The Long-awaited Field Trip

"In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16

Being a Child of Light was the theme of the 2 day retreat we took our 4th-6th grade students on this past week. When we originally presented this idea to the parents 2 months ago their immediate reaction was fear. Who would take care of their child? What about snakes and scorpions? Who would watch the students in the pool? The list was endless. But indeed we did encounter 3 scorpians and 1 mouse in their dorm rooms which were taken care of quickly. In the Nicaraguan culture, children don't normally stay overnight at a friends house or go anywhere too far from their parents; camps are unheard of. Trying to convince them that this trip would be okay took some work but we finally got the parents approval and support.

Throughout the two day trip we offered a variety of activities that we don't have opportunity to do in the classroom. They included science activities, games, team building activities, and chapels. Our science activities consisted of learning how to build your own compass and solar clock and how to use a compass to find a treasure. Some of these activities were challenging due to our close location to the equator and hence the sun. One advantage though was that the sun was so intense students were able to produce smoke using a magnifying glass within a minute when trying to start of fire.

Another fun experience was learning how to use a potato gun, which has been renamed the lemon launcher here in Nicaragua. The potatoes here are a little soft but the right sized lemon can be shot off perfectly. Students also had fun with a giant water ballon sling shot which took 3 people to handle. Probably some of the favorite hours of the retreat were spent in the afternoon when a variety of activities were offered: horseback riding, radio programming, baking, Frisbee golf, water games, big ball activity, taekwondo, origami, chess, friendship bracelets, and insect identification and mounting. Students had the opportunity to participate in 3 of the activities listed above. For many of the students it was the first time trying many of them. The early evening hours were spent playing baseball, volleyball, and swimming. This was our last attempt of totally wearing our students out before the evening hit. Unfortunately it didn't really work. In the evening we had chapel time, camp songs around the fire, and SMORES. For many of the kids they had never experienced roasting marshmallows before and they loved it. We lined them up to get one marshmallow each. After everyone had one they could come for more and some even came for about 10 more. The marshmallows were specially delivered from the states and work far better than the Nicaraguan ones.
The parents had warned us that getting their child up in the morning would be impossible. We had the opposite effect at camp. We couldn't get them to stay in bed past 5:00 in the morning! Grrr... Another big part of the trip was to give the students the responsibility of helping clean up, serve and prepare the meals. In the morning students helped to make pancakes which they loved doing. We even had a student who could flip the pancakes in the air. As we were eating breakfast the 6th grade teacher made the comment that the Nicaraguan parents and kids were getting the shakes from gallo pinto withdrawal. Gallo pinto is the traditional dish of rice and beans. We made sure to serve it at breakfast. The parents eagerly held out their plates for several helpings of gallo pinto. I wish I had a video of this because they were literally gitty over the sight of gallo pinto.
Team building games were another favorite on the trip. We had 6 high school students come along to be counselors. They were a blessing to us teachers because their energy far outlasted ours. They led the kids in songs and games throughout the day. At one such event the students participated in pyramid races. In the end the teachers also tried their hand at it, but we were not nearly as fast then the fastest student group.

We are thanking God that the trip went well, that all the students had the time of their lives and returned safely to their parents. This camp experience is unique to them as there isn't any opportunities like this in Nicaragua. Their faces often displayed a look of pure delight and contentment. Somehow after this experience we head back to the classroom Monday for 2 more weeks of classes.

La Playa

In Nicaragua May 1 is Labour Day and so everybody has the day off. I went with the Pena's, a Nicaraguan family I have gotten to know well, to the beach. We went, as they would say, 'Nica' style with some Canadian influence. I agreed to drive and find a place to spend the day, they agreed to bring the food and drinks. The car was full by the time we had everyone (8 of us) and everything inside. We almost took the dog, but decided against it in the end. We arrived close to lunch time and so the meal was prepared right away. Where as I might have just packed a few sandwiches, the Nicaraguan style is to prepare a full meal. We had grilled beef, rice, salad, and tortillas; it was delicious. I brought the fixings for smores and forced the North American custom of smore making on them.

In the afternoon we spent our time in the water, racing hermit crabs, searching for shells, and discovering sea anemones. For one of them, Yolanda, it was her first time ever to the beach. How fun it was to watch her discover and enjoy the waves, shells, and beach experience! The following day she told me how very happy she was to have been able to go. Even Grandma put on some shorts to wade in the water. This reminded me of my Beppe, whom we always begged to come swimming and teased her about having a swimming suit hidden away somewhere. She never did swim with us though. Nicaraguans are very cautious in the water because almost everyone knows someone who has drowned. This is due partly to the strength of the waves and partly because many people don't know how to swim.

Down on the Ranch

Every once in a while I need to get outside the city of Managua and get a whiff of good country air. Spending a weekend in a small town and out on the ranch was the perfect solution, I felt like I had gone home. A former student's family owns a ranch and invited a bunch of teachers to spend the weekend. They were incredible hosts and served us some amazing meals. We also got to do all the fun stuff that comes with being out in the country. It included...

...a bonfire. Yeah! Hotdogs and smores. Something not done all that often in Nicaragua because we certainly don't need the heat of the fire to keep us warm. Although on this particular evening I was quite chilly and did huddle near the fire to get warm.

...riding in the back of the truck. See I told you it gets cold in Nicaragua. We all brought our hoodies and they happened to be matching! That's Rachel in the middle and Kate on the side; my roomies. Joy is probably in the cab of the truck and can't be seen, but she is featured in the video below.

...hanging out in hammocks and relaxing.

...horseback riding. Remember the previous blog about not really liking to ride horses. Well, I was back in the saddle this weekend and it actually went fairly well. Should I mention that the horse was old? It did have a bit of spirit though and I ended up going for about an hour long ride with him.

...going to the Rodeo. That was a very 'Nica' experience. It involved horse dancing, reciting poetry, lots of introductions, speeches, bull riding, and traditional folk dancing. Did I mention that this was a Rodeo?

...being just plain silly. I'll take credit for taking the video. This is my first video on the blog; just wanted to see how it works. The announcer is Joy my other roomie.

This was a much needed weekend to get re energized for the final stretch before the end of the school year.

Who has a Monopoly?

We just finished a unit in Social Studies called In the Market. We had some interesting discussions about money and spending money. This lent itself perfectly to playing the game Monopoly in class. I never realized how many versions of the game Monopoly there were. We had Star Wars, Las Vegas, Corvette, and Special Edition Monopoly games. I found out soon enough that it would be a waste for me to try and explain the rules to them. They seemed to know the game better than I did.
I found out that my students have an incredible love for money. I heard plenty of evil, little giggles coming from people who earned alot of money. Others bought up property early on in the game and ended up with little money in the end. All these details and more helped to reinforce some economic strategies we had talked about in class.
We are getting down to the last couple weeks of school. It is hard to believe that it has gone this fast. My students have already come to realize the closeness to the end of the year. On Friday they mentioned their fears about fifth grade. We have one more BIG event to look forward to. My students have been praying about it everyday since I mentioned it; mostly praying that their parents would let them go. It is an overnight field trip with the 5th and 6th grade classes. Kids in Nicaragua don't often travel away from their parents very much and so this is a big deal. We held a parent meeting to inform the parents about our minute to minute plan for the two days. Check out the posts after May 16 to see how it went.

Semana Santa: Esteli

After a few delays with flights in the US, Wayne arrived one day later than we expected. I met him at the airport where he came through looking like a true Dutch-Canadian. The socks with Canadian flags and the immigrant suitcase couldn't have given it away. How fun it was to see him! Although he was sleep deprived we began our trip from the airport and headed north to Esteli. Rebecca and Katie the two girls in the picture came with us.

We weren't sure on the accommodations at the place we were heading, but we were ready for an adventure. In the mountains just south of Esteli is a small village called La Garnacha. There are 26 families living in this community. They are trying hard to start tourism in their town which provided for some interesting experiences. We slept in small cabins they built to accommodate visiting guests. The first morning there I inquired about riding horses as they had advertised. They gave me the answer I was looking for which is very typical in Nicaragua, "Yes we offer horse back riding. When would you like to go?" After some talking he told me they would need an hour to get things ready. Fine, we would wait. Fifteen minutes later a little boy comes up and says they are ready. Great, but there were no horses in sight. He told me they only had two. We were four so I asked him if possible four horses would be better than two. Again he gave me the answer I wanted, "Okay, I'll be back." After 10 minutes the same boy comes walking up with two horses in tow. The real story is that there weren't more than 2 horses, so we took turns riding these. As we rode down the street the little boy ran behind us hitting the horses back to get it running.

I'm not really a fan of horseback riding. I don't trust a horse and feel very out of control. As much as people tell me you need to let the horse know who is in control, I don't believe it's going to work that way. They always just seem to do what they want to do. Pedro, the little boy who brought the horses, told me the brown horse was fast. In that case it wasn't hard for me to decide that the grey horse would be for me. Wayne took the brown horse and turned a few heads when he raced at almost a full gallop through town. You can see in the picture that his horse is moving at a much faster speed than mine. I loved the simplicity of life in La Garnacha. Both nights we were there we watched the sun go down behind a mountain range.
One morning we woke up early enough to watch the goats being milked. They have 9 goats which produce 2 liters of milk a day. The goats are only milked in the morning. Their milk is then taken to the 'diary' where it is processed into cheese. The town is famous for its cheese making. After they milk the goats, they put the kids in the pen to suck the remaining milk from the utter. This picture was taken in Esteli on Good Friday. There are lots of traditions and celebrations surrounding Holy Week. This is a picture designed from colored sawdust in the middle of an intersection. This was just one of many.

CRCNA Retreat at Vistamar

It's Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Nicaragua. Lots of things happen in this week here in Nicaragua. The country is pretty much taking the week off of work. It is a week long national holiday to remember the death of Christ. The catholic church has many different traditions, rituals, and parades. Because most people have off work, the beach is a very popular destination for many people. Unfortunately in this week Nicaragua has a high rate of deaths as well because of alchohol consumtion. Swimming and drinking just aren't a good mixture.
People come to the beach for different reasons. For the really poor in Nicaragua this is prime time for them to sell things on the beach because many of the stores are closed. This boy is probably looking for recycling items which he can later sell for money.
Even the ice cream men come out and wrestle their ice cream coolers throught the sand. A great treat for a hot, sunny day though.
This family enjoyed a day at the beach. Their pails could have contained food they sold or food they took to the beach to eat over the course of the day. Notice how the girl is carrying the pail on her shoulder; a very common way for people to carry things in Nicaragua.
Ah the famous Jigantone (I'm not for sure on the spelling). This is an enormous doll as you can see. These small boys are walking around the beach looking for someone who will pay them to put on their show. The big woman doll has a little boy inside. Another one of the boys has a drum and the one on the right is a shorter dwarf-like character. As the music plays the doll and other character dance; very entertaining I know. They are a tradition or common site here in Nicaragua. I went to the beach for the CRCNA spiritual retreat. It was a great time to get away and relax for a couple of days. The theme of the retreat was The Spirit Leads; something I was thinking about in my personal devotions as well. Perhaps I'll have to write a seperate entry about it later. For the rest of Spring Break I'm spending time with my brother Wayne. He was scheduled to come in Tuesday night, but due to thunderstorms in Houston his flight was postponed. He should be coming in soon, maybe tomorrow.

Young Inventors

My students just finished up a unit called New Fangled Ideas where they learned about different inventors and their inventions. During the process of this study they learned to think like an inventor. Their final project was to come up with an idea for an invention, apply for a patent, make a model and diagram, and write an advertisement that would convince people that their invention was a good idea. We had a wide variety of very creative and interesting ideas and presentations. Some presentations involved puppets, songs, and skits. Many of them also had great promotions if you wanted to purchase their invention. It was lots of fun. Parents and other elementary classes were invited to come view the inventions and hear their presentations. Here is a sampling of some of their ideas. In Yong invented the Mirror Man. It has a bottle in one hand and a cotton ball in the other. The Mirror Man is programed to wash your mirrors and windows.
I love this one. Joshua created the Anty Be Gone. One big problem in Nicaragua is that ants get into the dog food. Joshua came up with an idea to solve it. All you need is a dog, rope, pulley and a dog bowl. When the dog runs away from the bowl it goes up and ants can't reach it. When he runs toward the bowl, it lowers so he can eat. I guess you might have to train your dog for this one.
Jacob invented the room cleaner. He really doesn't like cleaning his room, but his new invention should make that process much simpler and more fun. In the picture above, the first graders are listening to Jacob's presenation of his invention.
Lily made the High Helper. Some of the shorter kids in the classroom have a hard time doing their jobs of cleaning the white board and turning off the fans. This invention is for them. It has an arm with an eraser and another arm with a tool for switching the fans on and off.
Kelsey made the Tall Sandals. These were designed to help you reach high places. The sandals make it easy to get them on and off. No running in these though lest you sprain an ankle.