A month of celebrations

This month flew by with a ton of celebrations and special events. On December 8, the Feast  of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, we had baptisms and communions in the home. I was lucky enough to be a godmother to two of the boys in the section and was so happy to be able to be part of their special day. They are both developmentally challenged but that did nothing to diminish their joy in receiving Christ. The two of them have a bad habit of behaving bad in mass but as Mat* told me he "Lowered the crank on my (his) energy" so he could receive God properly. 

So much happiness!

Group photo with everyone involved

My two new godsons!

Getting ready before the big show :)

Then a mere four days later were the graduations. In the house we celebrated preschool, elementary school, high school, college and vocational workshops. The entire home was proud of all the accomplishments as we had a nurse, chef and pharmacist graduate from university to begin their professional careers  this year. It truly speaks to the strength of the NPH family when you take into account all the graduates who earned their new degree. I was especially proud of all of the 6th graders as I taught all of them and many for 2 years.

All the 6th grade graduates!

Trying to get my godson to smile as I escorted him to the stage.

Receiving the diploma!

Receiving thanks for my service from the school director. 

As for other happenings in the home, we had several birthdays and therefore a LOT of birthday cake and cracking of eggs over the head (a Nica tradition). 

We also had a very blessed late crop of beans so were all happy to go to pick them one December morning. Due to severe droughts this year the majority of the harvests were lost, causing a bean shortage in a country whose staples are rice and beans. This means that in the coming year beans will be not only sparse but also extremely expensive which is cause for many worries about how everyone will survive. When the beans are ready to pick everyone in the home wakes up at 5 am and picks till the sun rises at 10 am to avoid the sun beating down. Picking every single bean from a huge field becomes easy work when everyone over the age of 8 years old pitches in. 

All the boys (and me) lining up to choose our rows. 

Even the director comes out

Picking before the sun rises is the only way to go

Then of course Christmas time came around and with that Christmas decorations. Check them out...

Some of the volunteers in the ranch.

Casa San Jose and our Christmas tree

After all of the joyous celebrations and decorations came my goodbye. I came home Dec. 19  and spent a bittersweet last day with the boys and night with everyone else. In honor of my return to the city with the best pizza ever I took them all to pizza in town. Needless to say we all had a blast! 

Pizza in town

 

A presentation during my goodbye with everyone

Whether you're coming or leaving the line of hugs is NPH Nica tradition

Although I am extremely happy to see my family and friends it was also terribly to difficult to say "See you later" (because I refuse to let this be a goodbye) to my new family in Nicaragua.  

If you want to hear a reflection on my time in general with NPH Nicaragua you can check out my testimony. All volunteers are asked to write a reflection as they wrap up their time to be posted on the website but I'll post mine here as well. 

October/November Updates

The past two months have been filled with celebrations, activities and quite a bit of work with the end of the school year. But school is now over, grades are in and I have time to post a few updates.

In October I taught my students all about Halloween, using Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin as my motivation. We also made pumpkin and skull masks to celebrate. They had quite a blast with the break from a typical class routine.

My fourth graders and their pumpkins. 

Fifth graders and their skulls

Third graders and their final products. 

This past week classes ended for the school year and I had to say goodbye to my students. It was a ton of work making final exams, grading and then handing in monthly, quarterly, semester and final grades for my 100+ students. However, I was sad to say goodbye to all of the kids.

 

Saying goodbye to 2nd/3rd graders

Funny faces!

            In the house the kids have been working very hard on final projects or studying for final exams. The 5^th and 6^th grades had a presentation in the religion class of the nativity scene and had to make Sheppard costumes.  I volunteered to help them even though I was pretty clueless as to making a tunic from a sheet. After quite a few laughs and blunders we managed to sew together passable tunics.

           

            It hasn’t been all work and no play, however. During one of our weekly walks I taught the boys how to make cream cheese and bologna sandwiches. For some strange reason we received a big donation of cream cheese so I decided to take advantage and change up the mid-walk snack. They all loved it and had a blast “playing”” with the bologna that was leftover. I may or may not have encouraged it by showing them how to make faces by biting the bologna….

           

            In November we also celebrated Thanksgiving with the directors and coordinators. Every month or so the directors and volunteers share a dinner to build community and in October the national director mentioned that he would love to celebrate Thanksgiving. Naturally Kay (an American volunteer) and I said “Of course!”. So we ended up cooking a thanksgiving dinner for the directors, the priest, volunteers and coordinators. The other volunteers pitched in to help but the day was still full of cooking, stressing out (on my part) and coordinating logistics of cooking for 15 people. In the end everyone said it was great and someway or another we even had leftovers.

            In November I also visited Jinotega with some other volunteers. Although this is a small and tranquil city, it is recognized as the coffee capital on Nicaragua and has been on my list for quite some time Hidden on the edge of the city market was a cooperative of local coffee growers who served export quality coffee to locals in a small café. It was the best cup of coffee I have ever had. Hands down. Amazing. They export their coffee all over the world and have won several prizes. Only bad news is that they don’t export to the U.S.A.

Best coffee shop in Nicaragua!

A cross placed on the mountains surrounding Jinotega. 

View of the city from above

Coffee finca outside of the city

Enjoying our coffee!

       Last but not least, I am also helping to collect donations to send our kids on vacation to the Island of Ometepe for Christmas break. Although I will not be here to spend it with them (I leave Dec. 19) I want them to have the best break they can. Here is a link (https://www.youcaring.com/nuestros-pequenos-hermanos-nicaragua-471018)  to the website with a full description of what we are raising the funds for! Any help or prayers is much appreciated. Thank you! 

Also…in the past few months I also ran a 5 K for ending violence against girls and climbed a few more volcanoes. Check out the pics below!

I won 2nd place! 

Above Cerro Negro in Leon. 

Tired from lugging my 30 lb pack up and down volcanoes 

The view of Volcan Momotombo from El Hoyo, another volcano.

Camping out on a volcano!