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 2^nd 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!