Nicaragua! Part Two ~First Days in Matagalpa~

Nicaragua! Part Two ~First Days in Matagalpa ~

After two days of constant travel, we were ready to get going with our work. Wake up time was a little early for me personally, since I am NOT a morning person. At all. Ever. I actually got pretty used to waking up early, and within a couple days it felt totally normal. I really shouldn't of titled my post "First few days in Matagalpa" instead I should of called it 'First few days using Matagalpa as our home base". (But that's too long and drawn out for a title!) Our first destination was the town of Muy Muy, about an hours bus ride from where we were staying. The landscape we passed looked like something out of an animated movie. The mountains looked unrealistic in their unique beauty. After winding (or should I say zooming and falling out of our bus seats)  through the countryside, we reached the town. It happened to be Nicaragua's equivalent of Independence Day, and tons of people were out on the streets havin' and good ole time, and lighting off fireworks. (We never did understand the point of lighting off fireworks in broad daylight, and their celebrations got nothin' on 4th of July back home)   The roads were very muddy and narrow, but of course our bus driver didn't have any trouble navigating them. Everyone split up into 3 groups: Outreach, Vacation Bible School and Construction. I choose construction. Our first church was a little slow going since most of us didn't know the drill yet, but people caught on pretty quickly. The one-day churches are very simple and easy to construct. It was the rainy season, and torrents of rain would randomly come, but disappear in a few moments. The rain wasn't really a problem, but it made the work site very muddy. By the end of the day, I was a couple inches taller 'cause of all the mud stuck on the bottom of my boots. Little kids would crowd around, and some invited us into their homes. My second day in Muy Muy, I went into this one little girl's home, and sat in there for about 30 minutes with her and her Mom and brother. They didn't know a lick of English, and my Spanish is pretty limited. We still communicated the bare minimum and did a lot of smiling and pantomiming. It was very sweet, because the little girl brought out one of her only toys and tried to give it to me. I didn't take it, but was touched by her generosity, and really saw a glimpse of God in her. I wished I had something to give her, so I left her with one of my bracelets. I came to Nicaragua with an armful of bracelets, and returned with only one. Meanwhile, in these first few days, our group started to become really close. I have to say, I miss all of them (most of them) a ton. 

A pretty nice house

Typical Nicaraguan home 

Loved the scenery

Church #1!

Holding the trusses! 

Workin' hard. :)

These boys were so cute, they gave me one of their  marbles. 

Kids everywhere!!

Team Matagalpa in front of completed structure #1. Woo!

Nicaragua! Part One (the Journey to Matagalpa)

About 10 days ago, I arrived home from Nicaragua. The trip was incredible. I made countless memories. I want to share on my blog about my experience there, but I have so much to say I'm gonna split it into a few different parts.

Nicaragua! ~Part One~

The Journey to Matagalpa

I left Charlotte, NC sometime in the afternoon on July 17th. After a 3 hour layover in Miami (and some entertaining rides on the SkyTrain) I met up with other Ultimate Workout kids. I instantly made connections with some of them, and we were fast friends. After clearing customs and getting through the passport checks in Managua, Nicaragua, we were greeted very loudly and enthusiastically by other UW's. By now, it's nightime and we were all exhausted and very hungry. Finally, a group of us loaded up on an old school-bus (the favorite Nicaraguan form of transportation) and started the trek to a SDA school, where we spent the night. We had out first taste of Nicaraguan bus driving, which we would all come to love and actually prefer to safe, boring American driving. We arrived at the school, which was off of a crazy dirt road (we ran over a chicken on the way...) and settled in for the night. It was hot as all get out, and huge moths and other large bugs terrorized some of the girls. Screams were heard throughout the building, and the boys tried to heroically kill/catch/destroy the bugs without much success. The next morning, after a dubious breakfast, our group loaded up on a sketchy bus (there were pictures of the Twin Towers blowing up and Osama bin Laden smiling down from heaven on the back...) and got stuck in the driveway for about 20 minutes. The bus was overloaded and bottomed out. Not a good way to start out the trip, but it was pretty indicative of the way it was gonna be the rest of the way. The bus ride was only supposed to be 3 hours long. ("Supposed" to be) Within moments, a heated discussion was under way as we all argued about which was better: USA or Canada. That remained a hot-topic for the entirety of the trip. Anytime there was a moment of silence, somebody would bring up the odd Canadian accents, or the funny southern accents, American ingenuity vs. Canadian ingenuity, Oh Canada vs. Star Spangled Banner. Football vs. Hockey. ect. ect. (All I can say is "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free!!!")
The bus broke down about 2 hours into the trip. We were stranded at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere for 5 hours. (It was a rather odd place..drug paraphernalia was scattered on the ground) It was a bonding experience! We found ways to entertain ourselves and all got to know each other. Finally, after the bus was fixed we loaded back up and continued on to Matagalpa, our destination. Once again, that's easier said than done. Along the way, we passed beautiful, lush, green countryside. Soon, if began to rain for the second time that day and we all got a little worried. To get to the school where we'd be staying, the bus would have to ford a river. We reached the river, and lo and behold it was too deep for the bus to cross. After and hour of waiting (During that time I traipsed around the woods looking for a place to use the bathroom) our luggage was brought over in a pick-up truck, and a lot got soaking wet. Next, all 30 of us crowded into the same pick-up tuck (at once) and we were all transported up the river to the our final  location. Bonding experience. We all were thankful to God that we made it to Matagalpa in one piece. haha

Getting ready to load up!

As I said, the bus was rather sketchy.

Typical Nicaraguan countryside.

Hangin' out for 4 hours in the while the bus was repaired.

The river our bus couldn't cross and drive up.

The front of our unique bus.

30 people in the back of one pick up? Oh yes. We are MATAGALPA!

One more week!

Today is the first rainy day in awhile, and the perfect time for me to try to catch up on some blogging. 

As many of you know, in a week, I am leaving for a mission trip to Nicaragua. I'm finally done with my necessary immunizations, and the past few days I've been making shopping lists and gathering the needed items to take along with me. I'm super excited for this trip...can't wait! The area where I'll be working  is known for it's moderate temperatures and is surrounded by mountains and coffee plantations. Unfortunately, there won't be any internet access, so I won't be able to contact anyone while I'm gone. Please pray for the entire mission group going down there, that we will impact many lives for Christ and remain healthy and safe. (and that my Spanish will miraculously improve, and I won't get a farmers tan!!!!) Thanks so much, and I hope all of you are enjoying summertime.

~CMC

The Life and Times of Ava

Summer break is a wonderful thing that I love with all of my heart. I've even learned to love mowing the grass! With the end of school, comes the start of the 'Curtis Birthday Season'. Hannah just turned 11, and tomorrow Ava is turning 5. (Dad, Mom, Will and Emma follow close behind) 

Since Ava's birthday is coming up, I think I'll dedicate this post to her. 

From the day Ava arrived in the family 5 years ago, life has been filled with more abundant joy and laughter. Ava is such a precocious people person, she loves being social. (as many of you know) One of her favorite pastimes is Uno. She's pretty slick...she tries to play what she calls "Ava rules" but usually that doesn't go over very well with her opponent. "Ava rules" include her dealing the deck, (where she just so happens to get a fistful of wild cards) her never receiving any penalties, and she never draws any cards. 

She is the oddball in the family since she doesn't like to hike, stating "My legs are too short." But, she wants to go backpacking with Dad, Will and I this weekend...

Ava is constantly hungry, because she views dinner time as a social outlet, and hardly eats any food due to her constant talking. A little while ago, Ava told Mom that she was hungry. Mom replied, "Well, we just had dinner!" Ava responded emphatically, "I AM A GROWING MAN!" 

She is also very sure of her plans for the future. One of her husband requirements is that he only drinks "Root Beer, not real beer." When she grows up, she wants Dad to build her a house in the back yard.

I'm pretty sure Ava thinks she's the oldest of the family...she likes to call me "Kid" and while she attempts to boss us around, her plans are generally thwarted. 

Ava's nightly prayer are also really precious, and sometimes humorous. "Dear Jesus, please help us to be able to figure what outfits to wear while we're at the beach...."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVA!

Breathe in, breathe out...

Tying a string around my finger reminding me to breathe might be helpful for me right now. Life's been incredibly busy, and we're all hangin' on for the ride. 

I turned 16 since I've last posted, and Sunday I had a really fun party. Pretty much everyone left limping, sore and muddy. According to the guys, that's a true sign of a great time. Anyway, I had a wonderful 15th year, and I can't wait to enjoy my 16th. I'm thankful for my amazing family that makes my life so special. I can't even begin to count all of my blessings.

Tuesday night I broke my finger through an *ahem* unfortunate set of circumstances that include late night pinkie wars. It's pretty painful...bruised, swollen, crooked and taped. I'll never be a hand model, but I'll get over that. BUT, you know, it's been a couple weeks since anyone in the Curtis family has been injured, so I'd say it's  about time.

Right now Boone is kinda freaking out because it's been 60-70 degrees that past few days, and next week we're supposed to get SNOW. 

Spring break! And more.

Happy spring!

I had a great spring break, and now I'm refreshed and ready to keep on conquering schoolwork...with the beautiful promise of summer break only eight weeks away.

On the 11th, Em, Hannah and I flew down to Florida to be spend spring break with Pop-pop and Grandma. We had a super fun time. They kept us busy. We went to the beach, did some fishing and even spent a day on a deserted island. That was my favorite day. The island was about 3.5 miles away from the shore. Pop-pop's little boat was pretty loaded down with the five of us, and it took a little while to get ourselves out there. A highlight was walking about a 1/4 mile out in the water on this sandbar, and having dolphins swim within five feet of us. Hannah was petrified when she saw the dolphin fin, thinking it was a shark. She started running as fast as her little legs could carry her to the shore; until we convinced her it was just a dolphin. She's been too into Soul Surfer lately. ;)

The day after we got home, our entire family headed up to MD/DC to visit Dad's family. The car ride was interesting, to say the least. (Car trips are always interesting in the our family) 

~A portrait of a typical road trip with our family~ 

Sitting in the wayyy back of the Suburban, where my legs are so squished I my knees are propelling them up...there's such a lack of personal space, the three people sitting in the back kinda blob into one uncomfortable mass. Did I mention the fact we don't have air-conditioning fixed yet? And that's its been a really hot March? Oh, and we drove past these pig farms for about 45 minutes in VA, and with the windows down...it smelled...like...a pig farm. In the car. I got so bored, I started to compose a poem about Will. (Who was sitting right next to me) I started to read it to him, 

                                                                   Oh dear little Will, 

he's as cute as a button

He's gonna marry a girl named Jill

And they'll never eat mutton

As soon as I got to the "He's gonna marry a girl named Jill" part, William flipped out. Marriage is his very least favorite topic. So, to redeem myself, I made sure the rest of the poem was about him being a formidable Indian chief and tough boy. I'll spare you all the rest of my pathetic, elementary poem. 

Ava dumps snacks all over the floor of the car, on top of the pile of books/coloring pages/toys/clothes/trash that already crowd the small passageway of the car. I could continue...but I think you all get the point. haha

So, our visit up north was very nice. It was good to see everyone. But boy, oh boy. It sure was nice to get home. It's so quiet and calm and peaceful. (Around us, I mean. Not necessarily in the house. haha)

I'm gonna ramble for a minute. We were driving home from the tri-cities airport, (which, by the way, is located in the middle of cow fields. no kidding) and we got behind a guy driving a Harley motorcycle. He had the "look". Long hair and beard, the Confederate flag vest, leather tassels, ect. We were following him up the mountain for a minute, and we noticed he only had ONE arm! "Wow," we're saying, "that's so cool! Overcoming his handicap!" "Still doing what he loves" "He's not letting that stop him" "I've never seen a one-armed motorcyclist!" ect. ect. Then, we see his other arm reappear. He's was just smoking a cigarette....Those moments in life, when you just feel a little stupid. haha

Well, tomorrow William is getting surgery on his nose, to repair the two breaks he endured this summer. We're all praying it'll go well, and his nose will be good as new. 

Well, I gotta run now. I hope you all enjoy these first, beautiful, flowery days of spring!

~CMC

February update

Hello everyone!

I've been promising another blog post for a while now, and I suppose now is as good of a time as ever. 

This time, my post will primarily be pictures of the past couple weeks.

Before I add the pictures, I'll give a quick update. I AM VERY READY FOR SCHOOL TO BE OVER. I seriously feel like I've learned enough this year already to last me a good long while. AND, next year I could technically /legally drop out of high-school. Of course, I'd never do that, but nonetheless it's very comforting thought.
The latest Curtis Family injury happened to Dad. This injury is pretty odd...he got his eyeball scratched /lacerated while playing basketball. There is a pretty large gash in the eyeball, and it's super bloodshot. He got some antibiotic drops from the Doctor, and it should be better in a few weeks.
Besides that, we've been doing lots of school! Thursday night there was a dance at Cherokee Cove, and that was a lot of fun. Below are a couple pictures from the night.

~Dance pictures~

Having fun!

Spinning.

Emma and her friend, John.

I have no idea what Emma is laughing about, but it looks like she's having fun!

~Random pictures~

Making yogurt

About to go conquer some farm work. Looking tough ;)

Football!

And...more football!

~Farm Pictures~

The horse and Mom. Yes, we still have him.

Will and his buddy the goat.

This picture is pretty priceless.

Short, but sweet.

I think I might actually believe in Global Warming (am I really saying this??)...this winter has been so entirely warm here in NC. The people getting dumped on by snow in Alaska may disagree, but...it's all relative.

Anyway. I finished reading/discussing/analyzing Agamemnon by Aeschylus in lit. Greek literature has a common theme: All problems are caused by women and all disagreements are over women. Not exactly true in real life, but somewhat accurate. :) I'm starting to actually get into Greek tragedies though. I may even like them more than Shakespearean tragedies. They seem to have better reasons for killing/poisoning people in Greek tragedies . 

We're most likely finding another home for the horse, btw. He's too big for our midget family, and stepped on Mom's foot and tried to kick her. We're going to try to find a pony or smaller horse to free-lease. I think it would be a better match. 

Sorry this is so short! I'll try to write more later.

Update on life. :)

We now have a horse. Correction: We're actually free leasing it for a year, to see if horses are for us without making any kind of purchase. The 2 youngest kids have been praying every night for a "baby brother, sister and horse." The horse was an answer to one of the prayers! He's TN walker. As many of you know, I am not an animal person. You could say I am indifferent towards animals. I was scarred for life after my beloved pet chickens being massacred by dogs, bears, coons and more, the death of baby goats, an evil hamster that bit fingers and my kitten that disappeared, a demented pet oppossum...ect. ect. At a young age, I decided animals die too much and are too temperamental, and decided it was stupid to become attached. Now, I just don't want any extra responsibilities and greatly prefer spending time with people WHO CAN ACTUALLY TALK. I'll post a picture of the horse soon. If any of you have any name suggestions, we'd appreciate it! Just leave a comment or send me an email. Dad's suggestion: "We can name him Nebuchadnezzar, since he wandered around in the fields and ate grass for seven years!" It takes us FOREVER to name animals. What usually happens is about 5 of us finally agree on a name, then the stubborn two still call it whatever they wanted, which results in an animal with 3 names.

Besides the new animal, nothing much has happened. We're as busy as ever with life and school. I started chemistry back again. Every year after Christmas break, I never cease to wonder how information can leave my mind so quickly. I look at my math book and think, "Hmm...a bell is faintly ringing in my mind...I know I've seen this somewhere, I remember going through some kind of torture that resembled these equations..." I'm counting on the fact that once you learn something, you may temporarily forget it, but it comes back quickly.

Today was a bad day for me brain-wise. I think I was partly delirious because I was so excited to see the sun??!! I went to get a Debit card at the bank, and the lady asked me what my name was and I said, 'Chloe." "Is that spelled Cloe?" I replied, "Yep." Mom had to tell me how my name was really spelled. Then the bank lady asked me my date of birth and I just looked blank for a minute, "Umm....ahh..." Also, in chemistry, I kept blanking out and writing all these random element names down that had nothing to do with the questions. "Whats the formula for potassium nitrate?" I'd start writing, MgF3 and my teacher looked over, "Why are you writing Magnesuim floride?" "Umm...ahh...oh yeah. I don't know." It was really odd.

Goodnight!

Happy New Year.

Whoa. I haven't written since LAST YEAR!

Happy 2012, everyone. I hope your new year is wonderful.

Speaking of wonderful, that's an adjective to describe my Christmas. We had a lovely day, together as a family eating good food,opening presents, listening to Christmas music and taking a walk. Then, in the evening our good friends the Stephens came over and watched, It's a Wonderful Life. I'm really psyched, 'cause I GOT SKI'S FOR CHRISTMAS! Very excited about that.

Last Friday, everyone (minus Dad ): headed down to TN to visit family and see some friends It was a very nice time together. On New Years Eve, we watched the ball drop on TV, 

which is very overrated and ridiculous in my opinion. A couple 

minutes before, Will exclaimed, "When do we get to see the BOMB drop?"

Poor guy, thought a bomb was gonna drop from the sky and explode.  Next,  we tried to make as much noise as we could at midnight with those little squawker birthday-party things my Aunt bought, and old ladies pulled back their curtains and glared at us. Then I ran around the block and called people on my phone to wish them a Happy New Year. Next, I got lost in the neighborhood...smelled a skunk in the bushes and ran around trying to find my aunts house...and people were looking at me like I escaped from a mental hospital...Finally I found the house and Emma and I watched a western and dreamed of mules and six shooters and Apaches all night. New Years Day we went to the city of Chattanooga, walked across the TN river and ate delicious ice-cream. Monday was our first, real mall experience. The only mall I'd ever really been to was our mall which is so small you can stand in the middle and see all the stores. Also, it's always quiet and empty and we always see a lot of people we know there. This mall wasn't really huge compared to most, but there were at least 20,000,000 people in there. AND, it got a bloody nose in the middle of the man hallway-area...which was really embarrassing. 

Anyway, upon our arrival home, we were met with weather in the teens, high winds and a few inches of snow. I can't wait to go tear up the slopes. 

School is starting up tomorrow, Christmas break was divine. I seriously tried to convince Mom I had learned enough this semester in school to last for life. Which is practically true. 

Arrivederci, yall.