SWB in Nicaragua!

Hi! I'm Amy, known to my Auburn family as Howie. I have some free time on my hands so I figured I would blog.  I know that no more than about ten people will ever read my blog, but might as well say it anyways, enjoy! 

On May 13, four of my teammates and I set out on a journey of a lifetime to Granada, Nicaragua.  We traveled with an organization called Futbol sin Fronteras (Soccer Without Borders).  This program is a mission-trip like setup, recruiting college players and soccer lovers from around the U.S. to give up some of their time to coach a girls camp in Granada.  We arrived a day early to sightsee and enjoy some of the culture.  Ana is Nicaraguan, and much of her family lives there, so it was awesome to get some of the insight and culture from her.  The first night we stayed on Lake Apoyo, in a quaint little hostel called the Monkey Hut.  The people there were great.  The place was great and we loved everything about it.  We lived our first night without air conditioning, which was definately a wake-up call (at least for me). We spent the first afternoon and morning in Nicaragua living the life--kayaking and swimming in the lake, searching for mango trees with a beautiful mountain landscape as our background, reading in handmade hammocks, hiking and exploring along the dirt roads around the lake, and ate a fresh as can be dinner, full of delicious chicken, rice, beans, vegetables, and FRESCA!

We arrived in Granada the next day, and I have to say my first thought as we were carrying our bags almost a mile to our homestay home, in the blazing heat, sweating, was what have I gotten myself into? But now, I'm sure that thought was because I was so unfamiliar with my surroundings.  As the week went on and I knew my way around, got to know some of the people, and became more comfortable with the city, I felt like I had lived there for months, and I loved it.  So many things we did in Granada were worth mentioning, but I'm not trying to bore anyone here. So I'll highlight a few.

My favorite thing that we did were school visits.  I had no idea we would be visiting any schools, but being an elementary education major, that is right up my alley.  We did school visits as a type of recruiting tool to get more girls in the program, but also to instill pride in the girls already involved.  That was the whole basis of the week--pride.  We taught Physical Education classes at the schools we went to, incorporating relay races, head catch (cabeza manos!), and link tag into the day.  At the end the girls already in the program would talk to there classmates about the teams they were on and the program.  It was cool to see the girls get excited or very shy about talking, but you could tell how proud they were of their teams regardless of thier public speaking skills.

 

The kids really loved pictures, these are some beautiful boys at one of our school visits

The children at the schools were such a joy to be around.  They all had genuine happiness and loved their school and classmates.  The schools were very different than what we are used to here.  Stone buildings with open classrooms, no air conditioning, very minimal extras.  The great thing about it is, they don't need the extras.  They are learning and loving and living everyday--without shopping malls, without video games, without fast food restaraunts.  Being in Nicaragua was great because the people were so genuine and had such pure happiness with so little compared to the average American.

Another highlight of the trip was our homestay.  Katy and I were privelaged to stay with an amazing family. Our house mom's name was Claudia, and one of the nicest people I have ever met.  The kids were so friendly and happy to help with whatever we needed, especially with teaching me Spanish (Katy was very good, I knew about 10 words total).  The youngest daughter, Larissa, really took to Katy and I.  She took the time to teach me Spanish almost every night we were there, and loved every second of it.  She was the sweetest little girl.  She made Katy and I a gift in art class, so we decided to return the favor.  She LOVED Hannah Montana, so we found a Hannah Montana themed game of Monolopy at the Masaya market, and she was so ecstatic. That was one of the best parts of the whole trip.  She probably said thank you and hugged us at least ten times that night!

Okay so I'm itching to publish something, so I'll stop here for my first blog.  There is so much more to say about my experience to Nicaragua, so keep checking back!