Life in Belen

Like I said in my last post, a LOT has been going on here lately...hence the lack of recent blog posts.  I've been trying not to leave my site lately because I've done so much running around in the past few months with my language workshop, in-service training, security meetings, department meetings etc.  I can finally say that I've spent two complete consecutive weeks in site, and they've been great!  I  attended an annual Bingo event that was PACKED with all of my students, fellow teachers, neighbors,  and friends; I ate lunch or dinner with more families than I can keep track of; and I've been playing volleyball with one of the girls teams from my town and we're undefeated!  (Yeah, it's a really big ego boost when all my friends/students show up at the court to watch us play.)  School wise, I've been teaching daily and working crazy overtime with gardens, tree nurseries, and compost piles.  I can finally say that my gardens are doing really well in 3 of my schools and I've already transplanted some trees in one of my schools - and we used organic compost that we made to do it!! 

                                     Trabajando duro!! (Working hard!)

                           Daniel, Harry, Heyner, Bauther, Bruno and me! =)
         


Some of the bigger events here these past two weeks were Mother's Day and Children's Day - both of which were pretty awesome days for me.  On Mother's Day (the 30th of May), I decided to go visit all of my Nica Moms and thank them for all they've done for me during my time here.  I decided to make them little cards - and was able to couple them with doilies from Omi, which turned out to be a huge hit!  I spent literally the entire day just going house to house and visiting some of my favorite people in town.  They were so touched by the cards and gifts, but I tried to make them see that no card or gift could ever amount to the kindness and generosity they've shown me.  I can't even keep track of the amount of lunches and dinners I've been gifted, let alone the advice/good conversation/hugs/waves/introductions/
visits etc.  Making those cards made me realize how truly blessed I've been during my time here.

                                            10 cards for my 10 Nica mamas =) 


Children's Day was another huge day here.  Last Friday, classes ended two hours early to allow for the Dia de los Ninos celebraciones.  As you know I work in four schools, but I chose to spend Children's day in my biggest central school.  All of the teachers there decided to perform for the students because "actos," are a huge tradition here, and every big event calls for a stage and a show.  Since I'm always running school to school, no one told me about the performances until the night before when my closest teacher friend casually asked me what I was doing for the show.  When I nonchalantly told her I'd be dancing a hop hop routine, she assumed I was serious and asked me what song I was using.  I quickly realized she wasn't joking.  I thought about it for a second and realized it would be pretty cool to perform something for my kiddies, so I asked her if she wanted to teach me one of the traditional Nicaraguan Folklor dances.  She said she knew I could learn it quickly enough because she'd seen me dance in one of the fiestas (oops) and therefore knew that I was a "bailerina," or dancer.  So that night, after teaching English until 7 and playing volleyball until 8, I biked up to her house and she taught me the dance.  She then told me that one of the other teachers had the traditional skirt/shirt/etc. ready for me at the school and that I'd just need to show up!  Well let me tell you...when the performance started, the MC explained to the kids that I was sorry I couldn't spend Children's day with them.  She reminded them that I'm very busy and that I work in a lot of schools.  Then she proceeded to tell them the first act would be a traditional folk dance (which is always the first act of an event like this).  As the music started, I came out from behind the bulletin board dressed head-to-toe in traditional dance attire, with braids and flowers in my hair... *and the crowd went wilddddddd!!!!*  Haha, it was such an awesome surprise for them!! Half of the teachers had no idea either and were so surprised that I could dance decently.  They said I was "pura Masaya" or pure Nica!  It was so so cool!!

Last but not least, this past weekend, Carlos Erik, my 10 year old neighbor/student/landscaper/errand runner/tour guide/Spanish teacher, invited me out to his family's farm in one of the comarcas, or small towns, on the outskirts of Belen.  (I had been promising him for weeks that I'd go with him, and I finally had time to go!)  So, bright and early Sunday morning, we hopped on our bikes and headed out of town.  We went straight  to misa (mass) when we got there so that we could sit with his aunt and grandma to listen to his uncle sing.  After church, we headed out even farther to their houses.  His grandparents, who were not expecting me, immediately invited me to lunch, which on Sunday is always SOPA (soup jam packed with veggies and meat) mmmm!!!  After lunch, Carlos Erik took me out back to explore their acres of banana and plantain trees.  He then climbed a mango tree to cut me some mangoes, and we headed out across to his uncle's house to see the cows and gardens.  It was gorgeous!! When we got back to the grandparents' house, his grandpa sat me down on the front porch to ask me if I liked Mexican music.  I replied that I like all music, and he told me to sit and wait while he brought out a Mexican singer friend of his.  One minute later, he returned with a straw hat and a guitar and proceeded to sing to me/us for the next half hour.  It was sooo awesome!! He sang me a song about my green eyes, sang about friendship, sang about love, sang about fun and games, and the whole family sat out on the porch surrounded by palm trees and tropical flowers listening to his invented songs.  It was another perfect day - and we finished it off by racing the rain home!  The clouds behind us were unbelievably dark and we could see that it was raining just north of us, so we rode like the wind and made it back to Belen just as it started to drizzle!


Ahh gotta love it here.


PS My Spanish has been improving exponentially.  They said that would happen eventually...and it finally has!!