Easter in Nicaragua!

Wow! Another two weeks have already flown by and it's time to update the blog again. The last couple of weeks have had a different ebb and flow to them due to "Spring break". School continues to proceed with it's successes and challenges. I tried giving my students their first vocabulary quiz which was met with mixed success. One of the challenges I'm finding with these students is that most don't have parents who make them sit down and do their homework every night; in fact, many of them may only have one parent or none at all. As a result, studying is not something that they take very seriously. However, I am truly loving getting to know the students better and continuing the process of how to best teach them English.

Josh continues to be busy with his Spanish learning. He has become much more brave about formulating his own thoughts in conversations; while he still struggles with understanding when he is spoken to, he has made huge progress. In fact, one of his fellow classmates (we go to Spanish class once a week) was just telling me how impressed she is with him. He came into their Spanish class feeling like it was way over his head, and in just five weeks he has outgrown the class.

Beyond Spanish, he has joined a "gringo" soccer team which plays against other Nicaraguan teams. It has proven to be a nice outlet for him, as he can get a little stir crazy with this wide-open schedule of his. When he is not studying or playing soccer, he continues to work at getting internet over to the school, which has been met with a few technical difficulties. But, it wouldn't be Nicaragua if things worked the first time! Hopefully that will all be resolved this next week and we will have internet! Wahoo!

We have discovered in the past two weeks, that one thing Nicaragua has on the States is an understanding of how to properly celebrate holidays. For example, this week is "Semana Santa" (or holy week) and we have had the entire week off from school. So we spent the week split between our Nicaragua family and our fellow American missionaries. I could write an entire blog post about all the things we did, so I will just let the pictures do the talking for us. However, one of the most exciting things that happened this past week was the birth of our first nephew Jude Thomas Stroh on March 24th (one day after his uncle Josh's birthday). We are so excited he his here, but it has made us wish we were home to celebrate with our family.

Well, it's time to sign off. But, this week marks the beginning of "Team Season." Meaning, we are entering the time period where teams from the States come down. So we will soon be busy with all the activities of those that are coming down to help with the school and serve in the community of Los Cedros. Stay tuned for more crazy stories from Nicaragua!




Top: MF helping the ladies chop pounds and pounds of carrots, onions, garlic, chayotes (a veggie) in preparation for Pastor Manuel's birthday celebration. The huge kettles the food will be cooked in...they actually killed a pig for his birthday! Middle: Josh playing soccer with the kids while the women prep for dinner. We served about 300 people dinner! Bottom: Pastor Manuel and Pastora sitting on the new couch set the church congregation bought him for his birthday. They also hired a mariachi band to come serenade him. Funny thing is, it was only his 43 birthday! Just wait till he turns 50!



Top: Teaching Pastora how to make chocolate chip cookies. We have success! Pastora said: "I love these cookies, they are so easy to make, taste so good, and they make so many!" Middle: Game night at Quinta Allison with our fellow American friends. We are all now obsessed with Dutch Blitz!


Our nephew: Jude Thomas Stroh born March 24th, 2008. The new Stroh Family: Micah, Casey and Jude.