It goes on, and on and on...

I had a roommate in college that loved birthdays. She was great about remembering them and really enjoyed celebrating them. And the best part was that the birthday lasted a whole week for her. You didn’t just have a birth DAY, you had a birth WEEK. So of course, you felt extra special.

This year for Steve’s birthday, we did something a bit similar. His birthday didn’t last a whole week, but we did manage to spread it out over 3 days, although not on purpose (blame it on lack of energy, sickness, etc). Saturday we celebrated his birthday by going to Esteli (see below post).

By the time we got back, it was too late to make a cake or get a piñata. Zach would have none of it. He insisted that Daddy didn’t have his birthday yet because there was no cake or piñata. So the next day I made his cake, which the boys enjoyed thoroughly. But Zach STILL insisted that we get a piñata.



What is a birthday, after all, without cake or piñata? (Steve was really suffering :)

So on Monday, we went and bought a NEMO piñata, filled it with candy, and all the boys, both big and small, got their chance to hit it. Zach was finally satisfied and declared that, Daddy finally had his birthday!

Zach's Art

I've decided to keep the series going of Zach's art. His hobby, well, should I say? His obsession, continues. He draws, paints and colors with a fascination that is wholly impressive.

His artistic eye and natural bent for colors and perspective are amazing. Lately he discovered on the Veggie Tales movies the special section that illustrates how to draw some of the characters. He has been in love with it since. And his similarities are striking.

So anyways..I'll stop bragging now :) Enjoy his latest and greatest. I've only picked a few. If I posted every single picture he drew, it would be AT LEAST 4 or 5...a DAY. I kid you not.

Workshops on Goat's Milk

Last week was a really busy week, for all of us. Steve went out to the campo (countryside) every single day. On Monday Abby and I spent some time prepping for our goat’s milk workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday. The goal of the workshops was to talk about the nutritive benefits of goat’s milk and to give show them some uses for goat’s milk.

Tuesday we went to the community of Mil Bosque. While we met with a few women, Steve held a veterinary workshop for some of his male beneficiaries down the road. At our workshop, we first had a taste test in which the women were given a cup of cow’s milk and goat’s milk, and then asked to guess which was which. We did this to disprove the myth that goat’s milk tastes bad or has a foul odor. Surprisingly, none of the women guessed correctly! All the women thought the goat’s milk was cow’s milk, and vice versa. They were quite surprised when we told them the truth.
Then we talked about some of the benefits of goat’s milk and how healthy it is, especially in comparison to cow’s milk, and a substitute for babies if the mom’s don’t have milk and formula is not available.

Below, the women wait for the workshop to start.


We talked a bit more in depth about specific vitamins and why they are necessary for the body. We especially tried to emphasize the importance of milk to pregnant and nursing moms as well as children.

Then we asked one of the ladies to show the rest how to make cuajada (a type of farmer’s cheese) and we explained the process to make sweetened condensed milk. The one upside to making condensed milk is that it can be stored in any container with a lid for several months without spoiling. This is important as the vast majority of people don’t have refrigerators and have no way of storing any extra milk they may have. Because goat’s milk has a higher fat content (especially true for tropical breeds), the cuajada came out creamier than usual. Afterwards, we ate the cuajada with fresh tortillas, yum!

Below, separating the curds from the whey (solids from the liquid)



Me, stirring the pot of milk to keep it from burning.


The next day we went to the community of Yucul and repeated the workshop, although we added more in-depth topics of overall health and nutrition. I went over the basic food groups and tried to emphasize the necessity of each one. The women in both communities were really interested in the information and seemed to enjoy learning how to make the cuajada and condensed milk and I enjoyed getting to know the women more and interacting with them again. I counted the other day and realized that it’s been almost a year and a half since my last workshop!

Abby joking around with the women.

Feliz Cumpleanos a Ti! (Happy Birthday to you!)

Aunque sea un pedacito, ya queremos pastel! This line comes at the end of a very long traditional birthday song…and translates to, Although it might only be a small piece, now we want cake!

For his birthday, Steve received a few small items, with a few more on the way. First, a shirt he picked out some time ago. The T-shirt reads, Wonderful climate, relaxed people, Matagalpa. Perfectly stated, we couldn’t have agreed more! He also received a leather wallet, made here in Nicaragua, close to Matagalpa.

He also decided to do some traveling, so we packed up and headed out around 10 am to Esteli, the city in which we spent 6 weeks for language study. Hard to believe it's been 2 years since we last visited this pretty city. We head south from Matagalpa and after meeting up with the Pan-American Highway, we headed north. It is always
interesting to see all the rice fields, tractors and wildlife along the valley. Such a different landscape from our home in hilly Matagalpa.



We first visited La Casita, situated just south of the city, and set up by a Scotsman who spent some time doing development work here. La Casita is an experimental/demonstration farm, as well as small restaurant, plant nursery and artisan craft shop. I enjoyed a delicious swiss cheese, tomato and whole wheat bread sandwich, all organic and grown/made right there on the premises, as well as a refreshing banana milk shake. The kids enjoyed some time in the playground.




We then went down to the central market in search of some cheese with chilies, but weren’t able to locate any. So we then went to a fast food restaurant with a large play area for lunch, then headed to a nearby reserve and enjoyed the waterfall. The water was quite cold, and although a nearby group of Europeans jumped in, they quickly got out and sunned themselves. As we were getting ready to leave, one of the girls approached us and asked if we were leaving. Could she get a ride back to Esteli?, she wondered. She had been quite sick the day before and wasn’t feeling well again. So we took her back to the city, and enjoyed chatting with her for a few minutes. From Canada, she was slowly making her way through Nicaragua, and eventually hoped to make it down to South America. She was backpacking by herself and her Spanish needed a lot of work. It’s truly amazing to meet people like her that travel alone and without good knowledge of the local language…something that Steve and I can’t quite see ourselves doing, but always interesting to talk with others about their experiences. Very brave!


After dropping her off, we looked at an old map of the area, and decided to try to make our way back home using some back roads. We questioned a man at the nearby gas station who pointed us to a very smooth looking road, and we were off! The road was in very good shape, just haven been repaired and all new cobblestones put down ( a common method of street construction here). The view was glorious as we passed by tobacco upon tobacco fields and their gigantic wooden sheds. Esteli is known as the tobacco capital of Nicaragua and actually produces Cuban quality cigars, from which the plants are originally from. We passed farms and even bigger farms, rock walls, horses and of course, cattle.


We started to climb and the temperature quickly dropped, which was a nice respite at first, but then I soon had to roll up the window as it became too cool for me. After winding our way through several small towns, then an even larger town and then eventually into Jinotega, our sister city to the north, we stopped for ice cream. Being so cold, we were the few customers, but kids always want ice-cream, right?

After quickly slurping down the ice-cream, we climbed over the mountains once more and headed home. Normally the commute to Esteli takes about 1 ½ hours, taking the Pan-American highway, but the back roads took us 3 hours. No matter...upon arriving home we quickly devoured a hot meal of beans with cheese, gave the boys their baths and put them to bed. Within minutes they were asleep.

Zach was disappointed that we didn’t have cake or a piñata, and soundly proclaimed that we needed to celebrate Steve’s birthday again tomorrow, the RIGHT way. But Steve seemed pleased with his low-key, adventuresome birthday.

So Sunday I made a cake, and today we bought a pinata...nothing like dragging out a birthday celebration!