We're Actually Going.

Aileen and I lived in Nicargua for a year in 2000. We had such a great experience that we decided to live overseas again once we had children. Ten years later we are pursuing this dream with our daughters, Emma (7) and Hannah (5). We are taking this adventure for many reasons, the top three are: to help the girls learn Spanish, to experience another culture together and to have some family time in a more relaxed environment.

We are moving to San Ramon, Nicaragua in late June and plan to stay for a year. It took a long time to decide where we were going to live, but more on that later. In the meantime, Emma and Hannah have something to say....

Video of Emma and Hannah Talking About Moving to Nicaragua

Jeff

Welcome to Our Blog

Thanks for reading our blog. We are Aileen, Jeff, Hannah and Emma. In June 2010 we moved to San Ramon, Nicaragua - a small rural town in the department of Matagalpa. In September 2011 we moved Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru. We are now back home in California after an amazing 25 month adventure. This page provides some background information on the who, why, what, where and when of our adventure.

WHO:  We are a family of four from the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to moving, Jeff served as the Executive Director of the Community Housing Partnership.  Aileen worked part-time as a para-professional in a special education classroom. Emma and Hannah attend school and completed first grade and preschool in the United States. While we have a wide variety of individual interests, as a family we especially enjoy traveling, the outdoors, hanging out together and watching movies on Saturday nights (with popcorn).

WHY:  Aileen and Jeff moved to Nicaragua in 1999 to work on water projects in rural communities. When we left Nicaragua in 2001 we dreamed of returning to Latin America once we had children.  For many reasons, 2010 was the right year to make this happen. The purpose of our trip was to help our daughters learn Spanish, to experience another culture together, and to have more family time in a relaxed environment.  We would also like to make some sort of contribution to the communities we live in. We had planned to return home in the summer of 2011 but did not feel that a year was enough time to fully achieve all of our goals. We decided to extend our trip by moving to Peru, a country we all fell in love with during a vacation there in May 2011.

WHAT:  In Nicaragua, Aileen worked for an organization called Seeds of Learning.  She was responsible for the construction of new elementary schools in poor rural communities. Jeff had the opportunity to be the primary care giver for Emma and Hannah and did some consulting work with Nicaraguan and American nonprofits. Emma and Hannah attended public school and learned Spanish in the process. In Peru, the girls attended a private school and continued with their various extra curricular activities (guitar, violin, gymnastics & swimming). Jeff was doing consulting work to make ends meet and Aileen volunteered at a program for special needs children. We are now back in California.

WHERE: In Nicaragua we lived in San Ramon, a town of about 3,000 people in the rural state of Matagalpa. It is in the northern highlands where coffee is grown and much of the town's economy is linked to the coffee business. Here is a video of San Ramon  Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru with about 900,000 residents.  It is 7,700 feet above sea level and surrounded by beautiful mountains and canyons. Here is an Arequipa wiki if you want to read more.

WHEN: We left for Nicaragua in mid-June 2010.  We lived in Nicaragua until mid-August 2011 and after a brief visit to the USA moved to Peru on September 1. We returned to the USA in mid-July 2012.

Thanks again for reading our blog. Our first post was on May 30, 2010 and we stopped posting on December 30, 2012 and will not resume until our next family adventure.......