30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 28 and 29--A Break and Gymnastics

Thanksgiving Break! (Day 28)

Don’t get me wrong: I LOVE my job as preschool teacher at NCA. . .and Henry and Mae both love going to school, too. But we also love breaks from the daily grind of school life! On Wednesday, NCA celebrated Thanksgiving with a program of music, poems, and songs about gratitude, followed by a simple version of a “traditional” thanksgiving meal (chicken instead of turkey, however!). Nicaraguans at our school actually love celebrating this American holiday; probably similar to how we as Americans find the Nicaraguan Fiestas Patrias celebration so intriguing. 

After the show (which the preschoolers rocked, by the way!), it was time for the break to begin! Yesterday we had a fun Thanksgiving Day celebration with our neighborhood, complete with choppy live-streamed Macy’s parade, real roasted turkey and every side you might imagine, sack races and trivia games, a thanksgiving craft, a time of worship and singing (including a neighborhood video that Henry helped put together) . . .it was a full day shared with wonderful neighbors! 

Today we will head to Selva Negra “Ecolodge” near the city of Matagalpa with some friends for two nights. As we’re not sure if they have internet, we’re posting Day 29 today as well. While our short break is very full, I still love having a change of routine and more time together as a family. We have a lot to be thankful for!

Gymnastics (Day 29)

Over the last few months, Henry and Mae have participated in a gymnastics class. They meet at the “German School,” a private school not to far from home. The teacher is a Nicaraguan man, and runs the class is entirely in Spanish, which is a good thing for language learning. They really enjoy the tumbling and cartwheeling and jumping to the point where I feel like it is rare that Henry walks anywhere (including inside our home) without launching into a cartwheel (see beach pictures below). Mae is often outside with our neighbors practicing “their routines.” We are thankful for the random, fun opportunities for our kids to learn and grow.

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 27--Charlotte

Today we're thankful for Charlotte, our 3-year old wonder. We're thankful for her zest for life and activity beginning at 5:45am each morning (and ending sometimes as early at 6:30 with her putting herself to bed). We're thankful for her ability to run wild outside with the neighborhood boys just as readily as playing with dolls and teddy bears. We're thankful for her love of water, and even though she's been swimming for a year now, we're still so happy that she is a fish. We're thankful for her ability to navigate a Spanish-speaking preschool with Spanish-speaking teachers without too much hesitation. We're thankful for her love of Dexter the monkey. . .our one kid who still ASKS to play with Dexter when it isn't just a chore. We're thankful for her vocabulary that is expanding each day, making us laugh and laugh. We're (usually) thankful for her love of creating art projects (although that art project USUALLY involves putting glue, markers, and tape on prohibited spaces). We're thankful for her appetite for nearly ALL veggies and especially gallo pinto (though she isn't a big meat person at all). We're thankful for our cuddle times together.

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 26--A plane ticket!!!

One of the hardest parts of being here is missing out on the big things that happen "back home." One of these big things is coming up soon--my sister, Muriel, is having a baby!  I am so thankful that my parents have made it possible for me to visit shortly after her due date by buying me a ticket to Grand Rapids with their airline miles.  I cannot wait to meet my niece in person and to be with their family during this precious time!  Your Flight Information

Thu 19FEB

LV 8:45am

MANAGUA

AR 1:28pm

ATLANTA

DELTA 370 ECONOMY (NK) Snack

LV 2:55pm

ATLANTA

AR 4:57pm

GRAND RAPIDS

DELTA 885 ECONOMY (NK)

Wed 25FEB

LV 1:24pm

GRAND RAPIDS

AR 3:22pm

ATLANTA

DELTA 751 ECONOMY (ND)

LV 5:45pm

ATLANTA

AR 8:41pm

MANAGUA

DELTA 369 ECONOMY (ND) Snack

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 25--Ruth's Bible study and Andrew's prayer group

Andrew and I have both been so thankful to be a part of groups where we are encouraged, prayed for, and spurred on in our faith.
I meet with a wonderful group of women every Tuesday night for a Bible Study.  Although sometimes we don't even get to what we have studied because we are sharing stories from our lives (and usually laughing hysterically), this time of fellowship is always refreshing and rejuvenating.  It is nice to have this group of women who understand the struggles of living in a different culture, being far away from home, being wives and mothers, and striving to live a Christ-like life in the context the midst of all of it.

Andrew meets with 3 of the other men in our neighborhood every Friday morning at 5:45 (and therefore we don't have a picture of his group... who wants their picture taken at 5:45 in the morning? And really, men just don't really love taking group pics!) We sit on rocking chairs on the porch of one of neighbors and spend time drinking badly-needed coffee, sharing joys and concerns, and lifting them up before the Lord together. Our group was prompted earlier this school year by a fellow Christian Reformed partner missionary (thanks, Nathan!), who we met in our World Missions orientation together July 2013. He remembered talking "way back then" about committing to finding people with whom to pray once we began our lives in Nicaragua. We finally have that through this group! It is so important for me to end each school week and begin each weekend with a time of lifting up our families, our ministries, and our lives to God.

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 24--Sopa!

On Mondays at Nicaragua Christian Academy (and traditionally in many homes in Nicaragua), it is "sopa" (soup) day in the cafeteria. Soup in a climate like Nicaragua? Yup, it is actually a pretty common food, surprisingly enough. While most NCA kids have the option of eating boring old pizza on this day, I always go for the soup. . .an incredibly huge bowl filled with ginormous chunks of vegetables (notice the yucca root, the purple potatoes, and the squash) and meat (this soup was sopa de res, or beef) and plantains (bananas in soup?--actually pretty incredible!). Usually, you get a whole plate of white rice on the side as well. People joke that in Nicaragua, you use a knife and a fork to eat soup. I think that is pretty accurate! I'm never quite so full as on Monday afternoons. . .now, if only we were ultra-traditional and took a mandatory siesta after lunch. . .:) So today, on this Monday afternoon, I'm thankful for SOUP!

(Photo by Stuart Li for NCA)

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 23--Men's Retreat

This weekend, I had the privilege of attending the ICF (International Christian Fellowship) Men's Retreat, an annual event held at Campo Allegria, a camp/retreat center on Lake Nicaragua. 40+ English-speaking men from various Nicaraguan cities (mostly Managua) and professions (mostly serving as "missionaries") gathered to spend a few days relaxing, refreshing, learning together as men who want to be more and more like Christ. The weekend involved plenty of diversion: shuffle board tournaments, swimming in the balmy waters of Lake Nicaragua, a short beach run with awesome views of Ometepe, board and card games, really good food (including a whole roasted pig), and barefoot 3-on-3 soccer. Yes, men like activity and  have a hard time doing nothing:). However, we had plenty of intentional time for worship as well. Led by 7 gentlemen from a church Colorado, we spent various sessions singing, learning, and engaging in God's word, ending each session with time for discussion and prayer in a small group of 5 men. Without too much detail, I left feeling both refreshed and ready to be home with my family. I felt challenged and have some specific ways I want to live differently as a result of time together. I'm thankful for this retreat, and for the community of down-to-earth Jesus-following men that live and work in Nicaragua. (And no, I didn't take any pictures at the retreat. But here are a couple from the camp.)

30 Days of Thanksgiving:Day 22--David

One of the biggest challenges for us is language.  In order to do life here, and to do it well, we need to be able to speak Spanish.  When we arrived in Nicaragua over a year ago, we were equipped with survival-Spanish, barely.  I feel like now we are fairly functional.  Andrew was thrilled this week when he gave directions to our house in Spanish to a mom trying to get to Mae’s birthday party.  And yes, I teach a childbirth class in Spanish once a week, but I spend hours with google translate writing out word for word exactly what I am going to say and then for the most part, spend the entire class reading what I have written.  We are far from feeling we have “made it,” and daily wish we were better able to communicate.  Because of this, we are so thankful for David, our Spanish tutor, who we meet with 1-2 times a week. David is an incredible teacher who challenges us in a very encouraging way.  We have a lot of fun laughing at our mistakes (both in our Spanish and his English) and love that he takes the time to teach us “Nica-isms” which we can then use to impress our Nicaraguan friends.

Please excuse the selfie--Henry was the only photographer available, and wan't quite living up to the task!

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 21--Ladies' Meetings

Last night,I had the scary privilege of sharing my testimony in Spanish with the group of ladies from our church that meet together once a month for a time of fellowship and to "animarse"--encourage one another and lift each other up.  I have been so thankful for this group that has allowed me to get to know the women of our church better.  It has been great to deepen these friendships in the context of  games, crafts, and sharing where it doesn't always matter if I understand or am understood perfectly.  These are godly, caring, and beautiful women, and I am so thankful that they are my friends!

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 20: Mae, the birthday girl!

Happy Birthday, Mae! We have a 6-year old daughter as of today, and we think she is pretty incredible. Mae is a fantastic friend, a daring language-learner, a quick and intelligent student, an awesome pretender, and a fun sister. We enjoyed hosting a birthday party for her today--she invited her entire class (something we keep saying we'll never do) and a few neighbors, and nearly all came, which meant for a big group (in Nicaragua, kids usually attend parties with their families)! We're exhausted but we had a fun "dolphin-themed" time, despite the crummy swimming weather--thankfully the rain cleared up eventually. We are so thankful for the 6 years of life that God has given Mae. . .what a gift!

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 19--Bread Dough from Pan Ticomo

One 20-some year-old tradition we intended on continuing while living in Nicaragua was to eat "Ippel Rolls" each Sunday morning (a simple recipe of refrigerator biscuit dough, brown sugar, butter). We even brought the required silver platter on the plane! However, after a few attempts of trying to make from scratch "Ippel Rolls" without being able to buy those strange, cans-that-pop-when-you-unwrap-the-foil refrigerator biscuits here, we realized that it was a futile attempt (see picture below. That is NOT supposed to look good). Our long-standing, two generation Sunday AM tradition had to change.

What were we to do? Pan Ticomo to the rescue! After discovering that they sell bags of frozen bread dough, we are now in the habit of keeping 1 lb bags of bread dough in our freezer. Purchased at a low cost from our favorite local bakery, these dough balls thaw quickly and allow us to create "homemade" pizzas, cinnamon rolls, monkey break, "Mary" bread, and just bread bread. While we still miss our "Ippel Rolls," we are so ever thankful for the convenience of pre-made bread dough!

30 Days of Thanksgiving--Day 18: 30 Days!!!

Exactly one month from today, we will be loading up 3 very excited kids (and two equally excited adults) into the car to head to the airport to pick up the majority of Andrew's family who are visiting us over Christmas.  We are often asked about the hardships of living in a different country... there really are fewer hardships than you may think, but really the biggest one is having to be apart from our families and missing out on life together.  This is especially difficult because our kids absolutely LOVE their grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles and are growing up only seeing them once or twice a year.  We are so thankful that the Ippel family is sacrificing all of their family Christmas gifts, many hours of their summer spent doing manual labor on their backyard instead of hanging out with friends, time, money, and Christmas with in-laws, significant others, and extended family to travel to Nicaragua to be with us during this time when we so desire to be with our family.  We are so looking forward to exploring Nicaragua together, time at the beach teaching Grandpa Bob to surf, showing off our stomping grounds, a "Manners Meal" (Henry's request), convincing Ben & Biffy to move here, and all the inevitable laughter that happens when you put the Ippel family together in one place.  We can't wait!

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 17--Our Popcorn Air Popper

It may seem strange to be thankful for a kitchen appliance. And I'm guessing that if you DO own a popcorn air popper, it is probably gathering dust somewhere along with the 15 other kitchen appliances you bought once-upon-a-time for some reason or another. Our air popper does not have a chance to gather dust. We received our first air popper as a wedding gift from Ruth's grandmother, Gam Gam, and we've been believers ever since (so much so that we had a visitor bring us an air popper in a suitcase last year!) We can easily and cheaply buy popcorn kernels at the grocery stores here, and it is a fast, easy, cheap, and healthy snack that can satisfy our kids and the neighbors in less than 3 minutes! So today, we're thankful for the air popper.

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 16: Our Sunday School Class

I (Andrew) made the plunge and am now teaching Sunday School to 9 and 10 year-olds at Iglesia Bautista Esperanza. Ruth is my trusty side-kick as long as Mae and Charlotte are okay with her leaving them in their own Spanish-only classes. While the teaching is fun and something I feel prepared for, the language part is still tricky. I am thankful for patient, forgiving students who are willing to learn from someone who must sound absolutely hilarious!

Most of these kids ride to the church in a church "micro-bus" (with up to 30-40 kids crammed in this one vehicle!) from a low-no income neighborhood a few minutes away from the church, and then ride home again in the van after Sunday School. So for most of them, Sunday School is church. . .this being both a privilege for which I'm thankful and a pretty big responsibility for which I covet your prayers.