Brit and Chris learning to dance bachata...Look how Chris is with the little boy and Brit with he girl...so funny!
Brit and Chris with my fifth graders!
Night out!
The three of us putting on a smile at the dreadful Surfers Turtle Lodge
Look a Juans puppy dog eyes...so in love with Chris
Making plastic flowers for Mothers Day
Finihed product of the plastic botle flowers...they turned out great!
My teachers from my second school and I all dressed in red for Mothers Day celebration (everyone still is shocked when I say I am not married, don't have kids, or a boyfriend back in the states at age 24)
All the kids from the primary school, still learing all the names but know about three fourths by name...work in progress
The teachers loving dress up....from left to right we have the lumberjack, then the mother, and the wolf...
Me and Diego
Chris and Brittany came down together to visit me in May. The trip started off to a Nicaraguan start. I met them in the airport and as we were walking out to the highway to catch our bus, I saw our bus about to pass so I yelled at them to run and hurry up so we jumped on as quick as we could with all the luggage. Poor Brit and Chris barely had time to grasp they were in Nicaragua and we were already on a packed Nicaraguan bus with no seats left open that took off before we were fully on. So in the midst of all the craziness we had to get our suitcases stowed overhead without falling over. I said to them, sorry guys but we have a two hour ride ahead of us. Their question was, Do we have to stand the WHOLE time!? Luckily some people got off so we eventually got a seat. We finally made it back to my house around four and of course all my little kiddos were hanging around my porch just waiting to see the new gringos! They were all in my living room right after us and I told them that we would play the next day because we needed to relax a bit. So then I cooked dinner and we relaxed and were in bed early. The next day I had English class with the high school, and Brit and Chris came to help. All the students were really shy at first and scared to practice their English. We did a presentation about Wisconsin and our families and by the end of the class we had them doing the electric slide and they had us learning Bachata! After English class we headed off to Matagalpa for lunch so they could meet Jamie and then hurried back for my afternoon classes. All the kids were SOOOOO excited to meet my friends. My fifth grade planned a talent show to present to them with cultural dances. The girls got all dressed up in their folk lore dresses and performed for us. Then after they finished all their dances they wanted us to have a dance party with them. The kids were obsessed with Brit and Chris and wanted to see them dance together in front of everyone, so they did. Then I told my students that they needed dance partners to teach them the dance. So I picked out a boy for Brit and a girl for Chris. They started doing the dance and then the boy got super shy and asked if he could dance with Chris instead! So we danced all afternoon with my fifth graders. It got realy crazy because somehow Princesa found us in the school and was chasing around all the students that were dancing.
The next day we were planning to leave on our trip to the beach. Here in Nicaragua there are two types of buses. There are normal buses that are cheaper and stop at every stop to pick people up and there are express buses that cost a little more (but is totally worth it) and goes directly to the destination. Our destination was Leon, and the express bus leaves at 6 in the morning which does not give us time to take my town’s bus to the bus terminal to get on. So I got the number of the driver to tell him to please stop in front of my town to pick up three passengers (which they aren’t supposed to do because they go direct) So we weren’t sure if the bus would stop or not to pick us up at 6:15. In the end it didn’t matter either way cause at 6:05 Brit says “Crap I didn’t pack my suit” hahaha, so she had to run the 10 minutes back to my house and then come back after the express bus already passed. Hahaha. We finally got to Leon and enjoyed a weekend of relaxation on the beach. I am pretty sure we were the only ones staying at the hotel and there weren’t many other people on the beach either. We could hardly swim in the ocean because they waves were huge and the riptide really strong. Even just standing on the beach where the waves come up took out Brit and Chris and sent them flying up the beach with their feet in the air! Our second night we went out for a nice seafood dinner and Chris’ 12 dollar meal came with 5 lobster tails! Cant beat that. After that we went back to our hotel so Brit and Chris could try some of the local rum. After the rum was gone we headed down the street to a bar. Well we walked for about 5 minutes and then realized that there were no lights and nobody around in the dark creepy street so we ended up walking back to the hotel along the beach and saw a tiny little bar shack that had a bonfire. We stopped by and ended up staying there all night. The night consisted of me, Brit, and Chris dancing like crazy people and the 4 Nica guys that worked there laughing at us. As I said this place was literally a shack, the stairs were not well constructed so Chris fell through them and scraped up his knee and toes and all I could seem to do was laugh. Then about 20 minutes later I fell through the same stairs…serves me right I guess. By the end of a really fun night, we were happy that this shack was right next to our hotel so it wasn’t a long walk home.
So as everyone knows after a really fun night there is usually not a very fun morning. To make matters worse I had a reservation at a different hotel at a different beach that I wanted to check out. It is new and uses only solar energy. The website looked really cool and I wanted to give it a shot. Well let me tell you, websites can be deceiving! So keep in mind we are all feeling pretty awful…and we had to get on a bus, travel about 15 minutes, get off, wait another 30 minutes in the sun for another bus that never came, so we took a taxi instead, then we had a boat ride to the other side of a “lake” which was really just a muck pond. Instead of rowing the guys had to get out and push us in the boat. On the other side we had to sit in the sand and mud in the scorching sun to wait for the horse drawn carriage. Which might I add, is not as lavish as it sounds. Instead it was a starved horse and a couple of wooden planks nailed together. So then we sat on this horribly uncomfortable wooden carriage for 20 minutes into the middle of nowhere. The website made this place sound like a private secluded island. It was secluded alright but it was just a normal beach, not an island. When we finally arrived we all just took naps for a few hours. That night when we wanted to eat we had to wait two hours because the owner wanted everyone staying there to eat together, which would have been nice if we weren’t still super tired. The next morning we were told the horse would be ready for us early, but when we got up and asked to leave at 8 the owner said the carriage doesn’t come till nine. So there we sat waiting for the bumpy ride back to the muck where we waited half an hour for the boat. I shouldn’t have complained about the boat ride on the ride over cause this time they sent this teeny tiny canoe over to get us and our backpacks. I was joking with the guy rowing it and asked if there was enough room and where we were going to sit ( there were no seats). He joked back and said we could fit 3 more people and that we were to sit on a crate which Brit and Chris shared and then I got a rusty anchor to sit on! As we started on our way the water came up to an inch below the top of the canoe. The man paddling was laughing nervously cause he knew we could easily tip. Chris just kept telling me and Brit nervously not to move, and not to overcompensate if we started tipping one way. Brit and I were laughing so hard but trying not to because our laughing made the canoe shake. Well we surprisingly made it to the other side dry and safe and at that point had enough “adventures” in Nicaragua.
We finally got back to my house Monday evening and relaxed after our fun filled trip in Nicaragua. The next day we were invited to dinner. The lady that invited us is Arora. She loves foreigners. She cooked us a great dinner and was very pleased that Brit and Chris cleaned their plates. And says “See Karen, look, they LOVE my food” We took pictures and she still asks me about them everytime she sees me. She wasn’t the only one that was in love with Brit and Chris. My little nephew that always comes over got so attached to Chris. Every night he would bring Chris and Brit a new craft, card, or drawing he made. He and Chris were best buddies even though they could hardly communicate. They used a lot of hand gestures. Then Juan would only use hand gestures with me too, and I told him “Juan Alfredo, I understand you. You can speak to me!” haha. He was really sad when they left and wrote Chris a three page letter about how he will miss him. To end an awesome visit we had to walk through my town at 3 in the morning to catch the early bus to Managua. I knew it wouldn’t be dangerous as for having drunks out and about, but what I didn’t think about was the dog situation. At night every house let’s their dog loose in their yard to protect the house. Let me tell you these are not nice dogs that just bark at intruders, they are ferocious and are trained to attack. I had to tell Brit and Chris to walk as fast as they can without running and if one gets close you have to stomp your foot down and yell something. We all took a deep breath when we finally reached the highway and were out of sight from the ferocious dogs of Quebrada Honda. It was a great visit, and I am so happy they were able to come down to see me!
As for other things going on. We have officially entered winter which is the rainy season. It rains EVERY DAY! Even though it is greener and prettier, I am definitely not a fan. My street is pure mud, I can’t leave my house without a rain jacket or umbrella, there are a million times more bugs around, it’s near to impossible for clothes to dry so they all have a mildew smell to them, and my Princesa is ALWAYS dirty. She doesn’t like the rain too much and is indoors a lot more and is going absolutely stir crazy. At night she just runs and back and forth in my small house. When she gets really bored she attacks the cat. The cat on the other hand is getting bigger and thinks it’s a dog. It eats Princesa’s food, and Princesa prefers the cat’s food. They are both crazy. Some days I will be doing my hair or something and before you know it the cat crawls up my jeans and just stays clung onto my jeans by my hip and stares at me. He even crawled all the way up my mosquito net before he fell down. I love the cat but he is so smelly! I haven’t been able to find litter here anywhere so he uses a Tupperware container filled with sand and dirt. Which is better than him pooping all over my house but it is just a pain in the butt…I have to figure something out.
The 30th of May is also Mother’s Day here which is probably the second most important holiday here after Christmas. In order to help my teachers prepare I did an activity with the students to make flowers out of plastic bottles to give to their mothers. They turned out great. Then on Thursday the 27th they celebrated in the schools. All the moms go, and the kids put on skits, dances, and poems. Some of the dances are folk lore with the typical Nicaraguan dresses. Other girls turned on some hip hop like music and did hoochie mama dances! Which is totally accepted here! The moms are asked to participate in some things too like a dance competition and musical chairs. Then at the end the teachers serve food to the mothers. Then the next Monday school was cancelled and I was confused because I thought they were celebrating Memorial day but it turns out that everyone needs a day off after Mother’s Day (which was Sunday) to recuperate. The week after Mothers Day was Children’s Day which we celebrated on Friday in the schools. The teachers decided to put on a skit for the students. So on Thursday they cancelled class so we could plan our activity. We decided to do Little Red Riding Hood. They decided that I should be the lead role. So on Friday we got the curtains set up like a stage and all 250 kids at our school packed into one class room to watch the performance. I think the teachers had more fun than the students. The school as a box of random dress up clothes and the teachers that were in the play just started putting on every article of clothes that was in the box. After or skit we got a standing ovation and kids screaming for 5 minutes! Haha Now all the kids call me Little Red Riding Hood. After the skit all the grades went to their own classrooms to celebrate. Some classes had piñatas, others just had food and music to dance too, some did games. It was hard for me because they all wanted me to come to their class. So I had to make my rounds to all the classrooms and bust a move in each (they all want to make me dance in front of everyone, pretty much so they can laugh at me).
My only other big news is that I will be coming home in August for Becky’s wedding! I have been asked to participate in the wedding so now I have to find a dress maker here to make me a dress which I am actually really excited about! Also that Kristina will be here in two weeks! I am so blessed to have such great friends that come all the way down to Nicaragua to see me!
