Nicaraguan Independence Day

On September 14th we celebrated our 15th anniversary of our first marriage. Our "wedding" anniversary is in June (long story) but we like to celebrate twice a year anyway and that way if we forget our anniversary we get another chance. But I digress, since we are in Nicaragua this year we also get to share our anniversary with Nicaraguan Independence Day. The celebration was pretty low key by American standards but it was a fun day to experience.

The kids got to play on the beach and even though it was a National holiday, the beaches weren't too crowded. The kids played in the waves and the sand.
There were street vendors out and the Parque Central and lots of people to watch the dance troops.
The parade with all the school kids was fun to watch. Each school in San Juan del Sur was represented at the parade.

There were marching bands in the parade as well.

We are having fun experiencing life in Nicaragua and their traditions.

A Nicaraguan Birthday Party

So yesterday was Joey's 12th birthday. I can't believe that this time next year I will officially have a teenager! I still think of him as that little toddler with the high pitched voice an large vocabulary with a "bopu" (pacifier) in his mouth. He's definitely growing up and it is really cool to see the young man he's becoming.

He started his day "opening" presents. They were in a plastic grocery bag from the mercado and wrapped in my sarong. It felt a little "Little House on the Prairie". He received two reading books (brought from home) a pack of Oreos, a package of shrimp flavored Top Ramen (something he'd been begging for which I told him I would never buy), a bottle of Rojita Fanta (soda) and a Hershey's Cookies n Cream bar (pop and candy bar were gifts that Bridget and Gus bought with their own money). Then we found out that we were invited to a birthday party tonight for the son of the Spanish School owner. Joey really wanted a piñata so we got a really sweet one for a 12 year old boy. It's a car that is supposed to be Lightening McQueen. Really it's a boxy sedan with yellow lightning bolts on the side and it has eyes. I guess that's artistic license for you. The other option for a small piñata was like a doll's head, which upon further reflection, Joey might have enjoyed hitting with a stick more. Most of the piñatas here are big ones because birthdays here are a big deal and they invite many kids. Dora the Explorer and Diego are really popular too. In Spanish Dora and Diego teach kids English. Kids who in the US would be considered too old for Dora or Diego still wear Dora shirts and have backpacks etc. But I digress. So since we had a party to go to at 6 we did Joey's piñata after lunch.

After lunch Joey got his "big" present, surfing lessons. Joe and Joey went to another beach about 20 minutes away and spend about 1 1/2 hours surfing. They both had a great time although they got banged up a bit as the beach was rocky. I was glad I didn't have to watch that.

They got home, we ate dinner, Joey's favorite thing that I can make in Nicaragua is cabbage salad with crumbled Top Ramen. Then we walked 2 miles to the birthday party.

The party took place in a 10' X 20' upstairs room. There were 18 adults and 35 kids in attendance. Can you imagine a piñata in a room that size with that many people? It was about as crazy as it sounds. It was like no birthday party I have ever been to. Musical chairs was hysterical and since the first round was played with tiny toddler sized plastic chairs, when the music stopped, everyone went for a chair enthusiastically and you could hear the chair legs crack! Before the cake was cut and Happy Birthday sung (they sang in English and a couple of other songs in Spanish) the party favors were handed out. Each child got a ball, a plastic basket and an assortment of goodies. Each of the 35 baskets had each child's name on them. There was a chicken fried rice sort of dish passed around with a piece of white bread on top, a cabbage slaw type of salad, fried plantains and fried cheese. Tons of food for lots of people. Click here to see a video of the party.

The party lasted for 3 hours at which point cake was finally served and everyone headed out rather quickly. The kids all had a fun time at the party and Joey even said that this was one of the best birthdays ever.

As we walked back home at 9:30 PM on one of the only evenings it hasn't rained in 3 weeks, Joey said he thinks he might be bored when we go back to the states. Wow, I know that isn't true but to think that my video game playing, TV watching, computer loving kid is so taken with life in Nicaragua was a bit surprising. It has been really nice to be forced to spend so much time together as a family. We don't all go off into our our rooms here and do our own thing. We don't even have Quiet Room Time (GASP!) but we do have time in the afternoon after lunch when they need to be quiet and let me lay on the hammock and read. We may do quiet room time when we get to another house but for now the current system is working. We seem to be spending good quality time together without stepping on each others toes.

In case anyone reads this and starts to get concerned that Joe and I are going to make this a permanent move, we are definitely planning on returning. We are enjoying our adventure but don't feel the need to make a permanent lifestyle change. We feel very blessed to be living within this culture and experiencing so many new things.

Feeling under the weather...

So about 10 days ago Gus and I started getting sick. Actually Gus was full on sick for 2 days and miserable. I was dealing with a scratchy throat and being tired. I thought my awesomely powerful immune system was fighting something off and I'd be better in a couple of days, without actually being down for the count. That was not to be the case. My scratchy throat turned into a nasty unproductive dry cough, which brought our family to check out how this whole Nicaraguan Farmacia works. After being unwell for 1 week, I thought I better do something about other than rest and drink water. The Farmacias here in Nicaragua operate similar to an Urgent Care in the US, but without those pesky degrees and copays. From what I gathered online, if you are sick and need prescription medicine, you can either just go to the Farmacia and tell them what you need or you can go there and tell them your symptoms and they will get you medicine. The caretaker of our property offered to walk us to the Farmacia, and I am glad he did as it was on the other side of town and I don't think I could have followed the directions and I didn't feel up for wandering. The first thing I asked when I went in was "¿Habla Inglés?" and fortunately she said "a little". I described my symptoms and she went back to the medications, pulled something out, made a phone call (not sure if it had anything to do with me) and brought me expectorant. Expectorant is exactly what I would be taking if I were in the states so that was a good sign. I did ask about antibiotics but she said no, I don't need them. For the record I can't even remember the last time I took antibiotics, but I also didn't want it to develop into pneumonia. I think it's fair to say that I have bronchitis right now. I have been faithfully taking my medicine for the past 4 days and in the past 2 days I actually feel like I am making progress in the right direction. Being sick in Nicaragua sucks.

While we were still at the Farmacia, we decided to ask about medicine for Bridget. She wasn't really sick but she'd been blowing her nose and coughing for the past 2 weeks. We got her hooked up too with an antihistamine, decongestant, pain reliever and expectorant all in one. The total cost for our medications came to $15 US when we were done. That's less than the copay for 1 person and less than I would have paid for similar medication in the US. Expectorant is pricey! Plus we now know a little more about how things work here, and directions to the farmacia.

All that to say that I haven't been the most fun wife and mom for the past 10 days. I am really looking forward to feeling better and having the energy to explore a little more. There is a large statue of Jesus (El Christo) which is on the top of the cliff opposite our house. At night it's lit up. Joe hiked up to the statue (for $1 you can go look at it) when we were in school one day and he's been wanting to go again but now I've been sick for too long. I am really looking forward to going up there and looking down on the beach from the other side of San Juan. There is also a Turtle Tour that we could go on to see the baby sea turtles. It's late at night and an hour away. Joe is starting to get a little bored with San Juan del Sur, but I think part of that is that I haven't felt up to doing anything. I did venture out with the family this afternoon, the power was out, and we walked to the far end of the beach and Joe and the kids climbed over the rocks to check out tide pools. I made the walk but didn't feel adventurous enough to risking slipping on the rocks in my flip flops so I sat on a dry-ish rock and read a book and watched their stuff while they explored. Baby steps to recovery.

So there is the real truth of our trip to San Juan del Sur. It's not always perfect here and neither are we but it's all part of the adventure.

The picture in this post shows our house on the hill. The roof is red and is hidden by the trees and the deck blends into the forest but you can see the white part below and that is the caretakers quarters under our house. Wish you were here....

another quick video post

This isn't the full extent of the critters that visit our house at night but it's a nice selection. We have a cow that lives down the block and moos in the morning, chickens all up and down the road including a courageous one legged chicken, the animals that come into the house include numerous geckos which are welcome as they eat the smaller bugs (namely mosquitoes that plague us here) and they make a cute kissing sound. Our first night here Joe found Mothzilla in our bedroom and I seriously thought it was a bat! The crickets here are ginourmous! About 2 1/2 inches long. We also have praying manti (or mantises?) and they seem big but I have never seen one in real life so I can't say if they are larger than there American brothers. We also have frogs that hop around on the property and some of them make a chirping sound. You can hear in the video clip one of the chirping frogs. We got to see bats down by the ice cream shop earlier this week but thankfully they aren't in our house, yet. So go ahead and watch the video. We will try to make more. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qvQWjyBwrI&feature=autofb