POST by RENZ: Birds of a Feather, We've Learned to Treasure

Oliver and his pet pigeon

Oliver and Brian are my foster brothers. One of them is five but looks like he is three. The other one is eight and looks pretty much his age but probably a little younger. Billy is my other foster brother but is not their real brother. He is three and sort of looks like Oliver. The only way they look alike is that they are both brown, have pot bellies, and look the same age and because of that some people ask me if they are twins.

The two little boys come from a poor home. Their mother left their father with the boys and he found another lady and they have a little girl now. Their dad gets drunk very often and their step-mother doesn't really think of them as her children, so most of the time if they are not with us they are out in the streets with their sling shots hunting for food.

When they are at our house they love to be inside because when they go home they pretty much never are in the house. Also when they are here and not inside they are in our other paddock that we have. It has a lot of fruit trees and so they are almost always in them picking fruit and playing games in them. We have a bunch of plants, bushes, and trees and they are almost always in them.

One day, the boys were playing outside in the garden when they heard some chirping from some little birds but they couldn't see where they were. So, they started searching the trees. Oliver was in a plant searching when he found a birds nest. He called all the other little boys over so that he could show them what he had found.

In the nest were 2 little pigeons and the mother was nowhere to be seen. Right when they were going to decide to do something with them, they had to go inside to get ready to go to bed. So they would have to wait for the next day to do anything to them because it was too late to do anything in that moment.

The next day they got up bright and early so that they could do something with the birds before anyone would tell them to stop and leave them alone. The branch that the birds' nest and birds were in was too hard for them to reach so they had to try and figure something out to get them down.

They started to throw rocks at the nest but that didn't do anything to get them down. Oliver started to climb up the trunk that had the birds' nest was in. He got the birds nest and threw it down to the other kids. Billy caught one of the birds and dumbly gave it to the dog and he ate it. The other one they kept for a pet and still have it. He treats it like his son. Oliver is learning to love God's creatures and that he doesn't always have to kill and eat them.

POST by RENZ: Weathering Nicaraguan Weather

My family loves going to the beach. We usually go to the beach during vacations. We have been to three different beaches in Nicaragua. Those three are la Playa Hermosa, la boquita, and another one that I don’t know how to spell. I like each one but my absolute favorite one is la Playa Hermosa. I like la Playa Hermosa the best because at that beach I have a lot of friends that own beach houses.

One of my ex-classmates’  mum lets us stay at her beach house and it is really fun. We make bonfires and go out running late at night or really early in the morning. One day when we were at la play Hermosa we were talking with some of my friends from school who also have a beach house. The house that belongs to my classmate is right in front of the water but my friend’s house was further back. She invited us to her beach house to do random things.

That night we walked to her house. It was quite creepy because it was dark and we had to cross a bridge and underneath it was a dark lake type thing and there was a log that looked like a crocodile. The bridge was like the bridge in the movie Shrek, when Shrek and Donkey were going to get the princess, but had to cross the really old bridge. That was like the bridge that my whole family had to cross. A few planks were missing and it was hard to see so we had to go slowly.

Then we had to go up a steep hill but that wasn’t so bad. It looked like it was going to rain but we weren’t going to take so long so we were alright. Once we got there we started talking and playing. They have a ping pong table so we played ping pong. It started to rain. Then the rain got really hard and so we went inside.

It started to thunder and then there was lightning with really hard rain. We had left Hector and Nicole the house owners’ children (also mine and my sisters friends of the house) at the house. Hector is 12 and Nicole is in tenth grade. We heard thunder which was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY loud and my dad screamed. If you didn’t already know, my dad freaks out when he hears thunder and lightning.

We waited a while with the intention of waiting until the weather got calmer but it didn’t really get any calmer so we decided to leave because otherwise we would be there all night. We started going and it stopped raining but there was still thunder and lightning and it was really close. It was even harder to go across the bridge because it was slippery and it was harder to see where there was missing planks because it was now night time.

  

Once we were almost home (we just had to walk across the beach to get to the house) we came to a place where a river had formed and it had overflowed and was blocking our path. The current was too strong to go across and my dad was able to get across but we couldn’t. Some people saw us and helped us get across. The rest of the way we ran, except for my parents and Billy, my foster brother. When we got home Hector said to us that when he heard the big crack of thunder he told his sister “Yep Mr.B is dead!” 

POST by RENZ: Sez's Rearing Ride

My family has five horses and one of them is pregnant. They are quite small and quiet. All of them are pretty much like that except for one, "Mexico".

He is almost the smallest horse that we have but he thinks that he has a lot of 'power'. Even though he  supposedly got neutered, he still has a lot of pride. He will have to get neutered again because they didn't do it properly and so he still has it.

One day, we decided to go out on a ride with four of the horses because Midnight is too fast for any of us kids to go on  so we did not take her. I went on Cadburys. She is pregnant and get's into bad moods, but she is obedient.

Sezni went on Mexico and you already know how Mexico is. He is obedient when he wants to be but when there is a mare around he won't be so obedient. He sometimes goes wild. Sezni's favorite horse is Mexico so he always rides him.

My dad and Francesca also went. My dad went on our white horse which is called Cookie and Cookie does not like going up or down hills. He is the tallest horse that we have.

Francesca went on the smallest horse who is VERY stubborn. Her colour is really dark grey with white blurs all over her. 

That day we decided to go a different route which I had never gone on before. It was where there is mountains and is really pretty to go to. Since we went there, we go there quite a lot to let the horses eat grass and we just sit and do whatever we want to.

That day, we had a race to see who could go down and up the hill the fastest. I don't remember who won but it was fun anyway. When I go there, I usually bring a note book in which I can draw things in.

The path to get there is a dirt road and it gets ruined by the rain when it is the rainy season and so it has a lot of bumps and ditches.

When we were on our way home, there was a mare in a paddock when we passed it. She was sort of red with a blackish brownish main. Francesca and I passed her quickly because she looked sort of mean. Sezni came after us but when Mexico saw the mare, he started to go to her.

 Sezni did not know what to do. He was trying to control Mexico but he couldn't because Mexico was stronger. Mexico was trying to get onto the other side but he couldn't. All of a sudden he went on two feet and Sezni was yelling at the top of his lungs "HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

 At first we were all just staring at him but then Francesca started to try and help him but her horse was too stubborn. Sezni was still screaming and my dad had his mouth wide open with the camera out and ready to take pictures but he was frozen.

Then my dad got back to his normal senses and went to go help my poor little brother.

Once we got out of that mess my brother was almost in tears and we were laughing but trying not to make Sezni feel bad.