Grammar, Gallo Pinto and Grace: Halloween Fun!

**this post was supposed to be published last Tuesday but I haven't had enough internet to post it till now, just a heads up!

Happy Tuesday!

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of exams, Halloween and a wonderful visit from my mom so I have not been able to keep up with my blog as normal. I But things are finally slowing down (as much as they can in a home of 220 kids!) so here is the latest on life in Nicaragua.

As many of you already know my mother came to spend the last 8 days with me to learn about my new life. For the first half of her visit we stayed here at the NPH home and she did everything with me fro teaching classes and spending afternoons with my boys to eating all our meals with them. It was amazing to be able to connect my life in the states with my new life here. I am growing and learning everyday in ways that I could not have imagined so being able to show it to her firsthand was really important to me.

I cannot begin to thank everyone who sent games and toys and books and crayons and love for my boys and students. To say it was much appreciated would be an understatement. THANK YOU!

A few posts ago I began talking about the four pillars upon which Father Wasson built this home and today’s final pillar is Respect. Respect is something that each once of our parents tries to instill in us from a young age. Respect for your elders, respect for your teachers, respect for your parents. In the end, it just boils down to respecting everyone, right? Well here every pequeño is encouraged to show, as well as receive, that respect from the moment they enter the gates. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you are doing here, where you come from or how smart you are. Each and every person on these grounds deserves the same level of respect. I find this to be an integral part of my boy’s growth and maturation. Many boys were not given the least respect in their previous homes and are used to neither receiving nor giving it. However, here they all learn that every one of them is God’s favorite child and loved unconditionally. This unconditional love and status as a favorite child is manifested daily in the respect we all show.

A few weeks ago was Halloween, which sadly has not yet spread to Nicaragua. However, being a sucker for a good time, I decided to throw our own little Halloween party in Casa San Jose. Luckily we did not have school on Friday because of nation wide teacher conferences so the festivities were able to begin early. With the promise of a party later on, everyone did their chores and homework early on so that we could start getting ready after lunch.

Now the most important thing about Halloween is often thought to be one’s costume. Unfortunately a full body costume was not a possibility here so I settled for pumpkin masks. Armed with a sheet of orange foam, crayons, scissors and mounds of creativity my boys set to work and came up with amazing results…

One of the tias from the house helping with the masks.

The rest of the afternoon we spent making little decorations for the house from scraps of paper. The tia and I had quite an assembly line of spiders, bats and pumpkins coming from our table.

However, the real fun didn’t start until after dinner. For our first activity I explained a toilet paper mummy wrap contest and the boys quickly split into teams to wrap each other up. Within a few minutes it became apparent that they were in need of a bit of help so the older boys, tios and myself joined in as “coaches” to help them finish. Afterwards we had a bit of a photo shoot and danced to the Thriller. If you can’t tell by now, my boys LOVE doing the entire Thriller dance, start to finish. I am still amazed every time I see it.