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!
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!
