Another week has gone by...

And I almost forgot to Blog! It isn't that life has gotten boring, I have just been enjoying my time and have been getting lazy, blog-wise.

My first week at school is over and it was amazing. I really love NCA. The school community is very welcoming. I feel as if I have been here for a month. The 5th grade class is a lot of fun. I have enjoyed getting to know the students. Before I even walked into the classroom on the first day of school one of the more energetic students exclaimed "Who is that?" in a not-so-friendly voice. I thought to myself "Oh boy, here we go!" It made me laugh.

NCA is so much different than any school I have been to before. All of the classrooms are open and there are no halls. Palm trees and lush plants line the sidewalks. The music, yelling, and animal noises in the neighbourhood can be heard from our classroom. The other day a bird flew in the window, apparently it happens often. The students all wear uniforms, except on Fridays when they can pay 5 Cords to the student council and wear regular clothes. There are students from Korea, America, Canada and Nicaragua (to name a few) in many of the classes. Teachers have to be at school for staff devotions at 7:00am everyday so by recess, which is 10:00ish I am more than ready for a snack. The Cafetine here on campus serves delicious Nicaraguan food for lunch.Technology is not always dependable. I experienced my first power outage in Nicaragua while I was in the teacher work room this week. I was informed that there would be many more incidences like it. I am excited to see what other experiences I will have here over the next few months.

This week Friday I taught my first lesson in 5th grade. I taught a Bible lesson on the Gospel of Matthew. It went okay considering there were a few mishaps. Things didn't really go according to the plans and I didn't cover everything I wanted to. It is hard to manage time because some activities take longer than you think they will. I can safely say that it was a great learning experience for me. If I can learn as much as I did on that lesson, on every lesson I teach, then I will no doubt be ready to roll by graduation. This coming week I will be teaching the Bible lessons and the following week I will add on Math. I am starting to realize that time management is a very essential skill in the teaching world!

My first week-end!

I am nearing the end of my first week-end in Nicaragua. Saturday was a very nice day. In the morning I slept in and then took a stroll around the neighbourhood with a few of the kids. I then went with Mike and Gina, the two little girls, and our friend Lauren, who is also a teacher at the school, to a few places in town. We first stopped at the bakery and I had a delicious glazed donut. Then we went to an orphanage where we played with many little children. Mike and Gina brought some donated clothes and food along for the orphanage which they appreciated. The kids were so precious. It broke my heart to see so many without homes. Fortunately, some of the children were in the process of adoption, which is a huge blessing. I wish I could take some home with me.
After this, we stopped by an organic market where some local farmers were selling their fruits and veggies. I bought a pineapple, some miniature bananas, and a coconut, which I drank the milk out of. Later I will eat the coconut. Then we headed further into the city to drop Mike off at a conference/meeting thing for a few days. On the way back we had lunch at Rosti Pollo, which serves very good Nicaraguan food. The rest of the afternoon consisted of dozing on the pool deck in the sunshine and the occasional swim. I found out that several ladies from the Christian Community were having a ladies night out. I joined them for supper at a great Italian restaurant and then for a movie at the VIP theater. We watched Julie and Julia, which made me giggle.
Today I went to church at the International Church of Fellowship, which is held at the school. It was a very nice service and I met a lot of nice people. We came home for lunch and had naps. After my nap, I went to the school where a group of people were playing Ultimate Frisbee. The majority of them are very athletic men, so I didn't do much, but I i did get some exercise. After all that running I decided to cool off in the pool, which felt wonderful. I came back in for a shower and then called my mom using my skype. It was so nice to talk to her and tell her all about my time here. Tomorrow I start student teaching. I am very excited to meet the students!

Pictures

Pictures of:
The school,the 5th grade classroom,my bedroom, the beautiful pool and garden view through my bedroom window, and Wendy and I. I had the privilege of visiting Wendy at her home. She has a lovely family and the food was delicious!

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. :)

From Houston to Managua…and everywhere in between

*Warning: This story is approximately 4 pages in length* Written on Jan 5&6


An exciting trip abroad just isn’t an exciting trip abroad unless something goes wrong with my flights. I think back to my summer in France and my miserable experience in London trying to re-book a delayed flight. I cried, I was stressed, and I desperately just wanted to go home. I thought that was going to be the worst travel experience of my life, but unfortunately I was wrong because the worst travel experience would have to be the one I am having right now. Let’s start from the beginning so that you get a good feel for my situation.

I woke up to the lovely holler of my mother at 7:10am this morning…correction YESTERDAY morning. We packed up the car, I bid goodbye to the house and we were on our way. I decided that reading about Nicaragua would be a great way to get my spirits high; however, after about an hour or so, I found myself very sick to my stomach. My head hurt, my tummy ached, and I just felt gross. I thought I could handle it by laying my seat back and enjoying a few bouts of fresh air. That helped for a short while, but it didn’t fix the sick feeling in my stomach. Before I knew it, I was ready to hurl. Mom noticed right away and started pulling over to the curb while I desperately reached for the window button. I managed to keep most of the “yucky stuff” in the ditch/on the side of the car. I brought my head back in, thinking that I was done when out of no where my stomach convulsed again. This time I was not as successful. Let's just say I left a apart of myself on the interior of the door, the side mirror, and in parts of my hair. Mom and I cleaned the evidence with the help of some windex wipes and we were on our way once again. It is funny how someone can go from feeling so icky in one moment and great in the next. For those who don’t know, just letting your stomach have its way if often the best way to get back track to feeling better.

So you thought that was bad? Maybe kinda funny? Well, the day gets better, let me tell you. I’ll try keep these details a little shorter. On the way to P.G. we found out that I could not have a carry on bag while traveling through the U.S. So we just went to the airport and rearranged things so that I wouldn’t have to leave anything behind. I thought I was on my way to a great trip until I arrived in Vancouver. I was told that my luggage would be coming in on the belt. So I spent some tome waiting for my luggage until I asked another guy at baggage and he said I didn’t have to get my bags. So, I quickly rushed over to U.S. departures because time was running short. When I got to there they told me that I could NOT take my laptop on the plane so I went back and waited in line to check my extra bag. I then ran to get rid of my bag and found myself with about 30 mins until take off and I still had to go through security and customs. The line for security was HUGE! People everywhere. In my desperation, I ran to the front of the line and hollered at the man in charge. He graciously led me through to a shorter line and then I had to choke/cry/plead my way through a line of people so that I got at the front. I ran like a madwoman looking for my gate. Much to my advantage, I found out that my flight had been delayed. So in a way all of the rush/tears/nerves were for nothing. It wasn’t until later that I realized they were actually just a warm-up for the real disaster.

I arrived in LAX (Los Angeles) at 10:30, which was an hour delay. When I walked off of the plane I was searching for something or someone who could tell me where to go. There were no information people and no departures screens. I was flustered and confused so I just kept walking until I found someone to ask. I ended up walking past two guys in uniforms. So I showed them my booking and asked them where I should go. The booking said that my next flight was United but operated by TACA. I didn’t know what airline I should go to. The guy said I needed to go to United airlines to pick up my boarding pass. United airlines were in terminal 7 and I was in terminal 2. I walked out of the terminal and found myself on the curb of an extremely busy street. The man had told me to wait for the “A” bus. But how was I supposed to know where to find it in all of that traffic? There was another girl looking for the same bus, so we both set out to find it. When we got to the loading station we had to wait for the right bus to come, which took a very long time.

Then I found the United ticketing booth and waited in line FOREVER. When I finally got to the counter I told the lady I need my boarding passes and she just looked at me and said, “You’re in the wrong terminal. You need to go to terminal 2 with TACA airlines.” I was so frustrated because I had wasted so much time. I went back to the bus stop to wait for the “A” bus and it didn’t come for 10 minutes. There was an airport employee sitting on the bench beside me and I told him my situation and asked him what I should do. He suggested that I cut across the parking garages. There I went, bolting across the parking garage and huffing and puffing up then escalator to the TACA ticket counter. There were some TACA employees open at the counter, so I ran up to them and asked them for my boarding passes. But it was already too late. My flight was closed. Even though the flight would not be departing for another 50 mins, I would not be allowed on the flight. That is when I started to cry. I could not take it anymore. I felt bad for the people who were helping me because I could not control my emotions.

I always find it interesting how travel complications can cause me, a normally unemotional person, to break down in tears. For the next couple of hours I spent time talking to representatives from air Canada, United and TACA. They tried to re-book my flight, but there were many complications involved. Air Canada said that they could not take responsibility for my missed flight because I would have had time to get to my flight if I had not gone to the wrong terminal. The next flight I could try for would be Jan 6th at 12:40 am, 24 hours after my original flight, and that would be stand by. The only guaranteed flight would be 48 hours after the original booking. So, I would have to stay in LAX for 2 days. That information did not help my emotional state. The TACA people helped me get my bags and did all they could to help me. I spent the next few hours talking on the phone to my insurance company, united airlines, my visa company and my mom. Lucky for me, at 2am, there was no one around to see me in my desperation. After all of the phone calls I decided that the best option for me would be to book a new flight with Continental airlines which left at 5:30 am on Jan 5. That gave me about 2.5 hours to get on the plane which, in LAX, is really not much time, especially when you still need to buy a ticket.

My big red suitcases found a spot on a luggage cart and I sped off through the terminal doors. I ran all the way, pushing my luggage cart, at 3am, from Terminal 2 to Terminal 6. I know that the few people who saw me were probably laughing hard because who runs on the sidewalks of LAX with a luggage cart at 3am? ME! When I got to the Continental ticketing counter there were no people working and there would not be until 3:30 or 4:00. So, I rushed across the airport just to wait in line.

When the ticketing people did show up, I did not get to them for another 30 or 40 minutes. I purchased my tickets, checked my bags, and ran off once again because, unfortunately, my flight was leaving in less than an hour. I budded in line for security, which I would normally be ashamed of, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The line for security was so long, I thought I would for sure miss my flight…again. Luckily, they had two lines going and I found myself through security in good time. When I arrived at my gate, ready to go, I was shocked to see that the flight was delayed by two hours. Yet again, I had rushed for no reason.

So I sat at the terminal in a half-conscious state and began writing all of this down. Our flight was delayed again, and we were moved to another gate. The plane we were supposed to take had mechanical problems which caused our flight to finally depart at 10am rather than 5:30am. This made me kind of nervous because I had a connecting flight that was leaving from Houston Texas at 5:50. I arrived at 3:15 in Houston, which calmed my nerves. I went straight to my gate and had a good 2.5 hours before my departure.

I sat down at my gate, and much to my surprise, some people from NCA recognized my Dordt College sweater and I sat by them and introduced myself. This was a very nice addition to a long and frustrated day. My flight to Managua went very well, and I even got a meal on the plane. Customs in Managua were very quick and easy, and both of my bags arrived with no trouble. I was so happy to finally arrive and to see Aimee waiting to take me home.

When I got to the Apilado’s town house at the compound, I was welcomed by Gina Apilado. She is very sweet and welcoming. I told her all of my travel issues she showed me around their place. My room is very spacious and it has a gorgeous view of the pool and gardens. When I went to sleep that night, I was so thankful to finally be at my destination and to finally get some sleep after two crazy days of travel.

Through this all, I have seen several blessings along the way:
•The lady in PG who let my heavy bags go
•Mom, for helping me with everything!
•The nice man in Vancouver who rushed me through security
•The nice girl I meet while trying to find the “A” bus
•The helpful woman at TACA who gave me specific instructions and did all she could to help me.
•The Air Canada man who tried to book me a new flight even though I should have gone through United.
•The fact that mom had her cell phone close so that she could hear my call and do her best to help me through the mess.
•The nice man at Visa who made sure my account allowed me to purchase large amounts out of country.
•Rose, the nice lady at the insurance company who informed me of the flight with continental and tried to re-book my trip.
•The friendly lady at Continental who was patient and helpful with my flight purchase.
•The free breakfast on my flight to Houston and free supper on my flight to Managua. (I really needed food at that point. Continental rocks!)
•Having no problems at costumes and having my baggage arrive with no problems.
•Seeing Aimee Bootsma at the airport, waiting to take me to my new home.
•Meeting Gina upon arrival and feeling instantly at home and comfortable with her family.
•Most importantly, I am grateful to have a Father in Heaven who heard my many desperate prayers for strength and comfort, and provided many blessings along the way.

Packing!!

After an afternoon of packing, I can finally see the carpet in my bedroom. It is always the same thing. I see everything that has to go in my bags and I think, "This is impossible!" but, somehow it all makes its way inside. The next step is weighing them. That...I am a little worried about. I hope they aren't too heavy because I really don't feel like re-packing!! In two days time, I will be leaving the cold for the heat with two heavy bags in toe. Watch out Nicaragua! Here I Come!

a moment to think

The other day I was flipping through my Bible. The book of Proverbs always intrigues me. I came across this verse and I love it.

"A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way?"
~Proverbs 20:24

It is so true.