Emily Sack has been baby-sitting 4-year-old Simone Herlihy since the girl was born.

But Sack has never had shamans giving her potions to cure a sick child, or men considering her to be bad luck because she looks like a mermaid.

Those are among the culture changes Sack will be facing during the next two months, when she lives among indigenous people in Nicaragua.

The 17-year-old was invited by Laura Herlihy to take care of Simone and 4-month-old Hobbs while Herlihy completes research on a Fulbright grant this spring.

“I wasn’t going to do much for the semester anyway, other than work and save money,” said Sack, who finished her senior year at Free State High School in December. “I decided I’d have an adventure.”

Starting Feb. 25, Herlihy will spend five months teaching at an indigenous university in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, a city of about 50,000 people. She’s done work in Central America since 1990.

Sack plans to stay for two months, until Herlihy’s husband, Peter, moves to Nicaragua to help care for the children. Peter Herlihy said it would ease his mind to have a trusted sitter tending his children in a foreign country.

“Simone wouldn’t know what to do with another baby sitter,” Laura Herlihy said.

Herlihy studies the Mosquito people, an indigenous group that lives on the east coast of Nicaragua. There are about 150,000 people in the world who speak Mosquito, also spelled Miskito.

Herlihy said she knew Sack was in for some lifestyle changes in the next two months.

For example, Herlihy said, the Mosquito people have customs centered around shamans, potions and chanting. They smell each other when they meet, and they think fireflies represent people’s souls.

Learn about the Fulbright program

And because much of the economy is centered on lobster-diving, there are many superstitions involving mermaids. The lobster-divers think mermaids are white with long hair — just like Sack.

“She’ll certainly have a big culture shock,” Herlihy said. “But she’s not your typical teenager who just wants to eat pizza and watch TV.”

Sack’s mother, Michele Bergman, said she was entirely supportive of her daughter going to Nicaragua. In fact, she said she helped talk her into going on the trip.

“I think she needs an adventure,” Bergman said. “I think it will be amazing for her. It’s just something that changes the way you look at things. Nothing can replace it.”

Thad Allender/Journal-World Photo Laura Herlihy, center, and her family, including her daughter, Simone, 4, will leave for Nicaragua this spring on a Fulbright grant to study the Mosquito people. The family's baby sitter, Emily Sack, left, is going, too. The three are pictured Wednesday at the Herlihy home.