Wrapping Things Up

With just a few weeks remaining in Nicarauga I took it upon myself to make the most of the experience. I know what you are thinking, how valient of you Jason to step up to the plate and take a hit for the team. I mean, not everyone is able to just see the greater vision and realize that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

Well, this guy did, and here is a quick photo montage of my last weeks and good bye parties.

 For our group despedida we rented a house out in San Juan del Sur. For all of you that aren´t familiar with Nicaragua, SJDS is a surfer town by the border of Costa Rica. It is the main tourist destination and where Survivor was filmed. Thanks to Chelsea we found this amazing house and had the mansion to ourselves for two nights.As you can see from the picture, we were really roughing it with a pool, view of the ocean, and the villa like layout. I made the most of it by cooking pizza on the first night and spending the next day grilling up hot dogs and hamburgers.

 To top off our time at the beach, it was the first time that I had seen the sun in weeks. I know that the US was getting a lot of raining, but it was perpetual in Nicaragua. It was cloudy, my clothes were all mildewy from the lack of dryness and I was downright depressed. Well by some miracle the skies cleared up and we saw the beautiful sun.

 Once back in San Dionisio I realized I only had 20 more days in the country. What happened to my two years? They were flying by and I now had to carefully plan my last remaining days and minutes with friends and family. To make it more interesting my host sister and her husband are leaving for a job and that forced us to have my goodbye party a little bit earlier. Here are a couple shots of them cooking. It was a delicious meal and I can´t thank them enough for all that they have done for me.

Besides my family I have to say goodbye to all of my students. It is no small feat, I have 5 schools and hundreds of students. I have been with all of them for two years and I can´t help but feel attached to each one of them. Sure, I am more attached to some kids or schools than others, but don´t ask me which or I will have to kill you. Ha, so for my farewells I decided to make pinatas with my students last week and this upcoming week we will fill them with candy and say goodbye. It wasn´t my idea, I have to give credit to my friend Geory who thought it would be a more economical and easy way to ease out of giving classes. My students loved the idea and we used balloons and later boxes to make the pinatas. Sure, they are no works of art, but they are going to be bashed to pieces, so that really is besides the point.

Last but not least I had my farewell dinner with my sitemates up at my house. I wouldn´t say it was a huge goodbye, but I wanted to do something with Monica and Sarah before I left. With the help of Monica we prepared a pasta dinner complete with garlic bread. It was good to just have all the San Dionisio volunteers together one last time before I took off. As you can see from the picture, they are doing a great job adapting to the Nicaraguan culture and have truly mastered the Nica face.

World Map

One of my last projects in Nicaragua was to complete a world map at one of my rural community schools. The concept was simple enough: I had sixteen sheets comprising of a world map that was grided and we would then transfer the drawing proportionally to the school wall. I remember saying how the last couple months would be the hardest because I would be unmotivated and have difficulty finding projects, but this world map idea just fell into my lap. In all of my four rural schools we did world maps on large butcher paper, but at only one did we decide to go big and put it on the school wall. The final dimensions were 5ft x 10ft and it is the first thing you see walking up to the school. I was so proud of all my 5th and 6th grade students. Yes, I am a perfectionist and I ended up drawing most of it, but you know what, I took a back seat and let them do all the painting. Sure, some of the borders may have shifted and I am sorry to all people in the newly formed South Sudan, you did not get your recognition. In fact, I am sorry to Andorra, Luxemburg, the Balkans, and the countless islands in Polynesia that we left out. Whoops, I guess you can´t fit it all in there, it is a big world you know.

Anyways, the point of this project was to show my students how grand the world is. Think about it, these students have not grown up with television nor Internet. They have no idea where Nicaragua is nor its size to the rest of the world. It was shocking when we were labeling the countries when I asked them to find Nicaragua. The first response was, "It´s so small" or "I didn´t know the world looked like this". I hope that they will see this map as a reminder of our two years together and also be a way for them to relate to the world when they hear the news about a report of other countries. I left it to them to do the painting and at the end each one of them signed their masterpiece, I hope that this will be something that they can look back on and one day show their own kids.