July 2009
9 posts
closing thoughts
the following blog chronicles my 27 days in nicaragua with manna project international.
if you have any questions, please check out www.mannaproject.org or email me at chaseblood at gmail dot com
and here’s my bad spanish translation:
este blog conta de los 27 dias que yo fue en nicaragua con el grupo de manna proyecto. si tiene preguntas, por fa vaya a www.mannaproject.org o enviame un...
day 27: shaped up and shipped out
The fine line between where yesterday ended and today began was extremely blurred. The guys finished packing and then woke up- or stayed up- to see the early flight girls off. At 4:30am we said our second batch of goodbyes and see ya laters, and then we napped until our 6:45 wake up call. I took a quick shower to wake up— still very cold— and then started getting dressed before i...
day 26: sundays and long goodbyes
church. it’s a beautiful thing. however, this morning we went to a nica church that was 2.5 hours long. i loved it, but since the sermon (like the rest of the service) was in spanish. my attention span maxed out a few minutes into the sermon but i still really enjoyed the church. they’ve done some beautiful things within the community (like starting a school that is now part of...
day 25: independence and celebrations thereof
laguna de apoyo is one of the most beautiful places in nicaragua. it’s a crater lake that is formed on a collapsed volcano. not unlike a hot springs, the lake is naturally heated and supplied with fresh minerals, apparently really good for “skin and hair,” whatever that means. anyway, we left for the lake at around 9:30 and got there around 11ish? quien sabe… we took a few...
day 24: threads and kicks
despite my already long adeiu to chureca, we went back this morning for something a lot more hopeful: a clothing drive. in an effort to redignify and help establish the importance of money in chureca, manna brought over dozens of suitcases and bags full of clothing for men, women, children, and babies. allowing 15 people in the store at once, for 15 minutes, they could shop for 15 items and two...
day 23: goodbyes and compulsive eating
for some reason, the guys couldn’t wake up this morning. maybe it was the fact that we weren’t sweaty and hot from the night before, or maybe it was the fact that we all dreamed of being harry potter last night and didn’t want to wake up. regardless, we quickly ate breakfast (for me, cereal and iced coffee. seriously, when did i start eating primo bistro food all the time?) and...
day 22: volcanoes and flags
While the girls had a soccer game this morning, the boys of the house kicked back and did stuff needing to be done- I made a sweet breakfast of coffee and toast while doing laundry and making a flyer for our kickball tournament on Friday.
Instead of class, we had our last class—and the last class of the month— by taking our students to a volcano about 45 minutes south of Managua called Volcan...
day 21: kites
a normal tuesday morning starts off with us going to chureca— but this morning, the chureca girls group came to us for a pool party. we picked them up and the girls hung out with the for a while. i chilled in the den working on creative arts lesson plans.
comedor (eating program) was definitely overstaffed today, so i walked around and hung out with the kids. and for some reason, a lot of...
June 2009
30 posts
day 20: soccer and spinach
for whatever the reason, i slept in this morning until 9am. i didn’t mean to, but it happened. after a delicious breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, i planned for math this afternoon and then read a little bit.
lit: good, worked with maycol, erick, and mayquelin, again. they drew the pictures for the books they have been writing.
math: funny, but good. i worked with armando for addition and...
“as my spanish gets better, my english gets worse”
– …and on top of that, i’m too lazy to proof all the entries made on my ipod. so, sorry for the random typos, like “fir the beach” instead of “for the beachizzle”
Day 19: Jesus and unborn children in San Juan
This morning started off with a walk. First to Pelican Eyes to see how expensive a direct shuttle would cost, and then walking up to the higher pools to see how good the view is, an finally to the beach that turned into a full on hike up a very steep mountain.
Overlooking the bay and town is a statue of Jesus (edit: in the Image of the Divine Mercy, a famous portrait of Jesus first painted in...
Day 18: bakeries and canopies
Sleeping in an air conditioned hostel has it’s perks- like always being cool. But since none of the guys really understood how to control the a/c, we woke up a few times freezing cold. We all enjoyed it though. We woke up and walked around town looking for a cheaper breakfast place. Unsuccesful, I got some oj from a tienda and went back to the hotel— so we could be picked up to go to...
Day 17: on the way to san juan del sur
Imagine a place where just because being a gringo you are treated like a celebrity. In managua, there is in fact such a place. But instead of paparazzi, the swarming people are bus recruiters, ensuring you that you need to get on their bus. Our micro was accosted as soon as we got to the bus station, and about 7 men wearing San juan bus shirts tried to get our attention, mostly through trying to...
Day 16- fast and funny
Sorry for the delayed posting, it’s been a crazy few days. Juntos, the place I teach literacy at in la chureca, was closed so we played around in the soccer field. Returning home, Lindsay and I started sorting clothes that have been donated, and then it was time for creative arts.
Over the past three weeks it’s been really cool to see kids change from calling me gringo to...
day 15: rain, candles, and romantic languages
alright. wednesday. let’s see…
i messed around on my computer this morning, doodling in illustrator and reading the news. haha despite having a lot to do, i still find it really important to have veg time every now and then. literacy was a blast, as always- i was on crowd patrol and had to calm down maycol, which was relatively easy compared to math. math was just armando and kristian...
day 14: busy busy and power shortages
it’s been a super long day so i gotta make this short.
chureca- we went to juntos where lauren, lisa, and i taught spanish to some kids while talley and robert played games. carlos and i are apparently no longer friends, but i think he’s just playin. hopefully. haha we still played a bit. i got to play a lot with esteben, who likes to be carried around more than tossed in the air....
“The truck bed is like the convertible in nica”
– Nikki
day 13: tuani and catch phrase
what a day.
indeed, what a day.
i got to sleep in a bit (only to find that most of the house, except the runners of the house, did too) and then had breakfast, which was surprisingly european: toast with jam and nutella and fruit. after my body was in a diabetic shock this weekend from the chocolate castle, i figured it was best if i weened myself off slowly. very slowly. it should take about 10...
day 11-12: matagalpa
we left early saturday morning for matagapa, a quaint little mountain town about 100 km north by northwest of managua.
after a few hours of fun car games and naps, we arrived at an incredible mountaintop bistro with an extremely frazzled waitress. we overlooked the valley and the monkey cage (complete with monkey) while we chowed down on our foodzu. i think i had steak fajitas. it took about...
day 10: jungle gyms, break dancing, tetherball,...
so previous post about wednesday being the busiest day… falso. tue/thurs are hectic as can be if you are in the half of the group that does comedor and creative arts (which is right after lunch and right before men’s soccer). anyway- it was a marathon and very much one of those days where you go solely by the grace of God.
we kicked off the day with chureca trip- i went to juntos to...
day 9: mas clases and movies
blogging before the end of the night only means one thing: it’s gonna be a fun night.
fun fact about the manna cars: during rainy season (like it is now), it takes days for a wet shirt to dry. ergo, car full of 13 wet people = smelly car for the next week. eau de micro has become of the favorite scents of the volunteers to kick off the day.
i spent all morning planning class, reading, and...
unfortunate effects of flipping the "r"
chase: i don’t understand… what did i just say?!
josue: tu anillo… not turnillo
chase: i... don't-- i don't understand.
day 8: language barriers and packed cars
today might be the best day in nica yet. for sure one of the best.
it started off at 7am with me doing some laundry—and then going back to bed—and then waking up at 8 to eat and take care of fresh clothes. so fresh and so clean, clean. bookin it to la chureca for child sponsorship (not child support… haha) and for class, lauren and i found out that we’d be spending a few...
day 7: classes and rain
since monday morning is the time when the PD’s do a lot of planning, and we hadn’t been assigned stuff to plan yet, we all slept in. another glorious nican morning, it was cloudy and cool. we met up at 11am to duke it out over who went what- i victoriously got groups in math, literacy, creative arts, and a few other classes. so tight. michael put me to work immediately planning math...
days 5 and 6: breakout sessions, ruins, and...
saturday morning started bright and early with a series of 15 minute breakout sessions to learn about all the manna programs. basically, it was a chance to be humbled by how amazing all the programs are— and now, we have to choose only a few classes to focus on. imposible, as they say down here. after the programs we hung out near el farito and met some kiddos and started walking towards the...
Day 4: Quien sabe? Buses and kiddos
What a great gift today—all the vols got to sleep in until our meeting at 10:30! Lori came over to talk about the dire condition of the clinic at chureca. Manna has pledged to help fundraise $24,000 so this clinic can keep doing what it does. So tight. A majority of by free time for the next few weeks will be pestered by thinking of ways to spread the word. But all in all a hopeful and...
Watchlos churequeros need your help. lori just came by and talked to us. got any ideas on how to help out?
day 3: trash, farito, soccer, and fiestas
one for the record books, as conor would say.
we woke up and drove to la chureca, the municipal dump that haunts managua. taken over in the early 70’s from a family (i can’t find their name…), the government just started taking the city’s trash to a plot of land sandwhiched between a neighborhood and the lake. fast forward thirty years, where the dump has created hundreds...
Day 2: literacy, English, sweat and rain
Wednesdays are the busiest days at the manna house, I think. The day started off at 4am when the dogs started to howl, and then again at 6am when nicaragua had a brilliant sunrise that our wall of windows was kind enough to host. Finally getting out of bed two hours later, I took a super refreshing shower and had one of Elena’s incredible french toast breakfasts—and then off to Farito...
day 1: turbulence, laughter, and incredible people
today started off way too early when i went to bed looking for things that i forgot to pack. a few hours later, i was up and at ‘em, eating breakfast and getting ready to fly 2000 miles.
leg one: denver to houston. incredibly bumpy ride and the first flight that i was visibly shaken… ever. my palms were sweaty and i was pretty tensed up. but all that was nothing compared to what i...
“Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not...”
– Marian Wright Edelman
seven days until takeoff
in a little bit more than 175 hours i’ll be heading for the airport to start my trek to central america. i have a lot of stuff to do before then- books to finish, people to see, things to eat- but most of all, i need to start mentally preparing. i need to get my life centered and steady (stand firm and let nothing move me, -1 cor 15:58) and my journal ready.
what is this summer going to...
May 2009
3 posts
common ground and nica-bound
i just got my ticket for nicaragua… it’s starting to set in that i’m actually going. conor was showing me pictures of his trip to costa rica
anyway, conor was showing me pictures of his trip with manna proyecto and i couldn’t wrap my mind around going back. i’ve already forgotten what it looks like, what it smells like. i can barely remember how hot it got, even in...
t-minus one month
after a few months of dragging my feet, despite my excitement (trust me, it was mostly due to school overwhelming my schedule)— i’m finally starting to get prepared for nicaragua. fundraising, packing, and now, blogging. i’m really excited to go back to the planetarium, the place of cold showers and poor plumbing and gallo pinto, the place full of incredible program directors and...
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