Take Flight Day Three: Our First Trip to Chacocente

By Gabby, Tilly, Kaiana and Alisha

It is our third day in Nicaragua and we still can’t believe we are here. Today we went to Chacocente with our ANS buddies. On our way to Chacocente we saw so many cool things like the Masaya Volcano. We have noticed that there weren’t many sidewalks along the roads, so people were walking in the streets, or in ditches. 

Also the houses we saw along the road were really different from the other houses we’ve seen in Nicaragua and the USA. Some of them were made of cardboard or tin, not bricks. Some houses didn’t have doors, but most had gates to protect them. We have also seen many people selling things outside, like mini pools, drinks, fruit, and candy.

We traveled to Chacocente with the ANS buddies that we met yesterday. When we arrived in Chacocente there were lots of kids coming to hug us, we felt so welcomed. We delivered desks, a tree, and a plaque to the Chacocente school and they accepted our donations. Tilly, Shanice, Alisha and Kaiana gave a speech to the Chacocente students and teachers, and we had much love and clapping from all the children. 

We were also amazed by their athletic abilities. We saw little kids and older kids climbing up trees. We had fun games prepared for all of the schools. We played baseball, soccer, and relay races, and all the teams were mixed up so ANS, ICS, and Chacocente students all played together. We climbed on trees, and it was kind of hard because some of us were scared a branch might break and we would fall.

 

Chacocente was much different than ANS. Chacocente was dustier because their school was more outside. They did have a few hallways, but other than that it was outside. Chacocente also was hotter because there was no air conditioner, because the rooms are open to the outside and there were no windows or doors. Chacocente has a lot of kids and they were really cool and the little kids were so cute. We also saw the bathrooms that last year's Take Flight group helped to build, and the tree that they donated.

During lunch, we helped pass out little bags of lunch, which was one sandwich and a small bag of chips. We were very upset that we couldn’t feed the dogs. They looked very skinny, their ribs showing from their sides. We felt so bad for them, but the children needed to go first. After lunch, we resumed with our regular activities. In the field, a few ANS students and some Take Flighters joined Chacocente in a soccer game. First match we lost. But in the second match, we were victorious.

On the playground, many of the little kids were climbing trees. One little boy was jumping from one tree to another. At first we were worried they might fall, but when we saw how agile they were, we quit our worrying. They flew through the trees like monkeys, doing all types of tricks, like they’ve been climbing trees their whole lives. Unlike them, we were a complete fail.  Some of us went to the little store and bought some candy. The lollipops were extra delicioso. After a few games of tag, it was time to head back to the hotel.

We took a few pictures with our ANS buddies and handed the bracelets out to some of the Chacocente kids. We were so upset to leave. Even though Chacocente wasn’t as nice and well furnished like ANS, the kids were the ones that made it so much fun. Being an ICS student in Chacocente showed us not to take things for granted. Especially when it comes to school. On the way back to the hotel a lot of people were tired. Lola and Tilly were taking pictures of the ones who were asleep. Finally at the hotel we freshened up and had a little snack. Then the prank wars began!

      It was boys against girls. There was a lot of flying rotten fruit and stealth involved. Eventually the guys won. After a few hours of pranks it was time to get in the pool. We threw Tr. Kate and M.Steve into the pool and cannonballed ourselves in the pool. Then we all started hanging from the limbs of our teachers. We were so upset when we needed to get ready for our dinner. Once we were all fancy, we hopped onto the bus and was on our way to go eat dinner.

Dinner was so much fun. We got to try so many different types of food, like chicken, potatoes, corn, sausage, beef and pork. It was all prepared over a big charcoal grill. There was one spicy dish that Kaiana thought was salad. That didn’t end well. After a few others tried it and had a burning tongue for almost half an hour, we started to dance. A few of Tr.Kate’s friends came and we started to teach them how to dance popular American dances. Once they left, we started to head back to the hotel.

When we got back to the hotel we had our nightly debrief. We talked about the qualities of good schools, and if ICS, ANS, and Chacocente were good schools. It was very interesting because there were so many opinions that always had a point in the subject. But we agreed that a good school prepared you for your future. Now it’s night time so, bye. Hasta Luego!

Link to Pictures for Day Three!

Official Administrative Request - Friends and family members: Thank you all so much for your support and your wonderful comments! But where's all the gushy-gushy? We're still waiting to learn what some of our travelers' embarrassing nicknames are!!! Tr. Steve and I can't be truly effective trip leaders until we know who they REALLY are. Come on...for your children's sake!

Take Flight Day Two: Me and My Shadow!

By Nicky, Dejah, Lola & Kaden

Me and my roommate Kaden woke to the sound of a tap tap tapping at our door that was the wake up call. We quickly got dressed and rushed to breakfast where there were plates of eggs, fruit, toast, pancakes, yogurt, cereal, and the best thing on the menu: the traditional Nicaraguan food gallo pinto (or rice and beans). We had a half hour to converse and eat, and then we hopped on the bus and our loyal driver Don Pablo took us to ANS: the American Nicaraguan School.

When we arrived at the gate it appeared as a hotel and less of a school it was flooded with palms and had a massive courtyard: 26 total acres. Upon arrival we were paired up with the ANS ambassadors, aka our “buddies” and Lola, Kaden, me (Nicholas) and Hannah introduced ICS to ANS.  They were very polite people who took us to their classes. 

Some people were taken to English, Latin American history, art, enrichment, technology, math, science, and P.E. The classes were  interesting and were full of information. My favorite class was math where we learned about tessellations. The math teacher, Ms. Rhonda Swarcose, explained it very well (take a hint Tr. Rich). Lola learned about addiction and recovery in one class. Gabby learned some new Spanish phrases, and Dejah learned how to layer with watercolors in art class.

We noticed that ANS was very different from ICS. First of all, ANS had a soccer and track field, a large pool, a food court, and had the largest library in Nicaragua. ANS also had a lot of subjects/classes. Some of their classes are different from ours, like Latin American History, Enrichment, art and music. Some of us went to 8th grade classes, where they were studying US history.

Once it was time for lunch we received 5 US dollars and were sent to the food court. There were many places to choose from like Subway and my favorite, Moon River Burrito. Most of the students chose Moon River Burrito and about half of them chose a simple plate of chicken fingers and french fries. We paid in American money but received change in a hard to pronounce word, cordobás, and ate our lunch. During lunch we were greeted by not only the ANS students but the school pet Gummy the cat. We then went on to our buddies’ next class. For Lola it was English where we watched documentaries about addiction and Kaden’s buddy had a math quiz (BORING again, take a hint Tr. Rich) so Kaden got to use a laptop when his buddy was stuck with a quiz.

After 5th period Lola, Kaden, the twelve other travelers, and their buddies were supposed to go to reflect and debrief on the day but Lola and her buddy forgot so they went to science class for 10 minutes. A teacher then came in and took them to where they were supposed to go. Oops! At our debrief, we talked about the similarities and differences between ANS and ICS. We also played A Cold Wind Blows, and a bunch of people had to stand up and sing and dance.

After the last bell rang we said goodbye to our ANS partners and met the magnificent Don Pablo. He took us back to the hotel where we swam in the hotel’s pool. We swam for about an hour and a half then Tr. Kate and Tr. Steve told us that it was time to get ready to go out for dinner. Delicioso! (Spanish for delicious in case you didn’t know).

The magnificent Don pablo picked us up and over the course of about 5 minutos (that’s Spanish for minutes) we arrived at our destination, La Cocina de Dona Haydee (that means the kitchen of Dona Haydee) and ate something called a caballo bayo. The caballo bayo is when you taste a little bit of some of the many original Nicaraguan dishes. While we were waiting for our food a singer came in and sang a few traditional Nicaraguan songs. Our food finally arrived and we tried a few platters including delicious pork, chicken, salad, beans, and cheese.

In the middle of our meal we heard drums and peeked out the window to find what looked like a giant lady and Tr. Kate explained that it was La gigantona, a Nicaraguan folk tale. La gigantona is a bunch of little boys dressed up like a giant lady and a giant headed midget. A lot of us went outside to watch. We were surprised to find the boys come out of their costumes but only to ask for money. At about 8:15, 10:15 in American time, the magnificent Don Pablo came and took us back to our hotel. When we got back we changed and gathered around for our nightly debrief. After the nightly debrief we all walked away having learned not to take what we have for granted and to take into consideration that not everyone has what we consider normal. We’ll blog tomorrow.

With love,

           Lola, Kaden, Dejah, and Nicky

See the Day Two slideshow here!

TFN to NIC: Are We There Yet?

By Bella, Hannah, Luis-Manuel & Aaliyah

On Wednesday morning, everyone gathered in the freezing school yard, looking forward to the warm weather. We waited there for about half an hour, parents saying goodbyes and grouping us together so they could blind us with the flash on their cameras. A couple of the travelers were reluctant to leave their parent(s), while other were excited to fly to Nicaragua.

After that, two shuttles arrived in the basketball court to take us to the Philadelphia airport. At the airport, we got our passports checked and our luggage weighed. Some of the travelers were nervous to see if their luggage was under fifty pounds. Our next stop was to go through security. It actually wasn’t that bad, though, except when a few people had to get their bug spray thrown out, because it was over three ounces.

After security, Tr. Kate and Tr. Steve assigned us jobs for the rest of the day. The jobs included bloggers, leaders, leave no trace-ers, and energizers. Lastly, the time came when we got to have some wonderful downtime. We had time to eat lunch and hang out before our flight. There were restaurants, great souvenirs, and much more. We had a difficult time finding a suitable place to eat. Finally, at 12:05, we boarded our plane to Miami.

Once we were on the plane for Miami, it was easy to see our excitement. We talked about how excited we were for our flight, and we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, the planed started to move, and we cheered in our heads silently. For about 5 minutes, the plane moved slowly as it got in position for take off. Suddenly, all of the mini-televisions came down automatically, and a pre-recorded video popped up on the screen. It told us how to fasten our seat belts, put on our life jackets(we didn’t need to use them), where the emergency exits were, and other things. After that, the seat belt light came on, and all through the plane you could hear seat belts buckle. The plane soon began to go faster than ever before; and soon enough, we were in the air.

During the flight, some people played cards, others drew, and some slept (Lola snuck pictures of those people). Window-seat travelers looked out of the windows and were surprised to see how the landscape looked from above. Landing was terrifying, happy, and exciting all at the same time. It was fast and bumpy, and some of us were really scared. Luis had his hands up in the air because he was overly excited.

After touchdown in Miami, we went into the airport and docked at an empty area because the gate that was supposed  to be for our next flight was still full of people waiting for a different flight. We all wandered and got some food to eat before we left for Nicaragua. The weather wasn’t so nice and there was a delay on the runway. After we finally took off, it seemed that Managua was right around the  corner. We could see a lot of the city from the sky, and it was really nothing we expected to see. We weren’t expecting to see so many lights in the city, or the cars below us. A few of us also saw lightning in the distance as were were landing. We landed at a not so busy, empty airport, and we were in Managua, Nicaragua.

After we went through the Immigration, passport stamping, and Customs, we met with

Don Pablo, our bus driver, and headed to the bus. We were all hit by surprise when kids came up touching us and asking for money. We were all uncomfortable, but it really hurt our hearts seeing them like that.  We all wanted to give them something, but we couldn’t. We were afraid that if we gave them our money, we would end up giving them more than we expected to. When we were all loaded up, we set off, and eventually arrived at our hotel. The inner walls of the hotel were a light yellow. We all huddled into a semicircle, and M. Steve and Tr. Kate told us who we were bunking with and in what room.

Walking into our rooms, as we opened the door and turned on the lights, the sight was amazing! The mattresses looked super comfortable, the pillows look as if they were stuffed with the clouds we were just over, and the air conditioning systems looked beautiful! We had a short meeting, where we talked about the events that happened over the course of the day, and M. Steve and M. Kate gave us a few details of what was going to happen the next day (we’re keeping that a secret for now...). And then off to bed we went! We all slept so well, although some of us woke up really early due to jet lag.

See the Day One slideshow here!

Take Flight 2013 Takes Off!

 

Image source: http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/airplanes-work-1.jpg

Adios Take Flighters and Buen Viaje!

You can follow the travels of our 7th grade Take Flight travel program to Nicaragua here.  Please feel free to leave a message for our students in the comments section below. Teachers and students will check the blog each day to read comments and post dispatches and photos from their experience.

A Tour of ANS...

7th grade - here's our first dispatch from ANS students! 

Watch the video below and come up with some questions in the comments section below. What would you most like to know about life at ANS and in Nicaragua?  What does this video make you think and wonder?



ANS Meets ICS 2 from Matt Koerner on Vimeo.

Dramatic Tableaux - Fever, 1793

Today the 7th grade performed dramatic tableaux (living photographs, or scenes) from the current core novel we're reading: Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. Each group chose a scene from an assigned chapter and then audience members guessed what the scene might be and discussed the significance.  The goal of this activity was to step into the shoes, and also the hearts and minds, of the characters in our books.

Students, what did you learn from this activity and what questions still remain for you as we continue our reading of Fever, 1793?