Wednesday 27 April 2016

My walking buddy

On Mondays and Tuesday I ride the bus up the hill about 10 minutes to begin my 20 minute walk to the elementary school. When I first started I loved "plugging in" and listening to a podcast while I walked. Now, I have a faithful walking buddy.  No matter how late the bus comes he is always there waiting to walk with me and tell me alllll his stories about what happened the night before. We talk about the weather. How tired we are (from walking up all the hills). And he often shows me cool wildlife as we walk. My own personal tour guide. We saw 2 guardabarancos, the national bird, last week (pictured below, not my picture!) 

Meet Franygel. My 4th grade walking buddy!

Much Love,
Alli

Tuesday 26 April 2016

Every Monday...

Every Monday and Tuesday I have the privilege to help out in a multi-grade classroom. The students are grades 4th-6th and I really enjoy working with them and their wonderful teacher, Maria! Each Monday we trek to the water pila to collect water for the school. To drink. To water the plants. To clean. It's a pretty normal procedure now,  but when I first started working here it made me really consider what this would look like in the states. Students in the states don't walk a quarter mile to fetch water.  Or a mile or more to get to school.  Things are so different here. Yet we are all working towards the same goal. Educating our kiddos for their future and for ours. It's pretty incredible the barriers that I find here within the education system. Yet there are so many hard working teachers and students who continue to overcome and rock it everyday.

Here are some photos from our water fetching adventures. And a few of the sweet students I get to work with ♡

The coolest teacher around, Maria!
This a student who really struggles in Math and Spanish. I work with him one-on-one almost everyday. We work on handwriting, reading and basic math concepts. Here we were working outside to get a break from the noise level in the classroom.
Group/classroom work. While Maria is teaching a lesson to one grade level, I am usually working with another group on a worksheet or other activities. In my best Spanish, of course :)


Aren't they the sweetest?? A definite highlight of my week is seeing these lovely faces in the mornings and hearing them yell "GOOD MORNING!" in their best English accent :)

Much Love,
Alli

Monday 25 April 2016

Work hard, play hard

During the week we work hard. Helping at the schools and teaching English.

Come the weekend we soak up some time reading and relaxing in the hammocks in our backyard.

Can't complain :)

Saturday 2 April 2016

April Has Arrived!

Can we just take a second to recognize that we are already 4 months into 2016. Where has the time gone?! As usual, our days here in San Nicolas seem to be packed full and some days seem to go super slow. But then all the sudden we are turning the calendar page (thanks Grandma Bertha for our 2016 calendar!).

I am not sure what to think of this time dynamic. There are days when I am thankful time is going fast. Those days that Spanish does not want to flow out of my mouth, those days that the students seem out of control and want to leave English class 30 minutes after it began, those Saturdays that I don’t know if I can hand wash 1 more pair of pants, the days that I just don’t LOVE the outdoor latrine anymore, and those days that I feel totally lost culturally.

BUT then there are the days that I say to my self: “Wait. Slow down. Soak this up. Remember this moment”. The days where an elementary student draws me a cards and tells me thanks for helping them with long division (which is really hard to explain in Spanish, by the way. Especially when it has been 10 years since you have done any math on paper :) ), the days that the school director, the school psych and I get into a good, deep discussion about student behavior and I feel like I can contribute, the days that our neighbors come over to catch up, or to get advice about something personal, the days that Kyle and I have a free evening to cook together and get to bed at 8pm (the best!), the days that a student responds to the question “How are you?” with something other than “I am happy!” (their go to phrase!), the days I get to teach workout class, the mornings I have just a bit of quiet time to dive into my devotional book, and those days that I look around, the weather is perfect and the views are amazing. These are the moments I want to soak up! I am thankful that there are more of the good days, and I am confident that trend will continue, as each day we become more comfortable in all aspects of life here in San Nicolas.

So, Time, keep doing what you are doing. Some days you need those fly-by-before-your-eyes months, and some days you need those long, slow days to soak things up. For now, I will keep working extra hard to soak each moment up and appreciate the experience NOW.

A glimpse into March in San Nicolas:

  • Kyle’s leg is healing well. He is still limited in movement and exercise, but can walk to our classes, which is a great improvement. Less pain. But he is definitely ready to get back to running and playing soccer.
  • Sad news, Rabi our rabbit died in the middle of march. He was killed by (we think) a cat, while he was running around outside during “recess”. He lived a good life, with lots of good food, and freedom (thus, why he was running around outside). Miss you, Rabi!
  • Our extra-curricular English class has been going well, overall. As we we were warned, there is always a huge surge of interest in the beginning and then the numbers dwindle after that. While this is sad for us, we are glad there are still students who are interested and who ARE learning English :)
  • We attended our first Vela (viewing) and funeral in March. It was not for someone we knew personally, but we do know the family. So we tried to help and be around as much as we could. It was definitely one of those cultural experiences where you begin to think about how we do things in our culture and how things are done here.
  • We visited Costa Rica for Semana Santa (holy week-before Easter). We drove to the super south of Costa Rica to visit Brittany and Luke (Goshen college friends, doing Peace Corps). It was a wonderful week, filled with lots of catching up, laughter, comparing stories, beach and farm time, and my personal favorite—MONKEYS! It was good for our soul! We have lots of good friends here in Nicaragua. But there is something about reconnecting with lifelong friends that just makes you feel connected in a totally different way. Thanks for taking the time to host us, Britt and Luke. We will be waiting to return the favor soon :)
  • My women’s exercise classes are still going on. But those numbers also seem to be fading. Syda, the other teacher I am working with, and I are trying to revive the classes. We are advertising and trying to keep people interested. It has been a great outlet for me, and it has been fun to get to know a different group of ladies in town! I have loved teaching and it has planted the fitness bug in me. I would love to get certified in some sort of fitness classes sometime in my life :)
  • March was filled with Kyle spending time at the high school in town and Alli at the elementary school outside of town. This has become a really good balance of workload and we feel it’s an efficient use of our time. Plus, we have a lot more to talk about over dinner :)
  • The farm that we have been working with—La Garnacha. Continues to be a good alternative to the education setting. Sometimes cleaning carrots and hanging out with goats is what we need after a crazy week of English classes and classroom management :) There are few potential projects in the works there, particularly related to accounting that Kyle is hoping to get more involved in over the next few months.

Well I think that’s a decent update of what has been happening on our end! :) We love hearing from friends and family, too! If you have a chance, send us an email update or just say hi:

ahawkinsjae@gmail.com

kstiffney@gmail.com

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much love.