NPH anniversary and a trip home

Sorry it's been SO long, but I went home for vacation (as most of you know) and then when I got back our internet was broken. It is now fixed, but still quite sporatic. On a good day, it'll work for a half hour to an hour, then flip out and connect/disconnect for 5 minutes. On a bad day, it'll work for 5 minutes, then die for a half hour or so, the come back for another 5 mins, etc.

First I want to say a big thank you to everyone who donated money for the book/ copier fundraiser. We raised at least $1378 for the books, which bought 143 books. We also have up to $2000 for the copier. So once the copier is bought, we'll know how much extra money we have to buy more books. The kids are really excited about the books, and the volunteers are really excited about the copier. So THANK YOU all very much.

Now for news Way back on May 10, before I even went home, we celebrated NPH Nicaragua's 14th anniversary. It was a big celebration, and all the Managua kids, all the Casa Asis kids, and all the San Jorge workers came. The day started out with a mass, and then after that there were games for most of the rest of the day. The volunteers organized the games, and some of the workers helped us to run them all. The kids and workers were all divided into 14 teams, and they competed in the games to see who would win. The games were really varied and fun. I did human knot (where you stand in a circle, and take hands of two different people across the circle from you, and then have to untangle your knot, to make a circle again.) There were also races on stilts, relay races, sack races, tug-of-war, pictionary, watermelon eating contest, and more. In the middle of the games we had a lunch break, and then after lunch they finished the games. At about 5PM was the finals for the reina (sorta like a beauty pagent, for the reina (queen) of NPH). And then after that was cake and a dance. We also had the first big rain of the rainy season right after the reina ended, which caused some excitement, because it was blowing into the ranchon, so we had to quick move all the sound system equipment. It also lasted quite a while, so the cake and everything was a bit delayed. But it was a really fun day.

The next week was a short week for me, because I left Wednesday to go home. So Monday and Tuesday were filled with packing, planning, and trying to figure out how and when I would get from NPH to the airport because of the strike. Luckily everything worked out fine. I left Wednesday morning with the first ferry and went to the office. Then they took me to Managua, to a hotel right across the street from the airport. I had wanted to stay for free in the girls' house in Managua, but with no taxis because of the strike, that didn't seem like a good idea. Luckily all we saw of the strike was busses and taxis parked along the side of the road. At various times during the almost two weeks of the strike, the drivers had tried to block the road so no one could get through, and then the police would make them stop, and there would be some violence. If we'd run into any of that, we would have had to turn around and go back. So luckily we didn't see any of that.

Thursday morning I woke up at four to BANG, BANG. My first half-asleep thought was that branches or coconuts were falling on the roof, because with tin roofs that makes a lot of noise. But it was too consistent for that, so then I worried that the strike had gotten more violent, so I called the front desk, but the guy there didn't know what the noise was, so I figured whatever it was, it wasn't between me and the airport. I had planned to get up about at 4:30 anyway, so I just stayed up and got to the airport even earlier. The guy who carried my luggage into the airport told me the BANGs were fireworks or firecrackers from some university. Why they were shooting fireworks at 4 in the morning, I'm not sure, but at least that's all it was.

So I had a very uneventful trip back. The most eventful thing was that they had to open one of my bags at the Managua airport 'cause it looked weird in their scanner. It was probably because it was filled with books, which I was bringing back for Shirley, the nun at the monastery here. Her community in the US had a big fire and lost their library, so she wanted to send some of the books she had here back to them. So they opened it, saw the books, and said everything was fine. Everything else went very smoothly. Nothing was delayed, immigration and customs in Houston only took about a half hour (instead of the two hours it can take). So I arrived safely in Omaha and easily found my cousin Phil, who drove me to Sioux City, where we met up with my parents and Aunt Chan, and then I got home. It was really really great to be home and to see everyone.

It was a VERY busy five days at home. Friday I got a few errands done and we moved my grandma from the hospital to a rehab center (she had had lung surgery because she had an infection). Saturday was my sister's open house, which was very nice, and then Saturday afternoon we got ready for the book sale on Sunday. Also Saturday night my grandma arrived from Des Moines with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Sunday morning was church, so I spoke at both services about NPH, and then we sold books before first service and between services. The offering was also for the NPH copier. We handed the book sale off to another church member after 2nd service started so that we could go to brunch and get to Emily's 1PM graduation. The graduation was as nice as graduations ever are. Not the most interesting thing in the world, but nice. And they really are quite efficient, so it doesn't take too long. And the student speakers did a nice job. Then Sunday afternoon we collected the books from church and relaxed. Sunday night Mom, Dad, and Emily went to the all night party at the high school. (Em to celebrate, and Mom and Dad to help out).

Monday they were all sleeping late, since they got home at 5am. I went to Canton to vote in the SD presidential primary and request an absentee ballot for November. That afternoon I ran some other errands and made a cake because Monday night we celebrated my birthday three months late and my mom's birthday a few days early. Tuesday I went to the dentist and to get my bridesmaid's dress fitted for Jessie's October wedding. Tuesday night Emily had her last DAPA concert, so we went to that. They sounded really nice, especially considering it was only about a month since their last concert. I also got to see some friends at the concert, so that was nice. Wednesday my mom and Emily left really early to go on a church mission trip, and my dad and I left a bit later to take my grandma back to Des Moines. While we were there we had lunch with Kirsten (a friend from college) and Phil (my cousin) and also stopped to see my cousin Ryan and his two kids and their new house (Rachel was at work, so we didn't get to see her). Then it was back to Omaha to spend the night with Aunt Theo and Uncle Don and then I left Thursday morning to go back to Nicaragua. It was sad to leave, but not too hard, because my family will come visit in mid-July, so that's not very far away.

The strike had ended on the Friday I was home, so it was quite easy to get back to the island. I was picked up at the airport by NPH because I was bringing two heavy suitcases of books to donate. Then I stayed the night in the office in San Jorge and went back to the island on Friday. It was weird coming back because the rainy season had started and so EVERYTHING was very green. This past week I settled back into life here. I worked with as many students as I could. They have exams this week, so I tried to help them get ready. I also got the books into the school library, so they should be available to be checked out now. I usually carry about four books around with me for the kids to read, so I had already been bringing some around and they were all very excited. It will be really good for them to have something new to read. Wednesday and Thursday we had a bit of excitement because we got some of the effects of tropical storm Alma. So it was VERY rainy. Not too windy, at least not here, but Thursday they stopped the ferries and lanchas because the waves were too big. Birgit (my roommate) was on a lancha Thursday morning with some special needs kids going to Managua for special treatment and she said it was REALLY scary because the waves were bigger than the boat. It's also at least partly thanks to Alma that our internet is still broken, because the tech guy from San Jorge was going to come on Thursday, but then he couldn't because they stopped the boats.

This past weekend was my descanso. I had originally thought to go to Las Salinas and visit my host family, but then there was a tropical storm and so we didn't think we could go anywhere because there were no boats, and I figured going to the coast during a tropical storm would be a bad idea anyway. But Friday we woke up and it was beautiful sunny weather, so Michelle and I decided to go to Casa Asis to visit Siri, a volunteer there who came with us in January and is now done. So that was a nice short break. It was good to see Siri, but it was weird to talk about her leaving because she had started at the same time we did, but now she's done and we're not even half done. So we watched a bunch of movies, and read, and hung out with the kids, and talked with Siri. Then we left Sunday morning to come back because Michelle had to give her English test today. Also, the taxi driver who took us to Casa Asis on Friday said that they're going to strike again today because gas prices went up so much that they're back to the same problem that they can't make enough money. (The amount that buses and taxis can charge is regulated by the government). They didn't strike, but they're still threatening to, and saying it'll be worse than last time. Hopefully they can work something out. It's not good for the country when nothing and no one can go anywhere.

On Sunday a new volunteer arrived. She's a 22- year- old nurse from Austria. So that's really great to have a trained medical person here. She's been here for a few weeks in San Juan del Sur at language school. So it's exciting to have someone new here! Monday was back to work for me, but I wasn't able to do much, because the kids are all testing. Next week should be better!

I'll get pictures up once the internet is more reliable. It doesn't work to upload something when the internet goes on and off, 'cause that cuts off the upload. Hopefully this weekend!