Olivia got to spend her 11th birthday here and made the most of it. She had 3 of her new best friends over for pizza, gelato, and a pinata. The next morning we went zip-lining on the Volcan Mombacho, which was amazing after we pretty quickly got over our varying degrees of fear.

 

 

Thinking the noise might simmer down after the end of the Purisima was a huge mistake. The next 3 nights were actually the loudest yet, and pretty amazing again being in the middle of the feast of Guadelupe. Note to future travellers: if staying next to a church, research dates for feast days with the name of your church.  We felt pretty silly for not knowing this one, but it caught us off guard and delivered 3 or 4 nights of horrible sleep.  The processions and fireworks, when we were able to enjoy, were amazing, but all day and night long Fri, Sat, Sun and Monday.

Volunteer teaching is going pretty good for me since last Friday, when we had a dia de deportes.  We played a great game of kickball for the last hour.  I’ve also had a good chance to teach some English and math, although my 4th grade common core division skills are not appreciated at all. Most of these kids are well versed in traditional division and multiplication and many are at an equal level wth Olivia’s 5th grade skills.  The biggest problem in the class is the horrible behavior/disprespect of about 5-7 boys out of the 25 or so who show up each day.  We’re stepping up our discipline, but its gut wrenching for us volunteers and the Nica teachers to think about kicking one of them out permanently.  We may have to though.  This is sumer school, and most of these 5-7 boys need some catching up.  Kicking them out would feel like sentencing them to the dead end that so many suffer: dropping out forever after 6th grade.      Here’s a quick video of intense recess futbol in the small school courtyard.  It gets very heated, heavy contact, and bystanders are not paying attention at their own risk.