March 19-20

Well, this is our last post. So much to do and so little time. Cheri is writing.

Yesterday afternoon, our group travelled to Masaya once again to visit the market. The students tried their hand at bartering and did a great job.

During the afternoon, Rafaela had arranged for a local grocery store to put together bags of staple items for each of the 12 host families. Rice, pasta, sugar, flour, coffee, beans, soap and many other items were given to the families in appreciation of their hosting. The students took home the paquetes and presented them right before returning to school with their parents for our final despedida (good-bye party).

A super dinner and party complete with entertainment by very talented students who danced, Jon Gilman's host mom danced; also, we did two numbers thanks to Caroline's modern dance and Chloe (ukelele) accompanied by Vladi and Jon Gilman who sang a Taylor Swift song. Speeches, photos, more dancing and tons of good-bye hugs from the teachers made up the evening.

Today we will travel to Masaya Volcano, a live volcano. Don't worry, there's very little chance that it will blow its top today. Tonight, Chloe and Nia's combined sisters are throwing a party for the students. Once last sweaty dance scene (!) here in Managua. The senior class is spectacular this year, full of lovely students who know how to have a good time and know how to dance (the understatement of the trip). I don't expect to have time to post photos of today...lo siento.

This group of students has been unbelievably cooperative, fun and very responsible. It has been an honor to be a part of the fun and the learning. Carolyn and I hope that they all will some day return to Nicaragua and follow up on all the beautiful relationships that they have begun during these two short weeks.

Signing off for now. Cheri

18-19 March

Ana, our phenomenal cook.

Ryan winding up for the pinata.

Hmmm. Go for it, Vladi.

Ryan and Caroline with their teacher, Tania.

So much love...

Vladi, Emma and Nia presenting.

Sophie and Braelyn signing "We are the world."

Jon with some karate moves.

Jabberwokky by Caleb.

Caroline, Caleb and Jon get lots of hugs.

Quien escribe el blog hoy? Sophie and Braelyn!!

After lunch yesterday we headed off to Masachapa to go to la playa! (the beach, for those of you who don´t understand our excellent Spanglish.) We all enjoyed the break from our busy days at La Nicaraguita. The water was beautiful and warm, and although we nearly lost our flip flops in the ocean and got attacked by the rising tide while relaxing in the sand, everybody had a really good time! At a nearby restaurant we relaxed and were treated to some excellent tostones - fried platanos, with fried cheese on top. (have we mentioned it was fried?) When we returned from the beach we had a delicious dinner at Rafaela´s and then went back to our host families.

This morning was our last day of working at La Nicaraguita. The last week went by so fast! In honor of our depature, the students performed several acts for us, and we performed a few in return in a futile attempt to top their cuteness. Caleb performed a highly amusing rendition of "The Jabberwockey," Jon did karate, and, as the uncontested highlight of the show, Sophie, Braelyn, Nia, Emma, and Vladi did a moving performance of We are the World in sign language. To bring our service at the school to a close, we shared a few treats with our classes and received lots of gifts from our students as well!

Now we are back at Rafaela´s enjoying a short siesta before leaving for a trip to Masaya to buy some souvenirs. Amber and Ricky Bankoff should know that their daughter drank like three whole glasses of carrot juice and liked it. And that the water here is safe to drink.

Sending kisses and Dengue Fever your way (just kidding...) (although, Cheri, as a parent, really doesn't find this funny...) (Cheri edited this post)
Braelyn and Sophie :)

17-18 March

All the posters in classrooms are hand-made,
many of them have been updated by our group!

Caroline helping out in the kitchen on Tuesday.

Ryan and Caleb during a class competition
(in the street).

Run, Emma, run!

Chloe with her escort friends.

Ryan and Andrew getting ready to slide
in Jinotega last week.

Today, Nia and Jon doing the Nicaraguan
version of London Bridges.

Braelyn's careful handwriting came in handy
for creating some phoneme posters yesterday.

Sophie now understands how draining it is
to check workbooks!!

From Tuesday, Jon with the Principal of
the public school we visited.

Vladi and Maria Jose, a senior at our school,
grand-niece of the director, Rafaela.

Is that Nia napping??

Waiting to pick up children at la Nicaraguita.

This is Nia Imani. This can't be as long as the other posts, because we are prepaining to go to beach, we will being enjoying the pasific coast for the afternoon. However, a short update.

Yesterday Emma James, Jonathan Gilman, Chole Zorn, Sophie Herring, and I finished the mural at Roben Dario Public School. The Public school experience was moving in a way. I saw some of the same children who beg on the street in the school, I didn't know how to feel, or how to approch them, finally I realized that a child is still a child despite poverty or wealth and that they all love colors and trees and butterflies, and flowers, and they all want to help. So on that note, we have a group of children around us every 10 minutes asking our names, and what we like to do when we were trying to paint in what felt like 105 degree weather. After painting while enjoying an orange drink, there was a young boy who wanted to take pictures of us on Sophie's camera. However he didnt know how. So Emma taught him, and from there a photographer was born, zooming in and out, putting people in the right light and poses, it was cute.

After, we returned to our home base of Nicaraguita and found everyone outside getting ready for futbol, what we call soccor for some unknown reason. The group watched the futbol game which was played with the celebration of 20th anniversary of the school in the air. We had a beautiful dinner as usual, after which I spent time with my judo master sister, Maria Felix, and my mother who is a hairdresser. Really, my sister is a judo champion here in Nicaragua in her weight class!! She is amazing. We always have a great time, lots of laughing when I understand the jokes, and even more when I think I act like I understand and it is clear that I don't. We talked about everything from food and soap operas ( and how we love to put it on mute and make up the words) to family structures and what exactly the role of a male is in the family. We talked about fathers, or the lack thereof, and brothers stepping up to fill the role of the fathers, and in the absence of both a woman doing what needs to be done. I had some really yum yum fish that my mother cooked and then insisted that we go to sleep.

This morning was pretty normal, John Gilman and I worked in 6th grade checking homework, and trying to nicely say sit down, when every student insists on a hug. I then went to work with the English teacher, and went to kindergarten and 4th grade to teach shapes. I taught the kindergarten alone, and did a pretty good job. I got juice as we do everyday arond the same time, and for some reason the juice was just beautful in my mouth, it was Nicaraguan Starbucks, it was simular to a mocha frappe...yummm. We then met up with a guest who graduated from GS in 2003 who was my sister's housemate in South Africa, and she told us about her service in Nicaragua for the past two years. We ate lunch, relaxed a little, and Cheri Mellor did not fail to remember to make me write the blog, and here we are, I enjoyed it though, I'm in Nicaragua I can't complain. However Sophie wants to go before the sun goes down, although it is not yet one hahaha (jajaja) so i guest thats my cue. Peace and blessings, paz y amor

March 16-17

Chloe, Nia and Emma make-up artists.

Pre-K class at Ruben Dario, local public
school. Can you imagine teaching 47
4 year olds alone every day?

Drawing to be painted on the mural at Ruben Dario.

Jon Gilman, Caleb, Emma, Nia and Sophie
artists in residence.

Creating teaching materials for la Nicaraguita.

This little guy is everyone's friend. Called a
perrozompopo, it likes to snack on any and
all insects.

This is Jon Gonzalez writing today´s post. Nicaragua so far is really fun and really hot. Actually, Cheri just checked www.weather.com and it says it's currently 97 although it feels like 106. Oh, ya.....

After dinner last night, my host mother, Yamileth, picked me up and we went to the house. I got home and just wrote in my journal for a while. Then my host brother, Sergio, got home from work. We watched The Gladiator for a while and then he told me he was going to someone's house to drop off a computer he was helping repair. Her name is Marta and she owns a cybercafe and hosts Jon Gilman. We stayed at the house for about an hour and a half while Sergio tried to hook up the computer and solve some problems that it still had. Then we went home, talked and joked with Yamileth and Sergio, and then went to sleep around 10:30.

This morning I woke up around 5:20 to go out for a run at a park that has a track. Yamileth came with me to watch me. I got home after my run and got ready for the day. Yamileth cooked me breakfast which consisted of beans, bread, scrambled eggs, and chesse. Then I went to Rafaela´s house and arrived around 6:40. We´re supposed to get there at 7, but I get there really early because Yamileth is a teacher at a school and has to walk there after dropping me off.

After everyone else arrived and had breakfast we went to La Nicaraguita. At 9, Jonathan Gilman, Nia, Sophie, Chloe and Emma went to paint a mural at a public school while the rest of us stayed in our classes. Caleb and I teach the 5th grade and it was pretty exhausting and hot. There was a play that some of the kids in the 5th grade put on that the school watched. The actors painted their faces, danced, and the message of the play was about saving the rainforest. In the primary school, each class had one student recite a poem. Suddenly, Caleb recited Jabberwocky and Ryan recited his original poem in English. Surprise!! We are good at rolling with the punches. All of us have an "acto" (something to present to an audience) and before we leave Nicaragua, we all will have given our acto in some venue. At 12, school finished and everyone went to Rafaela´s house to eat lunch. And that´s it so far. Adios.

15-16 March

Lots of pics today....lots to show!

Today, we visited a very poor public school with
some students of the senior class.
Here we have Vladi serving lunch
in the steamy kitchen.

Each child receives a full lunch daily.
Were it not for this meal, many would not eat
until after school.

Caleb serving the Indio Viejo, a kind of corn
maize soup.

Child of one of the kitchen workers.

Maria-Felix, Vladi and Maria Jose yucking it up.

Erickson with Emma and Nia.

Yet another tug of war and we lost big today.

Doorman at the public school ensuring that
no stranger enters.

Caleb washing tables.

Emma is great with a mop.

The Garden.

Braelyn watering those thirsty plants.
Nicaragua is in the throes of a long draught.

Jardineros locos.

We all pitied this teacher with 60 students crammed
in the 95 degree classroom.

Just hanging out at school.

Student from La Chureca. Her family picked
her up 90 minutes late today when they took
her home (to the city dump).

Marta (principal of the public school)
in middle with some of our group.

We visited Nica Hope where many students
from the school we visited spend afternoons
getting academic support and learn how to
create jewelry whose profits go back to the school.

Our bus drove right into La Chureca, the
city dump where hundreds of families live.

Looking for recyclables for cash.

On the way from to La Chureca with recyclable plastic.

On the way to La Chureca to find
whatever they can.

Family living right outside La Chureca.

Hola hola hola this is Andrew Chavez writing the blog for yesterday afternoon to today.

Yesterday Braelyn, Carolyn, and I unpacked all of the bags for donations. In the end we had about 8 bags full of clothes, school supplies, health supplies, and other stuff! We had so many donations of toothpaste and toothbrushes so it was pretty apparent that many of the GS students thought that oral hygeine was important. I´d have to say I agree. Of course we had a bunch of clothes, both for small children and older kids, and some shoes. We also collected a couple of games (like board games, cards, and such) but I really wish that I myself would have brought more because every recess period the kids usually play with the same 3 puzzles, which are appropriately called ¨Rompecabezas¨in Spanish (meaning head breakers). Even thought they always assemble the same pictures over and over again, they continue to invite me to join in with their laughter and fun, all the while offering me candy and drinks.

We also went to some afternoon classes as we always do. Yesterday, I sat in the 9th grade class (of ages 14-16) with Caroline, Sophie, Braelyn, Emma, and Jonny after following Cheri´s suggestion of helping the English teacher (who ironically looked a little bit like my Mom). Following our corrections with the errors on the board, the class went much better than the other days. When the class seemed to follow absolutely no schedule I asked the girl next to me, Allison, Braelyn´s host sister, what in the world was going on. As I had found out at that point, the schedule for the school days was fluid; not so much fluid that it was relaxed but more that it could rapidly change from one class to another in a matter of seconds. I also got to joking around with some of the other kids, as laughter is the shortest distance between two people.

Another good point in the day was that we had our last "encuentro" (dance with the kids). Usually, I´m not too much of a fan of the dances as the Nicaraguans have their hot blooded dance moves; some of the GS students can adequately represent for American dancing, and I cannot. At all. So I usually just sit and talk with people as I´m more of a talker than a mover but in out last encuentro the oldest students with whom we danced with were really cool about the dancing. They got everybody to stand up and we did a dance circle and also a conga line. That I could do. Also they were really good people and just cool to talk with.

Afterwards we came back to Rafaela´s house and ate dinner as we always do. After the food I went back to my home and watched some Dumbo and talked with my family. It's one of my favorite parts of the day to return to my home because I get to talk with my host mom and my host sister and I love that I get to joke around with them. I then took a shower, wrote in my journal a little, and then called it a night around 11:00.

Today I woke up at 6:50 and rushed to Rafaela´s house to eat our breakfast as always. But today, instead of going to la Nicaraguita to help teach the little kids in the morning, we instead went to Centro Educativo Acahualinca, a public school with some of the kids from the Nicaraguita 11th grade, whom we danced with the afternoon before. This public school was a little less well funded than la Nicaraguita and was sadly located next to the city dump, la Chureca. When we arrived after the 30 minute bus ride in a cloud of dust we started by taking a tour around the school which had about 450 students in it. We found out later that "only" 150 students were absent this morning. We could immediately tell that the classrooms were very crowded, as one classroom had 60 students. We began interacting with the kids by playing games, first tug of war and then a tunnel game in which we had to pass a ball down the line, and we lost both games to the rugged children. Happiness for them. After the games and the kids returned to their classes, I helped, along with 4 other Nicaraguan students to water the plants in the garden. Each group of plants was in special soil inside a tire, so that the plants would actually have a chance of surviving. Being close to La Chureca means that the soil in the neighborhood is quite contaminated. As we watered, we found that we got watered more than the plants as we had a water fight (which I appropriately started). I like to think that service should be fun and enjoyable so that the kids could also take from our excitement. We ate the same lunch which was served to all 450 students: Indio Viejo - corn mush (with carrots, onions and pieces of chicken) alongside a spoon of rice and a rather plain plantain. The cold coke was lovely. Later we washed plates and the floor of the cafeteria and took a break.

We also spent some time at a nearby spot sponsored by NicaHope, an organization which helps neigborhood kids stay off the streets. They sponsor after school academic programs, teach the students how to make jewelry out of recycled products which they in turn sell. The profits go back into the school, helping buy materials and to supply the dining room.

Afterwards we left and piled on the bus, which was one of the most enjoyable parts as we played a bunch of games during the ride. Now we´re back at Rafaela´s house and everyone just finished watching a movie. Anyways I´m hungry so this is Andrew Chavez signing off.