Through the Eyes of a Child

So I just dropped Faye, Jason, Annika, and Jacob off at the airport today. They were in Nicaragua for 2 weeks and I must say the time went by very quickly. Faye got to visit a number of different places around Nicaragua. She went to the city dump to visit women with young children. She went to the public hospital and taught women about breast feeding. We also took a 4 hour drive to a more rural city where Faye got to talk with doctors and teach another class to expecting women. Jason worked a couple days at Nicaragua Christian Academy doing various tasks to get ready for the school year. We were able to visit a Nicaraguan home where Annika got her very own pinata and we all got to enjoy the some wonderful Nicaragaun food. For their last weekend in Nicaragua we enjoyed an overnight stay at the beach which was amazing! I learned very quickly that feeding a family of 4 is MUCH more work and involves much more food than feeding one.

Visiting friends in Nicaragua

One of the highlights of their visit was watching Annika take everything in. It's hard to get any concrete thoughts or responses from a 2 1/2 year old, but she did a pretty good job of telling us what she was seeing and thinking:

Jackpot! The mango tree got cut down and Annika scored some great fruit.

It was probably the second day we were driving around Managua and asked Annika what she thought about Nicaragua. Without thinking she said, "It's bumpy." She's not kidding. We are in the middle of the rainy season and we have some enormous potholes. Annika also loved to spot the cows and horses which were often just outside her window.

Not so sure about the hermit crabs

One afternoon after her nap, Annika came over and heard some geckos. She looked around and spotted them on the wall and said, "Look, lizards just like in my bedroom." I guess when she went down for her nap that day she said to her mom, "Look mommy lizards came to play in my room." I'm thinking at 2 1/2 I might have been scared.

Cool shot of Jason on the boogie board

Annika had a hard time adjusting to the tile floors here. The first couple days it rained making everything a little slick. She biffed it a couple times but the best fall was down the stairs. Somehow she missed a step and did a summersault down the stairs, her head hit the last step but amazingly her feet hit the ground. She got a ten for that gymnastic stunt; thankfully there were no serious injuries.

And this is what happens when you hang out too long with me

So before leaving for the airport we were explaining to Annika that she would be going in the airplane with mommy, daddy, and baby and Aunt Aimee would be staying in Nicaragua. She matter of factly responded, "Me stay in 'Caragua too." Then while waiting in the airport Annika and I were having our final heart to heart chat. I asked her what she would be doing in the airplane...eating?...reading?...sleeping?...etc. She said, "Crying." Whoa that was not what I expected her to say. After I got over the shock I asked her why she would be crying and she said, "Me to to Gulp (that's Guelph, Ontario ). Aunt Aimee stay in 'Caragua." Well so much more my plan not to cry when saying good-bye.

Life is great in Nicaragua

Thanks for the great 2 weeks Stoters. You helped to slide me into transitioning from Canada to life in Nicaragua. Good times and great memories. Tomorrow its back to work. We have a week of meetings and preparation before classes start again.