New arrivals. . .

So if you remember about 4 weeks ago, I wrote a “fairy-tale” about a prince that would be joining our class.

Today,4 weeks later, we were finally blessed with his presence.

He seems to have been held up by a curse, which had him imprisoned for a few weeks before he was able to slay a horribly evil dragon, the sidekick of an equally evil witch  and free himself.

Ok . . . so he had appendicitis and was in the hospital for three days. And then was at home during vacation. But the other story sounds cooler! J

So yes, Eduardo finally joined us today.

It made for quite an interesting Monday as this poor nun nearly lost her religion trying to keep everybody straight and occupied and actually doing something worthwhile! But now that we’ve survived one day the others should all flow super smoothly, right?!

Also, we would have hated for our new prince to feel out of place with being the only male in the classroom so I decided to get a fellow companion for his misery.

Meet Diego:

 Quite the little charmer he is. Also a champion feed-dumper, water-splasher and general mess-maker. He seems to be a city bird, since he seems to prefer packaged food and has turned up his nose at mangoes and apples, try with bananas next time.

In other news, Miguel had a surgery today. Something with his intestines, not exactly sure what all is involved but I think the general idea is that pooping should now be easier for him. Sorry, that’s just a rather literal English translation for the sign language explanation that I got.

I haven’t heard anything about how it went, but I’m sure he could use prayers. I just don’t like the thought of my little kids in the hospital. They’re supposed to be here, running around and being annoying, not being operated on. But, knowing Miguel he’ll be up and running around before you can turn around.

Just in case you forgot which one is Miguel. J

Nicaraguan Adventures

So when a trip starts like this . . .

You have to wonder how it is gonna go!
Monday afternoon of last week found us all in the kitchen, in the various stages of making bread, cake & cookies for the trip. As well as iced coffee to keep us going while working in the kitchen.

Then 3:30 the next morning found us loading up the van for a supposedly 12 hour trip. Seventeen hours later found us pulling up in Waslala, Nicaragua, very happy to have arrived and not even caring that we had to sleep on the floor in a room full of 40 women. Well, not caring too much anyhow!!!
Here’s a short pictorial overview.
The CICS group who went. L-R Paty, Lidia, Mary, me, Verónica, Samuel, Elmer

Beautiful mountains of Honduras in the background, beautiful except when driving through them for 4 hours!

Stopping for lunch . . . I guess the Nicaraguan border officials thought we looked travel weary and so decided to give us a chance to take a 2 ½ hr break. Or else they just liked our company so much they couldn’t bear to have us leave them.

We took advantage of the break to have a picnic at the border.  Probably a once in a lifetime experience!!

                                             Not even a little bit bored!!!

Entertaining the border officials and fellow travelers with games like Rats and Old Maid. The one border official was wanting to learn how to play Old Maid!

It was with many tears we passed under this sign, leaving behind all our many friends and comrades among the officials at the Nicaraguan border. OR NOT!

And so after another 8 hours of driving, part of that on some very not so desirable dirt roads, we were able to get started with the real reason for the trip.

Teacher’s Meetings.

Teachers from Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador all came to be encouraged and to share ideas. And we were not disappointed.

Although neither were we sad when the two days of seminars ended and we were told we were going for an excursion.

We hiked about and hour into the Nicaraguan mountains. Got to see some beautiful jungle birds, hear howler monkeys, and finally arrived at a beautiful waterfall.

Nature at it’s most beautiful. Untouched by man, undeveloped, just clear, cold water and mossy rocks.
Which of course begged to be climbed and explored!

Nothing quite like drenching yourself in sweat only to be able to stick your head under a waterfall and cool yourself off

                                              Over the river and UP the hill!

                                           A sloth that we got to see up close and personal.

And then we headed out of the mountains, left the beautiful rice fields of Nicaragua behind us and 18 hrs later, after a friendly chat with some Nicaraguan police,  an overheating van and ridiculously long lines at border crossings we made it back home again, Safe and Sound!! Never have I been so happy to see our bumpy dirt road . . . . .