Mission: Orientation San Nicolas!

We have spent the past 2 weeks orienting to our new town and our new home! With Davie and Sarah (current volunteers) as our fearless leaders, we have learned so much that will help us in transitioning and our 2 years in San Nicolas. Between meeting people that they have worked with, friends in town (and outside of town!) and learning the basics of how to turn on the water, how to care for the myriad of fruit trees and plants in our backyard, and how to navigate new cultural norms we feel well prepared for our next two years here. We also have been able just to sit and talk with  Davie and Sarah about their experiences here and some of our expectations, fears and hopes. It’s been great to reconnect after going to Goshen College together and feel like we have trusted friends and co-volunteers to skype/call/text if we have questions or concerns. We have so appreciated this transition period and are so thankful to Davie and Sarah for the insights they have provided. They allowed us to move into their house on Wednesday so that we could overlap a few days in the house and learn as much as we could. We loved our host family and the time we were able to get to know them and practice our Spanish, but we are also very excited to get settled into our own space and routines. Davie and Sarah will leave on Monday for the next adventure and will be returning to the states. (Eek! We’ll be on our own!)

We are excited at the prospects of relationship building and work to be done in this town. San Nicolas is a beautiful town with some of the friendliest people! A place we will definitely enjoy making friends and building relationships.

Here are a few pictures of our time orienting to our town and work:

Some of the views as we drove into town

Working in the Kitchen—cooking together

The entrance to our new home! Davie and Sarah on the left.

Cleaning carrots at La Garnacha, our Thursdays will most likely be spent cleaning veggies to get ready for the Farmer’s Market on Fridays in Esteli

More views from La Garnacha

Orientation to the bus: Kyle’s legs don’t fit!

Friday at the Farmer’s Market in Esteli

Despedida  y Bienvenidos (Good-bye and Welcome party!)

Davie and Sarah know how to throw a good party!

Volunteer Twins!

Our walk/ride to La Garnacha (about 3 km)

Kyle Stretching in the middle of the road…weird gringo alert!

Another despedida at La Garnacha

(I hate good-byes—even if they aren’t my own!)

Two AWESOME volunteers with their favorite—Chincharones!! (yet to be cooked)…We have big shoes to fill.

Davie and Sarah have also blogged some about our time together (with maybe some more coming) and have some wonderful pictures on their blog, check it out here:

Footnotes: Davie and Sarah

Thanks Davie and Sarah (and VMM) for an AWESOME orientation period. We have enjoyed getting to know you better and look forward to seeing you in Nicaragua when you come back to check on us Enjoy your travels and good luck settling back into USA life!

House tour coming soon!

Love,

Alli+Kyle

San Nicolas: First Impressions

We made it to San Nicolas on Sunday and have been meeting tons of new people, getting oriented with Davie and Sarah, and enjoying our time with our host family.

We have had a few first impressions of our new home and town:

1.) We can’t believe how beautiful the landscape is! every time we are outside and look around, we are in awe.

2.) The cooler weather rocks!

3.) Our house that we will soon move into is much bigger than we imagined, even after Skyping with Sarah and Davie several times.

4.) Mango, banana, other fruit trees in our backyard.

5.) Everyone seems really nice, especially the teachers at the school and our neighbors.

6.) Already loving the small town feel!

7.) It’s really windy, with random gusts of wind coming through the valley.

8.)  We just completed our first “load” of laundry by hand and it’s not SO bad

9.) Davie and Sarah and awesome host and trail blazers for us! As are Billy and Kristin (the first volunteers here!) We’ve already heard their name (BillyKristin) mentioned several times.

10.) It’s very hilly here, but like we said SO beautiful!

I hope to post a few more pictures of our home and town very soon. We will be in a transition/orientation period until the end of this month. While we are looking forward to settling into our space, we are also appreciating our time with a local host family to practice our Spanish and develop important relationships and it has been amazing to have Davie and Sarah here to guide us through some logistical details of daily life in San Nicolas.

Love,

Alli + Kyle 

Matagalpa: Colibri Spanish School

We spent our 2nd week in Nicaragua in Matagalpa,  a city in the northern mountains. With cooler weather, awesome host families and great Spanish lessons, we all agreed that this was a week very well spent. Spanish hit Kyle and I like a brick. Half of this was from learning a new language and the other half was from having to be in a formal school setting again. It’s been a while I think we both benefited a TON from our one-on-one classes and feel that we have a good foundation to immerse ourselves in the language. We are BY NO MEANS fluent, but we are feeling more confident in general conversations—even when we need to take a second to build our verb conjugation charts in our heads. So. Many. Verb. Tenses. to keep track of!
An added bonus to attending La Escuela Colibri is that we took advantage of their package deal and stayed with a host family. Not only was this a great opportunity to practice our Spanish, but we also enjoyed delicious food by la mama, and we left feeling that we had built a positive relationship with a family in Matagalpa when we are in the area again.
Our Spanish will be put the test on Sunday (Aug 16) when we drive to San Nicolas with our in country coordinator. Davie and Sarah will be waiting there for us to introduce us to our new community. We will live with a  host family for the next two weeks, and then by September 1st, we will be moved into our casita! We have so appreciated the hospitality of the current volunteers and our host families, but are also excited for the opportunity to set-up our house and our life here in Nicaragua (AKA unpack all our stuff!)
Here are a few photos from our week in Matagalpa:

My Spanish teacher and classroom. Learning compuestos, subjunctive…all that fun stuff!

Another view from my “classroom”

Our view after the hike to Cerro Apante

The cross over the city

Dinner with our host family (la mama—Eunice y brother Bryan)

Host brother—Bryan

Tattoos by Bryan

Our family in Matagalpa—we went out for ice cream

With host sister (and school receptionist) Lu

Kyle y Bryan

Our picture we left at the school (Walking Together)

Cooking classes with Natasha and Clare (the volunteers who are living in Managua)

Bunelos (Yuca and cheese fried with a little bit of honey on top)

Love,
Alli + Kyle

Current Event: A canal through Nicaragua

We've been hearing about this canal business before we came to Nicaragua and it's been a possibility for years. Dating back to 1914 when a treaty was signed granting the US exclusive canal rights in Nicaragua (The US eventually moved on to Panama). Today, China has been granted rights to build a canal. I don't claim to know all the details, and hope to learn more from all sides. Here's a brief article about the topic:
Nicaragua Canal- ib times

I'm sure we will be writing more on this topic as things progress in this country we have come to love!

Going away party

As a way to get all our favorite people together in one spot, our families hosted a going away party and fundraiser. Lots of hugs were shared, delicious Chief ice cream was eaten, and many stories told. We enjoyed seeing everyone there and the love and support we felt! Here are a few pictures from our evening.

If you are still interested in supporting our volunteer work, here is the link to do so. Be sure to click DONATE NOW under our names. These funds go directly to us in a stipend to pay for living cost and volunteer materials. If we meet our goal, it will also go towards our re-entry assistance.

http://vmmusa.org/get-involved/treasure/missioner-and-project-support/

Thanks to everyone who has already donated. We feel support financially and emotionally and prayerfully by each of you We love you!

Love,

Alli