Greet Each Other With a Holy Kiss

We went to church with Fanny. The service was especially for mothers, because Saturday was the Nicaraguan Mother’s Day. The pastor asked for all of the mothers to come up and have everyone show their affection by giving them a hug and wishing them a happy mother’s day. I have never been or kissed by so many people at once in my life. IIf you do not know Nicaraguan culture is like may others, in how you greet and say goodbye. It is customary to give a kiss on the cheek, which many times ends up being like two cheeks touching and you either kiss you are or kiss the cheek with the side of your mouth. Greet each other with a holy kiss.

As we were leaving church we stopped and spoke with Marwell. We were able to decide on a time for English Classes Mondays at 5 for the children and Wednesdays at 5 for youth and adults. Now these classes are going to be different, because I think that we will be teaching not only how to speak English but how to read and write. But, I do not know how to teach that. So we will see how that works.

Miguel is coming tomorrow to talk about the water project. So we will se him at 8 in the morning. What else might could happen tomorrow I do not know.

Morning of Misunderstandings……..

We did not eng up going with the music school today. So Courtney and I decided to go to the morning service at Shalom. So we were getting ready and Courtney went out for breakfast and the people in the hotel said that nothing at the church started at 10. So we decided that we will not go and get back into our beds. We receive a phone call, we were told that they talked to Fanny and the service does start at 10. By the time of the phone call was made it was 9:50/ So we did not go to the service. Amada was suppose to call us so that we could do something, but she never called. Which maybe part of the culture but I am not sure. But, Tere had also invited us to go with her to the social club for lunch with her but because we were going to spend time with Amada. I said no to the invite. I never know if to say yes or to say no to Tere’s invitations

Happy Mother's Day

Today is the Nicaraguan Mother's Day. Mother's day is celebrated with many flowers, all over the place. The entire lobby of the hotel smelled like roses and other flowers. Tere invited us to eat lunch with her son and her 2 grandchildren. One of the grandchildren Chris if 5 years old. He was shy from the beginning. He acted like any other 5 year old that I have met.
Tere's son was in the American Air Force for 6 years. And he got his citizenship. I think that is really cool that he did that. After that we went back to our room for a nap.
Then, as a traditional afternoon snack, Courtney and I walked to a cafe and bought some pico, and ice cream and made coffee drinks and ate pico. It was great!!!!
After that we did not really do anything in particular.

Then we ate dinner around 7 something. Before that Marwell came by and we talked to him about English classes at the church. Right after he left Amada stopped by and told us that she was feeling ill and she was not going to go tonight. So Courtney and I did not go either, and then we also found out that the truck the school was going to use is broken. So they are not going tomorrow either. So our weekend plans just went up in the air.


Paz

Amada's English Class

Tonight Courtney and i went with amada to her English Class. Amada teaches a couple of women English tow nights during the week. Amada asked us to go to her classs so her students will get to speak with native speakers. Finally, I am a natural at something...lol It was interesting to sit and speak with them. There was few awkward moments, waiting for someone to talk about. Because we did not know what they know, and we did not know what topic we to talk about.

After a few minutes passed and the awkwardness faded, and we began to talk about family, music, politics and religion. They asked us what we thought about Obama and if we had voted for him. So we discussed our thoughts. It was interesting to tell someone who lives in a country where abortion is illegal, what Obama's view on abortion. One of the women has been married for over thirty years, has four boys, 2 of them are in their late 20's and 2 of them are younger than 10 years old. The craziness does not stop there; she has 2 dogs, 4 or 5 birds, 2 squirrels, and an animal that she really doesn't know what it is, it is a mixture of a wolf and something else.

At times is was difficult for them to understand me because I speak so quickly sometimes. There northern in me comes out sometimes and it is difficult for native speakers to understand. Amada acted as our mediator. When we did not understand something that they said in Spanish she explained it to us and the same for the two women.

After we finished the class, Amada took us to a store. There are many little general stores all over the place. I am excited about the little stores. I have always wanted to life in a place where everything is within walking distance. And everything that I need at the moment is within walking distance. So Courtney and I bought some Oreos and milk. We had a traditional American dessert/late night snack, and it was Glorious.

Paz

Venturing Out Into the City

So I have been sick of staying in the hotel all of the time. I like it a lot don't get me wrong but I am sick and tired of being inside. So I went out and walked around with my camera and took some pictures. Courtney did not want to go so I did it by myself. I did not take many photos, and I was not out walking very long either. It was when everyone was eating lunch so there were not many people out on the streets and it was rather warm. And It did not rain today. I do not know why but the rain helps cool everything down but there was no rain.


After, I got back I ate lunch and then taught more English. We reviewed the verbs that they learned yesterday and practiced using them. Asking each other questions. They are learning quickly and I get really excited when they do well. I could get used to this teaching English thing.

Nacatamal

So life Fanny promised Courtney and I ate a traditional Nicaraguan meal. Nacatamal is rice, veggies, pork or chicken. It is traditional eaten only on the weekends for dinner. I think because it is a little bit more expensive and more of a hearty meal. It has this weird texture, like the rice is soft and small enough that it has the texture of cus cus. I liked ti very much. I could eat that on the weekends. Maybe I could ask Sona if she would make it, and even teach me how to make it. It was wonderful, eating traditional American food.

Café con Fanny

After returning from the music school concert we went to a cafe less than a block away from the hotel with Fanny, Pamba. It was a nice treat to go and spend time outside of the hotel. We were able to talk about different types of Nicaraguan food. And I told her that I wanted to eat typical Nicaraguan food. So she said that we would eat a typical Nicaraguan dinner tomorrow. I am so excited about that. I love the food in the hotel but I do not want to isolate myself in it, especially with meals. I am glad that they are free but, I have money that I can spend on food. Courtney had a pastry called a pico. It is a very traditional pastry to eat. It has cheese and some spices in it. the flavor reminds me of something but I do not know what. I keep ordering pastries with Pineapple. Because it is expensive in the states to buy pineapple and because it is rare to find pastries with pineapple in them.