Life Lately

The following is a glimpse of our life lately, in photos and words.

“Whatever you appreciate and give thanks for will increase in your life.”

                                                                                  -Sanaya Raman

Miss Noehlia was born a couple of months ago to our friend Onieda.  She came into the world a month early, twelve hours before her scheduled baby shower.  Despite this, she and her mom came to the Duckling themed baby shower that we hosted for them.  She is a beauty!

We continue to enjoy our friendships with our neighbor kids.  Here we are making a “zebra” cake that my mom brought down.  These girls are great, but four in the kitchen can be quite busy!

We apologize for the poor photo quality, but these are some pictures from us sleeping outdoors due to the hundreds of earthquakes and aftershocks that we experienced in April.  We were glad to have friends stay over with us and teach us good earthquake safety.

Last month we came across an amazing Mexican Restaurant, we have been back two more times and dream of it often.

We enjoyed a visit to our friend Sugey’s home.  She and her family live an hour outside of Managua, but in a community that is quite difficult to get to in public transportation.  She was our friend who got married last year.

Ana is one of eighteen students that we are teaching this semester.  We visited she and her dad, who was a previous student of ours in their lovely home.  We enjoyed an afternoon of conversation and great food.

Our friends from La Concha came to our house for a visit.  We ate delicious homemade pizza (made by Kevin), enjoyed chatting and playing badminton.

Kevin shares his birthday with our host brother Isaac.  We have celebrated together for the past three years.  Here they are with their Cars piñata.

We celebrated Kevin’s 31st birthday in May.  The day was full of hiking, birds, coffee and delicious food.  Here he is enjoying bibimbap at a newer Korean restaurant in Managua.

In our Social Development class that we recently finished, each student had to develop a community project that would respond to the needs in their community.  Pictured above are Ana and Juan, they are responding to their communities needs by creating jobs through a sewing cooperative and sports program for kids to encourage school attendance and building healthy relationships within the community.

Here is a normal day at the office – working on a presentation for class, while sipping on coconut water.  Can I just say that I love living in Nicaragua?

Last month, we and our MCC team headed to Ometepe Island for a team retreat.  We enjoyed three days together on this amazing island.  This was the fantastic view from our hotel.

We enjoyed more coconut drinking.

This is a view of Volcan Concepcion.  We are hoping to hike this someday.

And here we are at Ojo del Agua.  Poor Yolanda doesn’t know that she is about to get pushed in.

Pictured above is our amazing group of co-workers celebrating at an engagement party.

We were sad to say goodbye to our first Nicaraguan friend David.  He recently left his work with MCC to work as the country director for another NGO.  We met him at orientation and he has been a wonderful friend ever since.  We are happy that he continues living in Nicaragua and that we can still see him on a regular basis.

Aleesia is my all-time favorite Nicaraguan girl.  This sweet lady has been a part of our life since day one here, she melts my heart every time we hang out.  Look at how she has grown.  This photo was taken when we celebrated her third birthday!

The Giusto family has been a wonderful support to us during our time in Nicaragua.  Here we are on a Friday night, eating pizza and enjoying each others company.  Fresh baked from Pricemart!

At the end of May, we hosted a baby shower for our neighbor friends Oscar and Gilma who are expecting their little girl at the end of June.  We had a fun party and enjoyed celebrating this little girl.  Rumor has it that her name is going to be Cassandra.  I am trying to discourage this, but also feel honored.

We started up a new trimester in the beginning of June.  We are teaching a class called the Culture of Peace and are looking forward to how we will learn and grow.

We celebrated Dia de la Madre, a very important holiday in Nicaragua.  If you are out on the streets, you will see lots of roses, people selling cakes and other sweet treats for the women in their lives.  We assembled bouquets of flowers for our Nicaraguan Mama’s, co-workers and the mom’s in our neighborhood.

My sister’s roommate Mary was traveling through Costa Rica and Nicaragua.  We enjoyed spending an afternoon with her at our home and in El Crucero at a coffee farm and friend’s house.

 

I love Noel’s face in these photos.  We were visiting his home and he wore an I Love MN t-shirt for me that he found at a local thrift store.  It made my day! 

 

I attended a nutrition workshop through my work at AMC.  It was a fascinating day of learning, combined with lectures and hands-on practice.

We had not been to a baseball game in quite some time, so we went to a double-header last weekend.  The Boers were playing San Fernando in their tournament time.  Can’t beat an afternoon of baseball!

Thank-you for checking in on how life is for us in Nicaragua.