The Holidays are Here!

The holidays are here! This week I helped put up a Christmas tree at Hogar Belen-outside in my shorts and t-shirt. It was a little hard to get into the spirit, but still a good time :) The past month went by quickly for me- here were some of the highlights!

Thanksgiving:

This Thanksgiving there was no Turkey or football for the first time in many years, but the day did involve a volcano and a cow slaughtering.
On Thanksgiving day (not celebrated here in Nicaragua in November) I left work a bit early and went with some of the MCC team to visit a nearby volcano (photo below). When I got home there was a cow tied to the tree in our yard. I knew that this could not be good news. The next night at midnight the slaughterer came to our house. It is tradition here to do slaughtering at midnight, which to me felt somewhat like a scene from a scary movie. My family insisted that I watch this event. So for the first and last time I watched an entire cow be slaughtered. I will stop there with the details :)











Retreat with MCC Team:

The first week of December the MCC team here traveled North, into the mountains for a retreat. It was a nice break from my normal routine, and also it was cold! We slept with wool blankets and drank hot chocolate. This may be my only experience with these temperatures for a year, so it was quite refreashing. It was a good to spend time with the other team members reflecting, singing, playing games, and laughing :)

Hogar Belen:

Work at Hogar Belen is going well. The other day I went with Gretel to the market (the largest market in Central America) to get some materials for the sensory room we are in the process of making there. It is a small room with only one small window. We purchased some different materials for the walls and a full length mirror. We already have some different lights that we will be using and also have some foam material that we will be using for the floor. We have several different ideas, and I´m excited to see how it progresses and comes together in the next couple of months.

Another project that I am working on now is with some of the older kids to paint pictures and write a short letter (and by letter I mean their name, age, and one thing that they like :) that we are sending to students in a classroom in the U.S. The students from the U.S. are also sending letters and pictures to the children at Hogar Belen. We used a map to try to explain to them where their letters will go. I am not sure that they understand it well, but I am sure that they will love getting some mail :)


A good reminder:
I am currently reading the book "Gracias" by Henri Nouwen, which is a compilation of his reflections from the time he spent in Latin America. He shares his reflections in discovering that his niece, Laura, was born with Down Syndrome. He writes that his family can be characterized by being ambitious, hardwroking, and successful, and then writes :

"Now Laura enters and tells us a totally new story, a story of weakness, brokenness, vulnerability, and total dependency. Laura, who always will be a child, will teach us the way of Christ as no on will ever be able to do."

This was a good reminder for me in my every day work. For the days when my patience runs thin, as well as the days when I think I have much to give, it is good to remember that in and through these kids I have a whole lot to learn :)


























Right now I am looking forward to Christmas here. Christmas celebrations here all take place on the 24th of December. On this day I will celebrate with my Nicaraguan family, and the next day my family (from the U.S :) will arrive in Nicaragua for a week! I am so excited to share with them my life here, and am just looking forward to seeing them :)
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday, Feliz Navidad!

A small update :)

I just want to start by saying that I am really starting to enjoy my life here in Nicaragua. I am feeling more and more a part of my communuity. Every day begins and ends with about a 25 minute walk to work at Hogar Belen. I have come to love this time in the morning. It is early, so the temperature is barable, and it is just a nice time to clear my head and get ready for the day. I see the same people along this walk, and always exchange greetings and ocasionally conversation. I can also see that I am adjusting, because what used to be difficult for me is now just a normal part of my day- I can take a cold shower without batting an eye (well kind of), I sometimes forget about the invention of the washing machine, and it feels strange when there is not rice at a meal (that has probably happened about twice). :)
Work at Hogar Belen is going well. I am starting to find my niche there, and I am finding different projects to put my energy into. The most recent is that I am hoping to create a sensory room at the home. There is an extra room that isn´t being used. Often at therapy centers for kids with disabilities there are these types of rooms with different lights, mirrors, materials, etc. Of course it would be on a smaller scale, with a smaller budget, but I am excited to see what we can create with what we have. Stimulation of the senses is important to development, and this could be a really helpful to children who are almost always in the same environment.
Personally, I am learning much from my time here. There is a freedom to really enjoy what is real in life. There are fewer conviences, but also fewer distractions. My eyes have been truly opened to a completely different economic situation than what I have known in the past. With this can come pain. There is a girl at Hogar Belen, who is ten years old, and weighs only 30 pounds and cannot see as the result of malnutrition. It hurts to think of what her past has looked like, and to realize that she is not alone where she comes from. She is absolutely afraid of anything new. I have been trying to help her learn to eat with a spoon rather than being fed, but she is terrified to hold the spoon. She is able to walk, but again is afraid. She is terrified also of any new environment. She spent her first time in the physical therapy room crying and screaming only because it was a new room.
I have found in my time here that it is so important to intentionally look for and embrace the pieces of hope wherever they can be found. I find hope when I see the joy that this same little girl finds in music. She absolutely loves music, and to watch her face transform into an expression of contentment and joy when she hears any form of music is amazing. She can be screaming and crying from fear, but when she hears music her demeanor will change in an instant. I love to spend time singing to her or with her. I taught her Mary Had a Little Lamb in English, and when she hears me coming she will begin to sing it, with a smile that just makes my day. It is true that the beauty of the arts touches all people, in all cultures, in all situations.
What I see here can be very difficult. But I have found that to not only see it, but rather also become a part of it is in a sense healing and hopeful.

Until next time... :)

Hogar Belen!

I have been working at Hogar Belen for about 2 weeks now :) Here are some pictures and details about what I do there!




She´s a spunky one :)















This little guy is three years old, but isn´t developing as fast as he should be. In this picture we are in the physical therapy room which is where I spend a lot of my time working with the kids.


I had a meeting the second day there with the director to discuss what my role would be at the home. It was decided that one of my focuses would be to work with five 2 and 3 year olds, one on one, who have not yet started talking for about a half hour each day. They are able to vocalize, but not with words or even sounds that begin with consonants. I focus my time with them on speech related activities and exercises. It has been nice to have a focus like this, and I am learning a lot about speech development.


In the afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays I sit in/help with an English class for the staff members at Hogar Belen. There is another volunteer at the home from Trinidad who teaches the class. I really like it because all day I struggle to communicate with people, and have to put so much effort into every conversation, but for two hours out of the day I can be on the opposite side helping other people with English :)



This is Gretel, the physical therapist. She is really knowladgable and puts so much energy into what she does. I really like working with her.

Ruth like to help with the younger kids :)

I spend some time working one on one with a couple of the older kids, in kind of a tutoring type setting. They are at school in the mornings, and get back to the home around noon. I really enjoy when I work with them in the afternoons because I can draw on experience with special education in college, and it reminds me that I really do want to be a teacher :) The rest of the time I really just float around, help out where I can, and try to give the kids as much attention and love as I can :) With 23 brothers and sisters they need all of the attention they can get! This home is a really special place, though. It breaks my heart to hear the stories of where they all come from. They are some pretty special kids, and they keep me going each day. I´m looking forward to being a part of the staff there for the year.

Until next time! :)

Some Pictures and Tidbits from September!

The other SALTers in Nicaragua:)
Kayon, me, Rebecca, and Paul





September began with a new home all over again :) I ended up moving in with my permenant host family earlier than originally planned. It is nice living outside of the city, although I take two different buses to come into Managua each day for school. I am getting to be really good at the bus system here. The buses here are old school buses from the U.S. They pack as many people as can possibly fit (often both sitting and standing) and follow different routes like bus systems in U.S. cities. I would take a picture of this, but I'm usually busy holding on! :) My new
family has been really welcoming. After a couple weeks, I am really getting into a daily routine, and feeling less like a guest which is nice. I have my own room in our small house. In this home, like in many in Nicaragua, the bathroom and shower are outside away from the house. There is also an area outside where all of the washing is done- washing clothes, washing dishes, washing everything. It is not common for people to have sinks in their homes. I am finally getting into the cleaning routine here- sweeping and mopping my floor each day, washing my dishes after each meal, and blocking out an entire evening or afternoon at least once a week for laundry. Housework here is very time consuming. I really like helping out so that I can feel a part of the family, but they all still do much more than I do.




The first full day with my host family was my birthday. They had a huge meal, and put up balloons, and played a cd of happy birthday songs in English. The MCC team joined us at the house for cake later. My family also made sure that we played a round of pin the tail on the donkey (not even joking :) Later my family bought me ice cream (which as many of you know, there's no better gift than ice cream for this girl :) It was a good birthday.



This is my host sister, Isella, with our small pet parrot Willy. They are playing pin the tail on the donkey for my birthday. I met Willy for the first time in the bathroom. He likes to hang out there. I was relieved to find out he was our pet, and not a random bird in the bathroom. Willy doesn't talk much, but sometimes will repeat sounds like laughter. He is fun to have around :)



These were the cutest guests at my birthday party :) There names are Huerni and Nicole, and they are the grandchildren of my host mom. They were fun to talk to, my vocabulary is right at their level.









Last week I went on a hike in the "Chocoero" (I think that is spelled wrong) to a waterfall with my host brothers and sisters. It was so good to get out in nature for a while. I saw pinapple fields, Pitaya trees, and coffee plants. The monkeys weren't out because it was rainy, which was sort of disappointing. At one point, I thought that my host brother spotted a monkey because everyone stopped and got really hushed and pointed toward something in the trees. They told me it was an ardilla and so I got out my dictionary because I couldn't see it. It turns out that ardilla is squirrel in English... I guess these are not overly common in Nicaragua. I couldn't help laughing a little as we stood and watched the squirrel until we couldn't see it anymore. If only they could see Bluffton's campus...

I now have one only one more week of school and then I begin working at Hogar Belen. I was able to visit there last week. I think it is going to be a great fit for me. The kids were adorable:) Part of my role there will be to write up goals for the kids and methods to meet these goals for each individual. I'm not completely certain because I don't know all of the details yet, but I think that it will be similar to IEP forms in education in the U.S., which will be really good experience for me.

My Spanish is coming along. I can truly see so much progress when I look back on the past month. I can hold conversations with adults now, although I still need people to talk pretty slowly and rephrase a lot of sentences for me. Also a couple of times, when I was very tired, I have started talking Enlish to people by accident. Oh well, it gets some great looks and lot of laughter. Poco a poco :)

The past month has been so full of adjustments. There seems to constantly be something new to adjust to. It is not easy to live in a place where I am different then everyone around me, some days are just very lonely. It is really neat to see friendships begin to form across cultures, though. And living in another culture really does bring a lot more understanding than just visiting. I am learning a lot, that's for sure!

That is all for now, thanks for all of your emails! They have brightened my day many times.
Until next time...:)

Agosto!

So much has happened in the past three weeks, I hardly know where to start!

Orientation
First, I need to mention orientation. Our SALT orientation was combined with the orientation of young people coming to the U.S. and Canada from other countries to participate in a program similar to ours. There were over 100 of us there together of many different cultures and languages, and yet comanality. It was so energizing to find connection with others my age, in my similar situation, and also with similar interests and perspectives. It was a special week to me, and a nice stepping stone into my year here.

Nicaragua
I am now about to wrap up my second full week in Nicaragua. There has been much to take in, but I will try to convey some of it to you.

I am currently with a temporary host family for the first six weeks of my experience (only 4 weeks left with them!). For these six weeks I am soley studying Spanish and adjusting to Nicaragua. After that I will move to my permanant home and start work at Hogar Belen. My host family now consists of an older women, Josefa, and her two grown daughters, Maria and Veronica. They have absolutely welcomed us (me and another SALTer-Kayon) into thier homes with open arms. And it must be said that they cook the most amazing food! :)

A typical day for me these first six weeks looks like this:

• 2 hours with a Spanish tutor in the morning
• lunch at my host family´s house
• 2 hours of Spanish school in the afternoon
• dinner with my family
• Studying Spanish, visiting with my host family, and other little excursions :)

Some of my biggest adjustments so far:

-City life!:
Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua, and does not have a similar atmosphere to rural NW Ohio! There are always a lot of people, noise, and activity at all hours. I´m becoming more accustomed to it, but I will be relieved when I move just outside of the city in a few weeks to my permanant home for the year.

-Language barriar:
The language barriar is humbling. I often feel like a child. Though the silly mistakes are humorous at times, it gets frustrating to not be able to carry on conversation past surface level. I have to remind myself often, "little by little" :)

-Heat:
I have discovered a new level of hot. Someone told us when we arrived to just get used to a layer of sweat covering our bodies all the time, which is really true. I´m looking forward to December- I hear it gets down to the 70s!

-Life:
Like I said, there has been a lot here to take in. I am faced with much to think about here that I could ignore in the U.S. Being faced daily with the reality of poverty is difficult.

Some of my favorite things so far :)

-The sound of the rain : The house that I live in has a tin roof, and when it rains hard you can´t even carry on conversation. I love it!
-My host family
-Playing cards with my host sister
-Pitayha Juice
-Successful conversations in Spanish
-The MCC team here
-The other night I hand washed all of my clothes. I started right after dinner and was done in time for bed, but it was a real sense of accomplishment. It also gave me a true respect for the women here.

So that has been my past few weeks! Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. It means a lot to me. It has been a real blessing to see God´s daily provision in such an intense month for me.
Until next time...:)

1st Entry!

Hello everyone!!
I am starting a blog to keep in contact with you all while I am in Nicaragua over the next 11 months. I think that it will be a very helpful communication tool :)

Description of what I'm doing in just a couple of short weeks!:
On August 11th I leave for Akron, PA for a week of orientation to the SALT program. SALT (Serving and Learning Together) is a program that I heard about at Bluffton and is through MCC (Mennonite Central Committee). After a week of orientation I leave with 3 or 4 others to my placement in Managua, Nicaragua. In Nicaragua, I will be working at a children's home designed for children under the age of 6 with disabilities. I will live with a host family in Managua. I will also have Spanish Language classes and more orientation for the first six weeks.

I've been experiencing some of the fear and uncertainty that seems to come with all new seasons of change in life, but I'm excited about it too :) I'm really looking forward to all of the people I will meet, the relationships I will build, and coming to a deeper understanding of another culture. I look forward to seeing God's hand in new ways, and to broaden my spiritual thinking. And I am of course excited about those cute cute kids that I will get to work with for a year :) :) I anticipate a lot of excitement, plenty of struggles, and a whole lot of learning!!

So that is what is coming up for me! I appreciate so much any thoughts and prayers for my next year. I will try to post on this thing about once a month and hopefully will be able to put up a few pictures too. Please know that I would love love love to hear from you all, how you are, and what is going on in your lives! I will miss you all!

Until next time...:)