At the end of our last week in Nicaragua, we were eagerly anticipating a visit from special visitors. Paulette, founder of La Mariposa, was planning to travel up to Esteli to spend time with us, and our children were SO excited to see her again! Oscar, one of the La Mariposa drivers, drove her in the truck so we got to see him too! As a surprise they brought along a pinata for the kids, and a truckload of crates and crates full of fresh fruits and vegetables from the La Mariposa gardens–greens and tomatoes and avocados and oranges and mandarinas and pineapples, overflowing our kitchen! Even a special package of fresh eggs from Paulette’s chickens, wrapped in banana leaves as a carton, which I think is the just coolest thing!
Isn’t that the coolest egg carton, though!?
We ate lunch together at our home, spent the afternoon chatting, and visited a park and Pizza Hut that evening. But the main event was the following morning! Somoto Canyon had been recommended to us by some other students we met at La Mariposa, and we hoped to see it while we were in Northern Nicaragua, so we invited Paulette and Oscar to join us. It was fun to get to experience a new part of Nicaragua that Paulette and Oscar hadn’t seen before either!
Cozy in the back of the truck for the hour and a half drive to Somoto.
The first part of the Somoto tour is a hike down to the riverbed, and then along the sandy, rocky riverbed, which is completely dry or very shallow pools during the dry season now, to get deeper into the canyon. Denver, Oscar, and our guide all ended up with a kid on their shoulders at one time as legs got tired and sand got in their shoes.
The next stage, when you arrive deep enough into the canton that there is enough water that you can’t walk any further, is to climb into a rowboat to be rowed further in through some beautiful rock formations as the sides of the canyon grow steeper and narrow around you.
The row boats come to a point where the way is completely blocked by large rocks that divide the riverbed into separate lakes. Everyone climbs out of the boat and does some rock climbing up and over the rock formations, which give a greater view down over the river and into the narrow parts of the canyon ahead!
Next comes the really fun stage (which Paulette and Oscar chose to opt out of and wait for us in the shade of a big rock): climbing down into tubes in the water to float into the deepest, most narrow parts of the canyon! The poor guides have to get into the water and swim, pulling the tubes along train style. At the deepest part of the canyon where you can’t go any further, there is a place where they let people climb up to jump into the water from crazy heights on the rock–none of us did, but we watch a couple of other crazy people and our guides do it (Shiny screamed and hid her eyes, I agree with her sentiment!).
Then it’s time to do the tour in reverse, getting towed back through the water to the big rocks, climbing down to the rowboat and and traveling back to the dry riverbed.
The fun part on the way back was that we had reserved horses for the hike back, knowing the kids would be tired, so we finished out the tour with Quinn and Thea on one horse, Paulette on another, and Cheyenne and I riding behind (Denver and Oscar walked).
The tour includes a traditional Nicaraguan lunch at the end, so we had the chance to sit down and share one more meal together before the long drive back and saying goodbye.
Somoto Canyon is a beautiful place, and made for a beautiful day of exploring with friends. Thanks for discovering a new treasure of Nicaragua with us, Paulette and Oscar!
We said goodbye to La Mariposa on Friday, February 1st, and headed north on a bus from Managua to Estelí, the city where we would be staying for the next 4 weeks of our trip. Denver’s cousin’s wife is from there, and it is her family we stayed with, and her brother, Marcelo, who is working with Denver on researching possibilities for the Tilmor tractor in Nicaragua. They have a nice upper level added onto their home with two bedrooms, a patio area, and a bathroom, just the right size to comfortably fit our family. And the rooftop patio provided some nice views overlooking our neighborhood and the surrounding mountains.
School Routine
Our first Saturday, we stopped by Divine Mercy Bilingual School, not far from where we stayed. We enrolled our children, purchased uniforms, and got signed up for bus pickup service. When Monday rolled around, we were ready well before 7:15 waiting for the bus to take the kids to school which started at 7:30. Around 7:40, the bus finally arrived. The rest of the week, the pickup time was closer to 8:00.
The following Monday, we were caught off guard when the bus showed up at 6:40am (we weren’t ready, so they agreed to go on with the route and then come back for our kids). They hadn’t communicated this, but apparently the school started at 7:00am after the first week. So the kids finally got settled into a regular routine of making sure to be ready by 6:30 (except for the time the main bus had broken down, and the bus again didn’t show up until well after 8:00 for a couple of days…).
School in Nicaragua starts the first week of February, so
this was one of the reasons we had timed our visit to start in February. We
were hoping our kids’ Spanish would improve by enrolling them in school. What
we didn’t realize is “bi-lingual” meant that almost all the classes were done
in English! This made for an easier transition and less stressful experience
for our kids, although it didn’t force them to use their Spanish as much. Thea
made a friend in her grade that ended up being our next-door neighbor, and it
was fun to hear the two of them interact mostly in Spanish. So while our
language goals weren’t completely met, it was a helpful experience for our kids
to meet kids in another culture, and experience what school is like for them.
A normal school day ended at 1:00, with the kids getting
home on the bus about 1:20. They would
get changed out of their school uniforms and then we would go downstairs to eat
the lunch that Karen and Karmen, our hostesses, always had ready and waiting
for us. After lunch it was time for Cheyenne’s nap, and Quinten and Thea
received their from-home school assignments for the day, usually a math sheet
to complete, a reading and vocabulary assignment and/or a journal entry to
write (with some time playing Minecraft on the tablet afterward as the big
motivator to get schoolwork finished).
Keeping this one out of trouble in someone else’s home is an exhausting job, so nap time was always a welcome break in the routine!!!A special afternoon when the kids got to talk to their Ohio classmates on Skype!
Fun Arte
A weekend activity that occurred every Saturday was “Fun
Arte”, a kid’s painting class that we enrolled our kids in. Official start time
was 8am, but they were lucky to start things by 8:30am. These classes started with
a story, and the kids were free to paint something inspired from the story.
Cheyenne was too young for the class, but we snuck her in because Denver agreed
to hang with her the entire time. This created a bit of a challenge keeping a
squirmy 3-year-old entertained while trying to translate a story into English
enough for the kids to understand. When it was finally time to paint, it was a
bit more “fun”, and the kids’ creativity came out.
Denver’s Work Routine
As mentioned earlier, Denver spent this month working with
the Tilmor project here in Esteli. This often involved joining Marcelo to visit
a farm that was testing the Tilmor tractor. During this time his focus was
learning more about agricultural practices in Nicaragua, distribution options,
access to credit, and figuring out next steps based on that.
On off-days from visiting farms and businesses, he would
have “office” days back home. This gave him time to gather thoughts, write up
reports, and take care of other business (and spend more time with his wife, of
course! *Tara’s edit*)
Tara’s Routine
Originally, we thought I might be bored with nothing to do
while Denver was working and the kids were in school. Denver had asked the
school if I might be able to volunteer a few days a week. I rode along with the
kids on the bus the first day and without any specific direction on what to do,
I stuck with Cheyenne in her class for the morning and had a chance to help her
settle into the classroom routine. She had some moments when she got scared and
I needed to reassure her and coax her back to the room, and we made lots of
trips to the bathroom (which she thought was fun because of the
preschooler-sized toilets), so I felt good about being able to be there to help
her.
All of us ready for our first day of school
While I was helping in Shiny’s class the first day, I
noticed that the teacher of the youngest classroom, with mostly 3-year-olds, seemed
very stressed with over 20 toddlers running everywhere and only one teacher, so
I told her I would try to help her out the next day. I ended up coming every day that week to try
to help, but “helping” mostly meant trying to control some of the chaos by running
back and forth to the bathroom with kids who needed to go, or staying back in a
class with children running around and yelling while the teacher went to take kids
for diaper changes (4 children in the classroom still in diapers that she was expected
to have changed even though she was alone in a class of over 20 kids!). She said it was more kids in the classroom
than they’d had previous years, and some of the kids were actually 2 when they
were supposed to be 3 (and those children cried the whole morning, every morning,so
I spent much of my time trying to calm those children as well).
I came home every day so exhausted and overwhelmed that I
took a nap with Shiny and would sleep almost until dinner. After a week of that routine, I ended up
really sick with a bad cold over the weekend and into the next week, and with that
excuse not to return to school the first few days, I realized how much anxiety
the school environment had created and I was happy to just have that time at home
to relax while my kids were at school! (The teacher had told the head of school she
needed a permanent classroom aide for when I was not there anymore, so I also
hoped my not being there would help them realize the necessity of getting her
some real long-term help!)
Mornings were much more fun and relaxing hanging out in the “home office’ with this guy 🙂
So my routine the remaining 3 weeks, after getting the kids
ready and sent off to school, included things like eating a quiet breakfast
with Denver, washing laundry or cleaning our living area, a lot of writing to
catch up on the blog that we were very behind on, reading, practicing Spanish
on my app, and preparing the kids’ homework assignments for later. I enjoyed the
days that Denver worked from “home,” with some quiet time to talk and share a
coffee and bread together midmorning while we worked. And it made so that on Valentine’s
Day we even got away with a long walk to find a restaurant and had a kid-free lunch
date with free babysitting since the kids were in school!
Evening and Weekend Free Time
We didn’t have easy access to any transportation besides relying on Marcelo to drive us in his truck, which we didn’t want to make him do all the time. Within walking distance our main options for getting out of the house on our own were a little ice cream shop we visited quite often for a treat, and another little shop where we could buy breakfast bread and snacks. There was a field across the road from us where the kids liked to go kick around the soccer ball, and on quieter evenings at home we played a lot of Dutch Blitz and Phase 10.
A longer walk away was a children’s park we played at a few times, once taking the neighbor girl and another time when Paulette visited us, and the kids always had a good time there.
We made a couple of visits to Marcello and Anabel’s house for Sunday lunch and spent the afternoon chatting while all the kids had fun cooling off in the kiddie pool they filled up for them. For Quinten’s birthday, we had the whole Castillo family over and ordered Pizza Hut (Quinn’s request), and the weekend after Quinten’s birthday we made a special trip to the movie theater to see the Lego Movie 2 as a gift—of course, the movie was in Spanish, so that was a fun new experience for the kids! Our home also gave the kids access to (Spanish) TV, which they hadn’t had in over a month, and the very sweet 8-month-old baby girl who lives there provided some cute entertainment as well!
We are especially thankful for the warm welcome and hospitality we received from the Castillo family during our time in Esteli. On our last night they had a special goodbye dinner with the whole family, and we had fun destroying the piñata that had been given to the children by La Mariposa.
The entire family was very generous in offering help with whatever we needed, keeping us well-fed, and in opening up their homes to our (often very noisy and wild) family! Thank you for taking care of us, Castillo family!
Goodbye Esteli—Waiting for the bus on the last day of school.
The final morning, before loading up the van. Smiles for the picture, but the morning was full of tears!
Final. Week. In the kind of place that after 6 weeks of living feels like home, with people who after 6 weeks of doing life together feel like family. The final week at La Mariposa meant a long list of “last times” and memories to document so we can hold onto them after we are gone, at the same time hopeful that none of these “last times” really is the FINAL last time (even our children are already planning future return trips)!
Last weekend horse ride…
Our last weekend ride turned out to be our first ride with a full group of other riders, needing all 6 horses! Actually it was what we thought was our last ride, but midweek Thea and I got a bonus ride with some new students who wouldn’t get a chance to ride on the weekend. Two horseback trips up the mountain in one week made for a good finale!Thea’s favorite horse, sweet little Lucy who is blind on one side.
Last Wednesday at Laguna de Apoyo…
Having a weekly family day at the lake will be a hard routine to leave behind! With reports from back home of dangerously record-low temperatures from the “polar vortex” and lots of snow, we were especially grateful to be hanging out in our swimsuits and paddling around a pleasant lake!
Last souvenirs to be purchased…
Because, those CHICKENS…I need more… (And also other non-chicken souvenirs the kids picked out for the cousins and other family members). I could seriously search around artisan’s markets for treasures all day long (if only we had more luggage space and didn’t have 4 more countries and multiple destinations to get through carrying it all…)!
Last loads of laundry to be washed…
SO. MUCH. LAUNDRY. Keeping up with handwashing clothes in a family of 5 was challenging, and “keep up” we definitely did NOT do. We tried to get enough washed per week to make sure each person would have clothes to wear for the next five days or so, but the dirty laundry bags seemed to always still be full no matter how much we pulled out to wash. By the end of our stay we decided that in order to be able to pack our clothes mostly clean, we were going to need some assistance! So we finally took advantage of the service of asking one of the kitchen staff wash a number of items for us while we were in classes or at an activity, which for 3 Cordobas (10 cents) per item, we realized we were crazy not to have been getting some help all along! But there are parts that I will kind of miss, like working together with my two older children to help them each wash their own clothes.
Last trip to our favorite park…
There is a large, beautiful children’s park we discovered on a trip to the markets in Masaya. It is right beside the overlook of the lake and volcano, and has beautifully huge old trees for shade and lots of other plants and flowers all around the many different playground sets and sports areas for children, and even a section of gym-style exercise equipment meant for adults! It also has many little snack shacks so you can buy a slice of pizza or an ice cream cone, which was probably our kids’ favorite thing about going! They also have fun memories of spontaneous friendships made with other children there over an invented game of tag combined with dodgeball using a half-deflated ball they found, and of going with daddy to watch a 9-D movie experience that has a little trailer in the park (and terrified poor Shiny who had to cover her eyes for most of the time!). The park became a go-to whenever the afternoon activity was a trip to Masaya for shopping in the markets; Denver would get dropped off in the park with the kids while I got to go shopping with the group in peace!
Last snacks at Josimar’s Restaurant…
Josimar is one of the admin staff at La Mariposa, and had just ventured into opening up a little restaurant on the side with his family, easy walking distance from the school, so we tried to give them our business as often as we could! Josimar’s was a favorite place for afternoon snacks like pizza, chicken, french fries, excellent Calala (passion fruit) juice, and my personal favorite indulgence-a cappuccino complete with frothy milk! The extra fun part was that they supplied games like UNO, Mancala, and Memory, so we could combine snack time with family play time!
Last time to hold hands with a monkey…
I mean, this sweetheart…someone just please go hold her hand for us while we’re gone, okay?
Last visits with favorite furry friends…
Cheyenne’s favorite was definitely the kitten; Quinn wanted a picture to remember his favorite dog, good old Junior.
Last time to greet new students…
A fun part of being students here over so many weeks has been getting to meet new people from all over the world each week. A group from Texas was just arriving for a 10-day stay on our family’s last day. It was the first time our kids had another child close to their age at the school, and with only one day she and Thea still were quick to make friends and squeezed in a good amount of play time (and a walk to get ice cream!).
Last days of Spanish class and saying goodbye to teachers…
This kid…he might have whined sometimes about waking up and going to classes in the morning, and might have been reluctant to speak his Spanish most of the time, but did he ever CRY when it came time to say goodbye to his teachers (and made them cry too!). Cheyenne’s main teacher Daleska also spent a lot of extra afternoons with our kids whenever we needed childcare during a history class or to get some extra work done (more laundry…), and she became really attached to her (despite all the 3-year-old tantrums and screaming “no”)!
On their last day of class, the kids’ teachers planned a special trip for them to Josimar’s restaurant for pizza! lAnd of course, the grown-ups had some really cool teachers who we will miss too!
Last hugs and saying goodbye to friends…
There were many tears shed saying goodbye to La Mariposa founder Paulette, who made everything we experienced at La Mariposa possible, and who made our children feel loved and welcomed there! (Spoiler alert: this goodbye wasn’t for as long as we thought, because Paulette likes us enough to make a trip up to visit us in Esteli at the end of our month there, but that’s a future blog post!)
We were also sad to say goodbye to interns Andra and Jaime who we got to know well over our 6-week stay, as Andra was there for almost our whole stay (she left the weekend before we left), and Jaime was there the whole time (and still is; she keeps extending the length of her stay because it’s just too hard to leave!). Both worked hard for the school on things like fundraising and updating the new website Denver helped design, and also were great with our children! After dinner Andra was often pulled away by Cheyenne to the library to read books, do crazy dances like Baby Shark and the Chicken Dance, and create things with blocks (while Cheyenne’s parents got to sit a while longer at dinner and have pleasant conversations with other adults–thanks again Andra!!!). On Andra’s last day there was a special surprise cake for dessert at lunch that we all got to share in celebration of her time there and all she had done!
Last ride in the Mariposa bus…
La Mariposa’s excellent conductores (drivers) Oscar and Javier took us on so many wonderful adventures in the school’s beat-up but trusty vans, and man.y enjoyable conversations with other students happened in those vans on the long drives as well! Our final ride would be with Oscar to be dropped off at the bus station in Managua, northbound for Esteli.
Last views of the beautiful Mariposa grounds…
Our next destination is more of a city setting, making these beautiful gardens and trees with their colorful flowers and birds especially hard to leave behind!La Mariposa: Thank you for all the wonderful memories, all the things you showed us about your beautiful country, all the improvements on our Spanish, all of your patience with the antics of our children, and for giving us an extra “family” to be a part of in Nicaragua–we’ll be back!!!
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!
Sweet, speechless Jose.
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!
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!
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).
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!
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.
