Hola from Nandasmo, Nicaragua!
**Current Jam: Be Still My Soul—Page CXVI [Hymns reimagined by Derek Webb]
**Current location: In a rocking chair in our host Eva’s beautiful living room
Sorry it took me so long to get this blog going, but I’m excited to tell everyone about what we’ve been up to in Nicaragua!
But first, quick recap. We spent last month in the slums of Los Guidos in Costa Rica as an entire squad (all 40 of us), and on the last day of month we all headed out of San Jose and went our separate ways after crossing the border. Each team (there are 6 teams on our squad) is at a different ministry site this month, and so we’re spread out all over the country. My team of 5 chicas is only a 45-minute drive from the capital, Managua, in a super small (but super cute) town called Nandasmo.
Things you might not know about Nandasmo (but that you know you want to):
- They make really, really beautiful furniture here
- It’s also just really, really beautiful here. There are lakes everywhere and everything’s green and we even went to visit a volcano the other weekend!
- They also make really beautiful, kind of interesting cement lawn decorations here. We got the pleasure of painting some one day—frogs and ears of corn and fish and umbrellas for toads!
- This being a small town, they of course still have festivals and fairs with “queens” and “kings,” and we almost got to witness the coronation of ‘la reina de maiz,’ or the corn queen J
- The temperature here—which everyone told us would be rainy and unbearably hot—has actually been amazing. Not too hot most days, and it cools off so much at night that it makes it perfect for sleeping
- Niquinohomo, a town only a stone’s throw away from Nandasmo, is famous around all of Nicaragua for it’s bread. Don’t worry, we’ve tried plenty of it, and I can definitely confirm that statement
- The traditional food here is of course lot’s of rice and beans (gallo pinto), but we’ve also been treated to tomato and vegetable soups and empanadas and fried cheese and even pancakes J
- People are extremely friendly here, and we get greeted jovially everywhere we go. “Hola Gringas!”
- Our main mode of transportation is on the back of our host Eva’s truck. It’s a beautiful way to travel, with all the best of both the sun and the breeze. We feel a little like we’re in a parade waving to everyone as we go by, but we love it*
- The other mode of transportation here are these really adorable moto taxi’s—little red motor bike things that have been built so you can ride in the back of them, two people comfortably and three if you want to squeeze.
- The mosquitos here shoot to kill, and there’s been a number of times, especially once after I had seven bites on my face alone, that I’ve just wanted to take a flame thrower and mass execute them all (pardon the harsh language), but I’ve always managed to talk myself out of it.
- The kids here have a traditional greeting that they use when they meet someone older than they are—it’s like a sign of respect but it’s also probably the cutest and most precious thing you’ll ever see.
*Don’t worry Mom, she drives really slow so we’re not actually doing anything dangerous by riding back there.
So what’ve we been up to this month?
Well, since I speak Spanish as does another girl on our team, Heather, we’ve been teaching English at a local school everyday. There’s probably about 100 kids at this school, and we’ve been teaching kindergarten through 6th grade. We split up our time so that we’re in each grade two times a week, and it’s been so cool to see the kids around town and have them say, “hello” and “how are you?” and “goodbye.” These kids have never been taught English before as there’s no one to teach them, and so it’s been fun to see how eager they are to learn, and how quickly they pick it up.
That’s not to say teaching’s been all sunshines and rainbows, of course. The younger grades can be crazy, and it’s hard to get them to pay attention for the entire hour-long class (one class has a particular fondness for putting each other in head lock after head lock…). It’s also hard because my Spanish is by no means perfect, and sometimes I stumble over my words, or want to say something and can’t remember how. After graduate school, I wasn’t sure that I would be teaching again (or I at least thought I’d have a longer break first), but here I am, teacher once again! You’d think there’d be a bigger difference in teaching grades 1-6 and college kids, but honestly the basic principles are the same—try and keep the interested and engaged, make sure you explain yourself clearly, and don’t try to keep them in class a second past the allotted time.
All that being said, the kids wait for us out in front of the school and greet us everyday as enthusiastically as I’ve ever been greeted. They shower us with hugs and ‘buenas dias’s and candy and kisses. They’re so loving and half the time I have kids fighting over my hand before I even get through the front gate of the school. Heather and I, not to brag, have become the most popular girls in school, and it’s crazy to feel so loved and wanted without really doing anything to earn it. I wish I could just transport you all here to Nicaragua just for a day, just so you could hang out with those kids—you can’t help but feel joyous after being showered by so much love and interest and appreciation.
Other than the school, we’ve been helping out with children’s church on Sundays (and last Sunday I tried to teach a lesson in Spanish about David and Goliath. The kids mostly just wanted to play games, but hey, I tried!). We’ve also sung a lot of songs in church, and I even gave a testimony about me coming on the race all in Spanish. Honestly, I didn’t have much time to prepare and I was not excited about it—I mean my Spanish is okay but giving something that long in Spanish definitely did freak me out—but I did and I’m glad I did. People even seemed to semi-understand what I was saying (bonus!).
Other than that, our team has also been going on ‘visites,’ which are just house visits where we pray or share a word or just give encouragement. Heather and I haven’t been going on as many of those because we’ve been at the school, but the other three girls on our team have been rocking the visites. There are lonely and sad and sick and broken people here, just like anywhere else, and it’s nice to be able to let them know that they’re still cared for and acknowledged. That they’re not forgotten.
We’ve also helped to paint cement lawn ornaments, which was a lot of fun. I got to paint a beautiful corn man, and he was looking pretty good by the time I left him if I don’t say so myself. For the rest of the month, Heather and I will definitely be teaching and just helping out in whatever way we’re needed. Our hosts, Eva and Milton, have been amazing and treated us so graciously that I know it’s impossible that we’ll ever be able to repay them. We’re staying at their house, and we all have beds and warm showers and toilets (hey, big deals when you’re on the race!), and we’re so very thankful for it. Eva seems to know everyone around town, and we’ve been so welcomed by everyone we’ve met. This place definitely has a home-y feel to it.
So that’s been our month so far! If you want to read more blogs from my four teammates that are here with me, their blog links are on the left hand side of this page. They’re wonderful writers and most of them blog much more frequently than I do 😉
Also, thank you to everyone who has supported me financially on this race! I am now 93% funded—so close to 100%! I never, ever thought that would be possible before the race, and seeing God provide through the people in my life has been amazing and humbling to see, so thank you.
Prayer requests for the month of November:
- We have a fundraising deadline on Dec. 1st, and while I’ve already met the deadline some of my teammates have not, so just prayers for God’s provision for them in these next few weeks!
- Prayers for my health—my throat has been hurting more than normal, and with all the changes in food and all the classes I’m teaching, it’s not entirely unexpected, but still. Pray that my throat/stomach don’t hinder me from ministry while on the race!
- Just prayers for our health, and energy levels, as a team. Sometimes it just feels like some kind of sleeping disease has engulfed us all—I don’t know why we’re so tired, but a lot of times, we just are. Prayers that we would combat that and that God would refuel our energy tanks.
- Prayers for our entire squad, spread out in different parts of Nicaragua. That they would be encountering God and making his name known in their separate cities and towns.
- For all the kids at the school Heather and I are teaching at this month—pray that we might make known the love of God to them, and that, even more so than the English, it might be something they carry with them forever.
Also, just prayers for everyone who reads this blog that they might also encounter the love of God. Not just the name of God, or truths about God, but that they might see him face to face, and realize the height and the depth and the width and the breadth of his love for them. Maybe that sounds cliché or tacky or stupid or uninformed, but it’s been the most life-changing thing that I’ve ever experienced and I would just pray that experience for everyone reading along with me right now.
Amen? Amen.
Love you all, and I hope everyone is gearing up for the happiest thanksgiving of all!
Bree
