Our family in Jinotega celebrated Thanksgiving dinner with Anita and me. We provided 2 roasted chickens and the family fixed them up with vegetables and rice. They were beautiful and tasty and they all made us feel like family. We are getting to know our community and haven't really decided on how we will work in our schools. We will cross that bridge in February after we know have more experience and know folks better.
OUR JINOTEGA, NICARAGUA HOST FAMILY
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Sister
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Rosa
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Mother and brother
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Queen, aka Necia
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| Jose (Warren) "carving" the Pollo |
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| Brother, Jose y Ana |
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Dessert!
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I was dubious about having to attend additional training this week (Dec. 1-3), but we have learned much more than I had expected and the location is beautiful. We are up in the mountains south of Managua at an ecolodge - learning about building fuel-efficient stoves to help reduce deforestation by decreasing the amount of wood needed for cooking, We are also exchanging ideas and information among the others in our group (Nica Environment 64) and the group that arrived a year before us (N62). Lots of great ideas for teaching that will come in handy very soon. Technical sessions are Monday and Tuesday and then Wednesday we will use what we've learned to build a couple of fuel-efficient wood-burning ovens in a place near where we trained during August - November.
In addition, I found hornworts - a moss like plant that I have never found on my own (until now) and I haven't seen one for over 40 years. Pretty exciting stuff (for a biologist, others just kind of stare at me). I also found a kind of liverwort that I had only seen in pictures. Very cool place with flowers, ponds, waterfalls, and the calls of howler monkeys sending shivers down Anita's spine.
We had left our site in Jinotega early Sunday morning to go to Granada, Nicaragua where Warren and I spent months in 2011 tutoring math, science, and English. We got to stay with our former host "mother" Carmen, there, and do a short visit of the city. We look forward to seeing them more often in the future.
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Carmen
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Jose Anita and Fatima
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More in a future post on our oven-building experiences......
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