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!
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.
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.)
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).
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!”
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.
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!
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
