Grammar, Gallo Pinto and Grace: 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!