Truly Nicaragua

At a stoplight the other day a little boy, no older than 5, jumped on the front of my car to wash the window. The poor guy only got half of the window done before the light changed, but he did get a couple cookies and cordabas from his work.

Picture taken by Ena Groot

The last two weeks I've enjoyed having Ena Groot in Nicaragua. She came down to visit her daughter who is student teaching at Nicaragua Christian Academy. Having guests come is great because you see the same things you see everyday but through the eyes of someone who is seeing it for the first time. That's when I begin to realize that there are some strange sights to see in Nicaragua. Ena was a great help to the school. She spent lots of hours in the school fixing up books. Thanks Ena.

The Invention Convention

During our unit on inventions, my students had to become inventors. They thought deeply to come up with ideas that haven't already been invented and to solve problems that they see in the world around them. Each student had to write a patent, create a model of their idea, write a paragraph about how it works and why people would want to buy it, and then present it to the class.

Paola invented a battery powered iron

Hanna invented the All Food Maker. Just put your ingredients in the top, type in what you're making, and it comes out mixed and cooked out of the front.

Andrea invented the Skittle Machine. It gives out 12 skittles to each of your friends.

Gustavo made the Economical Back Scratcher. Just pull a string and get your back scratched. No batteries needed.

Santiago invented a Dog Trainer. It gives 5 spanks to your dog every second.

Spencer invents the Light your Path Slippers. No more bumps and bruises when you get up in the night.

Latest News

I've been feeling quite behind in many area of my life lately, including updating this blog. I thought I would take a short cut and try to update you via pictures.

This picture shows our last meal before I left the Pena's house. We are eating soup. The first time I was served soup in these bowls I was quite worried about how I would eat it all. When you make Nicaraguan soup you don't cut up the vegetables, you just throw them in whole, the chicken is still on the bone, and the meatballs are mixed with a flour base and are the size of baseballs. It has a great flavor and is actually fun to eat. I stayed there for two months while my student teacher lived in my apartment. The experience was great! I am missing them greatly, but have an open invitation to visit at any time.

The morning I left the family declared it a Happy Be Sad Day. This was the cake to celebrate. I was sad to not be living there anymore. But I was happy that the same day the Canadian hockey team played for the gold medal and won! It's probably the first hockey game I was able to watch in Nicaragua.

A group of teachers and I were able to finally make the arrangements to do a teaching seminar with a group of teachers from a small Christian Nicaraguan School, Hosana Sur. We made a visit to their school once before and this time were able to teach them. They are teachers working with very few resources and have very little training. They love their students though and are willing to learn new things.

We modeled a number of different activities by teaching a lesson on the life cycle of a plant. In this picture 'students' are planting seeds in bags. Teacher's in general don't make very good students, these teachers were funny at times. I think we had cellphones go off, teacher's changing the subject when asked questions, and a few of them talking.

This picture was taken at our Festival at NCA. This is a big day full of lots of games, food, competitions, and fun. Michaela and I are having a gladiator match here. Sadly she beat me quite easily; must be that youthfulness.

In the morning of the festival we organized a Fun Run. We had 46 participants in the 3 K and 45 in the 12K event. This was an amazing turn out. We've been practicing with some of the kids after school for the past couple of months. Getting outside and getting exercise is something that really needs to be promoted and encouraged more here. The race followed a road on one of the ridges outside of Managua. It had lots of pretty sights and views along the way.

I was so proud of my class. About half of them signed up to run in the race and came! They did a great job and all ran well.