Nicaragua Pt. 2

So, me and 3 girls in the program got brought to our community (like every other group of students did). However, unlike all the other students, my group of 4 was staying in the same house together. The girls had a room with 3 beds on the first floor and I slept on a bed upstairs with Lenny (an 18 year old and also the oldest 'kid' of those living with us). The house was, compared to neighboring houses, very nice. It had a pretty fancyish dining room area and multiple rooms that seemed like they had been added on over time. I think there are normally 3 families that live there (all relatives) but it also seemed to me that one or two of the families slept in a different house at night and during the day spent their free time at the house we stayed at. They had 7 parrots, 3 of which were the type that could kinda talk.. one of them was only a year old and would always be playing with his bowl in his cage- picking it up with his feet and rolling around with it while on his back.. and he would also lightly bite and lick anything you poked into the cage. I wanted to be friends with it... Also, I'm pretty sure the other parrots bit pretty hard (so the family told me) and I wasn't really willing to find out. The 4 that didn't talk chirped pretty loudly.. constantly :p. We had running water during the daylight and buckets to collect water and use when there wasn't running water, which was really convenient considering many students didn't have any running water. Also, the food was in giant proportions and was, for the most part, really good.

The family/families that we stayed with were super friendly and caring and there were 4 younger kids 2, 5, 6, and 10 that we spent a lot of time with. One of the other students brought uno (the card game) and I had a blast playing it with one of the host fathers and host mother who was also the pastor of the church down the street. As I understand it, all of the students were staying with people affiliated with the Hermanos en Cristo church (brothers in Christ) and most communities had a pastor doing the home stay thing.

When we went to church the first night we were there, we had to sing a song- luckily Lilly (the pastora) was able to find a guitar for me to use and so me and the other students stumbled through an English rendition of Open The Eyes of my Heart. I definitely didn't know the chords as well as I thought I did but eh.. it went alright. Later in the week we played another song for the church in Spanish called Señor te Exalto... and for that one I made sure I knew the chords and lyrics. The pastora preached fiery sermons, getting into points where she was yelling and the small congregation was "amening" and stuff- it was cool that I could actually follow the majority of what she was saying! I enjoyed the church services. They contained a lot of a capella singing with clapping, some scripture read, a time for testimony/sharing, and a sermon.

One of my favorite experiences in Nicaragua, and this is kind of dumb, was getting to stand in the back of a camioneta (pickup truck) while we drove around Managua. I was hanging on and felt safe and secure, in case you were nervous for me. I think I liked it so much because Managua is just a really pretty city at night and riding fast in the back of a pickup truck while standing up is just awesome. Also, I'm not sure why but, maybe for positive publicity, the streets in the city have tons of multicolored Christmas lights up all year long and huge Christmas lights cones shaped to look like trees at many of their roundabouts. Really cool at night!

Another fun time was when our family drove us about an hour away to visit a family farm. There were fresh mandarins and coconuts and I got to drink fresh coconut water and then eat the white 'meat' inside... I also tried a fruit that was redish pinkish, had a dry seed in the middle (like a plum), and tasted legitimately like the smell of a flower.. it was kind of bizarre.. but I liked it, haha! I am amazed by how many fruits I've never heard of that are eaten in Nicaragua!

Leaving the family was pretty sad- and they were all especially torn up. We took a bus to the historic city of Granada with Lenny (the 19 y/o), Estrella (the 2 y/o) and Látima (technically my mom for the 5 days) and they helped us find our Hotel.

Once we got to the Hotel, we said goodbye to the last of our family and said hello to all of our friends who were also getting back from their home stays. I realized after only a few conversations with other students that my home stay was substantially more comfortable and 'easy.' One girl described her outdoor 'hole in the ground' toilet as being filled with huge cockroaches at night. She also mentioned that as she lay in bed at night she could hear rats running around on her roof and sometimes entering through the window.

During our 2 days in Granada we explored the city and took a short boat tour around a small part of the huge Lake Nicaragua (2nd biggest lake in Latin America I believe). The Lake has over 300 little islands, many of which are for sale, and we rode past many of them while our boat driver told us their value (one fancier one was ~2 million). We also stopped by a little island that is home to 4 monkeys. Our driver, using a piece of granola bar, got one to come onto our boat. I was super apprehensive because wild monkeys are just that.. wild monkeys. It kinda scrounged around our boat looking for more food and when one girl tried to take back her camera that it was inspecting, the monkey through it to the ground and screamed. Eventually we got close to the island again and it left. I was relieved... no one got their face ripped and bitten by a wild monkey!

After getting to know Granada for 2 days, we left early in the morning to head back to Costa Rica and begin our Spring Break. With 7 other students, the bus dropped us off in Puntarenas Costa Rica while we made our way back to San Jose. Trevor, one of the LASP professors, essentially told us to be safe and get back to San Jose in time for class on Tuesday, and then the bus left...

I'll talk about Spring Break in the next post.

Today, however, I began 9 days of Language and Literature study. Every day I will have 2 hours of grammar/language practice with 6 other students, literature reading assignments, and also a faith integration seminar 4 times over the next 2 weeks. It seems like the work load should be manageable. After these 9 days, we will go to 4 weeks of home stay/internships during which I will have to write 2 more papers for the Language and Literature class- still not a very heavy load though.

Some of the coconuts we drank/ate from

Peace!