Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

Wednesday, July 22 – Today was a full workday in the village. We had our typical large breakfast, which always included eggs, salsa, rice and beans, and freshly-squeezed juice along with some kind of carb.

This morning’s pow-wow in the village included dancing to the catchy song, “Chu Chu Ua.” I was selected, among quite a few others, to go up front to dance with Eduardo leading the motions. It’s kind of like a Nicaraguan version of hokey-pokey, only more entertaining! After the sermon and small group time, we got right to work. After dropping Sebastian off with a relative in the village, Gizelle worked with me today. We worked on blocking all morning on Greg’s family’s home. We’re really starting to get into a groove now, so it’s coming along pretty quickly. The kids in the family hung out with us while we worked, so it’s always fun to stop and play with them. Sometimes it hardly feels like work at all!

After lunch I walked around with Abby to take more photos of the village. A few kids tagged along with us – wanting to swing in our arms and joke around. They’re all so friendly and sweet – they really took to Abby on the first day and have been attached to her every since! After lunch, Cyndie, a translator, and I went to a little shop in town to purchase chair hammocks, which we ended up bargaining down to $15. Bible study was a success again.

At the end of the children’s Bible study, Jim (one of leaders of our group) had a special treat for the kids – snow cones! We had over 200 children wait patiently in line for them. The man and woman running the business worked hard on their little portable bike snow cone contraption – the man shaved the ice by hand and the woman scooped red and yellow syrup onto each snow cone. It was a lot of fun to witness such a treat.

I went back to work blocking in the afternoon, and I got back to the community center right as we were leaving, so I was disappointed there wasn’t much time to talk with our family. We did get a few big hugs and lots of good-bye waves.

Back at basecamp I cleaned up and Skyped with my parents since Lil’ Miss K was exchanged with Jerod’s parents that afternoon. They said she’d be having a great time, and I got a chance to tell them a little about our trip. For dinner we had chicken fajitas with homemade corn tortillas and a delicious watermelon juice. I helped wash dishes (we all have kitchen cleanup duty one night), then during the evening service we got into small groups and talked about our Nica families and how to reach out to them. After lunch prep, Cyndie, Abby, and I had fun trying out our hammocks while the guys held them up for us! Even though it was probably the most tiring day, we stayed up talking pretty late – I figured it was fellowship time we’ll never get back.