Weekends in the campo

Weekends in el campo (the country side) look like this...

Sharpening a machete to go cut down some weeds (mosquito heaven,  ya know?)

Decorating for a friend's wedding

And then attending said wedding...

All make for a fun and successful weekend!

Reflections on Year One

On August 4th, we celebrated our 1 year nica-versary. August 4th, 2015 we took a flight from orientation in Pittsburgh to hot, sweaty Managua. 1 year ago we were nervous and excited about what awaited us over the next years. 1 year ago we had no idea what we were actually getting into :) And now 1 year in I can say that what we got into has been amazing, challenging, beautiful, rewarding, difficult, fun, and new and exciting.

Thinking back on the last year it seem that days went SLOW, but with each month turn of the calendar we  couldn’t believe another month had passed. And now staring down year 2, we can’t believe we are looking towards the “downhill” slope of our volunteer term. How did this happen?
We often catch ourselves admiring the beauty and especially the weather here in San Nicolas. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful and tranquilo spot to learn spanish, learn a new community and culture, and teach English (amongst many other things!) We feel like the luckiest volunteers in the world. And this isn’t even considering the people who make up the community of San Nicolas.

There are so many people in town who have taken us under their wing, whether that’s inviting us over for dinner, or teaching us the correct way to say “I hope that it will rain today.” (Dang, subjunctive!), or just a simple smile and “adios” on the streets. I know that we will always be the “gring@s” or the “cheles” but it has been such a blessing to feel accepted by our community here in San Nicolas. I thought I knew about hospitality and what it means to be a good host, but so many here in Nicaragua have shown us what it means to TRULY host someone with time, talk, and a cafecito (a bit of coffee!) 

By 1 year mark, I thought and hoped I may have a more clear answer to “what are you doing here? What is your work/job?” While I still don’t have a perfect or a very graceful answer to these questions, I feel like I can answer more confidently, with more understanding and insight into what “accompaniment” means. Don’t get my wrong, accompany someone is super hard to define and is truly a life-long journey. I have found joys and challenges in accompanying people in Nicaragua, but the same goes for any relationship I have, my marriage, my friends, as a social worker, I expect to always be learning about what true accompaniment means. It’s hard, but it’s important!

So…1 year in. What ARE we doing here? We teach English, we assist with anything/everything at the high school in town, I work with a multi-grade elementary classroom, I have a semi-successful women’s workout class, we invite people into our home and are invited into homes of others, we build relationships with our student and neighbors, we speak a lot of Spanish, we ask a lot of questions, we are confused often, and we learn something new everyday. It may be a pretty scattered answer, but it is what we do.

Looking back to 1 year ago when I was writing my “purpose statement” during orientation this is what I wrote, I am reposting this so I can be reminded as we head into year 2:

“I commit myself to accompaniment; walking beside the people of my community.

I commit myself to vulnerability; acknowledging my own fears and insecurities.

I recommit myself to my marriage; understanding that we are two individuals with unique experiences.

I commit myself to presence; striving for awareness of what I am receiving and what I am giving.

I commit myself to being open; growing and learning on  this journey.”

At our VMM retreat in January I added: “I commit myself to self-love, self-reflection, and self-understanding” (I was not very kind or patient with myself during this time. I was super hard on myself in my rate of learning Spanish, building relationships and was struggling to find my role/purpose/success here. Thus this “self-centered” addition to my purpose statement )

And today I would like to add: “I commit myself to being present in each moment, with each person that I encounter. Knowing that there are many “lasts” to come in year 2”

Whew. So cheers to a wonderful journey so far. A journey of growth, of learning many new things about myself, and cheers to DOING IT! Learning Spanish, living in a new culture, making friends, teaching, talking in Spanish, living very closely with my husband, cleaning, being, washing clothes by hand, using a latrine, fighting for a spot on the bus, helping, organizing, trying new foods, and most importantly accompanying…I am doing it! Not always doing it well or great. But I do it. Everyday. As my good friend texts me in times of desperation, “YOU CAN DO IT!” :) So here’s to another year of doing it! Accompanying, being, learning, and soaking up this unique experience.

August 2015

January 2016

July 2016

Love.

To Be Honest…

I am not so young and hip anymore, this becomes blatantly obvious to me whenever I  need to google what a certain hashtag means that I come across on social media. One of hashtag I had to google over the last year was #tbh. It means “To Be Honest”…So in honor of this new-found hashtag I am going TO BE HONEST about a few things going on recently.

#TBH I haven’t blogged for a long time because life feels so normal and routine here in San Nicolas. I feel like there is nothing new or exciting to write about. But I will try harder!

#TBH We visited the states this month for a friends wedding. And while it was wonderful and super fun, we also felt really happy to be coming back to Nicaragua, our current home. That’s a good thing!
 
#TBH Since being back from the states I have taken a lot of long naps. Turns out the lifestyle in the states exhausted me. It really is so different.

#TBH English is way easier than Spanish :)

#TBH We ate so much delicious food in the states! #Wendys #Homecooking #Venturis #BoogieBurger #ElCamino #BuffaloWildWings #Olympia #VillageInn #TheSpring

#TBH We have amazing parents that hosts us with so much love when we are home. (And the best food!)

#TBH I can’t believe we only have 1 year left here in Nicaragua. I know this second year will go even faster than the first year.

#TBH Teaching English is hard! Getting students to come to class is hard.

#TBH I really dread the fight for seats on the bus to and from Esteli. It gives me anxiety.

#TBH We live in one of the most beautiful locations in the world. With the BEST weather. I know we will miss this.

#TBH Doing laundry by hand is actually kind of fun.

#TBH We live a pretty calm life here. I always think back to the quote “It’s okay to be happy with a calm life”. I hope I carry that back with me to our life in the states.

#TBH I am ready for election season to be over (in the states and here in Nicaragua….election day is November 6th here!)

#TBH I am sad that my workout class attendance is declining. BUT hope to continue!

#TBH I am currently loving podcasts! #radiolab #fidningmastery #CYG

#TBH I am sad to see one of our closest friends in town move away next month.

I think that’s all I have TBH about right now :) I have another blog in the works about our Nica-versary. 1 year in Nicaragua. So look for that soon.

#TBH I’m out!

Love :)

The Stiffneys in Nica

Having family visit us in Nicaragua is a guaranteed good time! It also means many benefits for us. Less cooking and cleaning for us with more hands around (special shout-out to Susan for the yummy baked goods throughout the week!), outside work gets done pretty quickly, and we get to travel to other parts of Nica that we haven’t seen before. In June and July, our time with Kirk and Susan was no different. We had a blast hanging out in San Nicolas. They were able to come hang out at our schools with us. We had dinner with the school director. We walked around town. And we all practiced our Spanish. We were able to travel about an hour north to visit the much anticipated Somoto Canyon (so beautiful, a must do! The ultimate float trip!) Then for our semester vacation days we took off for the coast traveling to Leon, Granada and San Juan del Sur with a few volcano stops along the way. Here are a few pictures from our time together, along with some descriptions of the activities we did:

(Almost total photo credit to Kirk for his photography skills throughout the trip! Thanks for being so snap-happy, so we can take with us a “buen recuerdo”—a good memory! :)

Kirk and Susan helped us (okay they did all of it…) plant a garden! We have peas, spaghetti squash, spinach and lettuce, and pumpkins and onions. It was already sprouting when we returned to San Nicolas about 8 days later) Also—Davie, we finally got your peace pole in place! Yay!

Another project we worked on was revamping Davie and Sarah’s hanging garden outside the kitchen. I LOVED the concept but some of the plants were dying and the string was breaking after going through a few rainy seasons. So we bought some double-strength string and re-hung the pop bottle plants and replanted a few, too!

We visited Esteli on Friday to see the Farmer’s Market where we work, and we had a yummy lunch of Cuban pressed sandwiches.

Kirk and Susan walked with me to the elementary school I help at.

Kirk helped me out with a futbol lesson in gym class. Here he is wrangling the boys into a group.

A “jump rope” workout with the students.

Maria (in top picture) is the teacher I work with in Quebrada de Agua. We have really enjoyed getting to know her and her family. And love walking out to their home in the “true campo” to visit them. So, one day, after school, we walked to their house with candy taffy ingredients in tow. Susan grew up making taffy by hand for Christmases with her family and the tradition continues whenever we are with the Nyce’s for Christmas. Last Christmas, we made it here in Nicaragua when the Stiffney’s were visiting and Maria’s family wanted to learn how to make it! So on this day (even though it wasn’t Christmas :) ) we taught them how to make taffy over their wood burning stove (lena), with a broken thermometer, and with a flashlight because of the lack of lighting :) It was quite the adventure, but it turned out wonderful! They loved learning how to make it and we wrote down the recipe so they can make it again! The above pictures are of all of us “pulling” the taffy. The most fun part! :) Maria, her son (Leonard Paul) and her daughter (Hellen) are pictured.

Maria’s family with Susan, Alli and Kyle. We are so thankful for these people who have never failed to make us feel right at home in San Nicolas and in their home!

Maria’s home is pictured here in the background. Kyle and Hansel (Maria’s youngest son) were taking a break from their soccer match.

We finally got to visit Somoto Canyon where we hiked and floated our way through the beautiful canyon for about 6 hours. Kyle made it slowly, but surely…but don’t tell his doctor! :)

So beautiful!!

Off we go on “le tour de Nicaragua” for a week. Not pictured is the newly painted yellow door that Kirk repainted for us. The first paint we bought at Christmas time was probably the cheapest we could find and just didn’t look very nice…..lesson learned! So to Sherwin Williams we went and now the door looks AWESOME :)

First stop was Leon, where we visited the top of the cathedral. Sweated a lot (it was hot!!) and ate lots of good food. Including Schwarma, frozen mojitos and delicious fritanga type food.

After Leon, we drove south towards Managua and passed through the capital city to Masaya National park where you can drive on top of the Masaya volcano and look down in and see REAL, LIVE lava! Way cool! They only let you stay for 10 minutes and make you park your car facing down the hill for a quick escape. This has become especially more strict after volcanoes have become very active in Nicaragua over the last 6 months. We are such risk-takers ;)

This picture doesn’t quite do it justice, but the rolling and spitting lava down in the crater of Masaya was really amazing!

#powercouple

Our next stop was Granada. Where Kathy’s Waffle House always gets a thumbs up for a states-style breakfast and bottomless coffee! :)

Climbing a bell tower in a Granada church.

We took a boat tour of Las Isletas (the islands around Granada formed by volcano explosions) to see some wildlife and birds. Kyle was on high alert for birds with his cool, new binoculars. (Jill: We are working on our life lists! Come join us!)

On our way out of Granada we hiked around the top of Mombacho. Another volcano in Nicaragua. This one was a dormant volcano with a cloud forest on top.

We found some wildlife on Mombacho. Thank goodness we had those binocs :)

The Copa America was just wrapping up and the Euro Cup was just starting in the world of futbol. So we spent some time in front of a TV. With good food, of course :) This was a stop we made in Rivas on our way to San Juan del Sur.

We made it to San Juan del Sur, the famous beach spot in Nica. We stayed closer to town, but used our rental truck to get out to the North and South beaches outside of town. There were a lot of surfers out and about. But we were also able to find a few beaches where it felt like we were completely alone!

Beautiful sunsets in San Juan del Sur always were a treat before heading out to dinner for some yummy seafood or delicious brewery food.

Dinner on Playa Hermosa while we watched the sunset. Playa Hermosa definitely topped our list of favorite beaches!

Seafood dinner at El Tiimon.

Amazing sunset view of the San Juan del Sur bay from our lovely bed and breakfast (Las Palmas)

On our way back north to Managua for a flight home, we stopped in San Juan del Oriente where the community is famous for making beautiful pottery. We stopped at a house to buy some items, and la jefa (boss lady) took us out back to show us how her pottery is made. She focuses more on the geometric shapes and flower designs. And the guy sitting down showed us how he throws the pots and designs a lot of the pre-colombian etchings.  We bought a few beautiful pieces from this family.

A final stop in Managua before Kirk and Susan flew home. We went to the lake front to see the huge metal trees and a replica of Managua before the earthquake. We also visited the national palace and the tombs of famous Nicaraguan heroes. I must say, I was coming around to the potential “artistic beauty” of these super expensive, metal trees but now they are starting to put up these light up, bacon flags behind the trees and it just seems a bit too much for me. Does anyone else think that they look like bacon?

…you’ll have to come check it out for yourself, I guess :)

We had such a wonderful time with Kirk and Susan! It was great to spend time with them in vacation mode and to show them more of our life here in San Nicolas. It was, also, a great way to see so many parts of the country that we weren’t able to visit before. Come one, come all. Our door it open to you all. There is something for everyone, mountains, beaches, hiking, nature….and light up trees. Ha :) But seriously, we love having visitors! So let us know when you buy your tickets :D

Thank-you, Kirk and Susan, for an amazing 2 weeks! We look forward to the next time!

Much Love.

We. Love. Visitors.

June—The month of visitors! So after all was said and done with Kyle’s hospital stay. We had a solid line-up of visitors for June. While some plans had to change due to the hospital stay, we were still able to do most of what we had hoped to do!

First up, Brittany and Luke! Our good friends from Indiana. They just wrapped up their 2 year Peace Corps term in Costa Rica and were doing some traveling and they made Nicaragua one of their destinations. We were so excited to see them and show them our lives here in San Nicolas, after we had visited them in Costa Rica and experienced a small part of their lives there. They were able to travel to Ometepe solo while we wrapped up a few doctors appointments for Kyle and then we met up for some time in San Nicolas, and then together we traveled Leon for some volcano boarding, church tours and good food! :) Thanks for visiting Britt and Luke! We always appreciate your perspectives on cross-cultural living and volunteer work and really appreciate your friendship and support, always! Come back soon!

B+L helped me teach a short English lesson in the Quebrada de Agua primary school. They kids are still asking when you are coming back :) “La otra rubia y Lucas” jaja!”"

Helping out with some Limbo during gym class.

We watched a beautiful sunset from the Mirador above San Nicolas.

Volcano boarding (sledding) on Cerro Negro. Unfortunately, Kyle couldn’t join because of his ankle and knee. While we didn’t have the top speeds in the group, we still had a lot of fun. We won’t say who had the tops speed coming down between us three….(it was the ladies!)

On top of the cathedral in Leon

Thanks for visiting, Friends! :D

Our second visitor in June was, Beatty from Sarasota, Florida. Beatty and his church started developing a relationship with the town of San Nicolas through World Vision (definitely check out the World Vision child sponsorship program—I have seen the advantages of this program first hand with our students and definitely believe in the program and where the money goes to help those students who need it! Plus one of our adult English students works at World Vision Nicaragua and he is super passionate about his job). Eventually, Beatty stumbled upon Davie and Sarah’s Blog when they were living here in San Nicolas, which eventually led to our blog :) Beatty and his church group have been supporting our work here through prayers and email/snail mail check-ins! We have appreciated getting know Beatty through email, and recently he said he was making a quick trip to Nicaragua. So we opened our doors to him for the afternoon and showed him what we are doing in San Nicolas. It was great to meet him en vivo. We really appreciate his support of us and of this community! Thanks for visiting, Beatty. We look forward to when more of your community can come visit! We’ll be here :) We don’t have any pictures with Beatty, but he sent us this picture of Kyle and I at the high school.

Our Third round of visitors came at the end of June when Kyle’s parents came down to spend some time in San Nicolas with us, but also to travel with us as we had a semester vacation from our school duties. We traveled with them for about a week and a half so I will dedicate a separate blog to our time with them.

It’s always so great to have visitors come see what we are doing here in San Nicolas. Especially as the day-to-day can begin to feel pretty routine, it’s great to see some renewed excitement through new eyes. Even the realization that we live in one of the most beautiful places in the world can slip our minds, until we have some visitors who remind us that we get to call this beautiful valley our home.

Much Love.

Party in the U.S.A.

To add some extra drama to our medical issues here in Nicaragua, I was scheduled to leave for a week in the states 3 days after Kyle was admitted to the hospital. This delayed my departure by a few days, but I was still able to get home to celebrate my sisters graduation and spend some time with family while Kyle’s mom came to the hospital in Nicaragua to stay with him.

When I was home I got to visit lots of friends and family. And one new friend—Baby Elodie! I was able to celebrate my sisters graduation from Bethany Christian High School—she will be attending Eastern Mennnonite University next year. And I was able to eat lots of good food and enjoy some other stateside treats :)

It wasn’t as hard as I thought to return to my cultural home and then to have to turn around and come back to my current home. I think I left Nicaragua in a really good place (excited about work, feeling comfortable, and getting better at Spanish). The only thing that really shocked me when I was in the states was prices and availability of things! And also the ease of life when you can speak in your native tongue. My brain felt like it was on TOTAL vacation! When you don’t have to think about every sound that leaves your mouth, you realize how HARD your brain has been working for the last several months. Whew! I think my brain needed that breather, but it also made me realize how quickly you can really lose that second language if you don’t practice it. I felt like I had to get back up to Spanish speed when I returned to Nicaragua.

Overall, it was a great trip. But I was also eager to return to Nicaragua, to what has become our home, and to my husband who was still on the mend. Here are a few pictures from my visit to the states:

The Hawkins missed Kyle. But we were able to have a night out to celebrate, graduation, mother’s day, upcoming projects and studies, missed birthdays and Alli being home :) It was fun getting dressed up and catching up on life with my beautiful family.

We worked on decorations for Abbi’s graduation open house. One of which, was this fun T-shirt quilt! It was great to celebrate the accomplishments of my sister and I am so excited for her and her future at EMU!

Shhh…Don’t tell Abbi. But her open house was a great way for me to see so many family and friends in one spot! Thanks for the party, Abbi ;)  My cousin, Sam, and I at the open house.

While the hospital stay delay had me missing out on some time with good friends over Memorial Day Weekend. I was able to see some of them throughout the week! Thanks for hanging out with me, Liz!

 

I loved meeting Miss Elodie for the first time and seeing her momma again! (Photo cred: Ashley Dru Photography)

No visit is complete without a beautiful and peaceful sunset on Amish Highway 35

And the whole reason for the trip. The beautiful lady, who is off to college next year! I loved spending time with her and hearing of her excitement for the next steps. Volleyball, studies, new experiences! I am super excited for her! And we also had a super secret sister outing, which we had been planning for a while. Success! :D  I am so proud of you, Abbi! And I can’t wait to see where these next few years takes you. Keep flying ;)

Much Love.