Hey everyone-
First of all, my sincere apologies for not updating this as much as I'd wanted to.. (insert lame excuses about not having time or whatever).. Maybe I'm just not cut out to be a blogger. Sorry, Beth.
Where to start? I haven't blogged since before school started, which seems like a century ago, but anyway.. I teach five days a week, contrary to what I was told before school started, but I'm enjoying it anyway. I teach pre-schoolers (age 3-5) up through 6th grade. I enjoy teaching all of them to some degree, but I have to admit that the little ones are my favorite... partly because I just sing with them and don't have to worry about teaching theory, but also because I love that age group. I guess I inherited that from my grandmother, who was a music teacher her entire life.. I love watching the lightbulbs turn on up there.
Speaking of family, my parents came to visit in February, with Ted and Mary Anderson's group from Western NY, which was wonderful. It was great to see them and travel around a bit with them and the group. In March my big brother came down to visit, which was also wonderful... we traveled around a lot, to the beautiful island of Ometepe and also up to Matagalpa, in the north. We also got an opportunity while he was here to talk to some of the union reps for the sweatshops here in Managua and Tipitapa, and even visit one of the factories.. Nate's studying Industrial and Labor Relations, so it was really great to get some information and make connections with people here.
March also brought my birthday, on the 28th, which was exciting.. we had a party at Chacocente with a yummy Nicaraguan cake and a piñata.. I paid for everything, and it was the one of the first times here that I haven't felt guilty about spending a lot of money (about 30 bucks American)... It was nice to throw a little party for the kids, and overall a fun night.
In April, during Holy Week (which is a big deal here- no one in the country has school and almost no one works) we had a volunteer named Christa come down to Chacocente for the week.. except there wasn't really much to do at the project, since no one was in school or anything, so Regan and I traveled around with her to the beach (with the families), Masaya, Granada, and Mombacho (where I finally got to do the zipline through the rainforest! awesome!).. It was a fun week.
As for Chacocente, everything is going well. There are always conflicts between the families, within the families, and in the overall project, but we're doing our best to work through them. Please keep the families, the project, and the board of directors in your thoughts and prayers as we work to solve these problems and give the families the tools and skills to eventually solve them on their own. But overall, it has been wonderful getting to know all of the people living there.. they're such amazing people and I continue to be humbled by the things they've gone through.
Last week I was talking to Uriel, a good friend of mine who lives in the Project and is about my age, and I was asking him about life in the dump. He basically ended up telling me his whole life story. When he was done, he sat back and said, "Okay, now it's your turn." Um.. I had to move a couple times? I really could not think of anything hard I've had to go through after hearing his incredible story. That was one of the most humbling moments for me.. I mean, sure, I've had some challenging times in my life, I guess, but for most of us that's just called middle school. For them, it's just how life was- living in the city dump and picking through garbage for a living. So don't try to tell me your life is hard. It may sound cliché, but the people here have had it so much worse than you ever will.
Right now, Sonya Taly, a former long-term volunteer at Chacocente, is here to visit with her 8-month old baby for two weeks to visit and work on her Masters thesis. It's been really great having her here- she's also a board member, and is very dedicated to seeing this project through. Because of her time volunteering here for a year and work with the board of directors of Chacocente, she brings an interesting perspective that changes how I see things here, too. She's given me hope for the future of the project. And speaking of the board, my dad is now a board member! He went to his first meeting a few weeks ago and loved it.. I think he has some interesting perspectives to bring to the table as well.
In other news, I can't believe I only have a little more than a month left here.. I try not to think about it, but sometimes I can't help it. I wish I didn't have to leave, but on the other hand I am excited to work at camp this summer and also both excited and scared for college in the fall. I know it's going to be hard, and I know it's going to be awesome, and I know I'm going to miss Nicaragua like my left foot, but I know I'll have Regan closeby to lean on when we both need it.. And then, I know that I'll never be truly prepared for it, just like I was never prepared for Nica until I arrived here.
Anyway, I should probably get going.. but I solemnly swear that I WILL update this blog again at least once before I leave. Mark my words. In the meantime, feel free to email me, facebook me, or even send snail mail if you feel up to it (thank you Alicia B, Penny Hart, Aunt Sue & Uncle Andy, and Lorraine!) and I'll do my best to keep you updated as well.
Thanks for all of the support, everyone.. love you all!
Drink some milk for me, will you?
Peace and Love,
Maddie
Monday, April 13, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
#5: on making an impact, taking criticism, and excitement for February
So first of all, I apologize for not updating this as much as I've wanted to.. I would say it's because I don't have time, but honestly it's just laziness. I don't know why writing a blog seems like such a daunting task, but somehow I end up putting it off for way too long. Anyway, here goes.
The first bible study (or, as they call it, "charla"- a conversation) was last Monday (told you I've been putting this off for a while..) and actually went pretty well. The topic was La Mujer Perfecta (the perfect woman) and how that is defined by culture, by us, and by God. There were 8 or 9 girls there, which was nice.. we talked about what it means to be beautiful and also about inner beauty, which was great. I feel like that's something that as a young woman growing up in the church, I heard a lot about, but that these girls have not encountered much of yet. It was a joy to bring that message to them. One of the girls, whose name I can't recall (she doesn't live in the project- Yomara invited her, which was great) was very shy during most of the talk. She was a bit chubby and I could tell she was self-conscious, and especially looked uncomfortable while we were talking about our cultural perceptions of beauty. But then when we got to the part about what God sees as beautiful, I read 1 Samuel 16:7.. "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (excuse the gender exclusivity..) As soon as I read this, I looked up and saw that same girl just light up- grinning from ear to ear. That made my day.
The second charla went pretty well.. it was supposed to happen a week later at the same time, but when Monday at 9 rolled around this week, Regan and I got to the project and no one was there. A few girls showed up around 9:30, so we waited... and waited.. and waited. This was expected, as the week before we had waited until about 10:30 for all of the girls to show up. So we waited.. until 11. and 11:30. and finally just decided to do it the next day at 10. But on Tuesday, the same thing happened... we got there, and just waited and waited. Granted, the Nicaraguan sense of time is way different than it is in the States.. they're not used to having to be on time for things, and schedules and appointments are not part of their culture like they are in ours. But it was still very frustrating to make the 2 hour trek out to the project two days in a row, and both times, wait around for hours for something you had prepared for.
So I talked to Omar, who happened to be at the project on Tuesday, and he and I talked to Calin, one of the leaders of the Chacocente community. He agreed to talk to the families of the girls in that age group, since that's something we neglected to do initially, and tell them about the importance of this meeting as well as the times each week. Thank God for that.. I really didn't know what to do.
Anyway, so on Wednesday (yesterday) we had our second session. This week's theme was choices, and made the point that what separates a girl from a woman is her capacity to make wise decisions. It went well.. just wish I'd prepared more. This seems to happen a lot with stuff like this- I prepare what looks like a lot, but then the whole thing ends up taking like 15 minutes and then I feel dumb. Pretty much that's what happened today. And the worst part was that at the end, when I was tying it into the Bible and how God guides us to make the right decisions if we can listen well (Isaiah 30:21) and Madeline (yep, same name as me, and same age) asked me a very good question- are we really making the decision, or is God? I was happy she was thinking about these things but embarrassed to not be able to answer her as well as I would have liked to. If this had been in English, I would have tried to delve deeper into that discussion and explore the intricacies of the issue of free will vs. God's will.. but it is SO MUCH HARDER in Spanish. Not to whine or anything.. but I just have a hard time being spontaneous in Spanish so far, which is frustrating.
Also frustrating at times can be taking criticism here.. I've learned that a lot of the social boundaries and awkwardnesses that exist in the States simply don't here.. people (especially kids) are very open about making personal comments about your belly fat or how boring your bible study was. (and yes, one girl did make that comment.) At least Madeline explained some things I could do to make it more interesting- more interactive activities, explaining things more thoroughly, etc. I'm so grateful to have her there as an older participant to help me along.
On a more exciting note, I finally had the chance to talk with Omar and Xavier (the school director) about the classes I'll be teaching. It turns out that I'll just be teaching music, which will be great.. seven 45-minute classes (one for each grade K-6) two days a week. The other two or three days during the week, I'll be helping Omar with delegations and the sponsorship program, where the kids exchange letters with their sponsor families in the States. (I get to pick a day off, and I'm thinking about Wednesdays.. that way, if I teach Tuesdays and Thursdays, my weeks can be symmetrical. AWESOME.)
I'm really excited to start teaching in the first week of February, but I hope I can find some way to prepare well.. there is absolutely no curriculum or structure or anything, which is a bit frustrating, but hopefully I can figure something out. If any of you music teachers out there have any good suggestions/curriculums for teaching General Music to elementary schoolers, that would be greatly appreciated. If there are any books or materials that you think would be helpful, let me know and my parents can probably bring them down when they come February 11th.
Which brings me to my next bit of exciting news! I'm so pumped for my parents to come down and visit for a week and a half.. for the first few days it's just them, but on the 15th, Ted Anderson's group from Western NY is bringing a group down to work in Chacocente. It will be so fun to have my parents here.. I'm really excited to show them what I've been up to here, and hopefully do some fun things in the area while they're here. And then in March, my brother's coming down for a week while he's off from college.. we've got some pretty sweet day trips lined up for that week as well. Should be awesome. I miss my family a lot but I'm glad they'll have a chance to experience things down here and spend some time with me.
Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. I hope this finds you all well and enjoying the cold (for most of you, anyway.) The weather has been "cold" here.. in the 70s or maybe high of 80 for the past few days.. and cloudy. People have literally been wearing pants and sweatshirts and complaining of the cold. Clearly they have never experienced Central New York, even in the summer...
paz y amor,
Maddie
The first bible study (or, as they call it, "charla"- a conversation) was last Monday (told you I've been putting this off for a while..) and actually went pretty well. The topic was La Mujer Perfecta (the perfect woman) and how that is defined by culture, by us, and by God. There were 8 or 9 girls there, which was nice.. we talked about what it means to be beautiful and also about inner beauty, which was great. I feel like that's something that as a young woman growing up in the church, I heard a lot about, but that these girls have not encountered much of yet. It was a joy to bring that message to them. One of the girls, whose name I can't recall (she doesn't live in the project- Yomara invited her, which was great) was very shy during most of the talk. She was a bit chubby and I could tell she was self-conscious, and especially looked uncomfortable while we were talking about our cultural perceptions of beauty. But then when we got to the part about what God sees as beautiful, I read 1 Samuel 16:7.. "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (excuse the gender exclusivity..) As soon as I read this, I looked up and saw that same girl just light up- grinning from ear to ear. That made my day.
The second charla went pretty well.. it was supposed to happen a week later at the same time, but when Monday at 9 rolled around this week, Regan and I got to the project and no one was there. A few girls showed up around 9:30, so we waited... and waited.. and waited. This was expected, as the week before we had waited until about 10:30 for all of the girls to show up. So we waited.. until 11. and 11:30. and finally just decided to do it the next day at 10. But on Tuesday, the same thing happened... we got there, and just waited and waited. Granted, the Nicaraguan sense of time is way different than it is in the States.. they're not used to having to be on time for things, and schedules and appointments are not part of their culture like they are in ours. But it was still very frustrating to make the 2 hour trek out to the project two days in a row, and both times, wait around for hours for something you had prepared for.
So I talked to Omar, who happened to be at the project on Tuesday, and he and I talked to Calin, one of the leaders of the Chacocente community. He agreed to talk to the families of the girls in that age group, since that's something we neglected to do initially, and tell them about the importance of this meeting as well as the times each week. Thank God for that.. I really didn't know what to do.
Anyway, so on Wednesday (yesterday) we had our second session. This week's theme was choices, and made the point that what separates a girl from a woman is her capacity to make wise decisions. It went well.. just wish I'd prepared more. This seems to happen a lot with stuff like this- I prepare what looks like a lot, but then the whole thing ends up taking like 15 minutes and then I feel dumb. Pretty much that's what happened today. And the worst part was that at the end, when I was tying it into the Bible and how God guides us to make the right decisions if we can listen well (Isaiah 30:21) and Madeline (yep, same name as me, and same age) asked me a very good question- are we really making the decision, or is God? I was happy she was thinking about these things but embarrassed to not be able to answer her as well as I would have liked to. If this had been in English, I would have tried to delve deeper into that discussion and explore the intricacies of the issue of free will vs. God's will.. but it is SO MUCH HARDER in Spanish. Not to whine or anything.. but I just have a hard time being spontaneous in Spanish so far, which is frustrating.
Also frustrating at times can be taking criticism here.. I've learned that a lot of the social boundaries and awkwardnesses that exist in the States simply don't here.. people (especially kids) are very open about making personal comments about your belly fat or how boring your bible study was. (and yes, one girl did make that comment.) At least Madeline explained some things I could do to make it more interesting- more interactive activities, explaining things more thoroughly, etc. I'm so grateful to have her there as an older participant to help me along.
On a more exciting note, I finally had the chance to talk with Omar and Xavier (the school director) about the classes I'll be teaching. It turns out that I'll just be teaching music, which will be great.. seven 45-minute classes (one for each grade K-6) two days a week. The other two or three days during the week, I'll be helping Omar with delegations and the sponsorship program, where the kids exchange letters with their sponsor families in the States. (I get to pick a day off, and I'm thinking about Wednesdays.. that way, if I teach Tuesdays and Thursdays, my weeks can be symmetrical. AWESOME.)
I'm really excited to start teaching in the first week of February, but I hope I can find some way to prepare well.. there is absolutely no curriculum or structure or anything, which is a bit frustrating, but hopefully I can figure something out. If any of you music teachers out there have any good suggestions/curriculums for teaching General Music to elementary schoolers, that would be greatly appreciated. If there are any books or materials that you think would be helpful, let me know and my parents can probably bring them down when they come February 11th.
Which brings me to my next bit of exciting news! I'm so pumped for my parents to come down and visit for a week and a half.. for the first few days it's just them, but on the 15th, Ted Anderson's group from Western NY is bringing a group down to work in Chacocente. It will be so fun to have my parents here.. I'm really excited to show them what I've been up to here, and hopefully do some fun things in the area while they're here. And then in March, my brother's coming down for a week while he's off from college.. we've got some pretty sweet day trips lined up for that week as well. Should be awesome. I miss my family a lot but I'm glad they'll have a chance to experience things down here and spend some time with me.
Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. I hope this finds you all well and enjoying the cold (for most of you, anyway.) The weather has been "cold" here.. in the 70s or maybe high of 80 for the past few days.. and cloudy. People have literally been wearing pants and sweatshirts and complaining of the cold. Clearly they have never experienced Central New York, even in the summer...
paz y amor,
Maddie
Thursday, January 1, 2009
#4: a church alive in Christ
So since a good portion of the people reading this are probably people I know through some church thing or another, and because church is a big part of life in Sabana Grande, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about the church I attend here in Nicaragua. Needless to say, it is a lot different than church in the States.. or at least, Methodist churches I've been to in the States.
I was thinking about this during church one evening and trying to pinpoint the main difference between church here and Methodist churches at home. And I realized that while there are obvious differences like the fact that they memorize all of their hymns or that the women and men (as a general custom, not as a mandatory thing) sit on opposite sides of the sanctuary, there was one overwhelming thing that differentiates the services.
Passion.
The people here are passionate about worship. It is a feeling, a tangible thing- it seems to hang in the air, in the music, words, and even in silence. And it's not just that the Holy Spirit is there with us when we worship, because I believe that no matter the occasion, the Holy Spirit is always there. It is a feeling of desire- of truly wanting to be there, even needing to be filled.
Granted, this isn't everyone's style.. I totally acknowledge and appreciate the more intellectual, socially-minded approach that is in the churches I grew up in. But think about what these churches could do with a bit of passion- in worship and in the community. I think it would make a big difference.
So anyway, this isn't necessarily a call to arms to change everything about your churches, Methodists who are reading this.. just some food for thought and things I've been noticing.
Hope you all had a nice New Year's Eve (which this church celebrates with a 4 hour church service) and you'll hear from me again soon!
I was thinking about this during church one evening and trying to pinpoint the main difference between church here and Methodist churches at home. And I realized that while there are obvious differences like the fact that they memorize all of their hymns or that the women and men (as a general custom, not as a mandatory thing) sit on opposite sides of the sanctuary, there was one overwhelming thing that differentiates the services.
Passion.
The people here are passionate about worship. It is a feeling, a tangible thing- it seems to hang in the air, in the music, words, and even in silence. And it's not just that the Holy Spirit is there with us when we worship, because I believe that no matter the occasion, the Holy Spirit is always there. It is a feeling of desire- of truly wanting to be there, even needing to be filled.
Granted, this isn't everyone's style.. I totally acknowledge and appreciate the more intellectual, socially-minded approach that is in the churches I grew up in. But think about what these churches could do with a bit of passion- in worship and in the community. I think it would make a big difference.
So anyway, this isn't necessarily a call to arms to change everything about your churches, Methodists who are reading this.. just some food for thought and things I've been noticing.
Hope you all had a nice New Year's Eve (which this church celebrates with a 4 hour church service) and you'll hear from me again soon!
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