October: The Best Month Ever!

For my 29th birthday (October 31st), I was able to spend the week with some of my favorite people :) My mom, grandma, and aunt came down to visit for the week and to spend my birthday with me. We were able to visit our schools and they were able to see some of our work here. We had a pinata at my elementary school and ate lots and lots of cake! We also were able to take a few days of vacation to visit Granada and see some of the tourist sites around that area. We had a great time showing our family where we are and what we are doing! Thanks for visiting, Mom, Gma B and aunt Julie! We had a lot of fun and hope you did, too! Here are some pictures from our adventures:

Gma Bertha, El Gigante (the giant), Alli, Mom-Cindy, and Aunt Julie

Gma B brushing her teeth at the Pila

Our school director—Idalia—and Kyle planned to make a surprise dinner for my birthday! Her daughters were able to come over and teach us how to make a good fried plantain and grill steak, fritanga style :)

Sunday evening birthday surprise dinner

Filling Pinata Elsa with candy for our elementary party the following day

We visited my elementary school so my family could see where I spend a lot of my time. They had made a sign for me and sang Las Mananitas (the Nica birthday song).

Then we had a to have a pinata!

Crazy kiddos! It was fun to celebrate with them.

Pinata action

Turns out the Elsa pinata was super strong. So in the end, our string-man had to break open her head and drop the candy from above :)

Some of the girls picked flowers for our special visitors.

We visited Maria’s mom’s house for traditional Birthday soup! (Sopa de Gallina…Chicken soup) It was delicious.

We taught our adult English class. One of our favorite parts of our week! We tried to have conversations between our guests and our students. But then it started POURING rain. And there are no conversations to be had under a tin roof when the rain is coming down! We still had fun, and ate MORE cake :)

We visited my FAVORITE spot in all of Nicaragua. The lookout point at El Rancho. You can see about 9 volcanoes from this point, with our little town tucked in the valley. At sunset, it is just spectacular! And it’s only a 10 minute bus ride from our house. Favorite!

It was cloudy, but it’s always beautiful!

We visited Masaya volcano to see real-life lava!

Granada horse carriage tour

We also went on a boat tour with a really funny tour guide. We saw birds, monkeys, private islands, and great views of the Mombacho volcano.

We  found a cute little bistro that was showing the Cubs vs. Indians Game 7! It was fun to watch the Cubs win and eat some delicious food, too :)

We enjoyed some delicious Nicaraguan coffee

And enjoyed the sights and sounds of the central park in Granada.

We had such a great time celebrating my birthday, and sharing our experiences with family. I know we will be so thankful when we are home and can talk with our community about where we were, what we were doing and our feelings about our time in Nicaragua. They will now have a deeper understanding of our experience! We feel blessed to have visitors who are flexible, excited and open to new things. It’s ALWAYS fun to show people our life here!
Thanks for making my 29th birthday a special one.
Love.