Saturday in Managua

Most of the guidebooks I’ve read have treated the capital city, Managua, as a place to fly into, but then leave as fast as possible to get to your final destination. Other than a few business trips to edge of Managua, we had pretty much avoided it, despite being less than an hour away. We decided to give it a try our last free Saturday at La Mariposa.

At the recommendation of a college friend of mine, Derek Charles, we agreed to meet him and his family at an Aquatic Park in northern Managua. Derek and his wife Rebekah have been serving with MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) as country representatives in Managua since 2015. Their kids Lia (8), Silas (6), and Miriam (2) were close in age to our three children, and I was eager to give our kids a chance to rub shoulders with “Third Culture Kids” and see part of their life in Nicaragua.

Not sure what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised by the Aquatic park. The water park was only two years old and rivaled many parks you can find back home. One big difference, adults weren’t allowed on slides and larger equipment, everything was for kids.  (Water slides aren’t very well regulated, and “crashes” are common. So less adults might actually be safer). Our kids were initially shy, but quickly overcame that and made new friends with the Charles kids. The older kids soon could navigate the larger structures and slides together without us. This gave parents time to chat, while we tailed Cheyenne and Miriam in the kiddy pool area.

After a pizza and chicken lunch, we said goodbye to Rebekah and Miriam and sent them off for naps. The rest of us explored the rest of Xolotlan park. They have an impressive display of scale models of cathedrals found throughout Nicaragua. It was cool seeing the variety of architecture side by side.

Following that we walked through a scale model of “downtown” Managua as it looked in the early 1970’s before an earthquake took out many of the buildings.

Models of the old cathedral and presidential palace.

From there we got a tour of many other sights in Managua. Some highlights include:

Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception – AKA the “Eggcarton Cathedral”, a modern twist on cathedral design.

Loma de Tiscapa – an overlook over the city of Managua. The kids enjoyed snacks here, and running around on the playground.

Old Cathedral – We couldn’t go in, but you can see the shell of what’s left from the earthquake, and the huge cracks on the sides.

We ended the day at Parque Luis Afonso Velasquez Florez. It’s a very large and well-done children’s park. Our kids enjoyed paddleboats, a roller coaster ride, and playing on the many playgrounds. The park was named after a young 9-year-old boy who is considered a martyr of the Sandinista Revolution. He was killed in 1979 for being an outspoken critic of the Somoza government. Just three months after his death, the “revolution” took place with the ousting of “Somoza”.

In 2019, it is a bit ironic to observe the “niceties” of these children’s parks and beauty of some of these city centers juxtaposed to the current political and economic crisis in Nicaragua. Last April (2018), a benign protest turned deadly when government forces shot and killed 26 people. Things fell apart from there, and hundreds more were killed over the next several months before opposition protest were snuffed out, leaving a political and economic mess in its wake.

During this trip in Managua, I observed graffiti and burn marks on scale model cathedrals being painted over and restored. My kids enjoyed the result of lots of money poured into very colorful park systems.  I saw a forest of 140 Metal Trees costing around $3.3 million in one of the poorest counties in the Western Hemisphere. While my kids immensely enjoyed the parks, part of it felt like a facade, hiding the many problems and challenges of this beautiful country. A more optimistic reflection would point out the attempt to build an impressive and iconic downtown area for this capital city, something Nicaraguans can be proud of.

At Tiscapa, a huge monument to the current government: the silhouette of Sandinista hero Sandino, the FSLN (Sandinista party) flag flying right alongside the Nicaraguan, and on the left one of the infamous giant metal “Trees of Life.”

I was confronted with a different reality as we headed back home on public transportation. For nearly the hour plus trip, I stood with my two oldest kids on a jammed bus, bracing myself and them for the constant braking and acceleration of the bus. Something I’m glad my kids experienced, but something I wouldn’t want to do everyday. The verdict? Managua was a great trip and worth seeing, but not something I’d do every weekend.

The Children of the San Pedro Project

I’ve already talked a lot about how one of the best things about La Mariposa is the way that they work to give back and invest in the surrounding communities.  In a previous post I described the plan to open a new children’s project in another local community, and our family was blessed to be able to purchase the school supplies and craft type items that we thought the project could use to get it off to a good start.  It was an honor to then get to be here for the grand opening day of that project and witness the overwhelming confirmation of the need in the community for a project like this!

It was beautiful to have our children not only observe the opening of the new project, but also stay for their class time with their teachers that morning to interact directly with the other children. The experience of seeing so many children wanting the chance to participate left a huge impression on them!

San Pedro is a small barrio of the larger community of San Juan, within easy walking distance of the school. Paulette described its needs this way: “This is in a barrio commonly referred to as “El Chirigete” which is highly offensive and means “dirty” (a reference to the community’s poverty)—it is the barrio everyone else blames for thefts or when anything goes wrong.  Ignored in general by the authorities (except the police), the people of San Pedro were very involved in the opposition to the government and the building of roadblocks (during the crisis this summer).  Most of the young men fled from this barrio during ‘Operation Clean Up’ and are now in Costa Rica.  So the idea of this project was to contribute to the process of reconciliation.” 

At the time this new project opened, La Mariposa was right in the middle of a lot of stress and financial insecurity, still struggling to make a recovery after the fallout of this summer’s political crisis and months with no students to generate income.  And yet they felt called to reach out to this barrio, and begin a new educational project for its children, not knowing if the extra funding to support it would be there or not.

When they began to plan for this project, they estimated that around 40 children might attend, and planned accordingly in renting a spare room of someone’s home to house the project.  On the morning that the project would open, all current La Mariposa students and our teachers piled into the van together to go be a part of the event.  By the time we got there, the room was already packed with children, all of the little tables and chairs were filled, and as we waited for the start more and more children and their parents continued to arrive, so that many had to stand, and many did not fit inside the room! After Hassell, in charge of directing all La Mariposa’s community projects, gave a welcome introduction and thanked everyone who had made it possible, she began to long process of trying to take attendance to get a list of all the children who had shown up.  In the end, there were not 40 children, but close to 100 children and their parents who were eager to take advantage of this extra educational opportunity!

Hassell trying to bring some organization to the project’s opening morning, as children kept packing into the single rented room.
Barely even standing room left, as parents share about their gratitude for an extra opportunity for their children to learn.

Staff at La Mariposa had known there was a need, but were blown away by the community response to the project opening!  Within a week they were needing to look for a new location to rent for need of a larger space, and moved into one nearby that had two rooms. I was excited about the idea of being able to participate in the start of something brand new for the benefit of children, and knowing that they had so many more children than expected with only two teachers to lead the project, I asked Hassell if I might spend my last two weeks at La Mariposa volunteering in San Pedro in place of my regular Spanish classes.

So for the last two weeks of our time at La Mariposa, I met with Johana (who was my ongoing Spanish grammar teacher for our whole stay, and is from San Pedro herself) at 8:00 to walk the 15 minutes through San Juan to the San Pedro project together, both volunteered together until the project ended at 11:00, and then walked back and finished out the 20 minutes or so of class time left before lunch with some final grammar lessons.

My Spanish grammar teacher, Johana, became a great friend, as I got to know her over the 6 weeks at La Mariposa and especially during the two weeks volunteering together when I got to really see her heart for the children of her community!

The first day we helped at the project, all of the children were still meeting at one time, split between the two small rooms with still not enough chairs for all of the children to sit. Two teachers trying to teacher that many children, ranging in age from 3-12, split between two different rooms, was quite a chaotic scene!  Starting the following day they divided into two separate sessions, younger children in the morning and older children in the afternoon, making numbers and space a little more manageable! In the beginning I was able to help by passing out papers and supplies, assisting children with craft projects, and sharing little games and books I brought to keep children in one room busy while teachers were instructing in the other room. 

As the project got into more of a routine and I gained more confidence in the role I could play there, I was given more activities to lead on my own, like teaching the alphabet, reading books aloud to the whole group, and my personal favorites—teaching the children how to play “Simon Says” (“Simon Dice”) and to sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” (“Cabeza, Hombros, Piernas, Pies”).  I also enjoyed lots of little in-between moments: teaching small groups of children to play memory with a set of Cheyenne’s picture cards I brought along, and how certain children would come ask me for “las cartas” to play the game together every day during break time; sitting with children outside during recreo (a break time for snack, like recess) and answering all kinds of questions about my children, my pets, snow in Ohio; all the children who generously wanted to share their snacks with me, from mandarins to bites of their cookies to drinks from their yogurt pouch—they all wanted to have something to give me; the time kids had asked what my favorite fruit was, and I said berries like strawberries, and the next day a child pulls out a strawberry brought especially for me; my friend Angel who was waiting outside every day during recreo, even though he was in the older afternoon group, to ask me questions and practice phrases he knew or wanted to learn in English (our main accomplishments were “How are you?” “Very good.” And “What is your name?”—we didn’t have a lot of time!).

And then there were the times spent sitting with Jose, a little boy with a disability that has kept him completely non-verbal, pointing out pictures and names of objects in books and responding to his sweet attempts to communicate through excited pointing and gestures and pulling on my arm to ask me to sit and read with him some more (sadly, in Nicaragua there aren’t laws supporting the education of children with disabilities in schools, so a project like this might be his only access to learning outside his home, since schools aren’t required to accept him or provide support services). His big searching eyes say there is a lot more going on inside his head than he is able to express!

It was sad to come upon the last day that I would be helping at the project before we left La Mariposa, and to think of saying goodbye to the children.  But they completely surprised me when I walked in the door that morning to find the children already seated in a circle around the room, the walls and ceilings strung with streamers and balloons, and even a pinata!  Plus a beautiful cake with a special personalized message on it, punch and treats for the children—all for a goodbye party to thank me after just 2 weeks of volunteering—I was so blown away and humbled!

My surprise when I walked in the doorway!
“Muchas Gracias por todo, siempre te recordaremos” – Many thanks for everything, we will always remember you”
They made sure to point out that instead of “Adios, Tara,” the cake says “Hasta Pronto, Tara” which is more like saying “See you soon!” because they expect me to come back again!

It was such a fun last morning of music, playing games (I had my chance to show off my pinata dance skills, and lead “Simon Dice” one last time), and helping to pass out all the special party treats for the kids to enjoy.  It was an honor to have been the first volunteer to help at this new project and get to know the kids of San Pedro and work with teachers Idana and Milita, and to have them so quickly make me feel like a part of their community who would be missed. 

The whole surprise, the decorations, the cake, the party were all amazing gifts to be given, but the best gifts were all of the huge HUGS from kids at the end, the two little boys who each came up to me before they left to give a sweet little speech of their own thanking me for helping with the project and providing supplies, and a picture of the beautiful children of San Pedro who will have a special place in my heart, always!  Hasta pronto, San Pedro, te amo!

Starting to wind down: Highlights of La Mariposa Week 5

The kids have talked a lot about missing their kittens back home, so finding some kittens to snuggle on the mountain reserve after a morning horse ride was a highlight!

As we drew nearer to the end of our 6 weeks at La Mariposa, which had seemed like such a long time in the beginning, it felt like it was going by too fast, and I think we all wished we could slow those last weeks down to keep the end from coming! But those last two weeks still had many little joys and learning experiences to pack into our remaining time!

In addition to the kittens above that the kids befriended one morning on the reserve, we had two special friends at La Mariposa adopt our family in those last couple weeks. One was Pelusa the dog, who began inviting herself into our room each evening just to chill on the floor near to us for a couple hours until we went to bed. The other was the rescued gray kitten Estrella who liked to come into our room to play wildly or curl up on a bed to sleep.

I wrote in a previous post about the many community projects with children supported by La Mariposa. The children of some of those projects presented a special performance at the school one afternoon for a group of representatives from an organization that has gifted financial support. They put together an adorably choreographed rendition of the “Baby Shark” song complete with handmade costumes, and another group of girls danced a beautiful example of traditional Nicaraguan folkloric dance.

Another afternoon Ismael drove our family to an unlikely tourist location—the local trash dump area outside the town of La Concha. We especially wanted our children to think about the global problem of trash, and to see it in a real way right in front of them. Seeing an entire valley turned into a solid mountain-sized wall of trash, and hearing how trash being pushed further over the side of the valley would get washed down river when the rainy season came, really seemed to make an impact on our children as they wrote in their journals later about the importance of trying to reduce the amount of trash we throw away every day.

This might at first glance look like just a hillside landscape, but this whole hill is formed by a solid wall of garbage. A stark image of the huge problem of human created waste and where to put it…

We enjoyed the many different opportunities La Mariposa has provided to see local artisans at work in their trades, and to support their art by taking a peice home from each one. This week we visited a local maraca maker, who intricately handcarves the instruments from a special type of gourd that grows on a tree. The children were amazed by his demonstration of how quickly he could take a plain gourd and perfectly carve the word Nicaragua into it in less than 30 seconds! We placed a custom order to commemorate our trip, and our own beautiful set was delivered in a few days!

Only one week left to describe of our La Mariposa stay, but still so much packed in that I have about 4 blog posts in my head to try to wrap up everything we experienced in that last week, so stay tuned!

-Tara

That eye color though!

A Day in Granada: as told by Quinten (age 8) and Thea (age 7)

Granada is another important and beautiful colonial city in Nicaragua. The Saturday trip to Granada also marked exactly 1 month since our family’s arrival in Nicaragua, and it made for a wonderful way to experience many things that make Nicaragua such a beautiful country all on the day of that anniversary! 

I also made our children write journals entries about the city for school, so I will let their writings help tell some of Granada’s story.

QUINTEN: “Granada is a cool place, but very important too! Other than being one of the oldest cities in the Americas, it has faced many dangers (pirate attacks, volcanic eruptions, etc.).”

THEA: “First we went to a cemetery. A cow was “mooing” the grass (😊 😊 he he).  We looked into graves and we had fun.  People get buried in tombs.  One person would get buried with their family under the same tomb.”  

**Okay so, we did not look “into graves”, lol, but we toured around to see the many very elaborate family tombs and statues adorning them.  Being from rural Ohio where cemeteries are mostly simple granite headstones, the idea of huge above-ground family tombs was a new concept.  Also, there really was a cow inside the cemetery grazing when we first arrived, very common here for people to graze their livestock on any public space that has grass on it, but the kids found a cow wandering among the tombs especially amusing and out of place.**   

After the cemetery we walked around town some and stopped to see another beautiful old cathedral. I had the opportunity to climb to the bell tower for the view, but because of the steep stair climb (My legs were tingling for a while afterward and still sore the next day), children had to stay grounded and were happy to get a snack with daddy instead.

QUINTEN: “Chocolate is good, right? But think about the story behind it.”

THEA: “We went to a chocolate factory and learned how to make chocolate. We did a dance and sang “Ba-te, ba-te, Cho-co-la-te” (Stir stir Chocolate).  We got free samples of brownies, chocolate, mocha, Nicatella (like Nutella), and a chocolate massage made of cocoa butter.  It was fun.”

Thea trying out the cacoa bean grinding dance!

**The Choco Museo Nicaragua was a lighter stop after the cemetery. The guide who took us on the tour spoke great English, and was a born performer.  They have a creative and fun presentation to walk guests through the process of how chocolate is made, starting with the cacoa tree, the history of its use going back to the Mayans, the process of separating the beans from the pods and grinding them (with a fun chant and dance routine that invited audience participation!), the different products made from different stages of the process and the differences between the different types of chocolate (the guide was impressed by the tastes of our children who affirmed that DARK chocolate is the best kind of chocolate, we’ve raised them well).  And yes, at the end of the tour we all got to sample many different chocolate-based products they make there before we were invited to make some gift shop purchases.  It was a fun and informative experience, and didn’t take up a lot of time.

Our enthusiastic guide, “Kenny Wonka,” spoon feeding samples of “Nicatella,” their healthier, more pure-chocolate version of Nutella spread.

THEA: “Then we went to Lake Nicaragua in Granada.  They have islands (islas). The islands are made by Volcan Mombacho. A long time ago the volcano erupted, shooting huge rocks into the lake and making islands.  There are houses, cafes, or even restaurants on them.  We rode on a boat to an island to swim.”

QUINTEN: “It also has 365 islands made out of volcanic rock coughed out of Volcan Mombacho, thousands of years ago. We went on a boat ride to the islands.”

**That description that the islands were “coughed out” by the volcano, LOL!  The boat tour around the lake to see the isletas (little islands) in the afternoon was definitely the highlight of the day!  The volcano backdrops surrounding the lake are beautiful, and gawking at all the little islands with the unique homes that have been built on each one led to fun exercises in dreaming up “if you owned your own island, what would you do with it?” 

One of my favorite pictures, Cheyenne being walked safely down the dock to the boat with daddy holding her hand on one side, and Marvin (our excellent, wise and knowledgeable La Mariposa tour guide who accompanies us on all of our big trips) holding her other hand.

Our boat tour guide was super knowledgeable about all of the islands: which ones are owned by former and current presidents, which one is owned by the biggest beer mogul in Nicaragua, the ones owned by the family of Nicaragua’s first billionaire businessman Carlos Pellas, this one that was bought by Canadians and that one that is owned by a family from Brazil….And of course Denver would never let me forget “Monkey Island”, a tiny area of rock and trees inhabited only by 3 Spider monkeys!

Our guide was also able to point out the many private islands that are currently for sale, and tell their selling price, which made me wonder if he doubles as a real estate agent and would make a commission if he convinced some tourists to make an impulse buy (which is tantalizing idea, they really are beautiful little secluded islands in a quiet lake!).  At the farthest part of the tour we stopped at an island restaurant that had a small swimming pool, bought drinks and played for a while. Denver and the kids even took a few jumps off a diving board into the lake! (Cheyenne and I were content to sit on the edge of the pool and just get our feet wet). 

Sidenote, it was also our last day with two awesome La Mariposa friends, Cynthia and Pascal from Quebec, Canada (awesome French accents!), as they were staying in Granada at a hostel before heading off on some Nicaraguan adventures on their own.  Cynthia was great at making my children go wild with silly threats that she wanted to eat their toes (which I found out later led them to google the question, “How many kids have toes in Canada?” LOL!).  We miss you toe-eating Canadians!

A picture Cynthia sent me of some of their further Nicaraguan adventures, swimming in Canyon Somoto, Esteli.

So in all, it was a very good day, and if you are ever touring around this beautiful country, a tour of Granada should be on your must-see list!

Week 3 in Nicaragua: More Things to Love

We’ve fallen so far behind in documenting our travels, and we’ve done soooo much in that time, that it’s overwhelming to sit here after what has actually been 7 weeks and try to figure out where to start with all the weeks I haven’t covered yet!  Thankfully photo documentation was plentiful and serves as the outline for my memories to keep our timeline straight.

Weekend 3: Leon

Leon is the second-largest city in Nicaragua (after the capital, Managua), and was the originally capital city starting in colonial times when founded by the Spanish; therefore it has a lot of historical and political importance, and is a usual stop in getting to know the country. 

What to love about Leon: beautiful old architecture, especially the cathedral.  There are tour guides to tell all about the history of the cathedral (which Denver heard, and I mostly spent chasing Cheyenne and trying to keep her from lying in the middle of the floor or climbing through the barriers to the temptingly fun-looking nativity scene up front), and then you can pay to climb up to the rooftop and walk around to see the view of the city and the details of the architecture up close.  My favorite is trying to capture different angles of certain interesting parts of a building framed by sky and clouds, so I enjoyed the rooftop photography the most!  And while in a culturally-famous city I’m sure there are many great restaurants to get some wonderful authentic Nicaraguan meals, we were with our children…so where did we eat lunch? Pizza Hut. Which is what they would say was their favorite part of the tour of Leon.

What not to love about Leon: The city is STINKING HOT!  We get spoiled by the beautifully temperate climate in Masaya and especially La Mariposa with all the trees for fresh air and shade, so the temperature difference in the region of Leon is a shocker (more than 10 degrees hotter, plus lots of city concrete and few trees), so come prepared with the sunscreen, sunglasses, and lots of water!  We ended up spending a couple hours of the afternoon at a nearby beach area in Leon rather than touring more of the city, which was more fun for our children, but still crazy hot and sand burning their feet, bigger waves and shorter stretch of beach to the water, so we personally recommend the beach at La Boquita (which is our trip the 4th weekend, next post).

Cheyenne was terrified to go anywhere close to the waves, but Quinn and Thea enjoyed playing in them.

Also weekend 3: Old Friends

What to love about Nicaraguan people: It only takes a couple of days together to feel like family and be welcomed back months after first meeting as if you had always been friends.  When Denver and I first traveled to Nicaragua in February 2018 to scout out plans for this trip, we spent one weekend in a Homestay with a family in La Concha during our time visiting La Mariposa.  They quickly made us feel at home in their home and we became fast friends with their teenage son with Down Syndrome, who loved coloring and telling us all about his collection of model animals.  When preparing to return this December, I made sure to pick up a coloring book and a new set of plastic animals of North America to bring Daryl for Christmas.  His father Julio had invited our family to come tour a citrus farm (lots of Mandarin and orange trees in harvest, as well as rows and rows of pineapple and dragon fruit) owned by his friend on Sunday, so that morning we got to bring Daryl his presents.  His joy opening these two simple gifts and lovingly carrying them around was priceless, and made an impact on our children as well. 

Week 3-4: Life in La Mariposa

Things to Love: Pizza making day.  One this special day of the month when we get homemade pizza for dinner, the children were super excited to participate in the pizza-making class.  The La Mariposa cooks helped them chop toppings, mix the dough, knead and roll it, and each assemble toppings (Homemade sauce, lots of veggies, lots of cheese) on pizzas that would be dinner for everyone that evening!

FURRY things to love: So. Many.  Contented dogs lounging everywhere. The newly-rescued grey kitten, just starting to get braver and more adventurous, became a special family favorite during the last half of our stay, often inviting herself into our room to play or sprawl on our bed for a while before we went to sleep. And Chica the sweet old Spider monkey who just wants someone to come hold her hand, and walking down to their cage just to sit and hold her hand and stroke her arm for a while was calming for me too. (While Paulette would love all wild animals like these monkeys to live free, the ones who live here had been kept in captivity for too long before they were turned over to La Mariposa, so they can no longer be safely released to fend for themselves, so they give them the best care they can here).

More to love about fellow students:  This week brought Jacob, a young man who has been coming with his parents to La Mariposa since he was a much smaller boy, over multiple years, and now as a 14-year-old came alone for a couple weeks to work as an intern and learn about how the business is run.  He is well known by all the staff, has a homestay family he has lived with multiple times, speaks great Spanish, and independently jumps right in to life at the school (he is also tenacious enough to figure out how to bring the puppy, Pecas, home to Florida with him at the end of his stay, which also gave our children all kinds of ideas…)  Seeing how Jacob come on his own as a teenager was especially inspiring for our children, and started them already thinking about how they want to return to help at La Mariposa when they are older; Quinten already has a plan to bring a group of friends on a school trip when he is in high school!

And I can’t forget: My handcrafted ceramic flowerpot chicken.  What’s not to love? (You know you want one too).    

La Mariposa: Supporting their community

I wanted to share more in depth about the many ways that La Mariposa is working to help support needs in the communities around them; but since I already made my children write journal entries on that topic for their school notebooks, I thought I would just let them tell about it in their own words, using quotes from their writing!  They wrote these journal entries the day after we went on a tour of 3 of the projects sponsored by La Mariposa.

Cheyenne did not write a journal entry, however she does give her approval of all the good things La Mariposa is doing for children 🙂

School Library project

Quinten: “There are many things that La Mariposa does in the community.  1. They donated a library to a school that’s close because mostly kids in Nicaragua can’t just go pick up a book and start reading.”

Thea: “In Nicaragua some schools have no library, so at one school La Mariposa will buy books for that school.”

The school librarian talks about how the library donated by La Mariposa is utilized by their school.

Village of Panama English Classes

Quinten: “Our teachers at La Mariposa teach Spanish to us in the morning, and teach English (to other children) in the afternoon!  The kids in the community can go to school in the morning and learn English at the project in the afternoon (from La Mariposa teachers)!”

On the day we visited, the children were learning phrases to answer “What’s the weather?” in English.

Water for Panama Community

**This community is the poorest in the area, people living very high in mountains and very near to a volcano, with seasonal farming of pineapple and dragonfruit the only available work. There is no water pipeline to this altitude, and it is very hot and humid. Water needs to be trucked up the mountain in barrels from the municipality below, and is rationed. The smoke and acid constantly in the air from the proximity of the volcano causes other health risks and badly corrodes anything made of metal.

From this view you can see how high in the mountains these children live (and the background haze of smoke from the volcano).

Thea: “A town they sponsor is very near a volcano and it is really humid.  It is very hard to get water so they only get one barrel of water every week (that’s probably as much water as you use in a bath!).  La Mariposa gets extra water for them.”

Quinten: “Families living on a mountain near a volcano don’t get water from the tap, but they get one barrel full of water every week.  So they have to be careful of how much water to use, because normally an average person (in the US) might use 2-4 barrels of water a day.  But La Mariposa provides extra water, so they still have to be careful, but they get more!”

**That one barrel per family per week that they describe would need to meet all of the family’s water needs—from bathing to clothes washing to cooking and drinking.  Because that is so little water for a whole week, in a very hot location especially during the dry season, La Mariposa pays to provide extra water barrels for this community.

A family’s weekly ration of water.

Chispa de Vida: Children with Disabilities

Thea: “They have a program called Chispa de Vida (*Spark of Life).  It is for children with disabilities. One is physical therapy which is someone moving their muscles. The second is equine therapy which is for once a week they let the kids go horse riding. The third is Hydrotherapy which is when the kids go to a pool to also get their muscles moving.”

Formerly abused and neglected horses, now giving confidence and strength to children with physical and developmental difficulties—a beautiful cycle!

**Nicaragua does not have the social support system that we have in the US for families to receive free services for a child with disabilities (how our family benefits from free preschool and speech therapy for Cheyenne).  Parents with a special needs child would be on their own to pay for something like a session with a physical therapist, and most could not afford it, and wouldn’t have proper transportation to get their child there. Chispa de Vida is completely free to these families, providing them with transportation to the program by van as needed from some very rural areas and access to 3 physical therapists paid by La Mariposa to help work with each family and assess each child’s individual needs. One day a week is specifically for physical therapy, one day a week is for equine therapy, and one day a week is for hydrotherapy at a pool rented by La Mariposa, with the physical therapists present for all. 

Paulette’s daughter Guillermina, who has had a whole lot of trauma, physical and developmental obstacles to overcome in her life, now takes pride in assisting other children in Chispa de Vida.
Just look at this little guy’s JOY!

Community Children’s Projects

Quinten: “There is a place where kids can interact and play with each other that La Mariposa sponsors. But the most important thing there is a make new friends.”

Quinn and Thea jump into a pickup game of soccer with 2 other boys while another group of girls plays a jump rope game.

**Our children have had other opportunities to visit and play with some of the children at one of the projects nearby with their Spanish teachers, and without needing to speak very much in the same language, Quinten and Thea quickly made friends with some other kids there by joining in a game of soccer! The kids there also surprised us by performing the “Baby Shark” song (One of Cheyenne’s most favorites!) and the “Chicken Dance” (how did they know the crazy chicken lady was coming?) for our group when we visited!  Since school in Nicaragua is only a half day compared to ours (9:00-12:00), these community children’s projects started and supported by La Mariposa give children a place to go after school (and currently during their break from school) for more organized activities, crafts, learning English, and other enrichment and learning opportunities beyond just going home and watching TV for the afternoon (which a number of my teachers have named as a big problem in their country).

Outside of the building where the children meet.

The La Mariposa staff is planning to open a new children’s project in another local community in need, starting this week! And because Denver’s family sent donations along with us to use for projects we felt called to support during our travels, we had fun this Sunday afternoon going on shopping sprees in a couple little tiendas (stores) in nearby towns to buy LOTS of necessary school supply items to stock the new project and the ongoing ones. The workers in these little librerias (book stores) were definitely surprised (and grateful for the business!) to sell such a large quantity of school supply stock all at once! So now 4 bags full of writing notebooks, scissors, glue, markers, pencils, crayons, colored paper, and fun crafting supplies sit in our room ready to be used to supply the grand opening of new children’s project and restock the various other community children’s projects, and I am super excited to hand them over to the directors of these programs!  (Thanks Steiner family!) 

It took the girl overseeing the store a bit a time to hand write the receipt and add up all the items I had piled on her counter!
The whole stash, ready to be delivered to the new project!

Our Most Happy Place: La Boquita Beach

Denver and I have been looking forward to this particular weekend trip ever since we happened to come just the right weekend in February 2018 to get to experience La Boquita beach together.  We loved our day there, and said to each other often during that visit, “Our kids are going to love this!” So we were excited to finally get to share it with them!

Things to love about La Boquita: The photo gallery for this one will really tell its own story, because there are so many unique and beautiful and fun things to love about this beach!  But let’s start with the beachfront itself.  From the little outdoor restaurant cabana area that La Mariposa students park at during visits, there is a very long stretch of white sandy beach heading down to meet the water with the most gradual slope I have ever experienced at a beach, resulting in waves that break much farther out and then travel gently further up the beach for long stretches with only very shallow water washing over the sand.  That unique characteristic makes these beach “waves” perfect for young children to run and splash through with no threat of being knocked down or pulled under by the current.  It also makes for beautiful reflection photographs as the wide expanses of wet sand reflect back the colors of the sky, clouds, and children at play.


Next, there are the huge rock formations that invite climbing and exploring.  The rocks capture all kinds of little pools of water to play in and find tiny ocean life, like snails and barnacles.   

Then there is the unique feature that this particular stretch of beach has a river that feeds into a large freshwater pond, which then drains in a series of shallow streams flowing through the sand and rocks to reach the ocean.  The shallow streams and pools it creates are again the perfect depth for young children to walk and splash through, and our older two little swimmers loved playing together in the pond (where local children who live in a little village all around the water were also playing and cooling off, as were a few cows and pigs). 

For the equivalent of $4 US, you can take a ride on a beach horse up and down the beachfront for a half hour, which I was ecstatic to get to do last year with Denver, fulfilling one of my “bucket list” dreams of riding a horse on a beach, and this time I got to share that experience with Thea and Cheyenne which was also really special. 

Many people in this area make a living fishing, and the colorful array of little fishing boats lined up along the shore make a fun backdrop.  That also means that you can buy a very fresh fish dinner (if you are into that kind of thing, as my husband and children are; I stuck to chicken).  But the others who ordered the fish meal raved about it.  Meals come with copious amounts of rice, salad, and fried plantains on the side, all delicious after a full morning of playing and exploring in the fresh beach air and sunshine!    

Our other La Mariposa friends enjoying their fish meals, too. Miss you all!
Cheyenne preferred ice cream over fish.

And when you need a break from splashing and climbing and sunshine, there are always hammocks and chairs in the shade of the cabana, with a good book (I was reading “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” which was a fun beach read!)

We seriously started talking about whether there might be a beachfront property for sale with our names on it.  Or at least, the plausibility of planning future family vacations for this beach instead of East coast US beaches.  It was just that good of a day.  

~Tara

 A few of my favorite (and least favorite) things: Week 2 in Nicaragua (by Tara)

The far-reaching view over multiple cities and lakes from the top of Volcan Mombacho.

In the States, when asked the common greeting “How are you?” the typical response has become “Busy!” Here in Nicaragua I would not say that life is “busy,” but that life is “full”—and “full” is much different than “busy.”  Life here is full because every day is full of LIFE, not just a list of busy things to cross off a checklist, but every day new things to experience, people to meet, stories to hear, communication barriers to break down, beauty to stand in awe of.  Going to bed exhausted most nights—not from the stress of life’s demands and to-do’s, but from the fullness of all the LIVING that was fit into one day. (Granted, some of the exhaustion credit also goes to my children, who do at times cause some real stress, but most of the positive credit goes to La Mariposa for filling our schedule with so many amazing cultural experiences and trips).

FAVORITE THINGS THIS WEEK:

ALL the Views.  Seriously, EVERYWHERE they take you in this country, there is somewhere to stop to have an amazing view overlooking volcanos, lakes, rainforest, villages on the sides of mountains—SO MANY beautiful overlooks, it will be hard to choose which ones to display here!

View from top of Mombacho volcano.

Beautiful forested paths on our hike around the crater of the (inactive) volcano.
Our horses released to La Mariposa’s mountain reserve land after a morning ride.
View that shows the difference between the small amount of preserved forest areas and the largely deforested mountain areas for growing dragonfruit for export.
Lake overlook in Catarina
Land of many lakes and volcanos

Sharing stories.  As we meet more of the adventurous, big-hearted kinds of people who would travel to Nicaragua and chose to stay at La Mariposa, we find it doesn’t take long to jump from small talk to sharing deep life stories, and in the space of a week someone you’ve just met that week feels like you’ve always known them.  Things like 3 communal meals a day and holidays spent relaxing at the lake provide great opportunity to learn about each other, and hearing about the life’s work and travels and adventures and dreams of our fellow students and the staff and teachers here has been so encouraging and inspiring.

La Mariposa founder, Paulette, has amazing stories about her life before starting the school, and how she came to adopt her Nicaraguan daughter with special needs who is now an adult, stories a few of us ladies got to hear over lunch by the lake.

New Holiday Traditions.  Like how the big meals and celebrations of Christmas and New Year’s happen on the Eve of those days, but on the 25th and 1st where does everybody go?  To hang out at a BEACH of course!  I think we really could get used to this weekly spending-a-day-at-the-lake thing (as long as it is a volcanic hot-springs-fed sort of lake—even I went in for an extra swim at Laguna de Apoyo just for the enjoyment of it, because the water is niiiiiiice!) (However, the tradition of setting off 20+ minutes worth of REALLY LOUD firecrackers all over town at 12:00 on New Year’s Eve when people who are too old and tired to stay up and wait for the new year to arrive are just trying to sleep…I could do without that one.)

Ready to jump in!
Long swim through the waves to the raft.
Even the mama got to RELAX and read while Shiny took a nap in the hammock.

Culture of handcrafted arts.  In the past week, we have visited a man who crafts figures and bowls out of volcanic stone, a house of pottery where all the color and polish are made naturally using rocks (and the kids where given a turn to shape the clay on the wheel with the potter), and a family that produces woven blankets on large wooden looms (and our children were given the chance to yank on the cord that sends the spool of yarn shooting across from one side of the loom to the other, helping to add strands to a blanket being made). In all of those cases, the art of their craft had been passed down from generation to generation, involving the whole family in the process, and they took pride in the quality of their work.  (And in each case, an item or two will be coming home with us to commemorate how we were able to experience how that unique item was created).

The artisan and his stone craft.
Amazing to watch how he used his feet as an extra set of hands to hold the stone in place while he chipped and smoothed the rock with other tools.
Potter’s apprentice
He was really good at showing them what to do and helping them succeed at shaping a bowl.
Proud of her work.
Skilled first-generation weaver, who now has daughters working with her as well, working at the oldest loom first purchased to start the family business.
Giving the cord a quick firm pull to send the shuttle of yarn shooting across to the opposite side of the blanket.

Children learning language.  It is so fun to hear our children grow more confident in using new words.  Their teachers will sometimes bring them over to Denver and me during our classes and have them ask us a list of questions in Spanish, or sing us a Spanish song they just learned (still in awe that Quinten’s teacher could get him to perform a song for us solo!).  Thea especially is turning into quite the conversationalist!  And for those of you who know 3-year-old Cheyenne and how producing speech sounds clearly has been difficult for her, she has suddenly in the past two weeks started to use so many new words in ENGLISH, it seems like almost every day there is something she says that makes us say, “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard her say that word!” Which I attribute in part to the wide variety of new experiences she’s having, and the motivation to put words to and describe those new experiences (one of her newest vocabulary words is “Fun!”  Also “almost,” as in “we’re almost there” because of all the traveling, “enough” because we’ve had to instruct her often to conserve her use of things like water and toilet paper, “beach” and “swim” from all the trips to the lake, “tomorrow” because there are always fun things to anticipate.  With meeting so many new people, she started pointing to herself and saying “Shiny” to introduce herself, and learned to say names of new friends like “Juli”, “Allison”, and the names of favorite dogs (her new word for all dogs is “Woofie”) and the monkey “Chita”, all very clear and understandable.  Oh, and in Spanish she can also say “Hola,” “Gracias,” and “Adios!” 

The laguna sparks some of Shiny’s newest words, like “swim pool,” “sunshine bright,” and “fun!”

AND THE FEW NOT-SO-FAVORITE THINGS…

Touring historical museums with a 3-year-old.  Try standing in a historical home with antique furniture and other easily-knocked-over items and a door standing wide open to the street outside, while a guide presents for 20 minutes in Spanish about the life of political hero Sandino, while a child who never sits still runs from one possibly breakable item to another, out one doorway into another, throwing a tantrum here and there when told she can’t touch something (also a major angry meltdown from one of the older children when he discovered his pencil was missing somewhere on the grounds and demanded we find it (never did)). Ditto on the tour of the historical cathedral in the former capital city of Leon, complete with laying flat out in the middle of floors and refusing to get up when she decides she is too sleepy to walk anymore…maybe you’d be on the verge of an anxiety attack too. 

Doesn’t Thea look inspired?
Gazing longingly at the park across the road.
Beautiful outdoor courtyard area to run around in helps a little.

Saying good-bye so soon.  The flip side of getting to meet new friends who come as students to La Mariposa is that sometimes you get to know someone really well over a week and then their time is over and they leave.  (Juliet, when you read this, Cheyenne was still asking days after you left, “Juli?”).  But this week we are getting in a good group of new students who will be around for a longer period along with us, so we are excited for interactions in a larger group for the rest of this month! 

Juliet was amazingly, unendingly tolerant and patient with our children’s chatter, 2nd grade jokes, and especially Cheyenne’s lack lack of understanding of personal space, as she allowed her to explore the contents of her backpack, and played silly games to keep her entertained during long van rides. Being a teacher, she only had one week of vacation to get away here—you’ve been missed, Juliet!
With our friend Elizabeth at a restaurant with another great view after hiking the volcano. Elizabeth brought a gentle, quiet friendliness and enthusiasm (and a sweet UK accent) for one week before returning to her NGO work in Managua.

I’ve been behind in reflecting on the completion of week 2, and already we’re halfway to needing to start looking back on and writing about week 3!  But as I said in the beginning, life here is FULL!  Thanks for joining us in it!

~Tara