Interlude

We are taking a break from the "each person does an in-depth post" series to give a little update on what has been going on lately.  Since our last post, Jeff, Emma and Hannah went back to visit our friends the Valles. When we got there Jeffrey Jr. and his brother were away but we got to spend time with Aileen Jr. and her parents. There was no traumatic river crossing this time but we did get to watch our lunch (chicken) being killed and prepared.  It was so very touching to watch Hannah running around with the semi-developed chicken eggs and other innards that they let her play with.  That evening we stayed at a hotel in the town of El Sauce owned by our old friends the Blancos.  Xiomara and Francisco are amazing people and we were very happy to hear that all three of their daughters were doing well in their chosen professions.  This family is a very bright light in a country where the future often seems so dark.  It was energizing to be around them and we plan to go back very soon.

To the Valle's house we go....

In other exciting news, our zoo continues to grow. The Valle family decided to give Hannah a chick since she loved playing with them so much.  Aileen Jr. and Hannah forced Jeff into submission and we took the little sucker home.  It had to spend the night in the Blanco's hotel with us. Muji (hen in Chinese) is the newest resident of our chicken coop and she seems to be adjusting well.  In addition to Muji we now have a bat living in our patio named Bat Girl.  Bat Girl is probably there to enjoy a nice meal of chicken blood and hopefully not feasting on our dog too.  Actually we chased her away the other day but I would not be surprised to see Bat Girl again.  Speaking of the dog, Cuate is getting HUGE and is lots of fun for all of us when he is not destroying various items he gets his mouth on.

Bat Girl

Thanksgiving was another highlight of the month.  Aileen cooked a wonderful meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and cranberry sauce.  We were not able to watch football as there was no power all day and we had to cook and eat by candlelight.  The next day we visited a pre-Columbian museum in a nearby town called Chaguitillo. The museum guide (Jimmy) took us to a creek to see petro glyphs that were about 1500 years old.   Not only was the trip really interesting, Jimmy was a really nice guy who just got a scholarship to study nonprofit management in the USA.  Jimmy is another bright light and we plan to hang out with him before he leaves.

Thanksgiving Nica style

The really big event this month was the end of the Nicaraguan school year.  Hannah had her preschool graduation which was a huge affair.  It started with a mass in our beautiful little church.  The mass was lovely but Jeff found himself muttering in Hebrew and keeping an eye out for lightning bolts (only partly joking).  After mass there was a graduation ceremony and fiesta back at the school.  Jeff had to walk Hannah down the aisle which was good practice for the pending marriage to Oscar - her friend who swears he is coming back to the USA with us. 



Hannah getting her diploma

Emma did not have a ceremony per se, but we did have to go pick up her report card today which was sort of ceremonial.  Teacher Carmen told us that Emma was one of the best students she has ever had (and she has been teaching for 30 years).  Emma did incredibly well and has a growing reputation as the town scholar.  She is at the library every other day picking out books to read (English and Spanish).  Both of the girls will miss being at school.  They have made many friends and have been spending more and more time playing with their classmates.  Though they are making lots of new buddies, Emma and Hannah have REALLY bonded.  It is wonderful to see them together (except of course when they are fighting - which gets surprisingly physical sometimes).

Diploma and report card

School starts does not start again until February and we are about to begin our vacation travels  Jeff, Emma and Hannah leave for Costa Rica in a few days and will return mid-December.  Aileen cannot go as she is taking off many weeks of work in 2011 for our trips to the USA and Peru.  Besides all that, she has started a new school project in another community and is getting really busy again.  The travelers will try to blog on the road but if not, we will post when we get return.  Oh yeah, that is if we are even able to leave.  We just found out we need an exit visa for Jeff to take the kids out of Nicaragua without Aileen and it may be impossible to get one at this late date.  We cannot wait to make another trip to immigration!





Hannah's Turn

This week features Hannah.  She decided to do a photo essay about San Ramon.  Before we turn it over to Hannah, here is a brief update.

Not too much has happened in our daily lives since our last post.  However, we have finally decided our plans for the rest of the year.  When we decided to live in Nicaragua, everyone agreed to assess the situation in November and if we were not happy being here we would move to South America.  After weeks of discussion, debate and yes, some tears we finally decided to stay.  Aileen loves her job as well as the town and was not interested in moving.  Emma loves it here even more and was the one who shed some tears at the thought of leaving.  Hannah says she does not like it here but she is always smiling, has many friends and seems to revel in the freedom of small town life -- we took her vote with a grain of salt.  Once Jeff realized he could support the family by working 15 hours a week, the idea of moving to the mountains or beaches of Argentina took hold.  Cooler heads prevailed and we will continue our wonderful experience in San Ramon.  However, we agreed to take some major trips and encourage visits from friends and family in order to make the most of our time here, especially when the girls are off school. 

On to our feature presentation....Hannah's World in Photos.

My teacher is good and I like her

That is one of the San Ramon buses

This is my dog

This is Freddy.  He fell.

That is Hugo and he is nice

The library where everyone studies

They are crazy guys

He is my boyfriend Oscar

Look at the cute pig

That is our store.  My dog's daddy King is there,

That's my school





Emma's Turn

We are suffering from blog fatigue so for the next four weeks, each of us will take turns posting. Emma volunteered to go first.

On our way to a deserted island

My Crazy Week – by Emma
(this is something Emma wrote for the blog in mid-October that never got posted)

At school I am learning about how important it is to NOT waste electricity. In mathematics I am learning geometry. Yesterday I worked on a painting project at an after school program. This week school got cancelled because my teacher had a meeting. On the long weekend I went to the opening of Santa Isabel school (for Aileen's work).

Escuela Santa Isabel Grand Opening

Cuate (our new puppy) has a new puppy friend and her name is Pelusa. Daddy got a bike and I can ride on it with him by sitting on the bar so we ride around town a lot. If you have NOT seen me on Facebook I will tell you right now I made a video of a song for my Mom and Dad’s anniversary.

My School – by Emma K.
(note: this is from a project that Emma is doing with her classmates in Nicaragua and the USA)

In my school it is more noisy then the San Francisco School. Recess is not as calm. In my classroom it is very noisy and people are always running around the classroom bugging other people. School is noisy but there are lots of very nice friends. I have two best friends, Janyn (Yanin) and Carlos a girl and a boy.

Janyn

School is orange and white but the orange is orangeish-yellow. It is NOT like San Francisco School and is made of concrete. There is a big open space in between the buildings and that is the yard. It is pretty big but not as big as the San Francisco School yard. The power and water always go out and because of that we have a water tank as you will see on my map there is a circle and that is the water tank.

Emma's School

School starts at 7:30. In the mornings we sing the national anthem and the education anthem. We have three subjects, Spanish, Math and Civics. Recently we have been studying nature and Nicaraguan money. Sometimes we have PE or music but not so much. School ends at 12:15.

Emma's Class

Long Time No Blog

It is hard to believe that October is gone and we have been in Nicaragua four months. Things have been a bit slow of late.  Given the rains, the pets, and our work we ended up staying close to town during the past six weeks. We enjoyed some shopping trips to Matagalpa, a nice meal for our wedding anniversary, the national volleyball championship held in our town, and hanging out with friends. Jeff’s job ended and he started doing some consulting work with nonprofits in Nicaragua and the USA.  Aileen started construction on a new school. Emma and Hannah continue to study, play and grow.

Since things have been slow, we will tell you about some interesting medical experiences. As you may have heard, there has been an outbreak of Leptospirosis in Nicaragua and we were getting very nervous. The health care system in Nicaragua was really broken when we lived here in 2000 so we were not sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised when a health worker came to our door to discuss Leptospirosis. He provided us a prophylaxis for the disease and said he would return each week with more until the outbreak passes. He then asked if we wanted our H1N1 vaccines while he was visiting!  Unfortunately Jeff had another experience with the medical system after accidentally sticking his hand in our puppy’s mouth while playing (true story Mom, it was NOT a bite so don’t worry). The medical clinic patched him up, ruled out rabies and gave him a tetanus shot. It was a bit disconcerting getting treated in the hallway of the clinic but they got the job done.  The most interesting thing to note is that everything was free thanks to the Sandinista government’s focus on universal health care. Life is far from perfect here but perhaps the USA can learn a few things from Nicaragua.

Fortunately, we now have more interesting things to talk about than our health.  The rainy season is over, school is winding down, Jeff’s job ended and our puppy is growing up. Time to hit the road again!  This past weekend we went to Playa Coco on the Pacific Ocean which is about six hours from our house and an hour or so from the border with Costa Rica. After the long and grueling drive to our cottage by the beach, the girls shot out of the car, quickly changed and bolted to the water.

That night, we drove to nearby Playa La Flor to look for the sea turtles that come ashore to lay eggs every year. When we got to this nearby national park, we paid our entrance fee and were assigned a guide who covered our lights with red cellophane paper before taking us on a short hike to the beach. We were not prepared for what we saw. There were nearly one thousand turtles on the shore – coming and going with little regard for anything other than laying their eggs and getting back to the ocean. Each of us was nearly knocked over numerous times by the giant turtles. Our guide took us to a turtle in the process of finishing her nest (a deep hole in the sand) and laying her eggs. We watched her lay about 100 eggs and cover the nest with packed sand. We then followed her back to the ocean and she swam off without looking back.

The next day we were all pretty tired and decided to play on the beach. There were very few people around this undeveloped area so we had the place mostly to ourselves. We cooked our meals in the shared kitchen near our cottage and had a nice, mellow day. We watched the World Series that evening and went to bed soon after. We had such a good time we decided to extend our stay for another night. Rather than leaving the next morning we woke up early and took a boat to nearby Bolanos Island in Costa Rica. After a one hour ocean trip during which we saw sea turtles, schools of fish and amazing scenery, we arrived at a pristine beach on a deserted island. After a totally treacherous hike up a steep hill our guide brought us to the only frigatgebird nesting site in Nicaragua or Costa Rica. It was quite a site.

The rest of our trip was spent lounging around, playing and chatting. The girls spoke of the Giants, their friends and Halloween. They decided that next year would be Nicaraguan themed costumes. Emma said she wants to be a native Nicaraguan princess. Hannah said she wants to be a stupid drunk guy. Enough said.

We drove back on Monday and did something we try to avoid at all costs – driving at night. However it was really hard to leave the beach so we decided to deal with the horror of Nicaraguan night driving. Jeff actually liked the madness (figures) and drove all the way home. We stopped at a pizza place on the way back and got to watch the World Series. Needless to say that was a huge thrill. When we rolled into town Monday night we noticed a new street sign. We were very excited as signage is rare in Nicaragua. However, our excitement turned to laughter when we realized the sign guiding drivers toward a nearby city was pointing in the wrong direction; why someone put this up is a mystery.

Hail the Victorious Gigantes!

Hopefully this brings our readers up to date. We are looking forward to vacation and upcoming travels and will share them with you in future posts.