POST by RENZ: Cooking up a STORM!!!

Lorenzy with her cute little cousins in Rochester, New York

Right now, I am in Rochester, New York. I am staying with some friends of mine and my family’s, the Seaburgs. I am also here to visit my uncle, aunt, and their kids. I love being here. The people are really nice.

Sometimes when I go places like church, or to someone’s house with the Seaburgs or my uncle or aunt, I almost always have somebody say “LORENZY!!! How are you? I haven’t seen you for so long! I think the last time I saw you was when you were like two years old!” And most of the time I’m thinking in my head “I have no idea who you are but I’ll just act like I know you.” So I’m like “Ohh yeah.. Hey… What’s up?” It is horrible. However, sometimes the people start out saying “You probably don’t remember me…” and that doesn’t make me feel so guilty.

About a week after staying in the Seaburg’s new house, Josiah (the Seaburg’s oldest child) and I decided to make cookies. But not just any type of cookies, chocolate chip cookies.

We had so much fun making them. Izzy (the youngest child of the Seaburg family) helped us by pouring the ingredients into a huge clear bowl that we were using. She accidently dropped some of the brown sugar on the floor but no one seemed to notice much.

I mixed the ingredients together and Josiah did pretty much everything else. Once the cookie dough was all done, Cora and Aidan  (Their other kids) came over to us and asked us if they could have some cookie dough. We obviously said “no” since we made the cookie dough and also we are just really mean!

One of the best parts was next. We got to grab the gooey yellowish coloured dough and shape it into not so perfect circles. We watched T.V. whist we waited and when the house started smelling of wonderfully baked cookies, we took them out and set them on a tray to cool and put some more on trays to go into the oven.

We did that about three times until they were all done. Then, Jenny told Cora and Izzy to go and take some cookies to the neighbors. After the cookies had been delivered to some of their new neighbors, we got to have a few cookies each. Only a few of the cookies that we made were burnt, besides that they were absolutely PERFECT!

About two days later, we decided to make more cookies since the ones we had made before were so good. We did the exact same things as before so that they would be as awesome as the last time.

However, Izzy did not help us this time. At the end, after we had made a bunch of normal sized cookies, Josiah and I decided to make one big cookie. We did not have too much dough left over but it was bigger and fatter than all the other cookies. When it was done we split it between ourselves (Josiah and I).

Lorenzy with the Seaburg kids, Josiah & Izzy - Renzy is having the time of her life!

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POST by FRAN: Doing the Brien´s Dirty Work

Fran and Yader, performing domestic duties

We are used to cleaning our clothes by a washing machine and a dryer right? Well here we only have a washing machine and it doesn’t really get the clothes very clean… I am the wonderful person who has to do the washing and the first time I washed the clothes they came out dirtier than when I had put them in!

I had to come up with creative ways to get the clothes clean. I tried rewashing them in the washing machine, and it worked a little bit. I tried soaking the clothes in washing detergent and water and then washing them in the machine, but in doing this the clothes only got a really bad smell!

My friend came around to the lavandero (laundry) and saw me taking out a bunch of dirty clothes from the washing machine. She said “why are the clothes so dirty?” “I’m not really sure” was my response.  “Well why don’t you do this?” She grabbed a rather dirty t-shirt out of my hands and put it on the lavandero and applied some soap on it and started scrubbing with a hard bristle brush. Low and behold the dirt came off straight away!

I grabbed all the really dirty clothes, which were mainly jeans and white t-shirts. We both worked together. It was a lot of work but the clothes weren’t dirty anymore!

I started to do this more often and it was a lot of work but my arms are getting very strong.  My arms started getting into shape! The clothes looked really good… except for the white clothes. I needed to scrub a lot harder and ‘put my back into it!’ One day my mum saw me scrubbing really hard and said ¨why don’t you use Clorox?¨

I got a little bit of Clorox in the lid; I had bad experiences before, so I scrubbed the white clothes with the Clorox and then put them into the washing machine with a little more Clorox and walla! Clean!!

My chore, for 2012, was to wash all the clothes and at the beginning, I didn´t know how to do my chore - I had to learn on the job and I had to learn from other people. I was never alone while learning.

POST by FRAN: Sizzling in the Sun

Ladies at the Beach: Elizabeth, Francesca, Lorenzy-Ella & Anna

Remember the beach called Playa Hermosa? Well that beach has a lot of memories. There is the time when we went crab hunting, and the time when we almost drowned because the current had taken us too far out.

Too many stories! On this occasion I will tell one of the most ridiculous and recent stories that has happened at the beach yet!

Fran & Billy at the Beach

It was a bright and hot day. The sun was strong and powerful; it could burn pretty much anything, including skin! I think you know what I’m going to talk about now. The last time we went to the beach we forgot a very important item… It is something that helps you not to get burnt to the crisp!

We got to the beach all excited on Saturday afternoon and we didn’t worry about anything, we just played and had a really good time. We watched the sun set, we made a camp fire and cooked hotdogs over the fire. We couldn’t have asked for more fun.

The next day we hit the beach without the very important item on our sensitive skin. We went to the tide pools and climbed the rock walls. Lucky, my dog, even climbed up!

Up on the ROCKS: Lorenzy, Anna, Yordy, Franny, Lucky & Sez

Then we went to the house to have something to eat because we wanted to hit the other side of the beach, where the waves are.

We ate Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) and had some fried cheese and then we all headed down to the waves, again without the very important product on our shoulders and back.

We were only thinking about having fun and taking pictures and living while we're young. We dug a hole and buried Rafi up to his neck; we gave him a mermaid shape in the sand around his buried body.

We were at the waves from eleven in the morning until three in the afternoon! We were having so much fun and weren’t thinking about our skin or the sun…

When we got to the house, Granny said “you guys look so much darker!” and that’s when Mum finally realised “I left the sun cream at home!!” 

We were careful for the rest of the day so we wouldn’t burn too much more, it was really hard! Then we made the camp fire, but this time we tried to sit a little farther away from the flames. We saw everything differently! We still had a good time but we were beginning to feel the sting on our backs.

The next day was a nightmare! Nobody could move like they used to! We were all stiff! It was the worst feeling ever! I regret not putting on sun cream! In the water I had to have my front towards the sun instead of my back! I almost died because of the stinging pain! I will always take sun cream to the beach now!

Fran being splashed by Yordy

POST by RENZ: La La en La Mascota

Nayeli, painting in the creche

When people from the community come to us for help, we normally help them as much as we can.

They ask us if we can take them to the hospital or if we can help them get medicine and things like that. If we have our car or if we have money that we can use to help them, then we help as much as we can.

One day, a mum of one of the kids from the school gave my sister a letter and she told her to read it to my dad. When she arrived home she read it to my dad. The letter read that someone in her family was sick and she wanted us to help her. It was a little girl that was sick but it didn’t say whom.

It was a Tuesday night and every Tuesday we go to barrio loco to play pool. Before we went to barrio loco my dad said to me if I wanted to go with him on a daddy-daughter date and I accepted. He said to me that first we would have to make a few stops.

The first place that we went to was to the aunt of the kid that was sick. My dad was going to tell them that we didn’t have any money to help and that we were very sorry we could not help. He then said to me that we could help a little bit if the little girl was from the school that we have, but he thought that she wasn’t.

We went to the mother’s house to tell her that we were sorry but we could not help right now. When we got to her house, he started telling her that but then he asked her who the kid was. She was holding Nayeli in her arms and said that they were going to take her to hospital.

Nayeli with her Mum & cousin

My dad asked her what she wanted him to do and she said that in the morning she had to go to the hospital and they were going to do some exams on the little girl and he needed another woman to help her hold Nayeli still.

She also explained that she has problems with nervousness and other people she had asked had said that they could not help her because they were scared.

Nayeli's Dad on the left (with Liz & Junior)

My dad said that him and I would go with her in the morning to the hospital.

In the morning, my dad woke me up and told me it was time to go. It was six o’clock on the dot and we had to go to the hospital.

I got ready as fast as I could and then went outside. I didn’t even have time to eat! Outside it was nice and cool. Sitting upon a bench on our front porch was Nayeli, her mum, and her dad.

Nayeli

As soon as my dad walked out of the house, we all jumped into the car and went off to the hospital. For most of the time, our journey was silent with just the radio in the background. We arrived at the hospital but the mum said that it was the wrong hospital.

My dad did not know which hospital the lady was talking about so he asked somebody from the hospital that we were at if he knew where the other hospital was. He told us that we were very far away from the other one, La Mascota, but an ambulance was going there and so we followed the ambulance.

The ambulance was fun to follow but he was going so fast and it was hard to keep track of him.

Once we got to the hospital we went into a room and they gave baby Nayeli an injection in the arm. Once that was done we had to wait in the waiting room for a very long time. My dad kept on asking me what we were waiting for but I didn’t know.

Finally they called us in after we had been waiting for a few hours and they took some x-rays (I think) of her. One of her body parts was too small and so they had to stick something in her too see what was happening.

They told us to take her pants off and lay her down on the table. Once she was lying down and they hadn’t even touched her she had already started screaming and crying.

Nayeli crying, Jocasta & Manuel

They told me to hold her arms down and so I did it. They told the mum to hold her legs open and so she did it.

The doctor came over and put some needle thing attached with a cord in her and then he told us that we just had to wait, so we waited whilst they put stuff in her.

Once they finished that part they took out the needle and told her to pee and then she could go. She didn’t want to and so she started screaming and crying even louder.

We waited about ten minutes until she finally did it. They then put her in a shower and rinsed her off. Then we left and the little girl was normal again.

When we got home I was so tired and everybody was asking us where we were and if I was ok because I was so tired. I told them that we went to the hospital.

Now the girl is ok but they have to give her medicines and things like that.

POST by FRAN: Waste-not, Want not

“ MUM! This shirt is too small!”

“Mum, these pants are stained!”

“I can’t find a shirt that is wearable!”

Have you ever had clothes that don’t fit you anymore or are stained? That was my problem. I had way too many old, small, big and tattered clothing. So one day Mum told me “If you don’t want something, just put it in a pile and I will hand it out topeople in  the community.” So one day I decided to go through ALL of my clothes and the clothes of  my sister, Lorenzy.

First I went to Lorenzy’s room and pulled everything out of her untidy, wooden closet. I found all sorts of things! Teddy bears, lipsticks, bags, and anything else you could think of (and I do mean ANYTHING!!!) As I started going through her clothes I found really old T-shirts that we had in Australia (over 4 years ago)! Cute little T-shirts with butterfly patterns on them, ones that I can see Talia (or Talila as Lorenzy calles her), my cousin, in.

I had to fold everything because Lorenzy is not an organized girl! I found a lot of clothing that had gone missing for a long time! I felt like an apparel version of Sherlock homes. It took me two whole days to finish her entire wardrobe. It’s not a big wardrobe either, it has three drawers and an empty rack to hang clothes on!

On day three I went through my wardrobe. Mine is a lot more organized (I guess it’s a first born thing... both my parents are second born and they are not organized either). I have four small drawers and a rack for hanging clothes.

My PJs are in one drawer. My under-wear, socks and hats in another, just  above the PJs drawer. In the other two drawers I place my shorts, skirts and leggings. I hang up the rest on the rack in the closet.

 First I started with the rack. I mainly found clothes that are really baggy and big, which could fit Jonny (one of our Trickers) better that anyone, so I put those clothes in a pile for him. Then I made two piles of clothes that were not wanted/stained and too small/not fitting anymore.

I finished sorting in three days, and gave all of the loved, but needing to give away clothes, to Mum. Within a week I saw little girls wearing the t-shirts that were too small for me. Every time I saw them wearing one of my outfits, it made me smile, because I know these little girls look up to Lorenzy and me, and it makes me happy to see them in our clothes. Actually, the clothes looked better on them than they did on us! It makes these girls know that they are special and that we love to give to them, even if we don't have extremely nice gifts to offer.

“Fran, this was your t-shirt, right?”

“Yep, and now it’s yours because I love you so much!”

POST by RENZ: Fiesty Fiesta Fighting

Lorenzy-Ella at a Party in Nicaragua

Here in Nicaragua parties are different from the States or Australia. I don’t know what makes it different but it just is, maybe because of all the Nicaraguan dancing and the things that they do. At pretty much every birthday party, they have music and dancing, even if it is a baby or toddler that is having a birthday - they just really treat it like a dancing party. They do not have themes for parties, the only theme that they have is dancing and they like it like that, and sometimes I do too. 

On Saturday, in the evening, we were invited to a birthday party. It started at six o’clock but first we went to church so we got there at like eight thirty or nine.  It was a friend of mines´ brother and he had turned 16 or 17.  Dad and all of the little boys stayed at home.

The place where the party was at, was just a concrete building but it was open and it was only one room. At the party people were dancing and just having fun. Somebody that I had met at other parties before asked me to dance so I danced with him.

Then we changed partners and I danced with another dude, Pio. He is 12 years old, the same age as me, but he’s REALLY short. We were having fun and my sister and mum were dancing too. We had brought Yordy with us as well but he just stayed outside. I was having so much fun that I did not see my mum and sister leave the building until Pio asked me were they were. I said that I did not know so we went to look for them.

We went outside and found them sitting with Yordy on a log. I asked them why they were sitting down outside and they said it was because they felt sick because of what they ate, the very food I’d cooked. I went back inside and started dancing again. A friend of mine named Adriana was dancing with another friend of mine called Elvis. The four of us kept on changing partners and then we got into a big line and started dancing. We were having so much fun when all of a sudden everyone left the building.

We went outside to see what was happening and of course it was a fight. Two guys were on the floor wrestling. I asked somebody what they were fighting about and they said it was something about a girl that they were fighting about.

I found my mum and she said that they were drunk even though the party had not given out any alcohol. We were just standing there watching them fight and then my mum went up to them and said in Spanish “Hey guys! Stop fight-“, but was stopped midsentence by my friend’s mum, Maria. She grabbed Mum and was screaming “LIZ DON’T DO IT!!!” This interaction between my Mum and Maria was hilarious.

We tried to go home but every time we tried to leave to go home, the fight got in our way. Finally, when everyone was able to leave, we went running. One of the guys that was fighting was right next to us. They had gotten machetes and fought with them and gotten cut a lot. I heard the one next to us say that they would go to the Punta Plancha, where we live, and wait for the one he was fighting there.

Once we were inside some people that had gone with us asked Fran to cut his hair so we all went outside to see how she would do it and then we heard a gunshot right outside of our property. We all got freaked out and then one guy joked, “Liz! They’re robbing your house!” They all started laughing because she did not understand. What a night.

POST by FRAN: Our Special Spiderman

Our house has a brick wall around it; the wall has wire with spikes on the top. There are green, leafy plants that grow up the wall, which makes our wall look like the wall that is around the ´Secret Garden´. We have a green ´gate´, which is more like a metal door, with a door bell on the wall next to the gate.

We need a wall here in Nicaragua, mainly to keep the robbers out, but it´s also to indicate what is your property and someone else´s. If we didn´t have a wall our dogs would go nuts because of all the animals that pass our house and people would probably try put their cows and horses to graze in our property.

Sezni loves watching the movie ‘Spider-man’ because it is full of excitement and danger. Spider-man can climb walls and throw webs. It’s a really fun movie to watch, but have you ever seen Spider-manin real life? I have, but his name is not Peter Parker, it is Rodrigo!

Rodrigo is a boy that lives at the end of our street, he says that he is five years old, but he´s somewhere around 19.  He has autism which means that he doesn´t really respond to anything, he is special. He wears the same clothes every day and is here every hour of every day, of every week!

Dad told him that he could help us at the school and learn how to read and write. He loves being at our house! So now, Rodrigo is my Dad´s little helper, on the week days from eight to twelve, but not the week ends!

Rodrigo always wants to be at our house but if we don´t want anyone here we won´t let him in, and those days are usually on Saturdays, family day. He always ends up coming and ringing our door bell. DING, DING, DING!!! And he came on a Saturday DING, DING, DING!!!! Nobody went to open the gate. DING, DING, DING, DDIDIDIDIDIIDDDINGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After the five minutes of the doorbell dinging there was silence. ¨I think Rodrigo left¨ proclaimed Sezni. ¨I´ll go check¨ said Beycker. ¨AHAHAHHHAHAHAHHAHHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!¨ Laughing came from Beycker´s voice ¨you have to come see this, Fran!¨ We laughed for at least seven minutes.

Mum came out of here room and asked ¨what is wrooooo HHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!¨ and ran back to her room to fetch the famous camera. What we saw was something out of the ordinary! A head peaking over our large wall, the head belonging to Rodrigo! He had thrown his shoes over the wall, climbed the wall and was trying to throw himself over!

Beycker, Jonny and I went to the gate and stood outside just watching Rodrigo move his butt around! His torn jeans were caught onto the wire with the spikes, as was his T-shirt. Jonny went and helped Rodrigo climb down.

We let Rodrigo in and then half an hour later he left. I guess we are here in Nicaragua for people that want family and friends.