Leon

This is from when we went to Leon, a city about an hour away from Managua. We went to go sled down an active volcano. For those of you who have seen me sled down snow, you can laugh. I did when I looked at the hill. So, here's the work we went through to get to the top of this hill. Wes, Emily, David, and I drove an hour to Leon. After we got to the tourist shop that we had previously arranged with, we drove another hour to Cerro Negro (the hill). After that, we had to hike an hour and a half carrying our sleds. David and Emily both said how tiring that was, which was funny because they didn't carry their sleds. During the hike, we took a detour (my favorite) to look inside the crater. Correction. We WERE inside the crater. That part was pretty awesome. It was hot, and smelled like sulfur, and we were SO close to the center of the Earth there. Or at least it felt like it.

 This is from when we were going up the hill:

(You just can't quite get how steep it was.)


By the time we got to the top of the hill, we were in danger of being blown away. The wind was so strong, probably at least 25 miles an hour. I was carrying my sled, which all of a sudden became a sail for the wind to carry me back to Managua. The store that we arranged with had us bring backpacks (provided) that had jumpsuits inside. the jumpsuits were hideous. We looked like Sarah Fairweather's corn cob costume.

Here we have a video of me sledding down the hill:


After that, it was back down the hill in the car. I wanted to see some sights in Leon, so we drove to this old Cathedral. I believe it was the oldest in Nicaragua, but I could be wrong.

There were many different likenesses of saints there, that kind of creeped me out. They were just not very realistic, but very bloody. Kind of like mannequins, but I'm not saying that to be disrespectful. They really did look like mannequins. But I mean if people pray to that, then that's totally up to them. Just not my cup of herbal tea.
There was one thing we saw that had a lot of historical significance to it-- the crucifix from when the conquistadores came through "converting" Nicaragua. It was HUGE. I'm glad it was wooden, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to carry it around. It was awesome to look at that, and realize how much history this piece of wood contained.

We also saw the "Eye of the Sun", which the Sine family had been told contained a huge black opal in it. Turns out it was just painted wood. Scammed.

 
We got onto the roof of the cathedral by paying someone (you can get anything you want that way), and looked out over the city of Leon. It was beautiful, and I got some great pictures of the view:

 After we got off the roof, I found a mural that was painted after some college students rioted and the Samosas sent the police to kill them. The same mural was also found in Sports Illustrated, and it was taken with kids playing football in front of it:

K well sorry this is late. Culture shock and all that from coming home, I"ll update on more tomorrow! Next stop-- the JUNGLE!

Esteli/Somoto

From the famous sleepover. Sorry if Claira's not being really modest, she's 3 so get over it. It was pretty funny though.

Also, one of my videos of Claira dancing (since Mehlanie finally told me how to get videos up THANK YOU):

She wanted the outline to be in pink.


Also, the video of me dancing with the women of the Montefresco branch... you can tell I'm really embarrassed by the look on my face.


So the good news is I'm feeling better. The bad news is I took some medicine that could have knocked out a horse. It was definitely illegal in the U.S. So memories of Sunday are kind of a blur... I'll start from the beginning.
We went to Esteli on Saturday, and because I'm such a space cadet (and was asleep when Annie told me we were going), I didn't get my camera. I'll get pictures off of Annie and Wes' camera, because it was very pretty. When we got there, we had no idea where we were going to eat and/or sleep. Normally that would worry me, but Wes thought we were fine. We ended up eating at this place called "White House Pizza", which had a clown and no toilet paper. We finally got 2 rooms next to each other at a pretty nice place, and that's when I took my first dose of that LSD or whatever was disguised as cough syrup. I kept waking up in the middle of the night with my legs shaking, I thought it was just my fever going away. Sunday we woke up and were getting ready to go to a little branch, and I couldn't really walk very far in one shot. It was quite the trip. We got to church an hour late (accidentally forgot what time it started), and walked right into Gospel Doctrine. One of the elders was a gringo, named "Elder Istwud". Annie was talking to him, and asked him where he was from. He said, "Oh, Salt Lake. And my last name is Eastwood, like Clint. But nobody down here could pronounce it, so I changed the spelling."
After we went to church, we drove out to Somoto, a canyon near the Honduran border. We were probably 20 kilometers from Honduras, which is pretty awesome. Even though i couldn't see Honduras.
This week was a good one. The computer's not letting me (or anyone else) upload pictures, so I can't show you. But we dropped off the fabric at Hermana Maria's on Monday after getting home from Esteli, and driving down her street was an experience for me. There were many members of the Montefresco branch that live on that street. They all live in such poverty, and are good members of the Church and try to do a lot for each other. There were some things there that I wished I hadn't seen, but it's always good to realize how much we really have.
I have some way cute pictures from my last day at preschool. I took a picture with my class, and they all said "Hasta Pronto!" It made me really sad, because I was going to miss them a lot. Piera cried. When I upload the picture, she's the one that's sitting in my lap. I just hope they do well in life, because they've definitely got the odds against them.
Tuesday afternoon Annie and I went to the market (i don't know how to spell the name... Juembe's?), and I bought myself a few things. A hammock, for one. A bowl, I'm not quite sure what it will hold yet. A little jar for Mom, it's way cute. A clay turtle for me, for no other reason than it was so cute. A T-Shirt that says "Gallopinto" (The dirty rice that people eat at breakfast all the time here, it's actually pretty good) and a picture of a rooster (a gallo) on the back. Some bells for my room, and a little candle holder that's shaped like a house. Those people are REALLY pushy. The lady who wanted me to buy her candle holder dropped the price 20 cordobas in about 30 seconds to get me to buy it. When the price was only 70 to start with, it was a pretty good deal.
Other news? We were supposed to go to Rio San Juan today, but didn't get to the plane in time. There were only 12 seats available on the plane (it's called a puddlejumper) and we were standby. We were expecting more than half the people to not show up. So I made snickerdoodles (twice) with Claira, and we sat outside by the pool in our swimsuits and ate popsicles. Not a bad day overall. Tomorrow I WILL figure out how to upload pictures and videos, because we're sledding down a volcano. Safe? Well, they're giving us a bunch of gear for it. So hopefully. Pictures coming soon!

This Weekend

Well, I don't know how this managed to happen, but I'm sick. I woke up Monday morning, and went to the preschool to help with a different class (this class doesn't listen to anyone). It's hard to be super happy and energetic when you don't have energy, your entire body aches, and you don't have a voice. As soon as I got home I laid down and took a nap, then started burning up so I moved to another room with a fan. I didn't go to school yesterday or today, as I assume they wouldn't want me there with a fever (we never did get that checked out). I was feeling a little bit better yesterday, my voice is here half the time so it's ok. David brought in some lunch to me, which was very sweet... Calala and orange juice, and some eggs and salsa. I had been sitting in my room all afternoon, and didn't have the energy to get up. I read 2 1/2 books yesterday, because everything else makes my head spin. Today was just miserable. I had hot sweats, and chills, and nausea, and basically everything that's bad when you're sick. Hopefully it will go away so I can work more than 6 days in the preschool.


Caroline and Claira have really been obsessed with the idea of me getting married and having a baby, so they asked me one night when i was getting married. I told them, for the 45th time, that I would not be getting married for a long time and that I would only have a baby after I get married. Claira's prayer (the best quote of the last few days) went as follows: Please bless me get baptized. Please bless me be born. (?) Please bless me get married. Please bless boys. Please bless Mommy. Please bless Mommy. Please bless Mommy's baby. Please bless me have baby. Amen.
After the prayer Caroline asked me why I was laughing. I said it was just a good prayer.

So, this weekend started off pretty relaxed. I just hung out at the pool, and tried (obviously failing) to catch up on my blog and journal. In the afternoon, Wes asked me if I wanted to go ziplining over this lake in downtown Managua. Sure, why not? My mom had told me to accept every possible adventure I would go on, and this seemed to count as one of them. The site was an old torture camp owned by Samosa. I wondered why he would want this wonderful view for so horrible a place.

 As soon as I saw the cables and how high up we were going, I felt kind of sick. My fear of heights was acutely at odds with my sense of adventure, and so I went. I made sure not to scream, as we had an audience.

Once we got to the first stop, they asked me if I wanted to ride the next line upside down. I think my blood drained out of my face, because they said don't worry one of the workers will be riding with you. I didn't know which was worse-- riding by myself upside down on a zipline, with no way to break; or riding upside down on a zipline with an older man riding behind me, holding onto my legs. Nevertheless, I let him do it. And here's the results:

I was terrified when he told me to let go of the harness. Letting go went against everything my brain was telling me. I did let go finally, but only for about 10 seconds. Then he started shaking my legs, and I immediately grabbed back my harness. Most of the pictures of me looking like a starfish hanging up to dry were taken at the end, after we had already stopped.
On the third and final line, the workers asked me if I wanted to do what they called the "Superman", where you lay facedown on your harness and (again) a worker takes you through the line. I said yes, against my better judgement. Once we got out into the open space, I realized why this was against my better judgment. I really wished I had gone running more, because the harness was starting to strain. Then, I started laughing, because I thought of "Titanic"-- "Look Jack, I'm flying!" Here are some of those pictures:

After we had finished riding the ziplines, Wes took me to a part of Managua I might have never seen. We went to the National Museum, and went to a beautiful old chapel that had been damaged in the earthquake of 1972, but had never been repaired.

In addition, there was a giant embassy, where the Nicaraguan Supreme Court was meeting at that time. We didn't get very close to that building. After that, we drove around parts of the city that were pretty dangerous, drug lords and gangsters and stuff like that. They were more likely to inhabit this part of town because it had been damaged in that same earthquake, and the government hadn't fixed it since. So the property was condemned, but people still lived there when they had no other place to go. While we were driving around there, Wes gave me a history of the government, and why it's so corrupt and how hopeless it is for the people. Always kind of a depressing thing to think about.
After I got home, I had to fulfill a promise to Caroline and Claira to have a sleepover with them. Claira was SO excited, I don't think she'd ever slept in a real bed besides with her parents. They both kept trying to tell me secrets, and when Claira would tell me a secret she would put her mouth to my ear and yell. I was laughing so hard I didn't even catch what she said. She just tries so hard to do everything Caroline does.
I fell asleep trying to get the girls to sleep, and woke up an hour and a half later with Claira on my face. I had to go try and clean up the kitchen, and while I was doing that I turned on my Facebook to see if there was anything new and exciting. Well, there was, but probably not "exciting" in the way that I enjoyed it. I found out one of my friends from high school had passed away in some type of accident that morning. It was pretty shocking, because I had always just assumed I could see my friends later when I had gotten back from Nicaragua and say hi to them. I guess one of the reasons why I found it so... creepy, in a sense... is that I had just had a dream about high school graduation (all of 2 years ago, i know), and the speaker said "This is the last time you will all be in the same room again". I had always assumed that, because not everyone was going to show up to reunions and stuff, but I didn't assume it would be like this. I'm definitely going to have to make calls and get lunch with people as soon as possible, so that I can see them. Needless to say, I was very shaken up by that. But luckily my mom and dad were there when I called them and did a good job of consoling me. My mom also tried to distract me, and the best way to do that was by asking me about Claira. I told her all the funny things she had done that day, and that was a good way to get me to laugh.
After I got off the phone, I went to bed and woke up with Claira on my face again. For a little girl, she certainly enjoys taking up ALL the room on the queen sized inflatable mattress.

That's kind of it for now. I have some more pictures of Barcelo (the resort), which are here. But for some reason, my camera's batteries died AGAIN. Which is so weird. I'll have to go buy some more.

A bat cave... that little black dot in the middle of the picture is a bat. We had to physically restrain Caroline from going in there.

Our companion at the pool, he really wanted to swim even though they were dumping chemicals in the pool.

Caroline has no problem holding it.

Claira throwing a tantrum. It's hilarious to watch, I got a video of it too but i STILL can't figure out how to get videos on here!

Teaching Preschool/All-Inclusive Resort

Sorry this is late, I've been really busy. And Annie and Wes' computer at home has a broken keyboard, so I'll upload tons of pictures soon when they get a different one.
Quotes of these Days:
Claira: You couldn't speak Spanish before, but you can now.

Caroline: Who is Tommy married to? (Sorry Alyse, our cousins now dont remember you)
Me: Alyse, remember her?
Caroline: Oh yeah. Isn't it illegal to marry your cousin?
Me: Well, he only became your cousin after he married Alyse.
Caroline: Oh, Ok phew!

Claira: Who's your little sister?
Me: Bethany
Claira: No, it's Soffia.
Me: No, Soffia is my cousin, just like your cousin. Bethany is my little sister.
Claira: Bethany's not little.

So Wednesday I worked at the preschool and primaria. At the preschool, the kids were funny as ever. I'm learning a little bit more of how to communicate when they should/shouldn't do something, but it's still usually something along the lines of "No, no no no nonononono!" This little pipsqueak got mad at me yesterday, because I wouldn't let her steal crayons... 3 year olds have no logic whatsoever. So I told her she was cute, and she called me "fea". I just laughed, because she kind of reminded me of Claira (who calls everyone "baby" and thinks it's such a horrible insult), and told her she was pequena. She didn't have a comeback. She really is though-- she like comes up to my knees.
I taught my English lesson to the third grade class... it was horrible. They did not listen to a single word I said, and if it weren't for the fact that they were copying down what I was teaching them I wouldn't think they learned anything. After that Daniel (the regular English teacher) asked me if I wanted to sit in on a 5th grade English class. Of course i didn't!!! But I said yes, because that was the nice thing to do. And I didn't have anything better to do. They behaved just as badly, except they were asking me questions. "Do you have sisters?" (Don't worry Bethany, I didn't give you away) "Do you like to dance?" "I like your eyes." Considering I always look super oily and wear missionary skirts, I like that they still find me attractive.
After school, Annie told me that we were definitely going to this all-inclusive resort. What perfect timing. Once we got there, I immediately took advantage of the relaxed dress code and stripped down to my bathing suit. Unfortunately, the serving people at the all-you-can-eat buffet didn't like that, and made me go back and put some pants on. Jealous. It was so nice to just relax though-- this has not been a vacation of just "sleep in, do whatever, no worries". I'm trying to learn a foreign language here! And I work at 7 in the morning, which is earlier than any job I've ever had. So it was just nice to be able to kick back, and watch Claira dance to the reggaeton. The place looked like the Casino in "Casino Royale", where Daniel Craig picks up the girl and the car at the same time?
Well, the first night we went and looked around the beach for sand dollars. Instead we found bats. There was a bat cave with thousands of little tiny bats sleeping, that of course Caroline wanted to climb into. We went back after that, and while walking to the pool saw a toad sitting on the edge of the pool! This would be a perfect time to be upload pictures, because I have one of Caroline holding it by it's back leg (David and Emily were freaking out because they thought she was going to kill it that way). On the way to dinner, Claira told me she wanted to name the baby "Lily Awesome". Emily said Claira sometimes forgets the word "is", so she meant "Lily is Awesome". Claira looked at me, and said, "No. The baby's name IS Lily Awesome." She knows what she wants.
I slept in a bed with Caroline, and at first she didn't want to sleep with me. She laid on the very edge of the bed. But I decided to tell her stories about living in a room with Bethany, and pretty soon I couldn't get her to be quiet long enough to go to sleep. I went to sleep, but about 20 minutes later I heard some banging around the room. When the front door started rattling, I sat up straight in bed. It was Emily, so I just hissed at her to get away from the door. The next morning, she denied everything, saying she just went to the bathroom. The rest of the day went pretty well, we went miniature golfing/to the minizoo, and raided the snack bar for as long as we could.

The next day was some sort of nature awareness day for Nicaragua, so the preschool kids dressed up as bits of nature. I'm so mad I didn't have my camera, because they were SO cute! There were flowers and clouds and butterflies and ladybugs and Suns and hippies everywhere! The kids (and I) went around to the other classrooms in the primaria and the secundario, sharing words of environmentally friendliness and recycling to the kids. The girls were too busy swooning over the kids to actually listen. During recess, the kids wanted me to help them with the monkey bars. And the balance beams. AND the swings. I was willing to do it for one girl, beacuse she had skinned her knee and looked like she needed a pick-me-up. But I forgot that preschool children are like lemurs, they see one person get something exciting and they all want it for themselves. Let's just say my arms were tired by the end of recess. After school, our family went to "Marmaduke" in the theatre. I'm still having a hard time listening to Spanish like that, because I still think in English. But I also learned that I know more Spanish than I thought, because I could keep up some of the time.
Well, it's time for bed, So I'm going to tell you about my Saturday/Sunday in better detail tomorrow... it will take a while to explain.

I'm a teacher!

Ok so first, best Claira quote ever:
We were having pillow talk last night, and the conversation went like this:
Claira: What's your mom's name?
Me: Dana
Claira: Dana my friend?
Me: Yeah, remember her?
Claira: Yeah, awesome.
Me: Awesome?
Claira: Yeah, your mom's name is Dana Awesome.
Cutie.

So yesterday I went over the mental checklist for my first day at work:
Extra toilet paper (yes, you need it)-- check.
Water-- check.
Nerves-- checkcheckcheckcheckcheck
Did we have school today-- check? (we weren't sure)
Sufficient Spanish skills-- ... ehh, we'll work on that.

So off we went. We talked to the school psychologist, and she referred me to one of the priests. When he approached me, I was shocked at how weird it sounded to have someone speak English to me! He brought me to one of the classrooms, and said "Ok go back to the psychologist's office after class ends and she'll bring you to me." That was it. No "Here's what you do", nothing. Alright, here we go.
Since apparently most of the students thought it was a national holiday (the day after Mother's Day, or maybe USA's Memorial Day), there were only 4 children in the classroom. Alejandrina, Isabela, Christofer, and Gabriel. Christofer looked EXACTLY like a little Griffin Izu... so funny. I got there right when the English teacher was teaching, so it was nice to help the children with learning the names of articles of clothing. Then I taught them a classic- "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes". Gabriel seemed to prefer being near me as opposed to... anyone else, basically. We were coloring pictures of a woman and a child, and he colored the woman's hair yellow, "como tu pelo". Cute. And after break, he pulled up a chair right next to him so that I could sit there.
After class was out (11 AM, it started at 7), I went to the psychologist's office and she brought me to Oscar (the priest's) office. He sat me down, and said, "Here. We're going to write up a schedule of things we want you to do while you're here." I was so mentally drained that I just nodded. I probably would have been a little bit more insistent on staying in the preschool if I had my wits about me. But he arranged, and had me meet, the other English teachers, so that I could work with them. After all was said and done, I still had 45 minutes to go before Emily and David got out of school. So I just sat there. My head was swimming, and it was HOT. My legs were 100% stuck to each other under my skirt, and if you've never felt that, it's not a pleasant feeling. So I was exhausted. I got home, and just passed out for 4 hours. I felt like my brain did 4,000 or so crunches.
Day 2
I was a little bit more confident today, but only a little bit. All that was different was that I now had an "in" with the English teachers (and the priest, but he kept trying to convert me so I didn't talk to him that much). Today there were 15 students in the classroom. And they were all super busy. Gabriel pulled up a chair next to him for me again, so I sat down. There was a girl that was sitting in the corner crying, and I tried to comfort her. But not knowing what to say besides "Que paso?" is not very helpful. The teacher described her as "un pocito complicado". And I soon found out why. She was obviously less mature than the other students, and didn't seem to come from a good background. Because she was either very clingy to people she didn't know, or starved for attention. Or maybe had a behavioral disorder. At any rate, she immediately gravitated towards me, and sat in my lap. After a few minutes, she reached up and kissed my cheek. It was cute, albeit a little bit surprising. Kids just don't do that in the U.S. When I had to go meet with the English teachers, she ran out after me. I had to deliver her back to the teacher, and say "Ya vengo!" so that she would stay in one place.
Daniel, the English teacher for the primaria, wants me to do a lesson plan for English class tomorrow (Wednesday). Have I started? Nope. Am I worried? Nahhh. I'm not getting paid, and besides I already know what I'm talking about. I just hope he has a backup plan in case something doesnt work out. But after I talked with him for a while, I went to find Eduardo, the teacher for the secondaria. He was in a classroom, and beckoned me in. Once I was standing in front of the class, he turned to his class and said, "Ok kids, ask her questions!" And they did. They were speaking very quiet English, so I had a hard time hearing them the first (or second or third, in some cases) time. Eduardo told me later one boy wanted to ask me if I had a boyfriend, but he didn't let them ask that. After I answered questions for a while, he had me do some group work with the girls, and he worked with the boys. I don't think the boys liked that (and I"m not being arrogant, they were very loudly sharing their displeasure). Then it was recess, and after I went back to the classroom.
It was Dia de los Ninos (and Ninas, because some kids like David think that means it's only Boy's Day) today, and  of course they had to have a celebration. So we brought the kids to the courtyard, and each class had prepared a dance number to present to the other preschool classes. Again, I was pretty shocked. I mean, sure they don't think it's seductive or stuff. But 3 and 4 year old girls were booty popping there! (if you don't know what it means... don't look it up. Just take it for what it is) I was pretty surprised. then they gave the kids Rojito's (not the alcoholic drink, the soda that tastes like cherry medicine according to Annie) and suckers. Those kids were WIRED. They were running everywhere, and the teachers finally turned back on the music ("The Anthem" by Pit Bull in Spanish... just so people know what they listen to in Nicaragua for fun) and let the kids dance. Piera kept trying to escape, and when I brought her back she tried to bite my hand. I didn't know how to say don't bite so I just kept saying "No, no, no!" talvez ella sabe que no hablo espanol? talvez. then school was out, and I wasn't even as tired! Hopefully that means i'm getting better, and not that I just didn't really speak Spanish today. We'll see how my lesson plan goes tomorrow... I happen to be teaching David's class, so hopefully he's a help!
Annie and I went to go get our nails done... I got electric blue. Of COURSE. It was fun, even though they were talking too fast for me to understand again. I'm getting better every day, so hopefully it won't be so bad by the time I leave. That is, if the bugs don't eat me first.