more pictures from Juan Manuel's wedding

Juan Manuel and Darlen entering the church.

Sitting at the front. (during the singing or the preaching or something.)

During a prayer.
The pastor (I don't know him, he's somebody important in the apostolic church in Nicaragua) Juan Manuel, Darlen, and Agustin.

Getting rice thrown at them as they leave. (Yup, they do it in Nicaragua too!)

Sorry for not putting more, but my internet is super slow. I think it took about 45 minutes to load these! So enjoy!

Ok, well, I can't figure out how to put the pictures later, so here they are first:



San Juan during the day

San Juan at sunset

San Juan a little later at sunset.

And here's the post:

I thought it was about time to let you know what I've been up to. Last weekend was my descanso, and I went with Sana and Michelle to San Juan del Sur. I think I might've mentioned this in my last email, but I was a little worried that it would be too touristy for me. But it's a very famous location in Nicaragua, so I figured I should go at least once. It was a nice, relaxing weekend, but I was right- not quite my scene. The budget tourists were all there to surf or party. There wasn't much else to do, unless you had money to pay for tours and boat rides and things like that. So I'm not sure I'll go back, but it was nice to sit on the beach and swim a bit. It was also nice to eat non-Nicaraguan food like pizza and pancakes. The beaches were pretty, but I've seen nicer. (I like the Salinas beach better, and Gigante as well.) I still haven't found the perfect descanso beach in Nicaragua yet. In Costa Rica there was a beautiful beach on the Atlantic (Cahuita) that was right by a nature reserve and the town was small, and not too touristy. And then a 15 minute (or so) bus ride away was much more touristy Puerto Viejo, which was within biking distance of another nature park. So we'll see if there's something similar here. It seems like here you have to choose between super-touristy and underdeveloped. (Salinas is great, but not if I want a break from Nica food. Although the Nica food in Salinas is better than the Nica food here.) Anyway, so we relaxed all weekend and then headed back here on Monday after a stop in Rivas to open bank accounts (so our stipend can be direct-deposit) and get groceries. Then we headed back to the island and celebrated Michelle's birthday with pancakes. One of the volunteers who was here for the weekend was supposed to bake a cake, but she either forgot or didn't have time, so Sana and I made banana pancakes. Michelle didn't seem to mind that she had pancakes instead of cake, so that's good.

Then this week was the second week of school and was the week of schedule making. Tuesday I talked to the teachers to make sure all the kids actually needed aula de recurso and to see if there were any kids that needed to be added. Wednesday we finalized our class lists in the psychopedagogical team meeting. Thursday I talked to the teachers about what times of day were the best to pull each kid out of class and started my schedule. And today I ironed out the problems and handed the teachers a list of the schedule for their class. So Monday I get to start! My Tues-Thurs are completely full (7-12) because those are the days that I'm never on descanso. Mondays and Fridays are much more empty because those days are used for students who need more than once per week. So Monday and Friday when I'm here I'll use that time to do a lot of planning as well. I'm also going to be helping the older girls with their homework in the morning a few times a week, so I had to schedule that in. (They go to high school in San Jose in the afternoon. 12-5 or something like that). This week in the afternoons I was on my normal schedule- lunch with the kids, a bit of free time, helping with homework, hanging out with the kids during their free time, and dinner with the kids.

Yesterday we celebrated Valentine's Day with a big cake and a bonfire where we cooked bread (a German thing, kinda like broomstick pies, but with out the pie filling part. And garlic bread, not normal bread.) Tomorrow I think we're doing some activities with the kids and then we might be able to go out to dinner for my birthday. We have to see if there's transport. The cake is going to wait for Monday so that people are back from descanso. Then next week I start Aula de Recurso! So hopefully everything will go well! Then I have descanso next weekend. I think I'll probably go to Salinas again because it'll be the last weekend Ariel and Aminta are home before they go to university. And Michelle wants to go to Managua, but I want to wait until Ariel and Aminta are there. And Sana's going back to San Juan because she bought a surf board. And I think the Germans in our descanso (Kiki, Birgit and Julia) are going with Sana.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, Manh Hung, our coordinator, had his surgery and everything went well. He has 10 days in the hospital and 6 weeks with a neck brace. He wants to come back at the end of February, but he has to get a doctor's permission first. But his 6 weeks should be up at the end of March, so he should be back then if not before.

the first week of school and other news

So the big news here in Nicaragua is that our volunteer coordinator had to leave. The weekend I was in Salinas Manh Hung (the coordinator) hit his head on the bottom of a pool at Ojo de Agua. He'd been there before and the water was deep enough to dive, but aparently it wasn't this time. So his neck was really hurting, but he didn't think it was anything serious. He went to the doctor on Monday (more than a week ago) but the private hospital was closed so he went to the public one. But he had to wait so long (like 4 hours) that he got fed up and left. But it didn't get better, so he went back on Friday (to the private clinic) and found out he had a fractured vertibrae (I think the 5th, for those of you who know medical stuff.) Anyway, they said it was good that it was cracked on the front and not the back because if it had been the back he probably would have been paralized. So he has to go back to Germany for surgery. He really wants to come back, so hopefully he has a quick recovery. I really have no idea how long it would take to recuperate from that kind of surgery. From what I've heard, his insurance will pay the flight to Germany, and then back to Nicaragua, so that's really nice. The kids have added "la salud de Manh Hung" (the health of Manh Hung) to their prayer list, which is cute. Everyone hopes that he is back as soon as possible.

In more everyday news, school started on Monday! The first day was pretty pointless. The kids and teachers all showed up and wandered around and after a half hour or and hour they had a big assemby. So there were speeches and we all introduced ourselves and then the kids went with their teachers. We got a tour of the school and figure out the difference between grados and ciclos. So here's how the Nicaraguan school system works. Primary school is 1-6th grade. Secondary is 7-11. Most university degrees take 5 years to complete. If you want to go to tech school, you don't need to graduate secondary. Some tech schools only require that you finish primary, some require 2 years of secondary and some require 4. It depends what you want to study. So normal schools work like that. NPH also has something called ciclos. Ciclo 1 is 1st and 2nd grade, Ciclo 2 is 3rd and 4th and Ciclo 3 is 5th and 6th. The ciclos are for kids that are behind in grades not because they've failed but because they didn't start school on time. So they learn two grades worth of material in one year. So for example if an 8 year old came to NPH without school, they would probably go to Ciclo 1. Then after that year (assuming they pass) they could either go to regular 3rd grade, or Ciclo 2 depending on what the teacher thought was best. So it's just a way to try to get kids caught up in school.

On Tuesday all the kids took diagnostic tests to make sure they're in the right grade. So tomorrow the secretary is supposed to have a list for us of who is in which grade so we can talk to the teachers about the kids we have for aula de recurso. Hopefully we can also start to get a schedule organized so that we can start sometime next week.

I also had some visitors the past while. On Friday I went to Rivas to buy some school supplies and I met Casey (a friend from school) there. She traveled from Costa Rica with Nathan, another Ole. So they came back to the island with me and spent all day Saturday here. Sunday they left really early because they had to catch a flight on Monday. It was really nice to have Casey here! The other volunteers are all really nice, but we're all really different and it was nice to have someone to talk to who I felt like actually knows me. And also (this is harder to explain) but someone who makes the expected responce to things, or who has similar opinions. Maybe some of you (esp those who have traveled abroad) know what I mean, but there's always times where you say something and people don't react the way you expect. Not that they necessarily react in a bad way, just not how expected. It goes both ways too, because there's been times when someone has said something and I can tell they expect me to agree with them or something, but I don't. It's just sometimes frustrating. Anyway, it was really nice to have Casey here, even though it was a short visit.

Then I had a surprise visit on Monday when Orlando (my Nica host father) called to say he was on the island with Ariel, Aminta, Whitney, and Olof (my host brother and sister and two members of the group from last January). They said they would stop by on Tuesday. Then a few hours later they called back to say that they were splitting up and Orlando, Aminta, and Whitney were coming now to NPH. I was a little frustrated because I had said they were welcome to visit, but I had said to let me know ahead of time! Luckily the woman who cleans our house also cleans the monestary (where guests stay) so she said she could get some rooms ready for them. So I met them and showed them around. It was nice to have them visit, but hopefully if they come back they'll give me a little more warning!

So tomorrow hopefully we will be able to organize some things for aula de recurso, and then Friday I leave on my descanso. We're not quite sure where we're going, I think probably somewhere in the San Juan del Sur area. Sana really wants to go there, and Michelle kinda does too. I've never been, so even though I hear that it's super touristy, I think it's worth a visit. Usually I don't like super touristy places that much, but in Nicaragua they're sometimes nice because they offer a variety of foods and other things that are a little hard to come by. Hopefully it'll be relaxing! I'll post again when I get back. Miss you all!