By Natali P.
This week was our first full week in Matagalpa, Nicaragua! The Jatzibe women have been exploring this colorful, small city while staying with host families and attending the Colibri Spanish School. We settled into our Host Family´s houses on Sunday, February 18th. Syd and April are living with a woman named Guillermina and her family in a pretty red house, surrounded by palm trees, Kiara and Hillary are living in a beautiful and modern white house with a woman named Miladis Larios and her family, while Tanasia and Natali are living with a woman named Ingrid Rivera and her family in a nice, comfortable red house, surrounded by a luscious garden. Each of us have been enjoying home cooked, Central American food, while spending time with our homestay families and learning about their cultures and language through immersion.
The group heading to homestays with their Nicaraguan mamas.
Colibri Spanish School
Diana, Kiara, and April enjoying class
Natali and Karla in class
Spanish Bananagrams with Syd, Hillary, and their teacher, Mayra.
This has been an exciting week, full of new, and diverse learning opportunities. All of us attended Spanish school for 4 hours each day, from Monday, February 18th through Friday, February 23rd. The Colibri Spanish School is located on a hill overlooking the city of Matagalpa. The property of the Spanish school is filled with many different types of plants and herbs, and students are taught in classrooms, which are located outside. Each day, we had the same routine: Spanish school in the morning, then, eating a nutritious lunch, which the Spanish school prepared for us with ingredients from their garden. Every afternoon, we participated in different activities related to Central American culture. These activities consisted of traditional Central American dancing, hiking up to the top of the cross, learning how to cook traditional pastries, and discovering what feminism means in Nicaragua.
Dance class at Colibri Spanish School!
Cooking class to make buñuelos made from yucca and cheese.
Learning about and helping pick herbs for making tea and cooking.
Walking back to the city after the hike.
Tomorrow, Sunday, February 25th, we are saying goodbye to our host families, here in Matagalpa, and heading off to Esteli, Nicaragua, where we will be exploring rainforests. All the Jatzibe women will be staying together this upcoming week in hostels as well as with families
The hike up to the cross on the mountain top behind the school.
The view of Matagalpa from the cross.
Leader selfie!