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So I’m not going to pretend everything is amazing. It’s not. There are things that are uncomfortable… kids that wake-up way to early (5:30am) and argue loudly in a shared housing space. Long rides in vehicles on winding roads. Oldest child throwing up hours later after long road trip. Children’s taste buds not expanding as fast as we would like. Realizing I’ve already used up nearly 1gb  of my 3gb monthly cell plan because photo sync and updates were turned on.

It would have been simpler and more comfortable to stay home with unlimited bandwidth and sticking to our usually routines. But I find that in times of discomfort and trying new things I grow the most. And this is why we are doing this – to intentionally put ourselves and children in stretching situations and grow.

Now that is out the way, we did have a rather good day overall. The same kids who woke up way to early did so because they were eager to get out and explore. Quin spotted a beautiful blue bird. Speaking of beautiful birds, La Mariposa is situated in a beautiful forested campus, an oasis from the bustle going on outside of its walls. We each have our own teacher and are taught Spanish language in little open-air cabins, during which it is easy to get distracted by humming birds, insects, beautiful birds, squirrels, and monkeys chattering nearby.

Our weekly schedule goes something like this:

7:30am Breakfast
8:00am Conversational Classes – tailored to our individual needs with a 1 on 1 teacher
9:50am Break
10:10am Switch teachers for Grammar Classes
12:00pm Lunch
1:30pm Sign up for afternoon planned activity
5:45pm Supper

Everyone down to Cheyenne has their own teacher. Quin has been a bit shy practicing his Spanish in front of us, but Thea has jumped and picking up vocab already. I started working with my teacher on agricultural, banking, loans, and other business related language. During breaks, and meal times, it has been fun to get to know the other students who are passing through.

This afternoon for our afternoon activity, we drove an hour to Masaya, a town situated next to Lake/Lagoon formed by volcanic activity. We stopped at the town plaza and got our first taste a Nicaraguan playground, ice cream, and side attractions. Later we visit an overlook over the lake with the volcano putting off steam in the background. There too was a children’s park that the kids enjoyed.

As I mentioned earlier, the ride back didn’t sit well with poor Quin, but we made it back tired and hungry. Another day is in the books. Looking forward to new adventures that wait for us tomorrow!

Thanks to all of you who have been following us and reading comments. It’s great to hear from you. I think I finally rigged up e-mail notifications so we can see better when you leave us comments.

We made it! I got 2 hours of sleep and Tara pulled an all-nighter and last night trying to get all our loose ends tied up (animals, cleaning, final packing, laundry, etc). Last night, we also dropped off our infant foster son who my mom is watching while we are gone. So, if this post is a bit scattered brained, it is due to lack of sleep.

This morning at 3am, we threw kids in the van with our mountain of luggage, picked up my dad (for the return van trip) and headed to the airport. The Cleveland airport was surprisingly busy at 4am, but we made it through. After getting through the line, security was actually the most pleasant experience I’ve ever had. It helped to have cute kids, but they weren’t requiring us to take out laptops or remove our shoes.

This trip is about introducing our kids to new experiences, and it was fun seeing Quin and Thea learn to find gates and gain confidence (to the point, we almost lost them because they were so far ahead of Tara, myself, and a slow Cheyenne). Cheyenne was cute with her lady bug backpack and Elmo. The kids all enjoyed the take off in their first experience in a commercial jet. Quin and Thea did fine for the most part. Cheyenne was a challenge. Keeping a fidgety 3-year-old who was low on sleep in her chair was not today’s highlight. We made our connecting flight in Miami easily with about a 1-hour layover.

Side story, for an early Christmas before we left, my Steiner side of family opted to give us cash towards an area of need instead of buying each other presents. “Area of need” was left to our judgement/spirit leaning.

I didn’t expect our first recipient of this gift to be on the first day, much less the flight to Nicaragua, but that’s exactly what happened.  Our flight to Managua was packed.  Before our flight took off, Quin sat next to a lady who was deep in a phone conversation in Spanish, and mid conversation completely broke down sobbing. I felt like I was supposed to do something, but didn’t know how to approach a complete stranger. Early in the flight, I ended up helping her with her with immigration paperwork. It seemed like she had never done that, or even flown before. Through further conversation I learned her father had just passed away yesterday. She has been working the past 6 months in Tennessee with her daughter. She doesn’t speak English and has been pretty isolated because nobody but her daughter speaks Spanish where she has been living. Because of her father’s death, she took an emergency flight to Nicaragua (from Esteli area), with tickets costing her $1800. Based on the conversation, I could tell that was as stretch for her. So as she was leaving the plane, I slipped her $100. It wasn’t much, but I hope it brightened her day in the mist of a very hard time.

When we finally got to Nicaragua, it took over an hour to get through customs. Marcelo, Lydell’s brother-in-law was waiting for us, because we had to suitcases for him. He also had a sim card ready, so I now have a phone with internet. Our driver to our language school was also kept waiting, but fortunately was still there.

It was about an hour drive to La Mariposa Spanish Language School. Everybody but Thea and myself passed out on the trip. Driving the streets of Nicaragua, I was struck with similarities to other Latin American countries I’ve been to, including Bolivia where I grew up when I was Quin and Thea’s age. So as a random person washed our windshield at a red light for a few coins, or others tried to sell us things through the window, or as we passed small shops and a completely foreign world from Ohio, I thought to myself how much I was looking forward to showing my kids a new culture.

The schools is great. Our living accommodations at the school fit us well. The kids all have their own bed, and we have a private bathroom. It was fun seeing our kids explore the school (they have monkeys!), and forget how tired they were. I’m sure we’ll have plenty more to share about this amazing language school in the future, but for now I hear the bed calling my name.

Blessings to all of you back home. (We don’t miss you to badly yet).

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(Written by Thea, with some corrections by Denver). Wake up at 3am. Airplane. Leave Cleveland at 5:40pm. Get to Miami 9am.  Get to Nicaragua 1:00pm. Get out of immigration at 2pm. Get in  la Mariposavan. Get to la mariposa spanish school 3pm. Eat late lunch 3:30p.m. Explore woods. see monkeys, parrots, ducks and a mysterious animal we couldn’t make out. After we had a tour of the la Mariposa. We have a dolphin bedroom with leaping ones ,swimming ones ,and even a dolphin windchime. First night in new bed Have separate beds for each of us.!

Hi! My name is Quinten Steiner.

We are going on a trip, and I am very exited! I’m waiting to be able to see (and petting,)the monkeys. As well as this:(click here: http://Quinten.steiner7.com ). You’ll see a lot of changes,and adding,(to the website above) so that’ll be pretty nice. I’ll miss a lot of things, but I know I will have a lot of fun,and learn a lot of things.

BYE!