Teachers Retreat

Today was the teacher's retreat at this conference-type place about 45mins or an hour drive from NCA. The drive there was interesting because we got lost several times. None of the streets or maps in Nicaragua have road signs, so it is kind of a nightmare trying to find a new place. It was an interesting drive through the city. Many of the roads have huge holes and rough patches and the roads are narrow. It is not uncommon to see vehicles loaded with people. I am still waiting to see an over flowing bus, apparently that is quite a sight. At stop lights, there are often people walking through the vehicles trying to sell anything from nuts to wallets to cellphone chargers. Today there was actually a set of furniture for sale along a busy highway...with no one around. I can tell that there will be many more interesting sights to see.

Anyway...back to the retreat. The place we met at was in the country side with lots of trees and fields. There is an orphanage and a school on the property as well. The retreat consisted of some singing, a short lecture, a meal, ad then several team-building games.Some of the games we played were the trust fall, 2 truths and a lie, and crossing a "mine field" with a blind fold. The retreat was a great way to meet a lot of the staff and faculty at NCA. The people are very friendly and easy to talk to.

After the retreat, I went with Aimee Bootsma to the house she is staying at for the next 2 months. She lives with a Nicaraguan family. The lady is a Spanish teacher at NCA and their daughter is a student at NCA. Aimee and were able to chat and catch up for the rest of the afternoon. While we were sitting under the Mango tree a bird pooped and it landed on my arm. I was surprised and we quickly cleaned it up and then moved our chairs away from the birds. We started talking again and after a short while another bird pooped and this time it landed on my neck and in my hair! It was so gross, but I laughed because I was so shocked. I had never been pooped on before, and here it happens twice within a half-hour! Crazy! The birds are out to get me. After this, Yolanda, one of the ladies living there made us a wonderful Nicaraguan dinner. We had guyopinto (spelling probably wrong), fried plantains, and this fried potato-cheese thing. We also had fresh passion fruit juice, which was very delicious! It was so cool to welcomed into such a friendly family.

After supper Aimee brought home to Quinta Allyson and I got my Internet set up. Since I have Internet now, I figured I should probably update my blog. :)