with our teacher to develop a plan to help him improve little by little. We told the mother that yes he would improve but it would be slow, and she shouldn’t pressure him.

On July 30^th, 2007 we took Delvin to the Medical Teaching Hospital in Managua for tests including an electroencephalogram (EEG), where he was diagnosed with cognitive deficiency.  A month later on August 27^th, we returned to the same hospital for a hearing evaluation, and he was diagnosed with severe hearing deficiency and auditory nerve loss in his left ear, though not in his right. They scheduled an annual return checkup to assess hearing condition and changes. They arranged for him to see a speech therapist, who instructed us on how to help with therapy. He improved steadily, and in 2010 the therapist told us no more visits were necessary as he was now speaking clearly and well.

The first year he was with us we moved him into second grade to stimulate his learning, and we always tried to help him work together in groups with other kids, to good result. He always had a good disposition and attitude toward school work and therapy, he was good at baseball, and always attracted to the farm work as well. He joined our folkloric dance group, standing out as one of the best dancers and continuing to the present day. At the beginning of 2013 we placed him in a vocational/technical workshop during the day, where the owner has been consistently impressed by his behavior and willingness to learn, and starting this year (2014) he will be earning $26/week.

Delvin is currently studying his first year of secondary school at the high school, on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, with a focus on computers. Every evening he comes to the Hogar for help with homework, often studying whatever is most challenging with his classmate (and fellow Hogar student) Roberto Carlos. He also continues to participate in the folkloric dance troupe, which practices most evenings.

Some special characteristics that shine through Delvin include: he is a good collaborator in various activities we undertake at the center, he helps the younger kids frequently, he is a role model in his behavior and his will to advance and succeed.

Delvin’s mother Miriam expressed great gratitude to all personnel at the Hogar recently upon Delvin’s graduation from primary school (6^th grade): “I don’t know what would have happened to my Delvin if the Hogar hadn’t been there and done so much, I can never repay what you have helped my son become, it has been the greatest happiness for me to walk up to the stage on my son’s arm for him to receive his primary school diploma at 18 years old.” With tears in her eyes she said this to us.

Delvin states that he plans to continue studying and learning, with the current goal of completing his 11^th grade high school diploma, and if possible pursuing a university career in agricultural sciences. He also says with a smile “I’d also like to have a pretty girlfriend and get married at some point.”

If you’re interested in sponsoring Delvin, please review our Teen Sponsorship page, and email Andy (andrew.johnson@thesunrisefoundation.org)

 

Delvin (original Spanish version, by Aleyda Rios Herrera, Sunrise Social Worker)

18 años  ( Primer año de Secundaria, curso de computación)

La familia de este menor vive en los alrededores de la propiedad de la señora Rachel Greenwood y el día 08 de Marzo del año 2006 caminando a esta propiedad, encontramos a este niño en su casita tejiendo una grupera y al ver la pobreza de esta familia, le preguntamos a su abuela materna  si este niño asistía a la escuela y esta respondió que no porque no aprobaba el grado,  tenía tres años de estar en el mismo nivel académico y no tenía ningún avance, nos comento que las maestras no le entendían  las palabras que pronunciaba y los niños se burlaban de él y por esta razón ellas (mamá biológica y abuela materna) decidieron no volverlo a mandar mas.

Dos días después la señora Mirian Pérez madre del menor visito las instalaciones de este centro para conocer y saber si podíamos ayudar a su hijo manifestando que ella deseaba que Delvin  aprendiera a leer y a escribir pero no estaba a su alcance ayudarlo ya que ella es era la única persona que trabajaba en el hogar con un salario de  C$.550.00 córdobas mensuales de lunes a domingo. Nos argumento que este niño cuando estaba de unos meses de nacido se cayo de una mesa y  piensa que esa es una de las razones por la cual el  no aprende  piensa que tiene una lesión cerebral y por esa razón el no  puede articular bien las palabras.

Inmediatamente ingresamos a Delvin a este centro y realizamos valoraciones para conocer cuál era el nivel que este niño tenía, lo valoro el médico pediatra doctor Oscar Montiel Alarcón y en el expediente el doctor encontró que él había sufrido de  Meningitis cuando este tenía 02 años de vida y consecuencia de esta enfermedad el presentaba problemas del aprendizaje, su mamá no estaba clara del significado que el médico nos explicaba, de inmediato lo integramos al sistema educativo y trabajamos con él para estimular su área intelectual y descubrimos que también el tenia problemas auditivos, y explicamos a la profesora la situación de este niño y dimos sugerencias a ella para que este niño fuera mejorando poco a poco. Igual a su mamá le dijimos que si iba a prender pero despacio y que no  había que presionarlo.

El 30 de julio del año 2007  lo llevamos a al Instituto Medico Pedagógico en Managua para realizar a él un electro encefalograma donde se le diagnostica  deficiencia cognitiva, un mes después el 27 de agosto fue llevado nuevamente a este centro para realizar   una Evaluación audiológica encontrando Deficiencia auditiva profunda  con pérdida auditiva sensorineural del oído izquierdo no así con el derecho. Dándole cita cada año para realizar  audiometrías y conocer su estado actual. Lo  remitieron con una logopeda la que nos daba las instrucciones para realizar las terapias con él y de esta manera el iba superando en el año 2010 el fue dado de alta donde la logopeda nos dijo que ya no era necesario porque ya estaba hablando bastante bien su articulaciones eran más claras.

El primer grado que estudio el aquí lo promovimos a segundo grado para estimularlo  y siempre buscamos que él estuviera haciendo grupo con otros niños para trabajar en conjunto lo que nos resulto. El siempre presento buena disposición para realizar sus tareas escolares, terapias, muy bueno a jugar beisboll y los trabajo agrícolas le llamaban mucho la atención, lo  integramos al grupo de baile destacándose como uno de los mejores bailarines y perseverando en el hasta la actualidad. A inicios del año 2013 lo  integramos a un taller de aprendizaje vocacional    donde  el dueño de este siempre se ha expresado muy bien de el y manifiesta que es un jovencito con mucho deseo de aprender por lo que iba a comenzar a ganar en este año 2014. 650.00 córdobas semanales  superando esta cantidad con su aprendizaje.

Actualmente esta estudiando el primer año de secundaria en el Instituto Nacional de esta ciudad los sábados los domingos por la tarde esta estudiando computación., todas las noches esta en el  hogar para prácticas  de folklore y que se le ayude con alguna tarea es compañero de clase de Roberto Carlos y juntos estudian algún tema donde él tiene más dificultad.

Algunas Características que sobresalen en él: es bien colaborador en las actividades que realizamos en el centro, como ayudando a los más pequeños, presenta buen comportamiento y muchas ganas de salir adelante y triunfar.

La señora Miriam Pérez nos ha expresado su agradecimiento a todo el personal de este centro y dijo textualmente “No sé qué hubiera pasado con mi Delvin si no existiera este centro que me ha ayudado tanto y nunca tengo como pagar lo  que han convertido a mi hijo para mí ha sido una gran felicidad subir a una tarima del brazo de mi hijo para recibir su diploma de sexto grado  a sus 18 años.” Con lágrimas en sus ojos nos dijo.

Delvin  manifiesta que piensa continuar estudiando y aprendiendo ahora tiene la meta de aprobar su quinto año de bachillerato y si es posible estudiar una carrera universitaria como ingeniería agropecuaria. También dijo con risa quiero tener una novia bonita y casarme en un tiempo.

Algo que no escribí al inicio,  el padre biológico no  tiene ninguna comunicación con él sabe cómo se llama pero no  lo conoce.

If you’re interested in sponsoring Delvin, email Andy (andrew.johnson@thesunrisefoundation.org)

 

 

Selva Negra with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson

Selva Negra with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson

By Helen

6-11-14

Last weekend, we went to Selva Negra with my grandparents (dad’s side) who were visiting us. My grandpa couldn’t come last October when my grandma came, so this time they both did. Selva Negra is a huge farm/nature reserve/tourist attraction up in the mountains more in the north of Nicaragua. It’s divided pretty equally into thirds; one third is the coffee plantation, one third is the cloud forest reserve, and the last third is everything else (the cabins, restaurant, pastures for the cows, sheep, etc.) We’d been there one time before, with my other grandparents, and really liked it so we decided to go again.

We actually lucked out this time compared to last time; when we went before, all it did was rain, rain, rain the whole time. We were freezing (which I actually liked because it was in January when we were missing the cold weather) and we didn’t do much hiking because it was so muddy. We also didn’t get a chance to go horseback riding. This time, however, we had beautiful weather the whole time. It was still Selva Negra, so we were still a little cool which was good, but it didn’t rain and we went on a hike, my grandma did the coffee tour, and my dad, Leila, and I got to go horseback riding.

The whole area around the restaurant, cabins, etc. is really beautiful. There are tons of flowers everywhere, and little structures here and there that look like something out of a Shakespeare play. For example, just a little bit up the road there’s a chapel that you can walk to, that the owners apparently built for their daughter’s wedding when the whole place was new. It’s a tiny little stone church with stained glass windows and TONS of moss and vines growing all over it.

Close to it there’s also an old-fashioned well with equal amounts of moss and vines.

Then down by the cabins, they have a little stone gazebo-type-thing, and walkways with trellises of vines and flowers.

If my best friend Sylvia had come to visit, this is where I wanted to take here because we could have taken tons of beautiful pictures. My mom did take some good pictures, though, the first afternoon and morning we were there.

One of my other favorite things we did there was the horseback ride. Just my dad, Leila, and I went with a guide, and we rode down around the Selva Negra finca. The first half of the ride we were just going down, down, and down; the road was really steep and it seemed hard on the horses. But eventually we turned and started coming back up a different road; this was when it got fun. Those horses probably don’t get to run much, being tour horses, so when we asked them to, they took off!! At first they just trotted really, really fast, but I figured out how to make them run when I accidentally slapped mine in the face with the reigns while trying to get a fly off him (there were tons of horse flies). So we got to run a lot on the way back. I think we tired our guide out, too, because when we finally got back and dismounted, after he put the horses away, he said down with an “Uughh!”

The best part about the trip was having my grandparents there. It was really great to spend time with my Grandpa since he couldn’t come last fall. Also, Leila and I learned something new- canasta!! We went over to my grandparent’s cabin one night and my grandma taught us how to play. She was my partner and Leila was with my dad. The rest of the trip we would get it out whenever there was time! Daddy was hard to play against because he took the discard pile like EVERY time, so he and Leila would have almost all the numbers of cards, while Grandma and I would have like two piles. However, we beat them a lot by getting two canastas and just going out before they had any. We stayed one night in Managua before my grandparents flew out, and that night we played a very stressful game because Grandma froze the discard pile, so we were all trying to take it but couldn’t, and trying not to let the other team take it. It just kept getting bigger, and bigger, and more stressful, and guess who took it?!?! MEEEE!!! Daddy discarded a 7 and I was saving two 7s just for this purpose. So then we made a bunch of canastas, and I went out so we won.

We left Selva Negra on Sunday and stayed the night in Managua, and Grandma and Grandpa’s flight was on Monday. It was really sad when they left to go to the airport, but at least this time it’ll only be a month before we see them, instead of 9. We were really glad that they could come, especially my grandpa. He didn’t think he could, but we convinced him to and he’s thankful for it!

 

 

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Happy Anniversary to Us!!

5-23-14

By Emily

It was May 23^rd, 2014, our 16^th wedding anniversary, we were tired and hungry, waiting for our food at the Hasan Restaurant in Camoapa, Nicaragua. And Elsa wanted a story. So it began….

The dog told the wrens. The wrens told the cows. The cows told the kiskadees. The kiskadees told the parakeets.   The parakeets told the oropendula. The oropendula told the foal. The foal told the meadowlark. The meadowlark told the swallow tail kites. The kites told the lizard.   The lizard told the butterflies. The butterflies told the monkeys. The monkeys told the field sparrow-like-sounding-hidden- bird. The field sparrow-like-sounding-hidden-bird told the vultures.   The vultures told the jays. The jays told the blue morpho butterfly. The morpho told the deer. The deer told the orioles. The orioles told the toucans. The toucans told the baby monkey. The baby monkey told the squirrel. The squirrel told the ani. The ani told the chickens. The chickens told the calf. The calf told the grackles. The grackles told the dog. And the dog told the little girl waiting at her front door.

And what did they all say??

“The gringos are coming! The gringos are coming! Quick, send the message, the gringos are coming!”

We were on a mission to find a round trip route from our house up Mombachito and back. We (or at least Andy knew) pretty much the way we needed to go, but knew also that we could meet some challenges finding the correct path up the south east side of the mountain. If we were successful with that, then we planned to go down the west side (the side we usually go up). This would mean also finding a route around the base of the mountain on the west side to bring us back to Camoapa, which lies southeast of the mountain.

We had been up Mombachito four times previously. Each time involved a 15 minute car ride out the Carretera Boaca (highway to Boaco) and then another 25 minutes on a dirt hilly rocky road. We would park on the side of the road across from an entrance to a finca, sneak under a fence and find the path up the mountain which initially goes through some bean fields. This path approaches the mountain from the west and basically goes along the curving ridge line through the jungle after the short stent through bean fields. There are four communication towers up there, on two different peaks, each about a 10 minute walk apart. The first time up in January, it was still the rainy season and we spent more time exploring, it was socked in and cold, and Leila has a sore toe, so we only reached the first peak. Later on in February we made it to the top with Eric, Brenda, Allie and Kai. Then we took up our friend Rich when he visited a couple of weeks later. In April, we spent the night at the first peak with Natalie, Claire, Rob, Denzel and Dietmar. After the first time, we always went to the end of the second peak for the fantastic views of Camoapa and the Selva Mombach pool, which is directly south of the mountain at the bottom of the steepest, cliff face side.

Anyone who knows Andy well knows that he prefers taking the road less traveled, finding a new route, instead of repeating an old one and always avoids an “out and back” if a round trip is possible. He also has an uncanny sense of direction (compared to mine) and seems to be able to follow his nose that always knows!  So when he suggested that we try this adventure on our anniversary, I was more worried about leaving the girls alone all day than I was worried about getting lost. (They had the day off of school.) So began our quest to find the route from the east and combine it with the route from the west. He had been asking around for a while, and knew that folks had ascended from the east, but the route was notoriously hard to find and had the reputation for being very muddy and steep. We decided to attempt this on our honeymoon and go without the girls, just in case we were to get terribly lost and be hiking in the dark on the way home.

We left the house at 9:30 am after a big apple dutch baby and bacon breakfast with the girls. We hiked at a comfortable but fast pace through Camoapa and up the steep cobblestone road that leads to Mombachito church.

We arrived at the Y in the road and took a right, instead of the usual left that leads to Selva Mombach pool.

The road almost immediately got worse, full of large boulders and eventually narrowed to a foot path that went between little parcels of land. We said “Adios” to folks as we went by, and I’m sure they were wondering what we were up to. The foot path itself was fairly level, but pretty muddy too, and torn up by many horse hoofs.

At about 1030, we reached a gate, beyond which was pasture. This is where we saw our first views of Camoapa.

We could also see our destination mountain top to the west (we were approaching from the east) and wondered out loud how much to the right (north) we would need to go.

Much of the pastures were rolling hills, so we did a lot of up and downs, following the foot and cow paths basically to the north.

Andy had a hunch that the path up through the forest/jungle was more towards the north, so we headed more north than west. There was a really large tree way up high on the horizon, and we kept this in sight as we swung around to the right. We figured that if we could get to that tree, we would be able to tell more where the path was likely to enter the forest.

We crossed a few almost dry “quebradas” (streams) at the bottom of eroded ravines and wondered out loud how much water used to flow through this area hundreds of years ago when it was all still forest.

Eventually we found a really wet green area, soaked by a spring coming up out of the ground. There was no direct flow into a stream though, but the whole area was soaked earth. The frequent passing of cattle left it very very bumpy and lumpy. We managed to stay on top of the clods of earth that were somewhat drier, but it really reminded us of the vertical bog of Mount Kenya. Water was all around us, and we were hopping from our earth clod to another.

 

After that we went up a steep slope with some trees that reminded me of the edges of our pastures in Iowa, crossed another fence and made it to a smaller clump of trees, but close to “the big tree”. Here we took a break in the shade, which didn’t last long because ants seemed to be everywhere. There were birds everywhere to be seen as well. And at the big tree, we found a mother with her newborn foal too.

After “the big tree”, we headed to the forest and I couldn’t believe it when I realized that Andy had walked straight to the path entrance into the forest. He was a little ahead of me, and there had been no looking or wandering involved. Although it was great to find the path so easily, it was almost too easy and we felt a little let down since there was no challenge.

We entered into the woods at this point at 1130. We had no idea where the path would lead us, if it was the right path at all. At some point before entering the forest Andy made a very conservative estimate that we should make it to the top by 2:00 pm.

The forest was darker and damper, we could hear howler monkeys welcoming (or warning) us, and it was impossible to see the top anymore.

The path was plenty muddy and straight up in some spots, but much shorter than we had imagined! It basically just went right up the side of the mountain, with a few minor curves. We were delighted and surprised when at 1210, we basically turned a steep corner and had the vigilantes’ hut in close sight!   As if on cue, Helen called just as we reached the top, asking where I had put the extra paraffin. It was such a random question, but she and the other girls were up to some baking schemes while we were gone, and had no idea that we had just made it up! We sat and ate lunch with the ants and the ticks at 1230 and took our selfies for the proof.

We left the top to go down the other side at 1:10. Since we had made it up in less time than imagined, we decided to go ahead and take the route down towards the Boaco Highway that we had always come up before. We left our previous camp site at the other peak at 1:25.

We felt confident and excited that we were making such good time. The hike down was uneventful and we found ourselves at our usual parking place at about 2:00 or soon after. Although there was no car waiting for us this time!!  Usually, we would get in the car and head down the rocky road to the right.

But this time, we took a left on foot instead. After about ½ mile, we came to a gate entrance to a finca that we thought might lead us to a path around the west and south side of the mountain. We weren’t sure though and Andy had the itch to explore the road a little longer, so we passed the gate by and explored the path/road for another ½ mile, down a long hill. We met some friendly folks walking with some full duffle bags and another couple making it up a steep hill very very slowly. For some reason, the man was using crutches and working pretty hard to make it up! In the end, this path led us too far to the west and turned out to be the wrong way, but we did see a beautiful morpho butterfly and then a deer! This was the first time I’d seen a deer in Nicaragua if you don’t count our visit to the zoo!!

After we backtracked some and went under the gate entrance to the finca, we noticed that we were being followed by some men. I was worried that they would ask us to get off their property, although we had seen no signs that said “no trespassing.” Meanwhile, we saw some toucans briefly and allowed the men to catch up to us. They turned out to be very friendly and were just coming to feed the cows in the area. After we left them, another man came along. It turns out that he was heading in the same direction as us and walked down the hills on that side with us for a while. He was heading to his brothers’ place, who turns out to be the owner of the Selva Mombach pool. I felt a little weird because as he walked with us, it was clear that we were slowing him down, but he didn’t mind and was content to follow along.

There were a lot of gullies and down hills, including many areas of bad erosion. Finally we reached a small house and sad goodbye to our guide. It seemed like this was his home, although he never said that. But he gave us nice directions for finding the main route to the road that would lead us back to Mombachito church. We followed the fence line for a while and then took a left along a path as wide as a road, but way too rocky and bumpy to drive a car/truck/bus on.

This road involved many more ups and downs and very eroded paths from the frequent moving of cattle and horses though the areas. At one point, we stopped to admire a huge termite nest that was over the road in a tree. Andy looked around and was about to point out another one close by, when he realized that he was looking at a monkey instead!!

It turned out to be a mama with her baby! And soon after, I saw a squirrel scampering along a branch, which is a rare sight for us in Nicaragua.   We passed several houses as well, with lots of little kids and chickens running around.

Finally things started to look familiar and I realized that we were almost to the Selva Mombach pool. I had run to the pool and back a couple of times and beyond it a little on the rocky road. So when we came to a steep hill that had a few areas filled in with concrete to make it passable with a truck, I knew we were close. I was tired, but this realization renewed my energy. It felt like we were almost home! But in reality, we were still three miles away. (In the past, I have run from our house to the pool and back and Andy’s GPS watch says it is exactly 5 km (3.1 miles) one way.

We debated going into Selva Mombach pool to get a coke and rest for a bit, but that would get us home at 6 or later, so we pushed on. We found a little tienda in a house and since we were out of water by that point, we bought their last cold Pepsi to share. Then we continued on past the church, down the steep cobble stone hill, and through town again. It started raining at about 445, about ¾ mile before we reached home. We arrived home at 515, soaking wet, exhausted, happy and hungry. It just wouldn’t have been right to get through the day with no rain, as our wedding day had its share of Iowa summer thunderstorms and showers mixed in with beautiful sunny weather too!

After a cold shower, we celebrated with the girls by going out to eat at the Hasan restaurant at about 7:00 pm. This was a restaurant that we had only been to once before, our first week in Camoapa last August. It turned out to be more of a disappointment this time, since they had no chicken legs, enchiladas or kabobs. Oh well, such is life in small town Nicaragua. “¡¡Cuando no hay, no hay!!” (When there isn’t any, there isn’t any!) And when you have a grumpy 6 year old, waiting a long time for her food, it’s usually time to tell a story…..

The dogs told the wrens, the wrens told the cows…..

P.S. We really did see all those animals and birds on our hike that day!!

 

 

 

 

La Nueva Almohada de Elsa

La Nueva Almohada de Elsa

Por: Leila Johnson

5-29-14

Ayer era un acto para el día de las madres. Elsa participó en dos actos; recitó un poema con su clase, y para el otro leí una composición con una de sus compañeras de su clase. Era nerviosa para leer la composición y dijo que si ella iba a leerlo tiene que obtener una recompensa. Mi mama dijo que no como una recompensa, pero como un reemplazo para la almohada que perdió, tal vez pudría tener una almohada que ellos vieron en una tienda.

Elsa leí la composición por ella misma y mi mama dice que si la almohada era menos de doscientos cincuenta, pudimos comprarlo. La almohada era doscientos sesentaicinco, pero mi mama dijo pudimos comprar de todos modos. ¡A mí me gusta la almohada también; estoy feliz que pudimos comprarlo!

 

Yesterday there was a Mother’s Day Show. Elsa participated in two acts; she recited a poem with her class, for the other she read a composition with one of her classmates. She said that if she was going to read if, she had to get a reward. My mom said that not as a reward, but as a replacement for her one that she lost, she could maybe have a pillow that they saw in a shop.

Elsa read the composition by herself and my mom said that if the pillow was less that 250 cordabas, we could by it. It was 265 but my mom said that we could buy it anyway. I like the pillow too, I’m happy that we could buy it!!

 

(Leila made some really pretty hearts to illustrate this blog, but they don’t show up when transferring to the blog site!)