Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The random things in our lives. . .

Most of you have heard MANY times what it is we are doing here in Nicaragua.  I’m sure many of you could even give our whole missions spiel from memory.  The purpose of this blog post is to tell you about some of the lesser-known activities that we are involved in, some ministry-related, most not.  These are the things that make up our weeks and keep our planner full.  Many are probably the same things that you are doing wherever it is you are living, just with a Nica twist.  

So, here it goes: the Random Activities of the Ippel Family.

Boy Scouts—Andrew recently asked a Nicaragua how to translate “Boy Scouts” into Spanish, and he was told it is “Boy Scouz.” That is a Spanish word we can handle.  Henry and Andrew just joined the American Boy Scouts chapter here in Managua which is made up of boys and their families from many countries—the US, Canada, Nicaragua, Korea, to name a few—with many different backgrounds.  At the first camp-out, Andrew met a man who exports dried cow blood (yes, to the US, and yes, to put in your meat products and vitamins), a man who distributes fish to pet stores, the principal of the American school here, diplomats, and American football players who are here with Lockheed Martin installing solar power into the US Embassy.  Their first camp-out actually took place within the walls of the US Embassy, a heavily guarded beautiful piece of land in the middle of Managua.  They were able to pop their tents right on the lawn of the Ambassador’s residence (which is not currently being used), and take advantage of the swimming pool, tennis courts, playground and air-conditioned kitchen and bathrooms nearby—they were definitely not roughing it.  We are excited for them to have this opportunity to get to know others outside of our missionary community.

Reading with Henry’s class—Every Monday morning, Ruth has the opportunity to read one-on-one with the students in Henry’s 2nd grade class at NCA.  Many of the students don’t speak English at home and are working hard to learn English at school.  Learning to read in English is a huge accomplishment for these students, and Ruth is continually amazed at how well they do with our horribly confusing language!

Taekwondo—Henry is also taking a tae-kwon-do class at a gym nearby (for less than $2 a class!).  This class in all in Spanish and he is the only English-speaker in his class.  At first it was a little confusing until we figured out that many of the commands are in Korean, but he has since learned to count to 10 in Korean, and his martial arts Spanish vocabulary is expanding as well.  We are proud of him for bravely taking on this opportunity. 

Swimming Lessons—We recently discovered that there is an former almost-made-the-Olympic swimmer serving here in Managua as a missionary and he agreed to teach our kids swimming lessons in exchange for home cooking.  All 3 kids are loving this weekly class, especially Mae who just learned to do the butterfly stroke!  

Piano Lessons—Andrew has 5 piano students this year (one of them is Henry) who he gives lessons to weekly. All of them live in our neighborhood, which is nice because they often come over with questions or to show off between lessons.  Since moving to Nicaragua, Andrew has taught lessons in exchange for cash, babysitting, Spanish lessons, and a pet monkey. 

Playgroup—Every Thursday, Ruth and Charlotte attend a playgroup with other moms and preschoolers from the missionary community.  This usually happens at someone’s house where the kids are able to ride bikes, jump on the trampoline, or do crafts, but every once and awhile we all load up and go to Tip Top, the Nica version of KFC that is air-conditioned and has a play place.

Life is full, and sometimes too busy, but we are thankful. We are thankful to be living in a city big enough to have Taekwondo classes, for Americans in Nicaragua who are American enough to plan boy scouts, for a piano in our home, for the many people we encounter with a variety of surprising gifts and talents, for an amazing school for our children to attend, and for the community of friends that surround us.  God is good!

Monday, September 15, 2014

Fiestas Patrias! and Grandma!

It's Independence Day in Nicaragua, and for us that means special patriotic school programs and a few days off of school as well! This week is also great because we have mom/grandma Jan here with us! Here's how we spent the last few days:


Henry and Mae dressed in traditional Nicawear in order to participate in NCA's annual program, full of traditional songs and dances. Click here to see more on Youtube. Want to just see "Mr. Ippel" in the much-anticipated teacher dance? Click here!



Charlotte donned a blue and white dunce cap and marched around the block near her preschool, banging on a drum! She looked a little dazed and confused, but still enjoyed it!


We left immediately after the NCA program and lunch to head 2.5 hours south to Playa Coco, where we stayed in a house near the beach with Jan for two nights. What a special treat! First time leaving Managua since being back.



While the house wasn't very fancy (perfect for kids), the toilet paper sure was.


The pool was a great non-salt water option for swimming, too!



We all tried our hand at surfing, without much success (excepting Henry!) Andrew quit immediately after noticing he was surfing a wave next to four large stingrays. After he got out, we watched the stingrays swimming around in the shallows for a while. Scary.



Five minutes from our house was Playa la Flor, known for it's protected "turtle beach." At night, you can often encounter mother turtles of the "Olive Ridley" variety climbing out of the sea, digging deep holes, and squirting out 50-100 eggs before burying their eggs and heading back into the sea. We were very fortunate to see many turtles! In about 50 days, babies will be erupting out of the sand heading back into the ocean. 







The next morning, we rode in an old fishing boat to look for turtles swimming around the bay in the water. Again, we were lucky! We saw around 40 turtles, including a few turtles that were "dancing" according to Mae!



Henry and I enjoyed a hike from our beach to Playa la Flor, though it ended with a near-death experience of being stuck on a crumbly cliff together with thorny trees and biting ants.









We ended our journey with lunch and a stroll through San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua's 2nd most popular tourist destination (after Granada). A fun place to be for a while, though I was happy we stayed in a more secluded area as it seems to be a "party" town.



While we had an awesome time exploring God's creation and meeting some pretty cool wild creatures in Nicaragua, we're mostly thankful to be with Jan and thankful for her adventurous spirit! Looking forward to a few more days together!