O mi linda Nicaragua...

Pictures: Me, Mackenzie and Jessica on the bus...Me with the Sandino memorial...Mikaila and I with our host moms...Chauncey, Me, Mikaila, Ervin y Sarai at church...
I hardly know where to begin to recap you on 12 of the most challenging, amazing days of my life! I guess I’ll just start at the beginning…
Bus ride there was awesome; my friend Claire bought me a 2.5 LITER bottle of Té Frío (Iced tea) for the trip, peach flavor of course, because I am basically addicted to it. It was hilarious, and I drank it all by the end of the 2^nd day..with a little help. =)
We spent the first two days together, driving around Managua, eating at an awesome soda run by a lady in her house, visiting MCC (woot!), and even going into a protest camp in a park. The people protesting are from the province of Chinandega, and are all farmers. They are there to protest the use of the agrochemical nemmagon, which has given a vast majority cancer, or other diseases of the skin that have caused them to need amputations. Heavy stuff: they have been protesting during the last 3 presidential terms and not too much has happened. It was really rough to be there and see their “temporary” housing (as of now, they’ve been there 17 months) made up of wood and large black tarps. I still don’t really know what to say about it….
So, remember how I asked you to pray a lot for my group, because we were going to be living in a dangerous place in Managua? Well, God apparently had some different plans in mind! =) We were supposed to go live in Heleya (sp?), which is a ghetto of Managua, but 5 minutes before we left Trevor pulled us to the side and told us that the church had decided to move us because of a lot of last minute security concerns, and also because it had been raining a LOT lately, and that area floods really easily. So, I did not end up living in the ghetto, but instead lived in a small area outside of Managua called Santo Domingo. It was hard to go from being prepared to have one of the “roughest” experiences to having what was one of the most comfortable ones (my bathroom was inside, I had my own room, etc). I can’t lie, I felt relieved, but at the same time there was this strange disappointment in me because I felt that I was sort of being “let down” by the experience. But, of course, God wowed me yet again!
I lived with a woman who’s been single her whole life, named Beatriz, and she has a 34 year old son Christian, who is married. He and his wife live in the house as well, but they are gone all day and most of the night working, and so Beatriz was really excited to have me around to talk to and eat lunch with. This woman is awesome: she’s hilarious, and probably about 53 or so, and is just about finished up with going back to get her high school degree because she wants to go on to the university and study theology. Whoa. =) We had an awesome time together! Her sister Anita lives right next door, and my friend Mikaila stayed with her and her two sons: Roger, 23, and Jorge, 18. We spent a LOT of time together (only speaking Spanish, that was our promise for the week), and I really got to know Roger and Anita just as much as I did my own host mother. I can’t even put into words how immediately at home and in love with these people I felt! Everyone in Costa Rica told us before we left that the Nicaraguan people have big hearts, and I still wasn’t prepared for the unconditional love and acceptance I felt from everyone there!
We also spent a lot of time with the pastor, who is a woman named Falla. Katie lived with Falla’s sister, and so she spent a lot of time at Falla’s house. We spent a few afternoons with Falla and her family, especially her adopted son Ervín, who is 14. We played kickball one afternoon with a bunch of the neighborhood kids, and one day had a “family tournament” of me, Mikaila, Roger versus Katie, David and Ervín. Needless to say, our family dominated in volíbol and handball. =) It was such a great time to be able to share life with these people for just a short while! The day that we left I couldn’t help but cry over and over as they prayed for us at each one of our houses before we left to hop in a van and drive to Granada. I wish I could describe it to you better so you could all understand, but I don’t even understand it yet. I just know that Nicaragua has a really big part of my heart….I also have many more stories, so if you want to hear more I’m sure I’ll be able to share more with you later. =)

We got to Granada on Wednesday earlier than we needed to, so Chauncey, Katie, Mikaila and I spent a little bit of time exploring (and sweating!!). Once we got to the hostel and discovered the pool, we had to just leap right in! I have not felt so good in a long time. =) The group had a big reflection time about our experiences that night, and then the next day we hit up a market in Masaya before heading back to Managua for our last night. We had a “charla” / dinner at a placed called Ola Verde, a restaurant run by a woman who used to be really high up in the US Dept. of Agriculture who decided she wanted to run this restaurant using locally grown, mostly organic products. The food was pretty okay, I mean, the main dish was tofu/eggplant lasagna stuff…yeah, that I didn’t like. =) But we did have some amazing salad and ice cream for desert! =)
The next morning we were up bright and early early early to hop on TransNica and make our way back to Costa Rica! A group of girls and I were dropped off in Liberia, CR so that we could start our Fall Break on Friday instead of Saturday….and I’ll save that story for my next blog entry…=)