Ometepe

Mini-vacation to an island...

Sunny shores
Great view of volcanoes
Relaxing time with friends

But - this is Nicaragua, and Laura is traveling with you. Mishaps are sure to happen.

Some teacher friends and I decided to take a four day trip to Ometepe, a large island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.

On the way to Ometepe, we heard something funny in the car, then quickly realized we had a flat tire.

After searching the car for a jack, we realized we did not actually have one. A random passerby tried to help and finally flagged down a taxi. Together they went into town to get supplies. They came back and the nice Nica man helped us out, but not before it started to rain like crazy.

Another man came by to see what the action was all about. Turns out he didn't want to help us, but wanted to steal someone's wallet. After he successfully did that, we went on our merry way with the nasty, stinky tire crammed into the backseat. 

We found a tire place close by and got rid of the tire and put air in our tires, just to be safe. The tire man was impressed by the damage done to the tire.

By this time we very worried that we were going to miss the ferry that was to take us and our vehicle to the island. We drove and drove... and made it with five minutes to spare. From the ferry, we had a beautiful view of the island. One of those moments where you have to stop and thank God for the beauty of his creation.

The island is home to two volcanoes, Concepción and Maderas. Concepción is the cone shaped one behind me and Rebecca and is still active.
On day two we trekked up a part of Maderas to a waterfall.

I was a little winded when we made it to the waterfall, but it was worth it.

Later we spent some time at Ojo de Agua, a crystal clear natural spring.

Coconut juice anyone?

We spent some time at a beach and did some kayaking in a lagoon with an awesome view of the volcanoes and some monkeys in the surrounding trees. The only downside was getting bitten by angry fire ants.

Ready for our next mishap? One night my friends thought they would like to wake up early the next day to see the sun rise over the beach. I generally don't think waking up for any activity, no matter how great, is a good idea, so I decided to sleep in. I was sharing my room with Erin. She set her alarm clock for 5:30 am. Her phone had been having issues recently and her alarm went off at 1:30 instead of at 5:30. She hopped out of bed, grabbed her camera, and closed the door. Our door was very loud, and no matter how quietly you shut it, it still banged and made a loud noise. I was in the middle of having a frightening dream when I heard the door slam. I looked all around the room and finally realized it was the door and that Erin was not in bed. I tried to rack my brain for all the possible reasons that she would not be in bed at 1:30 in the morning, and finally came up with the conclusion that she must have been kidnapped. Obviously I was still in dream mode and not thinking rationally AT ALL. I freaked out for a while, but was so tired that I started to fall back asleep. Just then Erin came through the door and I yelled, "Where have you been?!" She explained that she sat outside waiting for the sun to come up when she realized that it was still very dark. She kept checking her watch and figured it must be wrong, so she changed the time on it, instead of on her cell phone. Finally she realized her phone must be off and came back to see what time it really was, where she met me angrily questioning her.

The next morning the fun continued when my other friend got locked in her room for a couple of hours and had to shout out her window to get help. On the plus side, we had a great view from the hotel and also some great sunsets at night.

Did you know that I have a habit of missing planes, buses, and other vehicles when I am traveling? It's true. Sometimes it's my fault, other times it's my alarm clock's fault, or it could be a plane delay's fault. I missed numerous flights last year on the way home from Bolivia. Suzi and I overslept and missed our plane in Chicago. In Spain I missed a bus to see a castle - twice. I had that feeling before I went to bed the last night of our trip. I triple checked my cell phone alarm clock. Because there was not a free outlet in our room, I had it charging in the lobby and my friend was going to bring it in with her. I woke up in the middle of the night and was nervous that maybe she forgot my phone. There were no windows in our room, so there was no light. I shuffled my way around the room to find the door and looked for the phone in the lobby and realized she did bring it in. My phone was in the room, but I didn't know where, so I couldn't put it next to me. I went to sleep and woke up about seven more times during the night, worried we weren't going to wake up on time. What happens next? You got it, my alarm didn't go off. We woke up at 8:10 and were supposed to leave to catch the ferry in time at 8:15. Thankfully, we made it with 5 minutes to spare, albeit a little dirty and smelly.

Oh, the adventures of traveling. We stopped at a restaurant on the way home, and I got in just a little more time to relax before the craziness of the school week.

xoxoxo
Laura

Fiestas Patrias

Nicaragua won its independence from Spain in September 1821. In 1856, William Walker from the U.S. lead a mercenary army to gain military stability in Nicaragua and declared himself president. On September 14th, opposing Nicaragua sides united at the Battle of San Jacinto to defeat Walker and his men.

September in Nicaragua is a time to celebrate independence and the culture of Nicaragua. Students and teachers had dance practice three times a week to prepare for the big day. Spanish teachers also worked on presentations, projects, poems, and decorations with students.

All of my student gave presentations to the younger grades and judges about the department of Rivas.

Mid-morning we walked around to see presentations by the highschoolers. Plenty of livestock were present as well. Horses, chickens, and donkeys added to presentations to give the students a feel of what it is like in each department of Nicaragua.

Then NCA transformed into pre-dance recital mode. Mothers rushed in with make up, dresses, and flowers to get their daughters ready for the dances.

Everyone squeezed into the chapel to listen to poems, watch the dances, and sing the national song. Here are my kids in action:

 And finally, the anticated teacher dance:

How did we do? Well, my kids told me I did good, and they wouldn't lie to me...

Here is a video of the dances. I compiled videos from some of my friends, but it seems that nobody got footage after about a minute and a half into the dance. After that is where it got harder and we probably looked hilarious...

I know last time a couple people said they couldn't see the video. Let me know if that is a problem again.

xoxoxoo
Laura

My Enemy

My fourth graders like to make noises. I'd say weird animal noises are their favorite. They make noises while I am teaching, during silent reading time, and while they are taking tests. Sometimes I don't think they realize they are doing it. Anyway, the other day my kids were doing work at their desks when I heard someone making a pigeon noise. I looked around the room, but couldn't figure out who it was. So I asked them. They all looked at me innocently. Then I realized who it was.... my number one enemy in Nicaragua:

the pigeons living above my classroom. 

These birds are on a mission to ruin my life. They coo all day long. They leave their dirty feathers all over my room. They flap around, attack each other, and make distracting noises while my already distracted students are attempting to learn. The cleaning lady keeps having to mop outside my room because they leave their droppings everywhere. You can see two pigeons in the picture. I believe there are three that live in the area between my classroom ceiling and the roof.

Moving on.

This week we started a unit in Social Studies on Immigration to the U.S. We talked about heritage and family backgrounds and my kids made a "Heritage Quilt". They are going to work on family trees over the next couple of weeks.

Other 4th grade adventures:
Studying early forms of writing in the Bible. They tried out hieroglyphics and pictographs of their favorite Bible stories:

Studying money, its value, and counting back change. It turns out it is hard to do these things when most of my students have never seen or touched real U.S. bills or coins. We have been practicing, practicing, practicing.

Playing the tape game. The game works like this: Leave your classroom clean and ready for the next day. Enter classroom next day. Find all of your posters on the floor. Find tape. Realize it is the same tape that didn't work the first time. Find the sticky tac. Rush to get it on the walls before the students come. Repeat next day. Beware of stormy and windy nights that cause double the destruction.

xoxoxoxo
Laura