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...:)
