The 11 Course Meal

Every Wednesday night some of my friends and I gather to eat dinner together. We each take turns cooking the meal for everyone. It was my turn to cook the meal a few weeks ago. I was at the grocery store buying all the necessary groceries for the dinner when the father of two of my students saw me. He noticed that I had a lot of groceries for just one person, and I ended up explaining our Wednesday night dinner tradition to him. 

The next day at school he approached me and asked if he could host our dinner group at his recently opened coffee house. 

So this past Wednesday night we found ourselves in an adorable cafe, being treated to a home cooked, eleven course, Korean-influenced meal. 

Not all of the food is featured here, but this shows some of the variety we had. As soon as we finished with one course, the next appeared. We ate and ate and were surprised as each new item came out. Raw salmon, mussels, sushi, spicy noodles, salad, desert. Most of the food I had never tasted before in my life. I was apprehensive about trying the salmon and the mussels, but I was pleasantly surprised. Two words to describe the food: flavorful and delicious. 

While we ate, the father prepared the next course behind the scenes while his two children, students from my school, served as the waiters. They were both dressed up for the occasion. 

During the day, the coffee shop serves as a ministry base. The family hosts Bible studies every morning, and English and music lessons in the afternoon. They are helping the people of Nicaragua discover the joys of reading, music, and God's word.

The pictures don't do justice to how wonderful the night was. We were absolutely spoiled by a loving, thoughtful family. 

Teacher Exchange

There are three NCA schools in Nicaragua. I work at the international, primarily English-speaking campus. Our two sister schools operate in Spanish. One is located a few kilometers from my school, the other is a 2-3 hour car ride up into the mountains. To promote unity and to better learn from one another, some of the teachers from each school are participating in teacher exchanges. 

I recently hosted the librarian from NCA Nejapa. We spent the day talking about how we run our libraries, which websites are useful teaching tools, classroom management, how to create effective lessons for older students, and how to promote the love of reading in our schools. She interacted with my students and watched me teach a 1st grade library lesson. 

A couple of days later I spent the day at her library. I watched her teach a 1st grade, 4th grade, and 6th grade lesson. 

There is a huge difference between the amount and quality of resources at my school and most schools in the States. However, there is an even bigger difference between Nejapa's library and other libraries. Due to their lack of resources, students can't check out books from the Nejapa library. Even so, the librarian presented fun lessons and got the students reading during the short time they visited the library. I loved seeing her excitement for books, reading, and her students. 

Here are some pictures from my visit:

 

Although our schools, teaching styles, and languages are different, we both have the same goals for our students. We plan on keeping in touch throughout the school year and sharing our resources and brilliant ideas.